If there’s one thing that we've learnt, having gleaned insights from vets and a pet nutrition expert while doing this review, it’s that the best cat food is one that works for your cat. “It depends on their age, health, lifestyle and taste preferences”, says PDSA vet Emma Fisher.
As many cat owners know, our feline friends can be fussy about their food. And they all have their own preferences, which makes food palatability testing notoriously difficult, says Nutrition Manager at IVC Evidensia, Nicola Lakeman. She explains that your cat’s reaction to change or even the bowl the food is served in can affect how they respond to food.
“Cats like their food depending on the texture, not the taste, because they can’t taste very much”, she says. In this review, we look at dry food and wet food, including gravy, jelly and pâté. It’s worth keeping in mind that wet food “can be quite good if your cat’s not a big drinker, as it tends to have a higher water content”, says Fisher, who also notes that dry food can be cheaper and easier to measure.
Above all, your cat’s food needs to be complete and balanced to ensure it contains “all the nutrients your cat needs to stay healthy”, says Sarah Merrett, Central Veterinary Officer for Cats Protection. Cats are obligate carnivores which means they need “certain nutrients, such as the amino acid taurine, that they can only get from meat protein”. For this reason, she does not recommend giving cats a vegan or vegetarian diet.
It’s also important to speak to your vet if you’re unsure which food to choose, or if your cat has “health conditions, like diabetes, or if they are overweight or underweight”, says Merrett. If they are a healthy adult cat, you should be able to change their food yourself, “providing you gradually phase out the old food while bringing in the new one”, she adds. The PDSA has a useful guide for this.
If you’re thinking about changing your cat’s food, below, we’ve covered options you may want to consider. Keen to understand more about topics like ‘grain-free’ or whether more expensive brands are worth it? Keep reading for FAQ, answered by experts, as well as a range of foods that could be worth considering for your feline friend.
How we tested
We spoke to vets and a nutrition expert to glean insights into what to consider when choosing cat food. We also enlisted feline testers and transitioned them onto the foods slowly. This was our testing criteria.
Royal Canin 7 plus outdoor
Food type: Dry
Flavours: One flavour (poultry)
Why we love it
- Convenient packaging
- Brand covers lots of options
- Reassuring quality control procedures
Take note
- Only one flavour
- Bag could have been more robust
Taking a science-based nutritional approach, Royal Canin is led by a team of leading experts, from microbiologists to board-certified nutritionists. It offers a vast range of foods that cater to a range of health issues and needs such as weight management and digestion support, and even offers foods by breed.
This particular dry food is for active outdoor mature cats (seven to 12 years). It’s balanced and complete, though it’s worth noting it comes in only one flavour (it’s not one particular meat or fish, but lists dehydrated poultry proteins on the ingredients list), and it’s not available as a wet food.
It’s high in calories which will provide enough energy for more energetic outdoor cats, and contains vitamins and minerals to maintain the wellbeing of aging cats, and omega-3 fatty acids support joint health, while the food is also said to support kidney function and urinary health, which aging cats can have issues with.
We found the packaging is easy to open and close thanks to a zip lock top, which we can imagine will help the food to stay fresh for longer, compared to when stored in bags that have to be rolled down and clipped closed. We noticed a small rip in the bag, but this could have been caused by rough handling, or even nicking the bag accidentally. This food doesn’t have a strong smell and it’s easy and mess-free to serve, too.
From raw materials to the final product, it’s reassuring to know that Royal Canin follows strict and extensive quality control checks, and that its food is made in-house. We were also pleased with how quickly we were able to get through to customer services over the phone, which is great should you have any questions.
Buy now £39.68, Amazon.co.uk
Felix doubly delicious meaty selection wet cat food
Food type: Wet food in jelly
Flavours: Lamb and chicken, liver and turkey, chicken and kidney, or beef and poultry (meat selection), salmon, saithe, trout or herring (fish selection)
Why we love it
- Good value
- Easy to find in supermarkets
Take note
- May not be as quick to serve as food in jelly
Affordable, familiar and easy to find in supermarkets, Felix is a household name for lots of cat owners. It offers food for different life stages and is particularly good for finding different textures, from shredded to sliced. It even offers a soup for cats.
The doubly delicious meaty wet cat food is complete and balanced, and contains no colourants. We feed our circa eight year old feline tester the seven plus version which is only available in meat flavour. In the box, you get a variety of lamb and chicken, liver and turkey, chicken and kidney, or beef and poultry. But there’s also a version for cats who are under seven years old (although, note this isn’t for kittens), and this is available as either a meat or fish version (this contains sachets of salmon, saithe, trout or herring).
The meat is in jelly, so the food needs to be broken up if you usually do that for your cat. We could hardly smell this food when serving it which is going to be a tick if you don't like pungent meaty smells. And for less than £20 for a box of 40 sachets, and even less than that with a discount, it makes a pocket-friendly option too.
Buy now £9.95, Amazon.co.uk
Lily’s Kitchen organic paté
Food type: Paté
Flavours: Turkey, chicken, chicken with fish, beef
Why we love it
- Lily’s Kitchen is a B-Corp brand
- Subscription is available
Take note
- Packaging could have been easier to reseal between feeding times
Premium pet food brands Lily's Kitchen is dedicated to making food with freshly prepared meat and offal and natural ingredients. Its recipes are complete and balanced and have been created with vets and a qualified nutritionist, and its food goes through strict quality checks, according to the brand.
We tested the organic smooth paté. The multi-pack includes sachets of turkey, chicken, chicken with fish, or beef. The paté is smooth, and the smell isn’t strong and, from a human perspective, pleasant enough. It's packaged in cups rather than sachets, which were easy to open, but could have been easier to seal between feeding times.
Every cat’s preferences will be different, but both our feline testers seemed to be fans of the food, and didn't appear to get bored of it. In fact, they have have since been transitioned onto the food on a permanent basis.
For cat owners who like to be mindful about sustainability, it’s also worth noting that Lily’s Kitchen is a B-corp brand, which means that the brand has hit certain standards when it comes to its social and environmental impact. Plus, there’s a subscription service, as you won’t need to worry about stocking up.
Buy now £8.99, Petsathome.com
Harrington’s wet adult cat food in jelly
Food type: Wet food in jelly
Flavours: Beef, chicken, salmon, tuna
Why we love it
- Good value for money
- Fits into a puzzle feeder
- Made in the UK
Take note
- May not be as quick to serve as food in jelly
For freshly prepared natural ingredients, consider Harrington’s. Made in the UK, it offers dry and wet food in both meat and fish flavours, and for adult and senior cats. Our feline tester tried the wet food in jelly; this comes in a fish (tested, which contains a selection of sachets of either cod, mackerel, salmon and tuna), meat or a mix of meat and fish.
This food is made with 100 per cent animal proteins, which is instead of using plant proteins. There’s nothing inherently wrong with plant protein, but, here, Harrington’s says animal proteins will keep cats fuller for longer. Depending on if this is relevant to your cat's dietary requirements, it may be helpful to know that the food is free from grains, dairy, soya and added wheat.
As a wet food, it was easy to get into our tester’s puzzle feeder. The food didn’t smell, and, as a vegetarian, our pet parent tester preferred this over foods with a stronger smell, which is worth keeping in mind if you don’t like pungent cat food either. You can get a box of 40 sachets of this food for less than £20 which is pretty good value for money, too.
Buy now £15.66, Amazon.co.uk
Edgard Cooper paté
Food type : Paté
Flavours: Chicken, salmon and chicken, turkey and chicken, lamb and chicken
Why we love it
- Sustainably sourced ingredients
- Packaging reduces food waste
- Easily recyclable
Take note
- May not be as quick to serve as food in jelly
Another brand that focuses on natural, fresh ingredients, Edgard Cooper offers cat food that is balanced and complete, and made with input from a pet nutritionist, but it’s on the more premium side, at 99p per 85g cup. But we like that the brand is a B-corp brand dedicated to minimising its impact on the planet. Take for instance the fact that the paté comes in easy-to-recycle metal cups which are also said to preserve the food’s nutritional value for longer, while the ingredients are sourced locally where possible. The salmon in this paté is from a MSC certified sustainable fishery which we appreciated.
It offers food for kittens, adult cats and senior cats. This paté for adult cats is available in salmon and chicken flavour, turkey and chicken, and lamb and chicken. The paté is quite smooth, and there’s no sauce, which was met with mixed reactions from our cat testers but could go down well with your cat depending on their preferences. It is grain-free, and has no added sugar. But it needed to be mashed up, if you usually do this for your cat, which is time consuming.
We liked the packaging, though. The metal cups were easy to open and empty into bowls. Some wet foods can get stuck in the bottom of tins and sachets, and you need to scrape them out, or end up wasting some.
Buy now £15.84, Amazon.co.uk
Purina pro plan sterilised maintenance
Food type: Wet in gravy
Flavours: Chicken, duck
Why we love it
- Gravy makes it quick and easy to serve
- Formulated for weight maintenance
Take note
- Gravy is quite messy
- Reassuring quality control procedures
Behind Purina’s cat food is an impressively large team of experts, from microbiologists to pet nutritionists. The pro plan range includes food for every life stage and for different health requirements, but its sterilised maintenance food is for neutered adult cats. It’s complete, and contains generously-sized chunks of meat in gravy and comes in duck (tested) or chicken. It’s formulated to help maintain a healthy weight and urinary health, and it contains antioxidants, including vitamin E, to help keep your cat’s defences strong.
From a practical standpoint, as it’s made with gravy, it didn’t need to be broken up before we gave it to our feline tester. The downside of this runny consistency is that it dribbles down the side of the sachet it’s housed in which can make a bit of a mess. We actually had to put it in a bowl to catch the drips, but it’s part of the course with gravy really.
As for quality control, Purina told us that its food goes through thousands of quality checks, from the raw materials arriving at the production site to the final product. It does regular audits of its suppliers, and takes random samples from each batch to ensure that it’s up to standard.
Buy now £31.58, Amazon.co.uk
Tippaws salmon and white fish dry cat food for neutered cats
Food type: Dry
Flavours: Chicken, tuna and salmon, or salmon and white fish
Why we love it
- Made in the UK
- Convenient packaging
Take note
- Doesn’t offer food specifically for kittens or senior cats
Independent pet food and litter brand Tippaws claims its food will be loved even by fussy cats. We certainly can’t attest to this, as every cat’s preference will be different, its salmon and white fish dry cat food for neutered cats did seem to go down well with our feline tester. They’re an outdoor cat circa eight years old, so we tried the food for ‘neutered cats’ on Tippaws’s recommendation. There’s also an ‘adult food’ which the brand told us is suitable for growing or very active outdoor cats.
Made in the UK, the food is developed with experienced feline nutritionists. There are multiple rounds of testing before it gets to your cats’ bowl, including its suppliers, ingredients and the final product. This recipe contains L-carnitine to increase metabolism, and is slightly lower in calories than the brand’s ‘adult food’, so is suited to neutered and less active cats. It contains prebiotics to support a healthy microbiome, and dried cranberry to support urinary tract health.
In terms of flavours, there’s a chicken, tuna and salmon version, but we went for the salmon and white fish version. The fish here is a source of omega-3 fatty acids, for cats’ coat, skin and joint health.
From a pet parent’s perspective, the velcro-like closure is easy to open and close (no need to roll or clip the bag), and we felt confident this approach would ultimately keep the food fresher for longer, too. It is on the more expensive end of the dry food spectrum, though, by weight, it’s slightly less expensive than Royal Canin’s 7 plus outdoor dry food.
Buy now £24.00, Tippaws.com
Royal Canin ageing 12 plus thin slices in gravy
Food type: Wet food in gravy
Flavours: Meat
Why we love it
- Formulated to support older cats' health
- Gravy is convenient to serve
Take note
- Quite pungent
- Not cheap
If it’s time to move your feline friend onto a senior cat food, or you have a senior cat who isn't getting on well with their current food, Royal Canin’s ageing 12 plus thin slices in gravy might fit the bill. It contains phosphorus to support healthy kidney function and overall renal health, which is especially important as cats age, and it has a high level of omega-3 fatty acids for joint health.
The texture is wet food in gravy. Royal Canin does also do dry food for senior cats, but wet food can be a good option when trying to help your cat hydrated if they tend not to drink enough water. Our feline tester initially only ate the gravy, but came around to the meat after a couple of days. It’s worth noting that this isn’t an objective test on palatability as cat’s preferences will vary. If your cat continues to avoid the meat, bear in mind that the food is only nutritionally complete when eaten meat and all.
While a stronger smelling cat food isn’t a problem for cats, this food was more pungent than what our cat owner tester was used to. However, they liked that the sachets were easy to open without scissors. But for more than £1 per sachet, it’s not cheap.
Buy now £59.79, Amazon.co.uk
Hill’s kitten food with chicken
Food type: Dry
Flavours: Chicken
Why we love it
- Formulated to support kittens' health
- Dry food may make it easier to feed kittens little and often
- Convenient velcro-style closure
- Smell was contained
- Reassuring quality control procedures
It’s important that kittens eat cat food that has been specifically tailored to support their growing bodies. This one from Hill’s, a brand with an impressive and extensive roster of experts behind it, including board-certified veterinary specialists in nutrition, contains high-quality protein to build kitten’s muscles, fish oil for brain and eye development, and minerals for strong bones and teeth. The brand also offers wet food, but as kittens need to be fed little and often, you might find dry food more convenient.
It only comes in two flavours, chicken or tuna. We gave the chicken version to our one-year-old feline tester, and while we can’t say whether your cat will also be a fan, owing to cats’ varied preferences, it was met with loud purrs from ours. Compared to some ziplock bags, the seal was very easy to use thanks to the velcro-like operation. The scent of the food was mild and the seal contained the smell well, which was good as it meant our feline tester wasn’t interested in sniffing around the bag between feeds.
It definitely leans into the more premium end of mid-range foods so it’s not cheap. For context, some of the more affordable dry kitten foods on the market, such as Felix, are around half the price by weight. But we were pleased to learn how stringent the company’s quality control processes were, from assessing suppliers to ingredients and its manufacturing facilities. We’re confident that this bag should be the same as the next one as Hill’s checks the final product for key nutrients, too.
Buy now £15.51, Amazon.co.uk
Purina gourmet perle connoisseur's selection in gravy wet cat food
Type: Gravy
Flavours: Chefs collection (turkey, duck, tuna, and lamb); connoisseur’s collection (chicken, turkey, salmon, and beef); ocean collection (ocean fish and tuna, salmon and whitefish, tuna and shrimp, plaice and shrimp); connoisseur’s duo (chicken and beef, beef and duck, turkey and lamb, duck and liver); seaside duo (salmon and saithe, sardine and tuna, salmon and whitefish, ocean fish and tuna); delighters collection (chicken, lamb, salmon, tuna
Why we love it
- Wide variety of flavours
- Convenient portions
Take note
- While not the most expensive, it’s still a premium-priced option
If, like one of our feline testers, your cat has a particular distaste for anything served in jelly – she’ll sniff it, glare, and walk off in protest – you may want to try this food. What sets this food apart is the succulent gravy. The tender meaty morsels are served in a generous glug of sauce that doesn’t have that gloopy, jelly texture that this feline tester snubs, and it comes in a huge variety of flavour sets, from the chefs collection (turkey, duck, tuna, and lamb and connoisseur’s collection (chicken, turkey, salmon, and beef) to our cat’s personal favourite, ocean collection (ocean fish and tuna, salmon and whitefish, tuna and shrimp, plaice and shrimp). Each pouch is made with high-quality ingredients, including real meat or fish, and is free from added artificial colourants, preservatives, and flavourings.
It contains vital vitamins like D3 and E, as well as zinc and manganese to promote a glossy coat and strong immune system. Our cat tester loves this food so much that she comes running the moment we open a pouch and it’s not long before she’s licked the bowl clean. She’s fed around four pouches daily, and her weight and energy levels have stayed consistently healthy. If your cat turns up their nose at jelly-based foods or you’re looking for a tasty and nutritious upgrade, we’d highly recommend giving this collection a try.
Buy now £4.60, Amazon.co.uk
Your questions about cat food answered
What is the best cat food?
This will depend on your cat’s individual preferences and their health needs. For this review, we looked at wet and dry options for different life stages, from a dry food for adult cats aged 7-12, and a wet food for senior cats from Royal Canin, to paté made with natural and sustainably sourced ingredients from Edgard and Cooper, a kitten food from Hill’s, and a budget-friendly food from Felix.
How often should I feed my cat?
Adult cats should be fed at least twice a day, says Sarah Merrett, Central Veterinary Officer for Cats Protection. That said, some cats will prefer to eat smaller meals more frequently. “If your cat leaves some food and returns to it later, this may be a sign that they prefer to have more staggered meals throughout the day.” When it comes to kittens, they will need to be fed “little and often, with food being replaced at least four times a day”, she says.
What kind of food do kittens need?
“Kittens have very small stomachs and need lots of energy to grow and develop, so they need a diet which provides the nutrients needed for growing, and that is more energy dense”, says Merrett.
What kind of food do older cats need?
If your cat is aged over eight years old, they may “may need more digestible protein than younger cats or require a different balance of nutrients to support their muscles and organs as they age”, says Merrett. According to PDSA vet Emma Fisher, it’s “quite common for older cats to develop issues like kidney disease, and sometimes those cats, or older cats in general, do a little bit better with a lower protein content in their food”.
You may have noticed that some cat food brands don’t offer a specific food for each lifestage. “When a cat is young and healthy a generic food is probably fine, as long as it’s complete and well balanced, and has all the essential amino acids”, says Fisher.
Should I feed my cat grain-free food?
Vet and nutrition manager Nicola Lakeman says that, while cats probably wouldn’t be eating grains in the wild, they’re put in cat food for a reason. Grains are a source of fibre, but there are “lots of grain-free foods that are complete and balanced” – the grains have just been swapped with a different fibre source. And when it comes to grain allergies: “The likelihood of being allergic to grain is almost zero, for cats…They're more likely to have an allergy to dairy and meat than you are to cereals.”
What’s the best food for cats with a sensitive stomach?
This depends on what’s causing the sensitivity in your cat. “It could be because they have a sensitivity to a certain food ingredient”, says Lakeman. “Try to use a diet that has a single protein source”, as this will allow you to rule out and move onto the next potential trigger. She also advises “not chopping and changing foods”.
What is the best food to manage your cat's weight?
Bear whether your cat is neutered, or an indoor cat, says Fisher, as it’s easier for them to put on weight. “Keep an eye on your cat's appetite and their weight to make sure they're not gradually losing weight, and if you’re not too sure if they’re overweight, that’s a really good thing to ask the vet about”, she adds.
What determines cat food quality?
Price is determined by variation in quality, says Blue Cross vet Róisín Bolger, and quality comes down to the protein source, protein amount, and consistency across batches. However, Lakeman says it’s nearly impossible to find this information out from what's on the label. Instead, she suggests speaking to the brand about the food, and whether it’s right for your cat. She also suggests finding out whether the brand employs a nutritionist, and what its quality control procedures are.
Something we wondered about when looking at labels and how the ingredients reflected in the quality, as the term ‘meat derivatives and byproducts’. This might sound less than ideal, but Lakeman says that offal, such as liver, kidneys or heart, is actually “really nutritious”.
For more recommendations, read our review of the best cat carriers
