Cat Food Review

Challenges of reviewing cat food

We found that the best information and reviews on cat food come from websites written and maintained by people who love cats. About.com's cat guide Fran Syufy includes excellent nutritional information, including dry and canned cat food recommendations based on protein content and other ingredients. (Note: ConsumerSearch is owned by About.com, but the two don't share an editorial affiliation.) Veterinarian Lisa A. Pierson is a proponent of feeding cats a raw-food diet, but her CatInfo.org site maintains a list of high-quality canned foods as well. Although we find some significant flaws and inconsistencies with the rating systems used, Susan Peters provides grades for a wide variety of foods ranging from supermarket brands to premium cat food.

A new site, PetFoodRatings.net, provides helpful ratings and information about a good variety of dry cat foods. A blog called Tipped Ear Clan weighs in with recommendations on cat foods as well, but also provides a pointed list of foods to avoid based on ingredient lists. User feedback at retailer and independent websites and discussions at cat-lover forums also provide great insight.

The quality of ingredients in cat food has become more important than ever in many owners' eyes, especially following the pet food recalls of 2007. Most of the recommendations we saw are based on ingredients and nutrition as opposed to side-by-side testing of cat food brands. In most reviews, experts and cat owners alike are interested in the same high standards for cat food as they have for their own diets: an emphasis on high-quality ingredients -- especially proteins -- along with as few preservatives and artificial ingredients as possible.

The big question as we see it is whether or not pet owners need to spring for the best cat food or spend less on cheaper mainstream brands. According to the data we read about cat food ingredients, and based on our own research on serving sizes and cost, there's little question that premium cat foods, such as Natural Balance, Wellness and others, contain better quality ingredients than most regular store brands. Research shows that because the premium cat food contains higher-quality ingredients that provide better nutrition, cats will eat less of it, easing the difference in cost. This is true for both dry and canned cat food.

Supermarket brands like Friskies, Fancy Feast and Whiskas are at the lower end of the cat food price spectrum. Pet owners posting to discussion groups rave about how their cats gobble up these products, but they are only rarely mentioned when experts are asked to recommend the best cat foods. A glance at the food labels shows that many -- but not all -- varieties of these foods are loaded with undesirable ingredients such as meat by-products, grains and glutens. This is a far cry from the type of diet reviews say cats need. Most pet nutrition experts say the best cat foods are brands that are formulated to replicate a raw food diet and meet higher nutritional standards.

Cats are obligate carnivores and experts say that meat should be their primary source of protein for proper health. Just as for human food, there are regulations regarding the labeling of cat food that can help consumers assess the amount of meat in the food. If a product is labeled "beef cat food," for example, 95 percent of its ingredients must be beef. If it says "chicken dinner" or "lamb formula," it must contain only 25 percent of the meat. If the packaging simply states "chicken flavor," the food merely needs to taste like chicken to the cat; it does not need to actually have any chicken in it.