Cat Food, Read Off the Label

1,242 cat foods verified · 877 wet, 343 dry · magnesium disclosed on 118

Cats are obligate carnivores, which makes two numbers matter more for them than for dogs: how much protein is actually in the food once the water comes out, and how much carbohydrate is left over. Neither is printed on the bag. Both are computed here for every food, from the guaranteed analysis, with the formula and its assumptions shown.

A caution worth reading before the urinary guide: magnesium is the one urinary-relevant figure you can verify from a label, and it is disclosed on only 118 of 1,242 cat foods here. We rank the foods that disclose it and pass. We do not pad the list with foods that simply did not say — which is why our urinary page is shorter than everyone else's.

Buying guides

Each one publishes its qualifying criteria before it names a winner.

  • Best dry cat food

    Rachael Ray Nutrish. Clears every quality check at ~$0.94/1,000 kcal — a fifth of the premium price.

  • Best high-protein cat food

    Dr. Elsey’s cleanprotein. 67% protein on a dry-matter basis, all of it animal-sourced.

  • Best grain-free cat food

    Dr. Elsey’s cleanprotein. Near-0% carbohydrate because it replaces grain with meat, not peas.

  • Best kitten food

    Purina Pro Plan Kitten. Growth-specific AAFCO statement and a guaranteed DHA figure for development.

  • Best senior cat food

    Tiki Cat Silver Senior. High protein to hold muscle, with phosphorus disclosed for ageing kidneys.

  • Best indoor cat food

    Tiki Cat Born Carnivore. High meat protein and low carbohydrate at a moderate calorie density.

  • Best cat food for urinary health

    Royal Canin Urinary Care. It discloses its magnesium — most do not. Hydration and your vet matter more.

  • Best cat food for a sensitive stomach

    Blue Buffalo True Solutions Digestive Care. Chicken-first with two live probiotic strains, moderate fat and gentle grains.

  • Best cat food for hairballs

    Nulo MedalSeries Hairball. High fibre to move hair through the gut without giving up protein.

  • Best cat food for weight loss

    Nulo FreeStyle Trim. High protein to hold muscle, low carbohydrate, with added L-carnitine.

Foods that clear a specific check

The rubric pages: a threshold, its source, then every food that passes.

  • Urinary

    Magnesium disclosed and under ~0.12% DM. Only 118 of 1,242 labels qualify.

  • Hairball

    Fibre in the ~7–10% band.

  • Weight management

    Lower calorie density without dropping protein.

  • Low carb / diabetic

    Estimated carbohydrate under 10% DM, with the estimate disclosed.

  • Kitten

    AAFCO statement covers growth or all life stages.

  • Indoor

    Decomposed honestly into hairball fibre plus weight control.

  • Sensitive stomach

    Short ingredient list, one named protein, no generic by-products.

Browse the data

Every cat food

All 1,242 verified labels, grouped by form, with dry-matter protein and estimated carbohydrate on every row.

Cat food finder

Filter the corpus by life stage and label-checkable concerns, with the qualifying criteria shown alongside the results.

Cost calculator

Weight and life stage in, daily calories and serving size out — cups of dry or cans of wet, with cost per day where a food is priced.

How to read a label

Dry-matter basis, estimated carbohydrate, the two AAFCO claims, and why magnesium is missing from nine cat labels in ten.

What is actually in pet food

Ingredient prevalence counted across every verified label, with the evidence and the sources.

Brand scorecards

Nutritionist on staff, owned manufacturing, feeding trials, published research — each answer sourced to a URL and a quote.

FDA recall records

Current recall, withdrawal and safety-alert records, linked to the official FDA notice.

The State of Pet Food

Dry cat food runs about 30% carbohydrate on a dry-matter basis against 4.6% for wet — that finding and the rest of the corpus analysis.

Comparisons

  • Wet vs dry cat food

    Median dry-matter carbohydrate ~5% wet against ~30% dry, across 732 and 281 verified foods.

What we will not tell you

There is no checkmark here for renal support, dental health, joint support or allergy diagnosis. Phosphorus is not a required label field, added-supplement doses cannot be verified against the doses used in trials, and diagnosing a food allergy takes an elimination trial run by a vet — so a label cannot answer any of those, and pretending otherwise is how pet-food content usually goes wrong. The full reasoning is here.

Dog owner? The same corpus, read the same way, is at dog food data.