Best Cat Food In South Africa

Looking for information on South African cat food brands, but all your searches are returning recommendations from the United States?

Well, your search is over. We’ve dug into and reviewed a huge number of cat food recipes that are available or produced in South Africa and have picked some of the best.

South African Cat Food Vs. The Rest Of The World

The quality of cat food sold in South Africa tends to be noticeably poorer than in many western countries like the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

This poorer quality cat food correlates to the use of lower-quality ingredients in the recipes and more inappropriate nutritional profiles that are low in animal-based protein and fat and high in plant-based carbohydrates.

However, this poorer nutrition is not surprising given that South Africa has a much lower standard of living than most western countries, and many locals can not afford to feed their cats the costly foods that many in the west do.

Despite this, there are still imported cat food recipes from premium brands that are based in the United States and Europe. These imports fill an essential niche for those living in South Africa with higher incomes.

How We Chose The Best Cat Food

Cat Food quality is a complicated discussion, but we try to stay consistent with our choices. Factor 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.

Rather than get slowed down in details of this in this article, we recommend you read out our Cat Food Guide for more information on the cat food topic overall.

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 South Africa

Montego Classic Adult Review

Montego is one of South Africa’s largest pet food brands and provides affordable pet food to people across the country. You can read more about Montego in our in-depth review, which you can find here.

We highlighted one of Montego’s premium sub-brands – Field + Forest in our discussion on South African dog food; however, this sub-brand does not have any cat food recipes. For that reason, we have chosen to highlight a recipe from Montego’s classic range instead.

There are two dry cat food options in the classic range, a Chicken formula and a Tuna alternative.

Regardless of your choice, both recipes are extremely similar, and the bulk of their meat content is Chicken in the form of Chicken Meal.

This Chicken Meal is a typical ingredient and provides a satisfactory proportion of protein and fat for the price point of the recipe.

Both recipes feature the grains Rice and Corn as their plant-based ingredients. These grains can provide cats with a mix of carbohydrates, fiber, and plant-based protein.

Montego Classic Adult also includes tiny portions of the ingredients Beet Pulp and Brewers Yeast. These minor ingredients are present to boost the levels of dietary fiber and beneficial vitamins and minerals in the recipe.

You can learn more about them in the below articles.

Dried Beet Pulp In Dog Food

Brewers Yeast In Dog Food

Weruva Paw Lickin Chicken Review

Weruva is an established cat food brand that can be found in physical stores and online in the United States, Canada, South Africa, and more.

While they produce some dog food, the brand specializes in cat food, particularly wet/canned cat food.

Weruva’s wet cat food is produced in South East Asia, which concerns many western pet owners.

However, they should not be concerned as this facility operates high safety and quality standards that are comparable to facilities in the United States.

The above Paw Lickin’ Chicken recipe is a prime example of their excellent products and is one of their most reliable wet cat food recipes.

The primary ingredient of the formula is whole Chicken, and the portion size of this Chicken present is significant.

This Chicken provides a generous proportion of animal-based protein and fat that is a fair reflection of their natural diet.

Outside of this Chicken, there are very few notable ingredients, but there are small portions of Potato Starch, Sunflower Oil, and Xanthan Gum.

All three of these ingredients are used as binding agents to give the food a consistent texture and do not contribute a significant amount of nutrition.

ProPac Ultimates Savanna Pride Review

ProPac is a smaller western brand owned by the US company Midwestern Pet Foods, which also owns popular brands like Earthborn Holistic and Sportmix.

The parent company of ProPac was founded almost 100 years ago, which makes them well established.

The ProPac brand is aimed at a lower price point than Earthborn Holistic, which means they produce more cost-effective recipes.

Given the substantial differences in the cost of living in the United States and South Africa, this puts ProPac in an advantageous position.

The above Savanna Pride recipe from ProPac utilizes a large portion of Chicken Meal and Chicken Fat as its primary ingredients. This combination provides a satisfactory proportion of protein and fat that would be suitable for many cats.

As with many cat food recipes, Pro Pac utilizes legume and starch ingredients such as Peas, Chickpeas, and Tapioca. These ingredients provide a mix of carbohydrates, plant-based protein, and fiber.

Tapioca is an interesting ingredient that many in the west are unfamiliar with. However, it is extremely popular in other regions of the world, like South America.

You can learn more about Tapioca and the nutrition it can provide in our article Tapioca In Dog Food.

If you’d like more information on ProPac, we recommend you check out our review of the brand here.

Royal Canin Health Fit Review

Royal Canin is a huge producer of pet food worldwide and is best known for its huge range of breed-specific products, especially breed-specific dog food recipes.

Read more about the Royal Canin brand here.

While this trait is less prominent in their cat food range, Royal Canin does produce some recipes for specific cat breeds, such as Maine Coon and Bengal. However, they also have more generic recipes that are suitable for most cats, such as the above Regular Fit.

The recipe’s primary ingredient is Chicken Meal, which is a dense source of animal-based protein and fat. Chicken Meal has already had its moisture removed before production, which means it’s far denser than whole Chicken.

Many pet owners are hesitant when it comes to the use of meat meal ingredients, but they should not be.

Past its Chicken content, the recipe utilizes a large range of grain ingredients, including Corn, Corn Gluten Meal, Brown Rice, and Wheat.

Grain ingredients like these are staples of Royal Canin recipes but are a controversial topic for many. Grains ingredients such as these provide carbohydrates, plant-based protein, and fiber to a cats diet.

Orijen Six Fish Cat Food Review

Orijen is one of the most famous names in the premium pet food industry, and its place is well justified. They are based in Canada but sell their food all over the world, including South Africa.

Orijen’s pet food formulas are known to contain a wide variety of high-quality meat and fish ingredients in extraordinarily high proportions. Each of Orijen’s recipes includes at least ten unique meat or fish ingredients, which is unprecedented.

The portion of plant-based material in Orijen recipes is consistently low, and the small portion they do use is from a large variety of fruits and vegetables.

This range of fruit and vegetables includes commonly used ingredients such as Peas and Chickpeas but also less common ingredients like Carrots and Squash.

These less common fruit and vegetable ingredients can provide a unique combination of vitamins and minerals that other pet food recipes may lack.

If you’d like to learn more about Orijen and how it became so popular, head over to our Orijen Review Page.

The above Six Fish recipe is a prime example of what we have discussed above and has a strong focus on fish.

The recipe contains more than ten unique fish ingredients, including Pilchard, Hake, Mackerel, Flounder, and Rockfish. Many fish outside of Salmon and Whitefish are very rarely seen in pet food.

As we mentioned earlier, Orijen uses a wide range of vegetable ingredients in its recipes, and those included in Six Fish are no different. Examples include Lentils, Peas, and Chickpeas.

Hills Science Plan Chicken Adult Review

Hill’s Science Diet, or Hill’s Science Plan as it is known in South Africa, is another one of the enormous North American pet food providers.

They produce hundreds of unique recipes that cover every possible breed and size of cat you could imagine.

Thanks to its vast size and product range, Hill’s has found it easy to distribute some of its products worldwide, including in South Africa.

The above Adult Chicken recipe is just one that you can find consistently in South Africa. We’ve chosen this recipe as it is not tied to a specific age range or breed, and it contains a very generous portion of meat ingredients.

As with many other recipes in this article, Chicken is the primary ingredient. That said, there are also smaller portions of Chicken Fat and Chicken Meal further down the ingredient list. This combination provides a satisfactory proportion of protein and fat for most cats.

Similar to Royal Canin, Hills recipes utilize grain ingredients like Wheat, Corn, and Brown Rice. These provide the recipe with a portion of carbohydrates, plant-based protein, and fiber.