Looking for detailed reviews of UK cat food brands, but all your online searches return information on cat food from the United States?
Well, we’ve solved your problem and analyzed and reviewed a mountain of cat food products that are available or produced in the UK. From this mountain, we have selected some of the best recipes for our recommendations.
UK Cat Food Vs. The Rest Of The World
UK cat food is very comparable to other western countries such as the United States and Canada. Many of the large international cat food brands have had a solid footprint in the UK for decades, including Purina, Royal Canin, and Hill’s.
However, while these large international brands may be staples, the UK has many brands that are leaps and bounds above their global counterparts.
This superiority shows that UK consumers demand high-quality and nutritious food for their cats and are unwilling to settle for poor-quality food.
Regarding regulation, the UK has similar protections in place to ensure that cat food contains minimum proportions of nutrients like protein and fat. This regulation is critical to ensure that cats are not malnourished from an inappropriate diet.
Some other countries do not have these strict regulations or standards in place, and many pet food recipes produced in these countries contain little to no meat ingredients.
The UK, like the United States and Canada, ensures that pet food packaging must contain information on what ingredients are included, in what proportions they are present, and the nutritional values that the recipe can provide.
The presence of this information is critical and ensures that all pet food is transparent and manufacturers are not misleading consumers.
How We Chose The Best Cat Food
Cat Food quality is a complicated discussion, but we try to stay consistent with our choices.
Factors such as ingredient quality, nutritional ratios (Protein, Fat, Carbohydrates, Omega Fatty Acids), Recall History, Animal Testing, Price, and Country of Origin all play a part.
If you would like to learn more or better understand our logic, we recommend checking out our Cat Food Guide for more information.
You can also check out our All Brand Reviews page to see the index of all of the brands we’ve reviewed to date.
Best Cat Food In The UK
Eden Original Cuisine Review
Eden is one of the most popular premium pet food brands in the United Kingdom. They were founded in 2011 and produce food that aims to mimic pets’ ancestral diets.
Their use of high-quality ingredients in plentiful supply has made them a favourite of many pet owners.
Their dry cat food range comes in two distinct flavours – Original and Country Cuisine.
Sadly, there isn’t a cat equivalent of the Fish Cuisine dog food recipe we reviewed, but the Original Cuisine recipe from Eden is still a worthy choice and one which we would highly recommend.
The recipe utilizes a mix of Chicken, Salmon, and Herring as its primary ingredients. This mix of poultry and fish ingredients provides an extremely satisfactory proportion of protein and fat.
These protein and fat levels are far above the levels seen in most dry cat food and align closely with an obligate carnivore diet.
The recipe also only uses small portions of plant-based ingredients such as Potatoes. These ingredients contribute to a small proportion of carbohydrates and fibre, which closely aligns with a cat’s natural diet.
You can read a more detailed review of Eden here.
Canagan Scottish Salmon Review
Canagan is one of the most expensive brands in the United Kingdom, and this is due to the extremely high-quality ingredients they use in their recipes.
They utilize a huge range of meat and fish ingredients in their recipes, including uncommon ingredients like Rabbit, Venison, and Wild Boar.
Despite its high cost, the brand is growing in popularity and has many faithful supporters across the United Kingdom.
If you’d like to read more about why Canagan has gained such popularity, check out our Canagan Review Page.
Unlike some of the other brands mentioned here, Canagan has a large range of cat food recipes available, including a mix of dry and wet recipes.
The above Scottish Salmon is our favourite dry food recipe from Canagan, thanks to the extremely large portion of Salmon present.
The recipe contains 31% Fresh Salmon and 15% Dried Salmon with an additional 29% coming from other fish ingredients.
This monstrous portion of fish provides an excellent balance of fish-based protein and fat. In particular, the level of the Omega 3 Fatty Acids is extremely satisfactory, coming in at 3.89%. This is one of the highest levels we have ever seen in a dry cat food recipe.
Many believe these fatty acids can provide cats with several health benefits, such as an improvement in the condition of skin and fur and a reduction in the risk of certain health issues.
Paleo Ridge Classic Beef, Rabbit, and Duck Review
Paleo Ridge is a raw pet food brand and one of the leaders in the niche in the United Kingdom.
They take things a lot further than some of their competitors and also sell raw products that resemble mince and intact organs.
Examples include raw Beef, Chicken, Lamb, Pork, Duck, Venison, and more.
While this may be offputting to humans, many pets will enjoy raw unprocessed meat tremendously.
Most of Paleo Ridge’s recipes are aimed at dogs, but given that they are made up of just meat and organ ingredients, many are suitable to feed cats, including the above recipe.
The recipe contains a select number of meat ingredients, including Beef, Beef Heart, Duck, Rabbit, Beef Liver, and Beef Kidney.
This large mix of meat ingredients is guaranteed to provide cats with an intense flavour that they will enjoy.
The organ meat ingredients such as Beef Heart, Beef Liver, or Beef Kidney can greatly enhance a cat food recipe and boost the levels of beneficial vitamins and minerals that are not abundant in traditional meat cuts.
You can learn more about these organ meat ingredients in our article Organ Meat Ingredients In Pet Food.
Given the complete lack of plant matter present, it will come as no surprise that the proportion of protein and fat present is monumental.
Millies Wolfheart Lionheart Multi-Meat Review
Millies Wolfheart is another well-known player in the United Kingdom and has an extensive range of high-quality dog food recipes, far more than its competitors.
Their cat food range is much smaller, but that does not mean you should dismiss it. The cat food recipes from Millies Wolfheart share the extremely impressive nutrition and ingredient quality that their dog food range is known for.
A whopping 75% of the above Lionheart Multi-Meat recipe is made up of meat ingredients, including Duck, Lamb, and Rabbit.
This mix of meat ingredients is likely to provide a much stronger game flavour than alternatives like Chicken or Turkey.
Rabbit is a meat that many pet owners have never tried, so it seems odd that your pets will eat it. You can read more about Rabbit and why it is used in pet food here.
Outside of these meat ingredients, the recipe utilizes a small portion of Sweet Potatoes as its primary plant-based ingredient.
These Sweet Potatoes provide a small portion of carbohydrates and fibre to the recipe that is not overly large or concerning.
If you’d like to learn more about Millies Wolfheart, head on over to our review of the brand here.
Carnilove Salmon For Adult Cats Review
Carnilove has been in operation in the United Kingdom for over twenty years and is a reliable brand to place your trust in.
Like some other brands here, they are best known for their use of less conventional meat ingredients like Reindeer and Ostrich.
While the use of less common ingredients like Rabbit, Venison, and Kangaroo is becoming increasingly popular, you can count the number of brands using Reindeer or Ostrich on one hand.
You can learn more about Carnilove and some of these rare ingredients here.
That being said, we are going to focus on another Salmon centric recipe, which is aimed at cats with sensitivities and long hair.
A huge portion of Salmon Meal, Deboned Salmon, and Herring Meal form the bulk of the recipe’s contents.
These fish ingredients provide a plentiful supply of protein and fat, and as is with most Salmon recipes, an elevated level of the Omega 3 Fatty Acids.
These high levels of the Omega 3 Fatty Acids are why this recipe is aimed at cats with sensitivities and long hair, as many believe they can help relieve these issues.
Carnilove breaks the trend from other recipes shown here and uses legumes as its plant-based ingredients.
This recipe contains a mix of Peas and Chickpeas, along with minor quantities of Tapioca, Apples, and Carrots.
These provide a modest proportion of carbohydrates, plant-based protein, and fibre.
Akela Wholeprey Grain Free Original 90:10 Review
Akela Wholeprey is another UK-based pet food brand, and they are best known for its range of raw and frozen dog food.
Many of these recipes are aimed at working dogs, such as those in the police force or sheepdogs.
However, they do produce a few cat food recipes, including the above Original 90:10.
This 90:10 recipe is far from secretive and gives away the fact that 90% of the recipe comes from meat, fish, or Eggs.
Many lower-cost or traditional cat food recipes contain as little as 30% meat ingredient for comparison.
This portion of 90% meat ingredients includes Chicken, Herring, Salmon, and Turkey, which are high-quality and reliable additions.
But that is not all and there are also smaller portions of Chicken Liver and Eggs present in the recipe.
As we regularly mention, organ meat such as the liver can enhance flavour and provide beneficial vitamins and minerals, while Eggs produce a broad range of nutrition and are extremely bioavailable.
Given that only 10% of the recipe is from plant-based ingredients, the portion of Sweet Potatoes is minimal and provides a very satisfactory proportion of carbohydrates and fibre.
Nutriment Dinner For Cats – Beef Review
Nutriment is another big player in the raw dog food market in the United Kingdom and is a believer in Biologically Appropriate Raw Food diets for pets, which is also known by the acronym BARF.
You can learn more about BARF and Nutriment in our review of the brand here.
Similar to Paleo Ridge, Nutriment offers a broad range of raw recipes, including some with a heavy focus on organ meat and some with no plant matter at all.
Nutriment’s Dinner For Cats range offers smaller portions of raw meat, which can make it easier to give to cats without fear of spoiling or wasting.
There are five recipes to choose from within this range, including Venison & Duck, Rabbit With Turkey, Salmon, Chicken, and Beef.
The Beef recipe consists of 80% fresh Beef, 10% offal, and 10% bone. This diet is extremely similar to what cats naturally would be in the wild.
If you aren’t comfortable with feeding your cat a diet of 100% raw food, you can use products from brands like Nutriment as an occasional treat or supplement to a diet of kibble or wet food.
This could also cushion the high cost of raw food like this and allow you to strike a more affordable balance.
Orijen Cat & Kitten Review
Orijen is one of the most popular and famous names in the premium pet food industry worldwide. They are based in Canada and have another well-known sister brand known as Acana.
You can read our review of Orijen here and Acana here.
Orijen’s formulas are known to contain a large variety of high-quality meat and fish ingredients in extraordinarily high proportions. This variety of meat and fish can include 10+ ingredients in a single formula.
The above Cat & Kitten recipe is a prime example of this and contains large portions of poultry and fish ingredients like Chicken, Turkey, Eggs, Flounder, and Herring.
These poultry and fish ingredients are excellent additions to a cat’s diet and can act as high-quality sources of protein and fat.
Orijen’s repeated use of Eggs is notable, and they are an ingredient that we believe is underutilized across the industry.
Eggs contain a fantastic balance of nutrition and are extremely bioavailable, which means their nutrition is not wasted.
There is only a small portion of plant-based ingredients present in Orijen recipes, which almost always include a mix of Lentils, Peas, Chickpeas, and Beans.
This mix of legume ingredients provides a modest proportion of carbohydrates and fibre.
Ziwi Peak Air-Dried Lamb Recipe Review
Ziwi Peak is one of the leaders in the niche market of air-dried pet food. The brand is based in New Zealand but has a worldwide presence.
Given its New Zealand origins, it will come as no surprise that Lamb features prominently in their recipes.
However, for those who aren’t big Lamb fans, they do have some non-Lamb recipes, including a recently launched Chicken recipe.
Air-dried pet food often contains little to no plant-based ingredients, which makes it extremely nutritious and high in protein and fat.
However, this does come at a cost, with air-dried pet food being some of the most expensive available.
The above Lamb recipe is one of their staples and includes a mix of Lamb, Lamb Heart, Lamb Tripe, Lamb Liver, Lamb Kidney, and Lamb Bone.
This huge mix of Lamb ingredients provides varied flavours and a rich supply of beneficial micronutrients.
Ziwi Peak recipes also include a small portion of Green Mussels, which are an extremely unique addition to a pet food recipe.
