Things I’ve pondered in the cat food aisle:
- How to weed out the best choices from all those impressive claims?
- Which have the best quality-to-cost value?
- Who has the time to sort it all out?
Perhaps I have the time! It took me days to narrow down which qualities were most important, what ingredients to avoid, and what the best foods cost.
I previously published a list and promised a huge update–this is it!
How I selected today’s best cat foods
First, I synthesized the best advice I could find from Jean Hofve, DVM’s work, Dr. Karen Becker’s writings, TruthAboutPetFood.com, PetsumerReport.com, Dr. Elizabeth Hodgkins’ leading-edge book, Your Cat, the Feline Nutrition Education Society, and others.
Based on that research, I went through just about every natural cat food I know of (so far) and checked it against the following criteria.
- Free of artificial preservatives, flavors, colors, ingredients
- Truly low-carb/starch - This was the hardest one because starches are sneaky. Even most holistic and so-called grain-free options have too many carbs, which lead to weight gain and diabetes. (For example, Royal Canin Green Peas & Duck dry food has no grains but is 35% carb–too much!)
- Grain-free – Grains are not natural for cats to digest and tend to weaken their immune system over time; some cats develop grain sensitivities that appear as digestion or skin problems. (Just as many humans with IBD do better off grains, many people say their cats with IBD do better off grains too.)
- Free of potentially risky ingredients like carrageenan (common in canned foods), avocado, garlic and others–more described in this truthaboutpetfood.com article.
- Meat quality. Sourced from US or other country with reasonably trusted standards. No “meat meal” or “meat and bone meal.” (Not to be confused with chicken meal, or other specific types of meals, which are considered OK. See Dr. Hofve’s article for further explanation.)
Plus “Bonus points” given for:
- Organic or pasture-raised ingredients
- Smaller companies focused on pet health; not owned by large conglomerate
- My cats liking it
- Simple ingredients (easier for cat digestion)
P.S. To assure you my cat food reviews are unbiased, I never use an affiliate (sponsored) link for a cat food.
So here are the winners!
- BEST RAW OR CANNED FOODS (Recommended)
- BEST DRY (COOKED) FOODS (Dry food is best used as a backup or rotation plan)
About those that didn’t make the list…
Some of our favorite natural cat foods did not make the cut. There were so many foods, I had to be brutal in choosing the best. Many foods almost made this list, and I hope to explain more about why later.
I also may have missed some, so do let me know if you would like to me to take a look at one you like.
Your experience?
We’re all in this together. I welcome your experiences, ideas, opinions, and contributions in the comments below. Let’s talk!
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I have been doing research on high quality cat foods for 6 months now. I decided raw was the healthiest. I also choose Natures Variety. But recently I discovered an ingredient in it that I was concerned about, montmorillonite clay. I emailed the company and they told me it was safe. I wanted an unbiased opinion so I emailed Susan from petsumers.com. She told me “I think its safe” and went on to explain to me that there is just so much info they allow her to know. I was trusting her website when they said there were no “red flags” for Natures Variety. I myself have done alittle research on this clay and still don’t think it should be in the pet foods. It seems to be from volcanic ash that was deposited in waterways. I really like Rad cat food the best, but way too expensive. Any thoughts on the clay?
Hi Liz, have you ever reviewed the new Freshpet Vital raw for cats? I am feeding my cat that now and am not sure where it ranks compared to others. Thanks, Al
Question….what is the carb level used as a cutoff to be considered ok?? I’m feeding raw with good results so far. Two of my three cats were having continual loose (pudding) stools. Vet couldn’t find anything wrong, and they were eating only the grain free foods listed on this site. I grabbed some Nature’s Variety as a starter to see if they would eat it. Two jumped right in, one resisted for 3 days, but gave it up eventually. After three days…..no more runny poop!! They are now eating Bravo Balance and like it even better. It is a more meat-like consistency than the NV, and has very low carb content (3-4%) I tried a sample of Honest Kitchen Prowl today, just to see if they would eat it. My thinking was it would be a good backup if I forgot to thaw, or ran out of the the regular raw stuff. To my surprise, they liked it, and ate it all. When I went to their website to do some reading…..they said the carb content was around 23%.. Isn’t that awfully high?
Diane, yes that’s a bit high, but percentage drops dramatically to about 9% when you add the water per instructions. This is the case with dehydrated options.
PS congrats on the healthy successes!
Thank you so much for doing this! It is so confusing trying to muddle through all the different foods and then figuring what is in them, protein content, percentages, etc etc. Thank you, thank you for taking the time to do this.
I’m wondeing if you have ever looked at Rad Cat frozen raw foods. This is what I have been feeding ours for a couple years and and I am wondering how it stacks up next to the foods you have reviewed. It’s expensive so I’m wondering what else would be comparable.
http://www.radfood.com