Natural Balance Ultra Formula

While a little more expensive than some other canned foods, reviewers say Natural Balance Ultra Formula is worth the extra money. Because Natural Balance offers more meat (chicken, duck and salmon), less by-products and grains and a high nutritional value, experts say cats will need less of it, which makes the daily cost of using Natural Balance about the same as that for a mid-priced canned cat food. A program that tests each batch of Natural Balance foods for possible contaminants and publishes those results for owners to see is a big plus in some experts' eyes. One expert (who is a staunch advocate of a raw-meat diet for cats) says that Natural Balance draws 19 percent of its calories from carbohydrates, which is too high. Owner reviews, which are mostly positive, focus on whether cats seem to like the taste rather than how healthy Natural Balance is. If you don't want to spend so much, Fancy Feast Flaked Fish & Shrimp Feast (*est. 55 cents per 3-ounce can) has a relatively impressive lineup of ingredients. However, other Fancy Feast varieties are not nearly as nutritious, so careful label reading is a must.

None of the reviews we found use formal testing; most evaluate the contents of cat food or focus on which food their cats seem to like. About.com's Franny Syufy tests a wide variety of quality cat foods on her cats. CatInfo.org and the Ask Susan Peters website, while hypercritical of most commercial brands, teaches buyers how to evaluate labels effectively. Owner reviews at OnlyNaturalPet.com, Petco.com and Amazon.com almost always award perfect scores for Natural Balance, and most other cat foods, as well.