The 10 Best Canned Cat Foods
Special Honors
Smalls If you're dealing with a picky eater, consider testing out the fare from Smalls. They are a subscription-based meal delivery service that creates high-protein food made with human-grade ingredients. Their offerings are formulated to help cats get more liquid out of their diet, which is a common problem for many. You can customize meal plans based on the health goals, habits, and preferences of your pet. smallsforsmalls.com
Nom Nom Nom Nom develops meals for cats and dogs in conjunction with a board-certified veterinary nutritionist to ensure each recipe is balanced with fresh, whole, natural ingredients and properly pre-portioned for pets. A subscription gives you access to high-protein, high-moisture food made to meet the nutritional levels established by AAFCO Food Nutrient Profiles. nomnomnow.com
Editor's Notes
June 12, 2020:
Choosing the right canned cat food can feel overwhelming. There are many conflicting reports on what's good and bad for cats to consume over the long term, and many vets can't seem to agree on whether ingredients linked to certain health issues are fine in small doses, or even whether wet or dry food is more beneficial.
So when reassessing this list, we took a balanced approach to ensure our selections avoid low-grade or detrimental ingredients, favoring high-quality recipes with a balanced nutrient profile and companies that take ethics seriously, with no recalls or ones that were transparent and few and far between. And while some additions, like meat byproducts or carrageenan, can be off-putting, there isn't definitive proof that they cause harm. Still, we favored foods that eschew some of the scarier ingredients, preservatives, and artificial components.
Today we said goodbye to a few options in favor of superior brands of higher quality, like replacing Purina Friskies Tasty Treasures with Reveal Premium Nutrition. This food supplement is truly a limited ingredient option, but that means that it's meant to be used in conjunction with other foods and not as the sole item in a cat's diet. Because wet food provides moisture content, but isn't ideal for gum health, many pet parents choose to strike a balance between the two, and Reveal is perfect for that.
We also brought on Feline Natural Perfect, a highly-lauded option that goes above and beyond to source extremely high-grade ingredients, like grass-fed chickens and sustainably-caught fish. The recipes are made without GMO ingredients, fillers, legumes, plant protein, starch, preservatives, gum, or binders and are made fresh in New Zealand with natural water.
Tiki Cat is another great brand, and we decided to replace the old Napili version with the extremely-popular Tiki Cat Grill line. For those on the hunt for a budget-friendly choice that still prioritizes quality and ethics, we added Purina Beyond Canadian Duck. It's also grain-free, which is helpful for kitties with allergies. For more options in a similar vein, check out our list of grain-free cat foods.