Best Cat Food Made In The USA

With the rise of globalization, many Americans are looking to purchase their products from US-based companies or, preferably, products that are made in the USA.

This trend is no different in the world of cat food, with many cat owners refusing to purchase recipes produced outside of the United States in countries like Europe or South East Asia.

However, many cat food brands do not easily disclose where their recipes are made, which can make finding a cat food made in the USA somewhat difficult.

Fear not, we’ve researched hundreds of cat food brands and can give you a rundown of some of the best cat food recipes produced in your backyard.

US Cat Food Production

Pet food in the USA is regulated by the FDA (US Food & Drug Administration). The FDA requires that all animal foods, like human foods, be safe to eat, produced under sanitary conditions, contain no harmful substances, and be truthfully labeled.

However, it is noteworthy that the FDA does not require pre-approval of any products before they can be sold. Unless the company is using inappropriate ingredients, they are unlikely to draw much attention from the FDA.

That being said, the FDA heavily enforces these requirements and can force pet food brands to undergo recalls or pull their products from store shelves. They have done this dozens of times over the last decade and will continue to do so in the future.

Given these high standards, it is only logical that many cat owners wish to purchase US-made cat food so that they can be certain it has been thoroughly scrutinized.

Best Cat Food Made In The USA

Nom Nom Chicken Cuisine Review

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Nom Nom is a new pet food brand and one of the leaders in the fresh home-delivered niche. This type of pet food has exploded in popularity over the last few years, with brands like NomNom, The Farmer’s Dog, and Ollie taking center stage.

This fresh pet food is produced within the United States at dedicated and small-scale production facilities and then shipped directly to consumers.

We are going to skip to the important details, but you can read our detailed review of Nom Nom and an explanation of how their services work here.

Sadly, most of these fresh pet food brands have stuck to fresh dog food and haven’t expanded into fresh cat food. However, Nom Nom bucks this trend and has a cat food recipe available for trial right now.

Known as Chicken Cuisine, this fresh cat food recipe has a strong focus on Chicken and includes a mix of whole Chicken and Chicken Liver as its core ingredients.

Chicken Liver and other organ meat ingredients are excellent additions to any cat food recipe and can greatly enhance their palatability as well as provide several beneficial vitamins and minerals.

The combination of Chicken and Chicken Liver sum to an impressive proportion of protein at 18%, which is leaps and bounds above most traditional wet cat food.

The formula is rounded out with a sensible and very small-sized portion of Spinach and Carrots, which don’t overload the formula with carbohydrates but do provide some plant matter.

If you’d like to learn more about Nom Nom, including their full selection of ingredients, the nutritional profile of their recipes, and their recall and safety history, be sure to head on over to our Nom Nom Brand Review.

Nom Now’s website includes some reviews by users of their products. You can find these “Success Stories” here.

Taste of the Wild Rocky Mountain Feline Formula Review

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Taste of the Wild is an extremely popular pet food brand in the United States, and most pet owners will be familiar with seeing its recipes stocked on the shelves of local pet food stores as well as in larger giants like PetSmart.

Moreover, all of Taste of the Wild’s recipes are produced in the United States by their partner Diamond Pet Foods Inc. This production takes place at five separate facilities in states such as California, Missouri, South Carolina, and Arkansas.

Taste of the Wild catches the eye of some thanks to its recipe naming conventions which align with ecosystems and areas of the United States, including Rocky Mountain, Southwest Canyon, and Appalachian Valley.

You can learn more about this naming convention as well as other critical Taste of the Wild information like recall history, ingredient quality, and their full product range in our Taste of the Wild Brand Review.

While their cat food range is smaller than their dog food range, it does include several dry cat food recipes, including the above Rocky Mountain formula.

We’ve chosen this formula over the others from Taste of the Wild as it has extremely satisfactory nutrition, including a minimum of 42% protein. This huge portion of protein is thanks to a mix of Chicken Meal, Venison, and Salmon.

This may be an unusual mix of meat and fish ingredients; they are all high-quality sources and welcome additions to a cat’s diet.

As with most Taste of the Wild recipes, this recipe includes portions of Peas and Sweet Potatoes, which provide a mix of carbohydrates and fiber.

Taste of the Wild has recently released a grain-inclusive range of products; however, they have not expanded this range to cat food. However, we imagine that they may choose to do so in the future if the range sees large success.

Purina Beyond Grain Free Duck & Sweet Potato Review

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Purina is a behemoth of the industry and has been leading the charge on the research and development of pet food for decades all over the world.

While most pet owners will be familiar with Purina and its longstanding brands like Purina Pro Plan or Purina One, Purina Beyond is a relative newcomer to the mix and only launched in the last few years.

The Beyond brand embraces many of the changes pet food has experienced in the last few years, with many pet owners looking for improved nutrition from higher-quality ingredients.

However, what makes Purina Beyond impressive is that they have managed to make progress on this front while maintaining competitive pricing.

Lastly, 99% of Purina’s recipes are produced at facilities in the United States, and we are almost certain that Purina Beyond recipes are included in this 99%.

You can learn more about Purina Beyond, including information on their full product range (which includes organic pet food), as well as information on Purina’s research and development, in our Purina Beyond Brand Review.

While Purina Beyond does produce plenty of dry cat food recipes, we’ve chosen to highlight one of their wet/canned recipes, and the above is sure to appeal to the majority of cats.

The recipe uses a mix of Duck, Liver, and Fish as its primary meat ingredients. This mix of meat and fish ingredients makes up the bulk of the recipe and provides a satisfactory proportion of animal-based protein and fat which should be at the core of every cat’s diet.

Outside of these ingredients, there is a small portion of plant-based ingredients like Sweet Potatoes and Carrots. These ingredients provide a modest proportion of carbohydrates and fiber that is not overly large.

American Journey Salmon Recipe Review

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American Journey is the core own brand of the extremely popular pet food website Chewy. While the brand started out small, they now have a huge range of products, including dry cat food, wet cat food, limited-ingredient cat food, and more.

As with all the brands in this article, Chewy produces the American Journey range of products in the United States.

However, Chewy and American Journey are do not provide as much detail on this manufacturing as some others mentioned here.

American Journey started out with four dry cat food recipes, but this range and since grown to seven. Despite this, all of these recipes are incredibly similar, which made it difficult to choose between them.

They all offer near-identical nutrition, which is high in protein as well as providing a moderate proportion of fat. The only noticeable difference between them is what meat or fish ingredients they choose to utilize.

The Turkey and Chicken Recipe is a reliable choice, with most cats enjoying its taste. As you would imagine, a mix of Chicken and Turkey ingredients is at its core, including Turkey, Turkey Meal, and Chicken Meal.

All of the dry cat food recipes from American Journey include a mix of minor ingredients outside of their core meat content.

This mix of minor ingredients used by American Journey includes Tapioca, Peas, Menhaden Fish Meal, and Flaxseed.

All of these ingredients are very regular features in dog and cat food recipes, but we’d draw extra focus on Menhaden Fish Meal which is used by many brands to boost the levels of animal-based protein and fat rather than relying on plant-based alternatives.

You can learn more about Menhaden Fish Meal, including where it comes from, what nutrition it provides, and if it’s sustainable in our article Menhaden Fish Meal in Dog Food.

Health Extension Grain-Free Turkey & Salmon Recipe Review

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Health Extension is most likely a less familiar brand to many, but they are a family-owned pet food company based in the United States, and they have maintained all of its manufacturing in the United States at facilities in New York and New Jersey. 

The brand stands out in the crowd by having very impressive transparency about the source of their ingredients, including an interactive map for visitors of their site to explore.

This level of transparency is unprecedented in the industry and is something that many larger and more successful brands could learn from.

You can learn more about Health Extension on our review page, which you can find here.

From Health Extension’s product range, we’ve chosen to highlight the above, which is Health Extension’s only grain-free dry cat food recipe. Despite a lack of variety in their range, this recipe is definitely worthy of consideration.

The formula has an impressive proportion of protein, which is above average when compared to other similar cat food recipes. This protein proportion is thanks to a large portion of three meat and fish ingredients in Turkey, Salmon, and Chicken.

All three of these ingredients are high-quality sources of animal or fish-based protein, which should be at the core of every cat’s diet.

The recipe uses a mix of industry-favorite legume ingredients, starch ingredients, and pumpkin to provide carbohydrates and fiber.

Examples of these ingredients found in this Turkey & Salmon recipe include Chickpeas, Lentils, Sweet Potatoes, and Pumpkin.

Salmon Pate Review

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Similar to American Journey, Tiny Tiger is another brand owned and exclusively sold by the online pet food seller Chewy. However, Tiny Tiger is far more specialized than American Journey and only produces wet/canned cat food.

Despite its smaller size, Tiny Tiger has been consistently growing in popularity thanks to Chewy’s marketing efforts. You can learn more about Tiny Tiger’s growth in our Tiny Tiger Brand Review.

Just as American Journey is produced in the United States, so is Tiny Tiger, although we have less information available as to which state this production takes place in.

The above Salmon recipe is our favorite Pate-type formula from Tiny Tiger. Salmon is an excellent addition to cat food recipes and provides a plentiful supply of fish-based protein and fat.

In addition, Salmon is one of the best sources of the Omega 3 Fatty Acids that is regularly found in cat food.

Many believe that these omega fatty acids can provide several health benefits to cats, including an improvement in the health of a cat’s fur and skin, as well as reductions in the risk of certain diseases.

The recipe is rounded off with some other meat and fish ingredients, including Liver and Turkey. These ingredients supplement the protein, and fat portions provided by the Salmon and enable it to sum to an impressive overall portion.

Thankfully, there are no notable plant-based ingredients found in this recipe, which is excellent given cats are obligate carnivores and will also ensure the recipe is extremely appealing and palatable.

Nature’s Variety Instinct Original Chicken Recipe Review

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Nature’s Variety Instinct dog food recipes regularly feature on our site thanks to their consistency and impressive nutritional value, and while we may not showcase them as often, their cat food recipes are also noteworthy.

However, many know Instinct as a brand that produces some raw or semi-raw pet food recipes, which have seen a significant increase in popularity in recent years.

You can learn more about these raw and semi-raw pet food recipes in our Instinct Brand Review.

Nature’s Variety are a US-based company, and all of their manufacturing takes place from within the United States at a facility in Lincoln, Nebraska.

While not as revolutionary as the raw recipes, the Original range from Instinct is extremely reliable and provides consistent nutrition from high-quality ingredients.

The above Chicken recipe is the most popular cat food recipe from the Original range and includes an extremely large portion of Chicken and smaller portions of Chicken Meal, Turkey Meal, Menhaden Fish Meal, and Chicken Fat.

This massive combination of poultry ingredients makes up 81% of the formula, which is impressive and aligns closely with a cat’s natural diet.

Outside of these poultry ingredients, the recipe utilizes a mix of Peas and Tapioca to provide carbohydrates and fiber.

While this proportion could be lower, it is far smaller than most dry cat food recipes and should not take away from the impressive sum of meat content present.

Nature’s Logic Feline Sardine Meal Feast Review

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Nature’s Logic is a smaller pet food brand, but it has made a name for itself thanks to its use of unconventional meat and fish ingredients and a less common grain ingredient.

Nature’s Logic utilizes Millet in its range of dry pet food recipes rather than other industry favorites like Corn, Oats, Rice or Barley. This use of Millet has made some Nature’s Logic recipes very appealing to pets with severe allergies or sensitivities. 

You can learn more about Nature’s Logic’s use of Millet as well as their nearly launched Distinction range in our Nature’s Logic Brand Review.

While Nature’s Logic does not produce all of its recipes itself, those that they do outsource are all done by trusted partners based in the United States, so you need not fear foreign-produced goods.

The above Sardine recipe is very unusual as Sardines are very rarely used in cat food, with most brands choosing to use Tuna, Salmon, or Whitefish instead.

However, Sardine is an excellent choice and can provide a satisfactory proportion of protein and fat that is above average for a dry cat food recipe.

While Millet isn’t an ideal cat food ingredient, it isn’t necessarily worse or inferior to other plant-based ingredients, and most cats should see no significant ill effects. 

While the portion of Millet is notable, the overall nutrition provided by the recipe is still extremely impressive, with a minimum of 38% protein and 16% fat.

The recipe contains very few other ingredients, and those that are present are in tiny proportions. Examples include Pumpkin Seeds, Alfalfa, and Kelp.

All three of these ingredients are present for their health benefits and some vitamins and minerals that they contain.

Salmon & Chicken Meal Review

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Fussie Cat is a relatively new pet food brand, but their young age should not cause you to dismiss them.

They have focused from the onset on producing recipes that are meat-focused which is critical for cats due to them being obligate carnivores.

You can learn more about Fussie Cat, including how they’ve adopted this meat-focused approach as well as what ingredients they’ve utilized to achieve this, in our Fussie Cat Brand Review.

However, first things first, all of Fussie Cat’s dry cat food recipes are produced at manufacturing facilities in the United States.

While the company is based in California, we believe that most of this production takes place in other states.

The above is one of Fussie Cat’s best dry food recipes and reinforces many of their claims. It uses a mix of Salmon and Chicken ingredients as its core ingredients, both of which are considered high-quality and extremely nutritious.

The Chicken is in meal form, which means it has already had its moisture removed and, as a consequence of this, is incredibly nutritionally dense compared to whole meat ingredients.

This combination of Chicken and Salmon combines to provide a satisfactory nutritional profile that is well suited to cats.

The recipe then uses a modest portion of legume ingredients like Peas and Chickpeas to provide carbohydrates, additional protein, and fiber.

While the portion of these plant-based ingredients could be smaller, it is not as large a portion as many of their competitors would use and so should not cause alarm.