Best Cat Food of 2017
- Reviews.com
- Jan 3, 2018
- 3 min read
What you need to know about your cat food
*All research completed by Reviews.com*
Cat Love hold no responsibility for the findings of this review. Read the full report at https://www.reviews.com/cat-food/
Reviews.com Put In The Work To Find The Best
They analyzed 1,759 cat food formulas and found 8 favorites that were produced by a trustworthy brand with high-quality, risk-free ingredients.
1,759 Cat food formulas
8 Top picks
8 Favorite Cat Foods
Addiction Grain Free Canned Cat Food
Blackwood Chicken Meal and Field Pea Recipe Grain Free Dry Cat Food
Earthborn Holistic Wild Sea Catch Grain Free Natural Dry Cat & Kitten Food
Fromm Gold Holistic Adult Dry Cat Food
Lotus Just Juicy Pork Stew Grain Free Canned Cat Food
Now Fresh Grain Free Adult Recipe Dry Cat Food
Redbarn Naturals Salmon and Delilah Grain Free Canned Cat Food
ZiwiPeak Daily Cat Cuisine Venison and Fish Canned Cat Food
Special Note on Recalls
Recalls do happen, even to brands with high standards. But think of it this way: The average domestic cat lives to be 12-15 years old (in human years). If your favorite brand of cat food averages two recalls every five years, your cat would have to successfully dodge four to six recalls over the course of its life.
Your cat may have nine lives, but you shouldn’t gamble six of them on food from an unreliable brand.
That’s why we took a hard stance when it came to brands with multiple recalls. In some cases, a history of recalls was very clear. In other cases, deciding whether or not to remove a brand was really difficult. For example, one of the decisions we struggled with was how to handle brands that were owned or manufactured by larger pet food corporations — particularly when that larger corporation had a history of recalls.
After many hours of research and much debate, we decided to exclude all brands owned by pet food corporations with a history of recalls, since we could not guarantee that their acquisition or change in ownership had not had a negative impact on their manufacturing processes. This may mean that some brands with quality ingredients and sound manufacturing were cut at this stage, but we feel much more comfortable erring on the side of caution.
Based on the above criteria, we cut the following brands:
Artemis: A Diamond company
Blue Buffalo: Failure to correctly label products
Castor & Pollux: A Merrick company
Chicken Soup: A Diamond company
Dave’s Pet Food: Manufacturer unknown
Diamond: History of recalls
Dr. Harvey’s: Manufacturer unknown
Eukanuba: Owned by Mars, which was in a lawsuit regarding slave labor
Evanger’s: Lack of transparency, many consumer complaints, and a history of false labeling.
EVO: Sold to P&G and also lost a class-action suit over false labeling
Farmina: Manufactured in Italy, Brazil, Serbia
Fussie Cat: Manufactured in Thailand
Halo: Manufacturer unknown
Hill’s: Major recalls, generally regarded as low-quality ingredients
I and Love and You: Manufacturer unknown
Iams: History of recalls
Innova: Manufacturer unknown
Meow Mix: A Big Heart Pet Brands company (formerly Del Monte, history of recalls)
Merrick: History of recalls
Natural Balance: A Big Heart Pet Brands company (formerly Del Monte, history of recalls)
Nature’s Recipe: A Big Heart Pet Brands company (formerly Del Monte, history of recalls)
Nature’s Variety: A history of recalls
Newman’s Own Organics: Manufacturer unknown
Nulo: Manufacturer unknown
Nummy Tum-Tum: Manufacturer unknown
Nutrisca: Manufacturer unknown
Nutro Max: History of recalls
Nutro Natural Choice: History of recalls
Party Animal: An Evanger’s brand
I and Love and You: Manufacturer unknown
PetGuard: Manufacturer unknown
Petite Cuisine: Manufacturer unknown
Premium Edge: History of recalls
Purina: Recent lawsuit over pets that reportedly died from eating Purina’s Beneful
Sheba: Owned by Mars, which was in a lawsuit regarding slave labor
Solid Gold: A Diamond company
Taste of the Wild: A history of recalls
The Goodlife Recipe: Owned by Mars, which was in a lawsuit regarding slave labor
Tiki Cat: Manufactured in Thailand
Weruva: Manufactured in Thailand
Whiskas: Owned by Mars, which was in a lawsuit regarding slave labor
Whole Earth Farms: A Merrick company
Wild Calling: An Evanger’s brand
Still Under Review
Back in 2012, there was a major recall associated with Diamond Pet Foods that impacted many of its smaller labels. At the time, Wellness and Canidae were both Diamond-owned, but they have since branched off and now manufacture their own foods. Several formulas from these brands are high quality and passed our ingredients-based cuts.
None of these three brands have had major recalls since 2012 and are all probably safe. But we still think there is enough uncertainty associated them because of their background that it’s worth giving them a little more time. We will reevaluate them in the future.
Wellness
Canidae
Under the Sun (a Canidae brand)
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