The scores
PureBites Freeze-Dried Chicken Breast Cat Treats: A/95 — Excellent. Single-ingredient treat — just chicken breast, freeze-dried — with no preservatives, fillers, or processing aids.
Friskies Party Mix Original Crunch Cat Treats: D/42 — Below average. Chicken-led but follows with brewers rice, by-product meals, and four FD&C dyes plus BHA and BHT preservation.
How the ingredients compare
The panels are at opposite ends of what the cat-treat category offers:
PureBites Cat: Chicken Breast
Friskies Party Mix: Chicken, Chicken Meal, Brewers Rice, Chicken By-Product Meal, Animal Fat Preserved With Mixed-Tocopherols, Pea Starch, Barley, Corn Protein Meal, Liver Flavor, Brewers Dried Yeast, Natural And Artificial Flavors, Cassava Root Flour, Turkey By-Product Meal, Phosphoric Acid, Calcium Carbonate, Potassium Chloride, Choline Chloride, Salt, Taurine, L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (Vitamin C), Yellow 5, Citric Acid, Yellow 6, Red 40, Blue 2, BHA (a Preservative), BHT (a Preservative)
PureBites Cat is exactly what the front of the bag says: 1 ingredient. No preservatives (the freeze-drying process is the preservation system), no fillers, no flavors, nothing else. Friskies Party Mix runs 25+ ingredients including chicken by-product meal and turkey by-product meal (rendered proteins that include necks, feet, undeveloped eggs, and intestines per AAFCO definition); brewers rice and corn protein meal (carbohydrate fillers); a fortified vitamin-and-mineral package; and a preservation-and-color system that uses BHA and BHT (both classified by the U.S. National Toxicology Program with carcinogenicity concerns at long-term exposure) plus four artificial colors (Yellow 5, Yellow 6, Red 40, Blue 2). The 53-point rubric gap is the cumulative effect of every one of those deductions.
Where PureBites Cat pulls ahead
True single-ingredient simplicity: The entire panel is one ingredient. For owners managing a cat with a poultry-allergy-or-tolerance question, PureBites Chicken Breast is the cleanest possible diagnostic — if a reaction occurs, it is to chicken-breast muscle meat, full stop. There is no co-mingled organ, no preservative, nothing else. For elimination diets per AAVDC dermatology guidance, this is the cleanest novel-protein vehicle in the cat-treat segment.
No BHA, BHT, or artificial colors: Zero synthetic preservatives, zero FDA-permitted but rubric-deducted dyes. The treats rubric applies the largest single deduction class to combined BHA/BHT-plus-artificial-colors panels — Friskies Party Mix carries that deduction at full weight.
Lower per-treat calorie load: 1 kcal per PureBites Cat treat vs roughly 2 kcal per Party Mix piece. Cats on calorie-restricted protocols (weight management, post-spay/neuter monitoring) have very narrow daily-treat budgets — the AAFCO 10% supplemental-feeding ceiling for a 10-pound adult cat is roughly 20-25 kcal of treats per day. PureBites accommodates 20+ pieces; Party Mix accommodates 10-12. Shop PureBites Cat on Amazon →
Where Friskies Party Mix holds its own
Friskies Party Mix’s strongest argument is acceptance and price. The artificial-flavor-and-color system is engineered specifically for cat palatability — cats who refuse most treats often eat Party Mix without hesitation, which is the reason the brand has the shelf presence and sales volume it does. For owners administering pills via pill-pocket-style treating, that high-acceptance profile is a practical advantage.
The price gap is also real. Party Mix runs roughly a quarter to a fifth the per-ounce price of PureBites at most retailers and is carried in nearly every grocery, drugstore, and supercenter that sells cat products. For households where the treat is a once-a-week affection rather than a daily reward, the cumulative BHA-and-dye exposure is small — the panel-quality gap matters more for high-frequency feeding than for occasional treating. Shop Friskies Party Mix on Amazon →
The bottom line
This is the widest rubric gap in the cat-treat category we have scored. PureBites Cat is the cleanest possible cat treat — 1 ingredient, nothing added — and Party Mix is at the opposite end with BHA, BHT, four artificial dyes, and rendered by-product meals. For daily treating or training, PureBites is the only defensible pick on a panel-quality basis. For occasional once-a-week affection, Party Mix’s exposure profile is small enough not to be acutely concerning — but at any frequency, the rubric gap is unambiguous and the upgrade is straightforward. If price is the constraint, Greenies Feline at C/61 is the cleanest mid-priced upgrade, and Inaba Churu at A/90 is in PureBites’ tier at a similar price point.
Read our full reviews of PureBites Cat and Friskies Party Mix for the complete ingredient-by-ingredient breakdown.