CatFoodDB FAQ

Simply put, CatFoodDB.com is a nutritional database and review site for cat food. There are dozens of databases for human food, this one is an equivalent for commercially prepared cat food. It provides nutritional breakdowns, ingredient lists, calorie counts and fact-based reviews for over two thousand wet & dry cat food products.

The vast majority of the data is pulled directly from the manufacturer's published nutritional information. In most cases this data is originally published on the manufacturer's product website, but in a few cases the data may be taken directly from the product packaging.

Each of the reviews on this site are created using each product's published guaranteed analysis and ingredient lists. With approximately 3000 products catalogued, CatFoodDB is in a unique position where we can compare each product to all the others in our database. This allows us to report on whether or not any product is better or worse in several different categories and criteria, and then present our findings to you to assist in your cat food purchasing choices! Each review is non-biased and is reporting only on the facts as provided by the cat food manufacturer.

At CatFoodDB, we calculate two ratings for each product. These values are then combined to create the the overall product score.

The first rating is based on the product's ingredient list. Each cat food product is assigned a value from (low) to (high) paws. Generally speaking, higher ratings are rewarded to those products that contain quality proteins and limit the amount of cheap fillers in their most plentiful ingredients.

The second rating is based on our analysis of the product's published nutritional information. Higher rated products will contain more protein and fewer carbohydrates than average. Each product is assigned a score from to paws based on this nutritional analysis. Please note that the nutritional values used are only an approximation and may not represent "as fed" values due to variations in manufacturing and the laws that specify how these values are reported.

Finally, the nutrition and ingredient ratings are added together to create a score ranging from 1 - 10 paws for the evaluated product.

Please note that although a high score may be indicative of a higher-quality product it is not a guarantee. Similarly, a low score does not necessarily indicate an inferior product. The best food for your cat is the one that meets their individual needs.

I'll be totally honest: I make no claims to be an expert in cat food nutrition. I am merely a cat owner & lover who has spent more time than necessary reading cat food labels. This site was created to share my hard work with other concerned cat people. My goal for this site is to collect all the data I can into a single location, decipher it and then compare products using a standardized algorithm. As a experienced web developer by trade, I am very qualified when it comes to collecting data, working with databases and making websites.

We're continually updating our database of cat food products. Currently, we have cataloged products from 1st Choice, 9Lives, Acana, Addiction, Adirondack, Against The Grain, Almo Nature, American Journey, American Natural Premium, Annamaet, Applaws, Artemis, Atta Cat, Authority, AvoDerm, Beaverdam, Bench & Field, Best Breed, bff, BIXBI, Blackwood, BLUE Buffalo, Blue Seal, Boreal, By Nature, Canada Fresh, Canadian Naturals, Canidae, CaniSource Grand Cru, Caru, Castor & Pollux, Catered Bowl, Catit, Cats In The Kitchen, Chicken Soup for the Soul, CountryPet Naturals, Crave, Dave's, DeckHand, Diamond, Dr Elsey's, Dr Pol, Dr Tim's, Earthborn Holistic, Essence, Evangers, Evolve, Exclusive, Fancy Feast, Farmina, Farmina Vet Life, Feline Natural, FirstMate, Forza10, Freely, Freshpet, Friskies, Fromm, Fussie Cat, Gabo, GO! Solutions, Grandma Lucy's, Grandma Mae's, Halo, Happy Tails, Health Extension, Hill's Healthy Advantage, Hill's Prescription Diet, Hill's Science Diet, Horizon, Hound & Gatos, I and love and you, I Luv My Cat, Iams, Identity, Inception, Instinct, Kahoots, Kirkland, Koha, Life's Abundance, Lotus, Meow Mix, Merrick, Mio9, Natural Balance, Nature's Logic, Nood, Northwest Naturals, NOW Fresh, Nulo, Nutram, Nutrience, Nutrish, NutriSource, Nutro, Only Natural Pet, Open Farm, Orijen, Oven Baked Tradition, Paws & Claws, Performatrin, Petcurean, Petite Cuisine, PrettyPlease, Primal, Pro Pac, Pronature, ProSeries, PureLuxe, PureVita, Purina Beyond, Purina Cat Chow, Purina ONE, Purina Pro Plan, Purina Pro Plan Veterinary Diets, Qualicat, Raised Right, Rawz, Redford Naturals, Regal, Royal Canin, Sheba, Simply Nourish, Snappy Tom, Sojos, Solid Gold, Soulistic, SPORTMiX, Star Pro, Stella & Chewys, Supreme Source, Taste Of The Wild, Techni-Cal, Tender & True, The Honest Kitchen, Tiki Cat, Tiny Tiger, Triumph, TruLuxe, Valens, VeRUS, Vetdiet, Vintage, Vital Essentials, Wellness, Weruva, Whiskas, Wish Bone, WX Phos Focused, Wysong, Young Again, ZiwiPeak, and Zoe.

We're continually updating our database of cat food products. If your preferred brand of cat food isn't included here, please let us know at [email protected].

Note: Only cat food sold in the USA and Canada requires a Guaranteed Analysis to be published by the manufacturer. Other countries, including those in Europe and Asia don't necessarily have this restriction. Hence CatfoodDB cannot publish nutritional data for products not sold within Canada or the US.

CatFoodDB's search page is very powerful. Some search tips:

• When you enter a search term, each cat food in our database is searched against its brand, flavor and ingredients.
• Multiple words are "and"ed together. That is, if you search for chicken tuna the site will return all results that contain both chicken and tuna.
• You can also find products that don't contain terms, using a - (dash, or minus sign) in front of the term to be excluded. For example, chicken -rice will return all products that contain chicken but not rice.
• You can put quotation marks around phases to be searched. For example,"chicken liver" will return results where the complete phase "chicken liver" is found, but will not necessarily include "chicken heart".
• The search engine also makes use of the roots of words searched for, so searching for carrot will also automatically return results for carrots.

In list view, clicking on the buttons labelled Protein, Fat, Fiber, Carbs and Calories will sort by those values.

Yes! You can view all products, just wet foods (with at least 20% moisture), or just dry foods (with no more than 20% moisture) by choosing the appropriate filter from the left menu (or top, on mobile).

Guaranteed Analysis is required by the AAFCO (Association of American Feed Control Officials) on the label of all pet foods. It's purpose is to advise the purchaser of the product's nutrient content. At minimum, it publishes the minimum percentages of crude protein and crude fat, and maximum percentages of crude fiber and moisture.

Wet Matter values are the Guaranteed Analysis numbers as published by the cat food manufacturer.
Dry Matter values are the manufacturer's published Guaranteed Analysis numbers normalized for moisture content.

Because each variety of cat food contains a different amount of moisture, logically you can only compare different products once the moisture is removed. For example, a wet cat food might contain 80% moisture, and 10% protein. A dry cat food might contain 10% moisture, and 30% protein. Unless you remove the moisture from the equation, it initially appears the dry food contains more protein. In reality however, the wet food contains 50% protein once the moisture is removed, meanwhile the dry cat food only contains 33.3% protein.

The total amount of Dry Matter in a product is calculated by subtracting the percentage of moisture given from 100%. The Dry Matter protein, fat, fibre and other values are then calculated by dividing the percentages given on the label by the percentage of dry matter. For example, a fictional cat food product lists 30% moisture, 20% fat, 10% protein and 5% fiber in it's Guaranteed Analysis section of it's ingredients label. The amount of dry matter is 70% (100% - 30%). The dry matter fat percentage is then calculated to be 28.5% (20% / 70%), protein is 14.3% (10% / 70%) and fiber is 7.1% (5% / 70%).

The published Guaranteed Analysis numbers report the maximum fiber, moisture and ash contained in the product, and the minimum amount of protein and fat. Hence, the maximums, when added to the minimum values, may occasionally add up to more than 100%.

Carbohydrate percentages of the cat food products are estimated to be 100% minus the percentages reported in the Guaranteed Analysis for moisture, fat, fiber, protein, ash and other components. Because the Guaranteed Analysis actually reports a mixture of maximum and minimum values for the nutrients, the calculated carbohydrate amounts are only an estimation.

Calories are calculated according to the formulas posted by the AAFCO, documented here. Because calorie calculations are based on the Guaranteed Analysis which reports a mixture of maximum and minimum values for the nutrients, the calculated calories are only an estimation.

Occasionally the cat food manufacturer will publish calorie counts amounts for their individual products, and these values will differ from the ones shown we display. This can happen because, as explained, our calorie counts are only estimations, meanwhile the manufacturer will be able to determine more exact values. The authoritative source for all nutritional information for any pet food is always the pet food manufacturer.

Due to product price fluctuations, pricing, when available, is displayed using a scale that ranges from $ to $$$$$, cheapest to most expensive. More info on our price data can be found here.

Pricing data is obtained from our partners at chewy.com. More info on our pricing data can be found here.

We're constantly working to update our product database to include as many products as possible, but we need your help! If you have information about a product we're missing, please contact us at [email protected] and let us know! If possible, please include the product's manufacturer & flavor. Extra information, specifically the manufacturer's web site and/or an amazon purchase link, would be greatly appreciated!

If you find an incorrect image, Amazon purchase link or incorrect nutritional information for any product, please let us know via email at [email protected].

Financially, this site's hosting and other associated costs will be funded via the Amazon & Chewy.com affiliate links associated with each product. Product links on this page, and throughout the site, are affiliate links. This means that I, at no additional cost to you, earn a small commission if you decide to make a purchase.

If you're buying your cat's food from Amazon or Chewy.com and would like to support the work we do here at CatFoodDB.com, please consider purchasing via the links on this site!

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CatFoodDB is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com

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CatFoodDB is a Chewy.com affiliate and earns commissions for qualifying purchases.

Financially, this site will be funded via the Amazon affiliate links associated with each product. Product links on this page, and throughout the site, are affiliate links. This means that I, at no additional cost to you, earn a small commission if you decide to make a purchase.

If you're buying your cat's food from Amazon, consider purchasing via the links on this site!

You can also help by providing information about any missing cat food products. If you have information about a product we're missing, please contact us at [email protected]. Please include any additional information you have -- links to manufacturer product pages are a huge bonus, as are product images and Amazon product pages.

Hi, my name's Tammy and this is my site! I'm a web developer by day, and by night I'm the human for 3 cats. Concerned about what I was feeding my feline dependants, I set off to find a cat food nutritional database similar to the dozens that exist for human food. Unable to find one, I built my own.

Comments, feedback, complaints, and requests for more information can all be directed to me via email at [email protected] or on Facebook.

Special thanks to Font Awesome, Marie Coons and Yazmin Alanis from the Noun Project and Freepik from www.flaticon.com for the icons used within this site.

All of the information presented on this site is presented with the best of intentions to be correct. However, we cannot make any guarantees nor assume any liability for the accuracy of the data presented. We also cannot be held liable for any actions made as a result of the information presented within this site. The authoritative source for ingredient lists and nutritional analysis for any pet food is always the pet food manufacturer.

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CatFoodDB is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.