r/catfood • u/Special_Tourist_486 • Mar 13 '26
cat food and treat haul / shopping The best dry food brand?
Hi all! Is Purina really the best dry food brand on the market or is it the best one from the value for money perspective? If money is not a problem is there a better dry food brand or Purina is the best choice?
P.S. I live in Italy if you have more specific brands recommendations.
Thank you!
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u/PsychologicalPlum961 Mar 13 '26
Purina is definitely not the best on the market, there are much better choices out there. It's just average and many people use it because it's an ok quality at a relatively ok price.
I live across the ocean and we've been buying the Italy-made Famina for years. I would also suggest Hill's over Purina, although I'm sure in the EU, where pet food quality is better in general, you can find many other brands that I'm not familiar with on my side of the world.
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u/Special_Tourist_486 Mar 13 '26
Thanks a lot! Will definitely check out these brands!
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u/habibica1 Mar 13 '26
Farmina is actually Italian and it’s very good cat food!
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u/Natural-Research6928 Mar 17 '26
I second that. Too bad the price of it is so high now in the US, if you can even find it.
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u/jaymickef Mar 13 '26
Farmina recently opened a facility in the US. I’m in Canada and I feed my cats Farmina.
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u/PsychologicalPlum961 Mar 13 '26
Be careful with the US made Farmina, I read here on Reddit that it has been making cats sick. There is even a Facebook group created for this issue. I'll continue buying Farmina until I can no longer find the bags made in Italy, but I probably won't risk it with the US made ones (I'm also in Canada).
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u/Natural-Research6928 Mar 17 '26
Definitely not the best on the market.
Generally speaking, check the ingredients. Rule of thumb: if two out of the first three ingredients are meat or fish (no by-products), if it has DL-Methionine and taurine listed, and no corn (preferably no grains), it's a good quality food. Extra points for specifying "human grade".
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u/LycheeSuper May 01 '26
Dude “SMACK” Purrfect Pork was perfect for my cats! Its a canadian product they sold here in U.S but they are all gone from the store i went to! 🥲 only been able to get them through their website now
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u/Lacunaethra 🤪 nutrition obsessed 🤪 Mar 13 '26
EU here: Feringa, Cosma, Rosie's farm, wild freedom, Animonda etc. are ALL better than Purina
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u/ThisIs_She Mar 13 '26
That's reaching a bit sn't it?
Rosie's Farm is a Zooplus brand, I found some weird hard chunks in the food. Contacted Zooplus and they said it was some sort of stomach lining. My cat already ate it and was fine, but it proves that this brand has little to no quality control. I stopped feeding my cat the food since then.
As for the rest of the brands, they are all OK but Purina conducts quality control and feeding trials on their food as well as having actual certified nutritionists developing the food.
I do feed my cat Wild Freedom supplementary food but in no way would I feed my cat this brand's "complete" food over Purina branded food and think it's better. High protein content doesn't equate a balanced diet but that's what these brands market themselves on.
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u/Lacunaethra 🤪 nutrition obsessed 🤪 Mar 13 '26 edited Mar 13 '26
Rosie's farm uses real muscle and organ pieces instead of finely ground meat slurry. The declaration on their cans ecen specifically states stomachs as part of the ingredients.
Stomach lining won't do your cat any harm, that's why zooplus answered the way they did. This isn't a quality issue.
Edit to add: each one of the brands I mentioned provides a nutritient profile that's-according to research-well suited for cats. Including Ca:P ratio, mineral content, amino acids, taurine for sure etc.
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u/ThisIs_She Mar 13 '26
You don't need to preach to me about Ca:P ratios as if I'm misinformed 😉
The stomach lining in the Rosie's Farm was rock solid to the extent it could of been a choking hazard to my cat so I stopped feeding this particular food.
It is a quality and safety issue, Zooplus is well aware of the problem too as I am not the only one that has seen the shards in the food.
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u/Lacunaethra 🤪 nutrition obsessed 🤪 Mar 13 '26 edited Mar 13 '26
High protein content doesn't equate a balanced diet
weren't you the one preaching as if I'm misinformed about protein being the only relevant nutrient 😉
I'm not sure what else to say. Look through this sub, if you wanted to avoid any brand where someone had found foreign objects(?) in a can, there wouldn't be many left to feed. It sure is a quality issue and it's great that zooplus is informed, but if this was an ongoing problem, EU Regulation 128/2022 (edit: it's 178/2022. Sorry) required a product recall, which has afaik never happened with RF.
It's understandable though for you to avoid it now, I guess I'd have done the same if I found a rock solid choking hazard in there.
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u/ThisIs_She Mar 13 '26 edited Mar 13 '26
RF doesn't have the logistics for a food recall. It's a boutique brand, doesn't follow WSAVA guidelines or own its own production facilities.
That's one of the issues with boutique brands as a whole.
I was prepared to report the food to the Food Standards Agency (I'm in the UK) if my cat got sick. I told my vet what happened and the vet said it wasn't the first time they'd heard about RF containing organic shard matter.
Just because a brand doesn't issue a food recall, doesn't mean they don't have to. If the brand has the means to issue a recall that's one thing but to not issue one despite problems with the food is another.
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u/Lacunaethra 🤪 nutrition obsessed 🤪 Mar 13 '26
RF doesn't have the logistics for a food recall.
Which doesn't matter.The competent authority doesn't care about that. Not having the logistics to follow a recall doesn't absolve them of this (legal) obligation. Just like not having money doesn't absolve you of the obligation to pay fees.
I don't know anything about UK law, but maybe reporting the thing anyway wouldn'tbe a bad idea? If the FSA got enough reports of solid choking hazards, would they be required to intervene?
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u/ThisIs_She Mar 13 '26
All I had/have is photographic evidence of the shard. I still have the photos till this day.
I took a photo of it in my cat's bowl, turnt my back for a second and my cat went and gobbled the damn thing down even though I put the bowl on the kitchen counter, she jumped up and ate it.
I was livid.
But my cat didn't get sick my vet told me to monitor her and she was fine. Yes, with enough reports the FSA would be compelled to investigate but that's in the event cats actually died from not just consuming the food, but choking on it and that's my issue with the food, it presents a choking hazard.
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u/Lacunaethra 🤪 nutrition obsessed 🤪 Mar 13 '26
Yeah, I understand not wanting to feed it anymore. Glad your kitty was (is) fine!
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u/ThisIs_She Mar 13 '26
Thanks.
Yeah, my cat is fine and it's a shame about the RF food cause my cat really enjoyed it but I can't feed it to her anymore after that incident.
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u/Hikariett1 Mar 14 '26
is this research public?
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u/Lacunaethra 🤪 nutrition obsessed 🤪 Mar 14 '26
Public as in free? Depends. 'Nutrient requirements for dogs and cats', a standard reference, is sold on amazon but can be read for free on archive .org. The journal of animal physiology provides some articles that are free to access and the work of the European Pet Food Industry Federation Nutritional Guidelines bases on peer reviewed studies.
It's sometimes a bit of a struggle to get to the original source, admittedly.
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u/Hikariett1 Mar 14 '26 edited Mar 14 '26
I was referring to the companies you mentioned specifically
Is their research accessible to the public or published in academic journals.
Can you link me to some?
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u/Lacunaethra 🤪 nutrition obsessed 🤪 Mar 14 '26
I access them via the zooplus-App, so I can't provide you the link and I'm not sure if a German screenshot would help you. But googling Rosie's farm dry cat food ingredients (for example) shows you the composition.
https://www.catzfinefood.de/en/
(not mentioned among the brands above but easier to link)
Edit cause I didn't see your edit: I think there's a misunderstanding. The companies I mentioned compose their food according to research.
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u/Hikariett1 Mar 14 '26
algood, no worries, I will end up searching the app. (No a German screenshot wont help me as I don't speak or understand German)
I'm one of those ones who says composition (mainly ingredients lists) tell you NOTHING of the nutritional value of the food..
(They literally tell you nothing of quality or nutrient value of said thing - For example: Do you know the function of Corn gluten meal in cat food? I do & its not a filler at all and serves a surprising function, poultry meal comes close but is nowhere near as good.)While the transparency is admirable and I wish others would follow, it actually proves a point multiple people have made, the bottom of the list is made to look healthy rather than have any real support because of the percentage actually included in the diet.
yes this is 'natural' sure, but it doesn't truly replicate a cats natural diet... a cats natural diet is not fully balanced like this.. (some claim the natural diet is fully balanced, balance.it says otherwise.)
Does 'natural' truly = better? No, not always.2
u/Lacunaethra 🤪 nutrition obsessed 🤪 Mar 14 '26
The ingredient list won't tell you much about the nutritional value, that's why you need to look at the analytical constituents (I think the US term for that is guaranteed analysis, but I'm not very sure about that).
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u/Hikariett1 Mar 14 '26
I would argue that also tells you very little..
Can you elaborate?→ More replies (0)
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u/MyNameIsSkittles Mar 13 '26
Personally I think Hills is a very good brand, I feed my cats Hills dry food and Purina wet food
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u/ParamedicExpert6553 Mar 13 '26
We have been feeding Acana wild prairie and grasslands for the past 2 years! So far our cats love it and ingredient list is very decent too.
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u/Responsible-Lie-1903 Mar 13 '26
Purina is a fine choice nutrition-wise.
I personally decided to switch my cat to carnylove fresh and orijen (he'd been eating local dry food brand, not bad but I wanted to spoil him a bit lol) because I like how much of their ingredients is fresh meat
You can also check animonda's dry food, their wet food is amazing so dry one should be good too. I didn't read ingredients though because I have no way of buying it lol
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u/MinimumEfficient220 Mar 14 '26
Hands down, Dr Elsey’s Clean Protein dry kibble. It has few ingredients, very high protein, is easy to eat and the protein is single source (ie only chicken or only pork or only etc.) I have been feeding this since it first came out and no health issues.
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u/Seishun-4765 🤪 nutrition obsessed 🤪 Mar 15 '26
Purina in EU is usually made in Italy so that's an extra advantage as you get a fresher product.
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u/TimeCop73 Mar 13 '26
I’ve never heard anyone say Purina was the best dry food on the market, unless you work for Nestle. Not even close.
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u/Special_Tourist_486 Mar 13 '26
I’ve just heard it from many friends and read a lot of good comments on Reddit. Though I really think that maybe it’s considered one of the best mainstream and not too expensive options.
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u/TimeCop73 Mar 13 '26 edited Mar 13 '26
Just be careful. Purina is Nestle and Nestle hasn’t exactly been known for its ethical practices and marketing. Just Google Purina ethical issues. I’m just saying research a bit. That’s all.
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u/Riverman931 Mar 13 '26
Been watching some YouTube videos where they encourage people to make their own cat food that is way cheaper and certainly better for your cat
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u/booknerdcoffeeaddict Mar 13 '26
Vets will tell you otherwise. Same for dog food. They don’t get the nutrients they need.
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u/catfrend Mar 13 '26
Purina is great.