Made by Nacho

Made by Nacho Information

Made by Nacho is a relatively new cat food brand that was launched in April 2021 and is owned by the famous American celebrity chef Bobby Flay along with Elly Truesdell and Katija Lang.

The launch of pet food brands by celebrities is not uncommon, with other famous examples being Rachael Ray Nutrish and Halo (which is partially owned by Ellen Degeneres).

The brand is named after Bobby’s Main Coon cat, which is called Nacho Flay, and Nacho features heavily on their website.

Made by Nacho can be considered a premium cat food brand and focuses on utilizing high-quality ingredients and providing impressive nutrition.

Like many of the newer cat food brands, Made by Nacho is a huge online presence and focuses much of its efforts on driving sales directly from its website rather than through retail pet food stores.

They achieve this by offering enticing promotions and subscription offers to customers, especially first-time customers.

This tactic is proven and has been tested thanks to many of the large online-based fresh dog food brands like The Farmer’s Dog, Ollie, Nom Nom, and Spot & Tango.

Despite this, Made by Nacho is one of the few cat food brands to bridge the gap by also offering their recipes at PetSmart stores which is one of the largest pet food retailers in the United States.

For those of you wondering where Made by Nacho cat food is made, based on their site, it is produced in the United States.

However, some of the ingredients used during production are sourced from outside the United States, but at this time, we can not be certain which ingredients this includes.

Made by Nacho Product Range

Made by Nacho has a modest product range that is typical for a newer, online-focused cat food brand.

This range includes a small number of dry cat food recipes and a slightly larger number of wet cat food recipes.

Made by Nacho’s dry cat food recipes are all grain-inclusive; however, their wet recipes are a mix of grain-free and grain-inclusive to match cat owners’ preferences.

Lastly, Made by Nacho also offers some cat treats that customers can pair with their food purchases which is a common trend emerging among cat food brands.

Made by Nacho Nutrition

The nutrition provided by Made by Nacho cat food recipes is satisfactory and is often above-average or significantly above-average when compared to other cat food brands.

You can see an example of this below, which is the nutritional profile of one of their dry cat food recipes.

As you can see, the proportion of protein and fat found in this recipe is significant and sums to almost 70%, while the carbohydrate proportion is barely over 30%.

This impressive nutrition is not just found in Made by Nacho’s dry food recipes but also in their wet food recipes, many of which have little to no carbohydrate content.

If you’d like to learn more about feline nutrition, we’d highly recommend you read our Cat Food Guide for a detailed analysis and discussion.

Made by Nacho Ingredients

High-Quality Meat & Fish Ingredients

• Chicken
• Beef
• Turkey
• Rabbit
• Salmon
• Whitefish

Despite being a relatively small cat food brand, Made by Nacho has succeeded in offering a range of meat and fish ingredients in its recipes, including the above.

All of these ingredients are high-quality additions to a cat’s diet and are dense sources of animal-based protein and fat which should be at the core of every cat’s diet.

While most of the ingredients, such as Chicken, Salmon, and Beef, are commonplace in the industry, Made by Nacho does make minor use of Rabbit, which is a far less common ingredient and is often used in cat food for cats with allergies.

You can learn more about the use of Rabbit in cat food in our article Best Cat Food With Rabbit.

Furthermore, Made by Nacho includes small portions of organ meat ingredients in some of its recipes, including Chicken Liver and Beef Liver.

Organ meat ingredients such as these are fantastic additions to cat food recipes and can greatly improve their palatability and taste, as well as provide additional protein, fat, and beneficial vitamins and minerals.

You can learn more about the use of organ meats in pet food recipes and the wide range of benefits they can provide in our article Organ Meat Ingredients In Pet Food.

Other Notable Ingredients

Made by Nacho makes use of a range of grain ingredients in its recipes, including Millet, Brown Rice, and Oats Groats.

While grains are less common in cat food recipes, they still see extensive use throughout the industry, especially by large brands such as Purina Pro Plan and Royal Canin.

Despite this, they are still controversial, with many cat owners refusing to feed their cats food with grains.

Some consider the grains used by Made by Nacho to be superior to others, such as Corn or Wheat, thanks to the extra nutrition they can provide beyond their carbohydrate content.

If you’d like to learn more about Millet which is a poorly understood grain, we’d recommend you read our article Millet In Dog Food.

Some of Made by Nacho’s recipes contain a small portion of Dried Eggs. While we can’t be sure exactly where these Dried Eggs are sourced, they could be very similar to Dried Egg Product which is commonly seen in pet food recipes.

Dried Egg Product is a controversial ingredient and is produced from eggshells that have already been cracked.

Any remaining egg content on the shells is removed via an industrial process which results in a low-cost ingredient high in protein.

The fact that this requires a very industrial process to extract is what most cat owners turn their nose up at, and you can learn more specific details about this in our article Egg Product In Pet Food.

However, these Dried Eggs may also be exactly that, in which case, they are a far higher-quality ingredient, full of a wide range of beneficial nutrients, including protein, fat, as well as vitamins, and minerals.

Sunflower Oil also features in some of Made by Nacho’s recipes and is commonly used in cat food recipes. It has two main purposes, as a binding agent and as a source of fat.

A binding agent means that Sunflower Oil is used to bind the ingredients of the recipe together in a consistent texture and format.

As for a source of fat, Sunflower Oil can help supplement fat levels from other sources to increase the overall proportion.

You can learn more about Sunflower Oil and why some disagree with its use in our article Sunflower Oil In Dog Food.

Another minor addition that features in some recipes from Made by Nacho is Pumpkin. Pumpkin is commonly used in cat food recipes and is aimed at cats with digestive issues.

Pumpkin is a dense source of fiber, and this fiber can help to aid a cat’s digestive system and stools to make them more consistent.

However, most forget that Pumpkin can also provide some additional nutrition such as beneficial vitamins and minerals, for example, Beta Carotene.

However, the next ingredient to discuss, Miscanthus Grass, is understood by very few cat owners. It is commonly found in gardens and outdoor spaces as a decorative plant.

However, in recent years, pet food manufacturers have made use of the grass as a source of dietary fiber, similar to how Tomato Pomace and Dried Beet Pulp are used.

Some think that Miscanthus Grass is preferable as it is purpose-grown for its fiber content, whereas these other ingredients provide fiber as a by-product.

If you’d like to learn more about Miscanthus Grass, we recommend you read our article Miscanthus Grass In Pet Food.

Lastly, Made by Nacho wet cat food recipes include a small portion of Guar Gum which is a common addition to wet pet food recipes.

Guar Gum, along with several other gum-based ingredients, like Xanthan Gum and Cassia Gum, is used in wet pet food recipes as binding agents to hold the food together.

Without these binding agents, most wet cat food would have an inconsistent and less desirable appearance.

Read more about Guar Gum, including where it is sourced, in our article Guar Gum In Pet Food.

Made by Nacho Animal Testing

At this time, we have no information on what type of testing or trials that Made by Nacho carries out to produce its food.

It is common that smaller and newer brands, such as Made by Nacho have limited information available on this topic.

Despite this, we imagine that Made by Nacho carries out smaller-scale trials of its food, perhaps on volunteer animals such as those owned by employees.

Regardless, we believe that invasive or laboratory-style testing of animals for pet food production is a cruel and outdated practice and one which should be eliminated.

Made by Nacho Recalls

Based on our research (FDA, AVMA, DogFoodAdvisor), we can not find any record of Made by Nacho issuing any recalls for its cat food products which means that Made by Nacho is a recall-free cat food brand.

This is an impressive record, and one that Made by Nacho should be proud of; however, given their relatively small size and limited time in the industry, this recall-free record is to be expected.

We hope that Made by Nacho continues the success they have had in its business by reinvesting in safety and quality measures to ensure its food remains recall-free

Despite this, we always encourage cat owners to be vigilant of any future recalls from Made by Nacho to ensure that their cats remain healthy and safe.

Best of Made by Nacho

Salmon, Whitefish & Pumpkin Kibble Review

While all three of Made by Nacho’s dry cat food recipes are very similar, the above Salmon-based recipe caught our eye and is our favorite of the trio.

The recipe includes a large portion of Salmon and Salmon Meal as its primary ingredients, which help to provide a large proportion of animal-based protein and fat.

These Salmon-based ingredients are joined by smaller portions of Dried Eggs, Whitefish, and Chicken Liver which, when summed, combine to an impressive 32% protein and 18% fat.

On the plant-based side, Made by Nacho utilizes grain-based ingredients, which is somewhat unusual.

This recipe includes Millet and Brown Rice which are two grain ingredients that are looked upon more favorably than others.

Lastly, several minor ingredients finish off the recipe, including Pumpkin, Salmon Oil, Miscanthus Grass, Cranberries, and Blueberries.

These help to provide several beneficial vitamins and minerals as well as other health benefits.

Beef Cuts In Gravy Review

There is much more variety available on the wet cat food front from Made by Nacho, which makes picking a favorite far more difficult.

But the above Beef recipe in Gravy is one of our favorites and includes impressive ingredients and nutrition.

The primary ingredient is Organic Beef which is impressive for several reasons. Firstly, Beef is an excellent ingredient, high in animal-based protein and fat.

Moreover, organic ingredients, especially organic meat-based ingredients, are exceedingly rare in cat food, as we discussed in our article Best Organic Cat Food.

In addition to this core Beef ingredient, the recipe also has smaller portions of Beef Liver and Egg Whites, which help supplement the recipe with further protein and fat as well as improve its palatability.

Outside of these meat ingredients, there are very few plant-based ingredients present, with just a tiny portion of Pumpkin, Oats, and Cranberries.

Made by Nacho Featured Articles

At this time, Made by Nacho has not been featured in any of our articles.

Made by Nacho Full Product Range

Dry Cat Food

Chicken, Duck, & Quail Recipe

Beef, Rabbit, & Pumpkin Recipe

Salmon, Whitefish, & Pumpkin Kibble

Wet Cat Food

Chicken Cuts In Gravy Recipe

Beef Cuts In Gravy Recipe

Salmon Cuts In Gravy Recipe

Grain-Free Turkey In Bone Broth Recipe

Grain-Free Shredded Chicken In Bone Broth Recipe

Minced Beef In Bone Broth Recipe

Minced Chicken In Bone Broth Recipe

Minced Salmon In Bone Broth Recipe

Grain-Free Diced Tuna and Cod Recipe

Cat Toppers

Chicken Bone Broth Topper

Turkey Bone Broth Topper

Beef Bone Broth Topper

Cat Treats

Freeze-Dried Chicken Breast Treats

Freeze-Dried Duck Liver Treats

Freeze-Dried Wild Alaskan Salmon Treats

Freeze-Dried Turkey Giblets Treats

Freeze-Dried Ahi Tuna Treats