15 of the Very Best Cat Foods
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6 items on sale!
Photo-Illustration: Purina
As a cat owner, I’m constantly thinking about how to keep her happy and healthy. Choosing the right food is a major part of that equation, and wading through a sea of marketing claims can make it a surprisingly difficult task. If you’re like me — overwhelmed by the options out there from grain-free and raw to freeze-dried — veterinarian Brennen McKenzie, who blogs about science-based pet care at the SkeptVet, may help put your mind at ease: “The reality is that there is no one ‘right’ food, and most cats can thrive on a broad variety of available diets,” he says. “Compared to the haphazard diet of whatever prey and scavenged dead things feral cats can find, our pets have an excellent source of nutrition in conventional commercial cat foods.”
But even with that comforting guidance, there are hundreds of cat-food brands and even more formulas to choose from. McKenzie, along with Liz Bales, who created the expert-recommended Doc & Phoebe’s Cat Co. hunting feeder, stress that small brands aren’t necessarily any better than the big names you’re used to seeing on the shelves of pet stores. “In many cases, the testing of the ingredients, or the end product, is not as thorough,” Bales says. “You might see one of the big brand names of cat food have a recall, but they have a recall because they got tested. You can’t have a recall for a product you didn’t test.”
To help you find the best cat food for your pet, we’ve consulted McKenzie and 15 other experts to walk us through 15 options and explain why a cat owner might choose one brand or type of food over another. We’ll get more into it in the criteria below, but note that some of the determining factors will depend on your cat’s specific needs (often related to their age), while others are more subjective (as cat owners know, picky felines often have their own unexplainable preferences).
What
we’re
looking
for
Life stage
“The most important part when you’re buying food for your pet is looking for the nutritional-adequacy statement and making sure it’s for the appropriate life stage for your pet,” says Martha G. Cline, a certified veterinary nutritionist at Red Bank Veterinary Hospital in New Jersey. All pet food should have a nutritional-adequacy statement from the Association of American Feed Control Officials noting whether it meets the standards for growth (good for kittens), adult maintenance (for maintaining a healthy weight), or all life stages (any age).
Nutritional breakdown
Unlike with human food, you generally won’t find a nutrition label on your cat’s food breaking down the specific quantities of carbohydrates, fat, and protein it contains. For the most part, McKenzie says that’s okay since all food that meets AAFCO standards will provide a sufficient amount of all macronutrients. “There is a range within which cats can thrive, and individual cats all have slightly different needs,” he says, adding that “nearly all commercial diets fall within these ranges.”
However, some vets are more specific in their recommendations. Jennifer Berg, founder of Tribeca Veterinary Wellness, says “more protein than fat, and then very little of any kind of carbohydrate is what we feel is probably ideal.” Jennifer Coates, a veterinary expert at the online pet-supplies retailer Chewy, agrees that cats need more protein than many other species and stresses that the protein “should be sourced from animals.” And veterinarian Lisa Pierson has compiled a thorough, publicly available Google spreadsheet of the nutrient profile for hundreds of cat-food flavors if you’d like to see an individual formulas’ nutritional breakdown. But it’s best to ask your vet if they recommend a specific composition for your cat’s needs.
You may also notice that some cat foods are labeled “grain free,” but vets are wary of this marketing term as it doesn’t tell you much about food’s actual nutrition. “Grain-free foods can be nutritionally excellent or terrible, and the presence or absence of grains themselves says nothing about the health impact of the diet,” McKenzie says. “Anxieties about grains, and carbohydrates generally, in cat foods are not based on real science and should not be the basis for selection of a cat food.”
Wet food or dry food
The two main forms of cat food are wet and dry. Before choosing one form over the other, ask your vet what they recommend for your cat’s particular needs. Because cats naturally drink little water, some vets prefer wet food since its higher moisture content keeps cats hydrated, which may help prevent kidney disease. Other vets disagree, arguing that dry food encourages cats to drink more water and that there’s little scientific evidence to promote the link between wet food and healthier kidneys. Wet food is also lower in calories, so some vets may recommend it if your cat is struggling to maintain a healthy weight. Dry food, or kibble, has the advantage of staying fresh longer, which may make it a good option if your cat likes to graze at her meals over the course of the day. Some dry food is actually freeze-dried, a process manufacturers use to keep ingredients fresh (especially with raw food) without risking bacterial contamination. Within the wet-food category, you’ll find pâtés (loaf-style food with a homogenous texture), shredded-meat formulas, and meat-in-gravies (a liquid-based food with chunks of meat). Picky cats tend to have a favorite style of food, so you may have to try a few different types.
Approximate cost per ounce
The cost of cat food varies depending on the brand and formula you choose, and more expensive food isn’t necessarily healthier. Since you’ll be buying a lot of food over the course of your cat’s lifetime, we’ve listed the approximate cost per ounce for each food based on the manufacturer’s suggested retail price (which may be different than the retailer price as those can change because of different promotions). As for how much food to feed, cats generally require 200 to 250 calories per day, but this number varies based on their size, activity level, and whether they need to lose or gain weight. (Calorie counts per ounce of food also vary, so you’ll need to check the feeding instructions on the packaging.) Megan Shepherd, a veterinary nutritionist at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech, advises checking with your veterinarian for more specific guidance and consulting this body-condition score chart to see if your cat is under- or overweight.
Best overall cat food
Purina Pro Plan Complete Essentials Chicken Entrée in Gravy Wet Cat Food
$48
for 24
Life stage: Adult | Nutritional breakdown: High protein, moderate fat, low carb | Wet food or dry food: Wet, meat-in-gravy | Approximate cost per ounce: $0.34 per ounce
As explained above, there’s really no one “best” cat food, but according to the veterinarians I spoke with, this Purina Pro Plan formula should check all the nutritional boxes for most adult cats without any special needs. Because Purina employs full-time veterinary nutritionists and invests heavily in research and development, it’s a favorite brand of veterinarians like Cori Blair of Feline Health. “Purina is continuously testing its products and doing studies to improve them and keep up with the knowledge that we continue to ascertain about cats to make the food as optimal as possible,” Blair says. She recommends this canned food from the Pro Plan line because it’s “a good mixture of palatability and quality” and causes minimal GI issues. Chyrle Bonk, a veterinarian and consultant for the website Excited Cats, also likes Purina Pro Plan because the food is high-quality while still being affordable and easy to find. And because meat is one of the primary ingredients, it “provides high protein, moderate fat, and plenty of healthy fiber,” she says.
$48
for 24
at Walmart
$47
for 24
at Chewy
Best meat-in-gravy cat food
Best (less expensive) meat-in-gravy cat food
Best shredded cat food
Best (less expensive) shredded cat food
Best cat food for sensitive stomachs
Best cat food for sensitive teeth
Best cat food for weight maintenance
Best cat food for purebreds
Best human-grade cat food
Smalls Fresh Ground Bird Chicken Recipe
Life stage: Adult | Nutritional breakdown: Very high protein, moderate fat, low carb | Wet food or dry food: Wet, pâté or minced | Approximate cost per ounce: $0.80 per ounce
Like “grain free,” some vets say “human-grade” is more of a buzzy phrase than a statement of quality. (As McKenzie points out, “All the ingredients in potato chips and corn dogs are, by definition, ‘human grade.’”) But Dr. Paola Cuevas, veterinary consultant at Hepper and Pet Keen, likes that Smalls’s human-grade food is high in moisture and meets AAFCO formulation standards. The direct-to-consumer brand’s minced and pâté varieties use only USDA-certified ingredients, and each meal is gently cooked, as opposed to canned, which can contain toxic by-products that Cuevas says have been linked to cancer in humans. Four flavors (chicken, turkey, beef, and fish) are available, and cat owners can take a short quiz to determine the best formula for their feline companion. Note that the cost of food may vary slightly as recommended portion sizes are based on your cat’s age and weight.
Best raw cat food
Best freeze-dried cat food
Instinct Freeze-Dried Raw Meals Grain-Free Cage-Free Chicken Recipe Cat Food
$24
$24
Life stage: Adult | Nutritional breakdown: High protein, moderate fat, low carb | Wet food or dry food: Dry, freeze-dried | Approximate cost per ounce: $2.42 per ounce
While a few vets mentioned the benefits of raw or freeze-dried food for cats, most cautioned against preparing it on your own because of the risk of contamination. “The less processed a food is, the more nutritious it is, but very few people want to deal with the possible bacterial dangers that feeding raw food brings,” says Bonk. Instead of grinding up raw meat in your kitchen, she recommends this freeze-dried raw food from Instinct that mimics the nutrient-rich food your cat would eat in the wild but comes in a form that’s safe to feed at home. “This makes a very nutritious, less processed version of cat food that cats seem to do well on,” she says.
$24
at Chewy
$24
at Petco
Best cat food for senior cats
Best cat food for kittens
Best (less expensive) cat food for kittens
Our experts
• Liz Bales, veterinarian
• Jennifer Berg, veterinarian and founder of Tribeca Veterinary Wellness
• Cori Blair, veterinarian with Feline Health
• Chyrle Bonk, veterinary consultant at Excited Cats
• Martha G. Cline, veterinarian and certified veterinary nutritionist at Red Bank Veterinary Hospital
• Jennifer Coates, veterinary expert at Chewy
• Paola Cuevas, veterinary consultant at Hepper and Pet Keen
• Sam Daly, Strategist deals editor
• Joanna Douglas, executive director of branded content at Vox Media
• Gabrielle Fadl, medical director at Bond Vet
• Jamie Freyer, veterinarian
• Tazz Latifi, certified pet nutritionist and retail consultant
• Susan Lauten, pet nutrition consultant
• Brennen McKenzie, veterinarian and blogger at the SkeptVet
• Hannah Shaw (the Kitten Lady), cat rescuer
• Megan Shepherd, veterinarian and veterinary nutritionist at the Virginia Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech
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