Halo Spot's Stew Wholesome Chicken Recipe

Halo Spot's Stew packs butcher-quality meats and veggies into a stew that looks like people food -- and experts recommend it more often than most other canned cat foods.

Ingredient quality

It looks appealing to cats… and humans. Reviewers like Halo's simple ingredients: chicken, liver, carrots, zucchini, peas and the like. Like other top-rated canned cat foods, Halo is grain-free -- which experts prefer, as cats are strict carnivores that didn't evolve to digest much grain. (Some experts say cats can't digest vegetables well, either, but others have no problem with vegetables in cat food.)

Halo canned cat foods earn a rare "Superior" rating from the veterinarians and nutritionists who rate cat foods at 1800PetMeds.com. It has everything they're looking for in a cat food, including no byproducts, no fillers and "butcher quality meats -- same quality meats as what you would eat." Another top expert also gives Halo the highest possible rating, for the same reasons. Halo adds chelated minerals to its cat food, as well, which are easy for cats to absorb.

Halo is also a favorite of Tracie Hotchner (author of "The Cat Bible" and host of the syndicated radio show "Cat Chat") and About.com's guide to cats, Franny Syufy, who says her own cats love this homemade-looking stew. Cat owners who post reviews at ZooToo.com agree: "You can see the vegetables before the cats gobble it up," one writes. Another notes that "it really resembles human food, so those cats that beg for table scraps may be fooled with this."

Product safety

A clean recall history "Halo has never been recalled," its website boasts, and a search of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's website (which lists pet food recalls back to 2007) shows no recalls for Halo.

Halo sources its ingredients from the U.S. only, except for lamb from New Zealand and peas from Canada, a top expert source notes.

Value

Lower in calories than some other premium foods, so you might need to feed more. At about $1.60 for a 5.5-ounce can, Halo is one of the priciest top-rated cat foods. It costs 10 to 30 cents more per can than runner-up foods like Wellness Chicken Formula (*Est. $1.50 for a 5.5-oz. can), Evo Cat and Kitten Food (*Est. $1.40 for a 5.5-oz. can), Merrick Cowboy Cookout (*Est. $1.40 for a 5.5-oz. can) and Felidae Cat and Kitten Formula (*Est. $1.30 for a 5.5-oz. can).

Also, Halo cat food comes only in small 3- or 5.5-ounce cans. These other brands also offer money-saving, economy-size 10- to 13-ounce cans.

A 5.5-ounce can of Halo contains about 135 to 160 calories (depending on which flavor you pick), making it lower-calorie than other highly rated brands like Wellness, Evo and Felidae, which have 190 to 220 calories per 5.5-ounce can. If your cat is trying to lose weight, a lower-calorie food can help -- but if you're trying to maintain your cat's weight, you might need to feed extra if you choose Halo.

One well-regarded, budget-premium cat food, Natural Balance Indoor Cat Formula (*Est. $1.20 for a 6-oz. can), costs less than Halo and other super-premium brands. However, unlike Halo, Natural Balance contains grains.

The bottom line

With top-quality meat and vegetables in a recipe cats tend to adore, Halo canned cat food earns lots of recommendations from experts -- making it one of the best choices, albeit one that costs a little bit more.