
Kirsten McCarthy / Cats.com
Is this iconic brand a healthy, safe choice for your cat? Find out in our unbiased Fancy Feast cat food review.
The Cats.com Standard—Rating Fancy Feast on What Matters
We’ve analyzed Fancy Feast and graded it according to the Cats.com standard, evaluating the brand on species-appropriateness, ingredient quality, product variety, price, customer experience, and recall history. Here’s how it rates in each of these six key areas.
Ratings
- Species-Appropriateness – 8/10
- Ingredient Quality – 3/10
- Product Variety – 8/10
- Price – 9/10
- Customer Experience – 6/10
- Recall History – 6/10
Overall Score: 6.6/10
We give Fancy Feast cat food a 39 out of 60 rating or a B- grade.
Fancy Feast Video Review
About Fancy Feast
Fancy Feast was created in 1982 and was likely the first cat food brand to capitalize on the “gourmet” concept. Though it’s now one of the cheaper brands on the market, Fancy Feast is advertised as a luxurious food experience for cats.
Three years after its inception, the brand was purchased by Purina, which later merged with Nestlé. As of 2017, Nestlé-Purina was the second-highest-earning pet food company in the world with over 12 billion dollars in revenue.
Sourcing and Manufacturing
Most Purina products are sourced and manufactured in the United States. A few products are made in Thailand—Fancy Feast Purely, Broths, and Flaked Fish & Shrimp. Regardless of location, all products are made in company-owned facilities.
Has Fancy Feast Cat Food Been Recalled?
Fancy Feast cat food has never been recalled, but other Purina brands have been recalled multiple times. Click here to read our full Purina review and to learn more about the company’s recall history.
What Kinds of Cat Food Does Fancy Feast Offer?

Kirsten McCarthy / Cats.com
Fancy Feast includes over 100 recipes, including patés, broths, morsels in gravy, and two varieties of dry cat food. Here’s a summary of what Fancy Feast has to offer:
Wet Cat Food
- The Gourmet line is the original Fancy Feast, including a wide range of wet foods, including patés, morsels in gravy, sliced foods, milk-infused meals, foods with extra gravy, chunky paté, and more.
- Gourmet Naturals offers recipes similar to those in the Gourmet line, but Naturals foods don’t contain artificial colors or flavors.
- Purely Fancy Feast Natural entrées are made with chicken, seafood, or beef without by-products or fillers.
Dry Cat Food
- Gourmet Dry Cat Food is Fancy Feast’s original dry cat food.
- Gourmet Naturals Dry Cat Food is made without artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives.
Food Toppers and Complements
- Purely Fancy Feast Filets are filets of chicken or seafood.
- Gourmet Broths involve tender bites of chicken or seafood in broth.
- Fancy Feast Appetizers are delicate portions of chicken or fish in broth.
Fancy Feast Cat Food – Top 3 Recipes Reviewed
Product Name | Food Type | Price | Our Grade |
Fancy Feast Classic Chicken Feast Canned Cat Food | Wet | $0.25 per oz | B- |
Fancy Feast Classic Tender Beef Feast Canned Cat Food | Wet | $0.27 per oz | B- |
Fancy Feast Gourmet Savory Chicken & Turkey Dry Cat Food | Dry | $0.29 per oz | D |
What Do Customers Think of Fancy Feast Cat Food?
As one of the world’s leading cat food brands, thousands of people feed their cats this brand every day. Just as it’s earned multiple generations of loyal customers, the brand has garnered plenty of complaints.
Some customers observe that Fancy Feast can be inconsistent, saying that Fancy Feast’s quality and calorie content vary depending on the product’s manufacturing origin. Others blame Fancy Feast for making their cats sick, but these stories don’t seem to show a clear connection between the food and the illness.
Here’s what a few customers have to say about Fancy Feast:
Positive Reviews
“This is my boy’s favorite flavor of Fancy Feast. He loves it and always eats it really well. And I love that Fancy Feast Classic Pate line is generally low carb, low-to no grain, and meat based. Also no carrageenan for sensitive kitties. It’s really great bang for you buck and super tasty for your kitty!” – Emily13, reviewing Fancy Feast Beef Feast
“I’m tired of opening cans after cans of high end cat food, and they just walked away, refusing to eat. I’m tired of throwing my money into the trash can. Fancy Feast doesn’t have the fanciest reputation, but my cats like and eat it. So what can I say? I guess I will just deal with the artificial flavor and meat byproduct.” – Eleni, reviewing Fancy Feast Chicken Feast
Negative Reviews
“There are many other products which are healthier for your cat and have meat as the first ingredient; this one does not. I am trying to wean my cats off this and start them on something that is healthier.” – bearbaby, reviewing Fancy Feast Gourmet Savory Chicken & Turkey Dry Cat Food
“FF Classic Chicken Feast had been my cat’s favorite FF wet food for a couple of years. She would happily eat 1 can daily. But over the last year and half, she gradually began eating less and less. Now she refuses to eat more a bite or two. Even when I mix it with another mild chicken formula (Sheba). Like another reviewer, I noticed the product is DENSER and a MUCH DARKER COLOR. And I assume FF made a SIGNIFICANT CHANGE TO THE FORMULA. Did they increase the amount of chicken BY-PRODUCTS, like LIVER, which my cat hates? Badly done, Fancy Feast.” – TortiMom8, reviewing Fancy Feast Classic Chicken Feast
How Much Does Fancy Feast Cat Food Cost?
Most of the Fancy Feast product lineup is inexpensive, but their product variety spans the price spectrum. Let’s take a look at the typical daily feeding costs of several Fancy Feast lines.
Their wet cat food costs about $1.63 per day if you choose the Classics line. Fancy Feast Medleys and Gourmet Naturals are both little more expensive at closer to $2.50 daily. If you buy the Fancy Feast Purely Flaked line, the food will cost around $4-$5 per day.
Fancy Feast’s dry food is significantly less expensive at around $0.29 per day.
Overall, Is Fancy Feast a Good Choice?
It really depends on which recipe you choose. There’s a lot of Fancy Feast cat food to try and a lot of variety between the various lines.
Fancy Feast’s Classic Patés and classic flaked recipes like Flaked Fish & Shrimp Feast are some of the lowest-carbohydrate products at this price point. They’re affordable options for cats with diabetes or those otherwise seeking low-carbohydrate food that won’t break the bank. In our article on the best kitten food, we recommended Fancy Feast’s turkey paté for kittens as one of the best options for kitten guardians on a budget.
If you try Fancy Feast’s natural recipes like Fancy Feast Purely White Meat Chicken & Shredded Beef, you’ll be putting good food in your cat’s bowl, but you’ll also spend a lot more than you might when buying comparable foods from another brand.
Unlike their wet foods, Fancy Feast’s dry food doesn’t give you much meat for your dollar. The brand’s dry recipes are some of the most carbohydrate-heavy and additive-laden kibble foods on the market.
Overall, Fancy Feast cat food appears to be a reliable, trustworthy economy choice. It’s a good option if you want to avoid excessive plant ingredients but don’t mind feeding your cat by-products or vaguely-named ingredients and are comfortable with some artificial additives.
Where To Buy Fancy Feast Cat Food?
Fancy Feast cat food is sold in pet specialty retailers, groceries, and big box stores around the world. Online, you can buy it on Amazon, Chewy, PetSmart, Walmart, Shipt, and Instacart.
Also Read:
I agree with many others regarding the decline in quality of Fancy Feast. My cat Charlie loves it, but the last two cartons I purchased were horrible. One was ordered through Amazon and the next carton was a few weeks later at a local Walmart. Charlie will eat anything and is in no way fussy by any means. I feed him twice a day and he goes nuts while I prepare it for him trying to get at it before I set it down on the floor. This being his usual routine, suddenly however, he would go to eat, take one quick sniff and then suddenly back away and leave the room.
Even after leaving the food there for as long as healthy to do so, it would remain untouched.
This is something he has never done before with no food I’ve ever given him. This response seems randomly limited to all the cans of one particular flavor within a box which changed from one box to the second that I purchased.
The first occurrence was a box ordered from Amazon and was limited entirely to each can of the chicken and beef pate.
The next box this occurred with was purchased from my local Walmart three weeks later and was with only every can of Tender Chicken and Liver Feast pate. Both boxes were purchased consecutively within the same month of October/Novermber 2024.
Upon noticing this, I checked reviews on Amazon and discovered that when changing the default sort for reviews from “Top Reviews” to “Recent” that there was a slew of complaints of similar occurrences. One person stated that they had to bring their cat to the emergency vet after eating a can from his most recent purchase of Fancy Feast.
The reason I’ve been buying Fancy Feast at all is due to the fact that it doesn’t include carrageenan. Now because of this most recent situation I am going to have to risk finding something affordable to replace Fancy Feast with.
The fortunate thing is that Charlie is by far not a fussy eater and will eat just about anything you put before him. However, finding a cat food that does not include carrageenan that is affordable is impossible. You would think, we were feeding our pets human grade food when you break down the pricing per ounce/pound.
In many cases, it is cheaper to simply buy regular chicken and make your cat food like our grandparents did. That is unless you want to stoop to having to buy questionable quality food that is priced so low, that it must have been made from the dregs left over after having been swept off the butcher room floor at the end of the day.
I’m Perry sure a score of 39 out of 60 is a D, not a B-. You sell purina so you have some bias. FYI all those vitamins and minerals added or fortified are lab made preservatives disguised as essential complete ingredients. This is why so many cats end up with kidney and liver problems. What do you think the ash content is on a dry matter basis, probably 12%. Wow,
I also think this brand needs updating and replaced on the list as not only has the quality gone down but a lot of their food seems to have terrible things in it that you DONT want your cat eating– Like carrageen, numerous gums and questionable phosphates?
Like many others are pointing out here, there seems to be something going on in Fancy Feasts food. My cat usually loves Fancy Feast and did well on it. However, as of this year, i’ve gotten same 24 pack she loves; only for her to not only refuse to eat it, but to get sick when she does. I started to sniff and take a look at the food in the gravy line when i noticed she was acting strange and dropping weight. The beef gravy in the grilled collection looks off, smells off and just.. nope. i wont let her touch it now. After changing the food out she’s doing much better… what did Fancy Feast do to their food?
All my cats were brought up on Fancy Feast wet food. They each had their favorite, but they were sniffing and walking away from it recently. They were losing weight and I was looking for a healthy brand they would eat. The one brand they are all eating heartily is Royal Canin Adult Instinctive in the pouch. so for now, that is my go to cat food. My vet, who only works with cats) said do not ever feed them dry cat food. It is like having your cat live on junk snack food and candy and is carbohydrate rich, regardless of the brand.
Exactly! Questionable phosphates is a nice way to put it. The synthetic phosphates aren’t used like real phosphorus from actual food. The cats body usually has some decisions about how much to use and where to distribute phosphorus. Not with the lab made kind. It all 100% goes straight through the kidneys putting unnecessary strain on them.
And here I thought it was just a rare occurrence when it happened to my cat after two consecutive purchases of the same boxes. I’ve found over the past five or so years that this lowering of quality by using cheaper ingredients, components, and such has been pretty much across the board with most everything, not just cat food. That and companies lowering the quantity and weights of food contents without changing the size of its packaging to give the consumer the impression that nothing has changed. Yet the prices have gone up, so you are buying less and paying more. I know I am not the only one who has noticed this horrid trend in the States, but what I find odd is there has been little to no mention of it anywhere or even in conversation with others. Are people just sitting back and accepting this trend? Back in my day when I was physically able, I and other got very involved in causes both social and political. Today it seems we’re… what? Stupidly lazy or just don’t really care. I don’t know. But it doesn’t bode well for our future.
My cat is also very particular. I spent a lot of money trying all kinds of food, including healthy foods, but she only wanted Fancy Feast Appetizers and Broths! The good news, all the cat foods I tried but she did not like, I donated to our local animal shelter!
There’s 1 reason for that, all the MSG in fancy feast. The health foods your trying can’t compare. They get addicted just like littl people and outs very unhealthy stuff. Natural flavor is almost always MSG but decide derived naturally. This is in it for that reason and its hidden in so many foods for pets and people
Fancy feast Wild Salmon Primavera definitely has some quality issues. Seems to be the ones with exp date of Feb 2025! I’m on 3rd case of my kitty not touching her usually favorite cat food. She eats it fine with different exp dates. 😡🙀
Correction: Feb 2026 exp. date. Not Feb 2025. Also an issue with many cans of FF creamy delights w tuna.
I have two cats, brother and sister, both 14 years old, who have eaten Fancy Feast canned foods for their entire lives. As below posters have noted the last two years have brought about several quality variances in many, if not all of their flavors. I buy entire 24-pack cases at a time from the local Petsmart, and I can tell that when my cats don’t eat one can, they won’t eat much of any from the entire case. Yet, when I move onto another case of the same flavor, they may like it again.
In the last year or so the male has developed frequent diarrhea. Cycling through flavors over weeks and months did little to change his problem. On the pair’s last vet visit the sister, who over the day or two prior was not eating after losing a worrisome amount of weight, was diagnosed with an off-the-chart over-active thyroid, or feline hyperthyroidism. I changed their diet from Fancy Feast (I really should have done this when I noticed the quality varying) to a mix of Purina One and Pro Plan. Along with the Methimazole treatments the sister began a fast recovery with a nearly immediate turn-around in her appetite. The new diet also seemed to alleviate her brother’s long issue of diarrhea.
What is curious, however, is that when I tried to reintroduce Fancy Feast for a single meal, there were noticeable immediate effects such as the sister refusing the following two meals and the brother having diarrhea again – it seemed that just a single Fancy Feast Beef Pate was enough to backtrack almost a week’s worth of hyperthyroidism treatments for her and to immediately re-start his diarrhea issues. This completely convinced me that the life-long diet of Fancy Feast canned foods was to blame for my cat’s health issues.
So I went on a hunt as to why. Not being an expert on anything related to nutrition I had AI dissect the differences between the specific Fancy Feast flavors I was feeding my two cats and the Pro Plan options I have selected which my cats seem to be doing much better with. AI came back with an answer – the POTASSIUM IODIDE in Fancy Feast is not present in the other brands, and it has been linked to feline hyperthyroidism.
I feel guilty that I let my cat’s health issued get so bad before I changed their diet. I only hope that sharing this knowledge can help other cat owners realize the risks of iodine additives in cat foods.
Wow. Sorry to hear about your cats. I’m glad they are doing better. Thanks for the news, it really helps imo. I think you may want to switch them to another brand completely. I’m glad it’s working fort then now, but there are more health issues coming with that food. Kidney and liver typically. Unfortunately I have fed that to many cats and I didn’t realize it wasn’t quality in any way. It’s not all your fault, it’s marketed like your don’t the good thing for your cats, but almost all cat food had so many artificial lab made vitamins and minerals, nothing is used correctly by the animals and they end up with too much of one and too little of something else. I’m feeding raw food right now. So far so good. Not 1 single lab made ingredients. Good luck to you!
I would love to know how Fancy Feasts is now. I know they have a few new lines. Especially the Gravy ones for gravy lovers. It’s the grilled collection. The ingredients from what I can see look good. My Cat is quite picky but I also want what’s best for her. She’s currently on Cats in the Kitchen and I’m starting to see she’s going towards gravy instead.
Don’t forget fish caught by slaves in cambodia and Thailand. Nobody mentions it anymore, but when purina admitted it, they basically stated that they would try to cut back on that. Now check it out, there is recently added fish in every flavor, turkey, etc. They are using more fish. Slave labor should not exist by now. Avoid Nestle and purina
We recently bought 5 boxes of Fancy Feast Cheddar Delights.
The cat would eat these and have nothing left in the morning.
These new ones, she will not touch or even eat the gravy.
We even noticed a change in the smell and the color of the cheese it is not cheddar.
Did Purina change their recipe or how they are processing this product?
She will not touch her plate.
I have 5 cats who all loved the two fancy feast with cheese flavours and now have all gone off it. Mostly now they will lick the cheese gravy and leave the meat chunks, but none of them are enjoying it as they did in the past where they devoured it all and left the bowls licked clean.
I can say the same for all the the flavours across the range actually. I always alternate food flavours and brand varieties so it’s definitely a product related change not 5 cats taste changing all at the same time.
My cat loves Fancy Feast Beef Chunks in gravy. In my last two purchases, the cat food does not resemble beef, it could be chicken or tuna , I don’t know the difference. Originally the beef chunks looked like beef with dark beef gravy, now it could be anything. Somewhat deceiving!
I would like to add to the chorus encouraging one of your future reviews to be the FF former naturals pates please!! That’s actually what I came to this site to compare others to. Thank you!
Thank you; will take note of that for the next round of updates.
Mallory is the best.
I have seen all of her youtube videos.
Very knowledgeable and truly helpful she is.
So. Keep UP the great work young lady 🙂
TY kindly
Thank you for the kind words! 😊
I rescued a cat and been feeding blue buffalo. he’s been throwing up everything until i switched to fancy feast chicken gravy. after a week of feeding him that, he is much better
Blue Buffalo caused diarrhea for my cat. Fancy Feast is the only cat food that doesn’t give my cat diarrhea so I’m sticking with that.
Hello. Maybe I don’t understand the info on carbs & dry matter. How are these two canned FF foods considered low carb when their carb is around 9% but Iams Perfect Portions Indoor Chicken Recipe Grain-Free is considered high carb at around 3% or so compared to other wet cat foods. I really want to feed low carb wet foods & Im a bit confused. Also will you please look at the canned FF Gourmet Naturals Pate? I think the label looks good other than unnamed Fish & liver. I have been feeding the FF Gormet Naturals Turkey & chicken too, canned. What do you think about those two? Please review when & if you have time! I’m not interested in the FF Gormet Natural gravy because the gravy has wheat. I’m thinking the Pate’ will score well & get a fairly high letter grade. Thank you so very much! 🙂 You are doing important & impressive work! 😀 😀
Yes I would like to know this as well.
Me too. I’d like to know if FF Naturals is a healthier option than the regular FF line which is full of additives, by-products and dyes, thank you for your unbiased reviews, finding an option that my cat actually likes the taste and that is on the healthy side is most times overwhelming.
Please review the Naturals Pate regular (not gravy) & kitten Pate! Thanks!
Hi Angela, we’ll consider it! Thank you.
I just noticed your reply after Joseph already messaged you. Thanks for the reply & thank you for considering the review! 🙂
Love it! 😀
I would really appreciate a review of the FF naturals pate. Thanks so much for all of this important information. We are so very grateful!
Thanks for your feedback it has been so helpful. I have 3 cats that only eat wet food 2x a day in the am I give them Fancy Fest Turkey and at night they got Pro Plan Chicken . For the last few weeks they have upchucked all they ate I stopped the Pro Plan Chicken and they stopped throwing up .But then in the last case of Fancy Feast Turkey I have noticed that it has changed too to a much darker darker food and they didnt want to eat that too .So I now have had to change to Core wellness and hope all this is in the past . Not sure why all this has been happening
I have 3 cats ,1 Burmese, 1 Russian Blue, and 1 Rescue. All of my cats were bought up on Fancy Feast, but something has dramatically changed with the product. Not one of them will go near it anymore, sniff and walk away. Obviously the formula has changed for cheaper ingredients since covid. I live in Australia, and for months nothing was on the shelves as it is made in USA,and the price here is not cheap, but thanks to stocking up , my cats got there food. But now, I refuse to waste my money on a product that I know will end up in the bin.
Thank you for sharing this.
It may be a good idea to revisit your reviews. As you can see there are numerous comments about the quality taking a nose dive. I do not believe your review is still accurate and could unintentionally mislead people.
Hi, thanks for the suggestion—we’ll get this one updated.
I also noticed a change in the fancy feast food cat . I have 3 cats 1 Burmese 1
Singapore 1 Russian Blue. They have eat always fancy feast since 10 years and now they smell their food and won’t eat it. I am from Quebec City in Canada.
It’s the same in the US. We also couldn’t get the food for quite a while during Covid. They obviously switched to cheaper ingredients. Perhaps at first because it’s all they could get. But now, almost 4 years later, they don’t seem to have any intention of going back to more quality ingredients. There are several flavors my cats used to love that they will now absolutely not touch.
I’m nervous about feeding my new cat fancy feast dry food. Financially it is cheaper but quality is important. I get the cat tomorrow. I might go with pro plan
Good call. You can learn about the best dry cat food here.
Honestly there’s not too much difference between standard and the Pro Plan quality-wise. There other other cat foods in the price range of Pro that are better quality.
I am trying to find a low ash content dry food to feed ti my foster cats because a few hav me been getting uti’s. Any recommendations besides urinary tract food which they won’t eat.
Hi Katie, we have recommendations for non-prescription food that can support urinary tract health here.
In addition to high quality wet food-You might want to try Methigel- I have several cats with constant reoccurring UTIs- it has worked keeping them vet free for several years.
Katie,
I have had two cats with Urinary tract issues and stones. They started out on prescription food but with multiple cats got too expensive. I did sone research and put them in Iams dry. Any of the flavors worked. The indoor cat, regular, healthy weight. They ate without any issues.
Our two cats both seem to like the Fancy Feast Savory Centers . Before the Covid pandemic you could buy individual varieties (chicken, beef, salmon, or tuna). But now it’s only available as a ‘variety pack’ — 3 of each.
Recently I’ve discovered (what I am guessing are) specks of bone fragments in the food. I don’t remember them being there before and I am leaning toward not buying it for them anymore.
Hi Dori, I can buy it in Walmart and on Chewy in a variety 12-pack with Chicken, Tuna, Beef, and Salmon flavors. I too am annoyed that I can’t buy individual flavors, because my cats won’t eat the tuna or the chicken ones. I’ve been buying it for maybe 2 years, and I have never seen it packaged any other way than a variety pack. I agree with you about the specks, I have recently noticed these little white things in the food that I haven’t seen before. I’m ready to start shopping around for another brand, it’s too expensive to throw out half a box every time!
Meijer carries all the individuals
Try Target for single Fancy Feast variety, My cat is a finicky eater. Variety packs don’t work for us.
Fancy feast is toxic for your cat my baby kitten at some then hours later he had seizures after seizures only thing he had ate was that many reviews have complained and no has done nothings
WHAT?!? My cat absolutely loves this brand and she won’t eat any other brands. Any suggestions on how to get her to eat something else?
Has fancy food changed their recipe formula ?
My cats use to like chicken liver pate. Now they won’t eat that and most other flavors
I’m trying other brands but they have become very fussy. I’m afraid they are starving cause they just l won’t eat
Hi Mary, I’ve reached out to Fancy Feast with your question and will get back to you once I receive an answer. Thanks for your patience!
Did you ever get a response from Fancy Feast? I have noticed similar issues with the Turkey Pate which my cat with diabetes and IBD has been eating for years. It now has the consistency of cooked hamburger and much darker in color. He won’t eat it.
Hello Ellen, no, I haven’t received an answer since asking in November. Sorry to hear that your cat is also not enjoying it anymore.
It’s a shame that Purina never responded to the inquiry. I just wanted to say that I noticed the same thing after 2020. It seems that once Covid hit, Purina (and other manufacturers) switched formulas. Not only did several flavors look different, like yours, my cats suddenly stopped eating several different varieties.
I think it would be a good idea for sites like this one to revisit their reviews done pre-covid because there have been a lot of changes since then to many different brands.
I text and called Purina numerous times and always got results so that’s not true I guess that all depends on how you ask the question
My 15-year-old cat has kidney disease and while she is a good eater, she prefers Fancy Feast flaked trout. It seems to sit well on her stomach, and she is always ready to finish it. She is a nibbler, but finishes each can to the last bite.
My cat refuses to eat ANY food from a can. All he will eat are the Fancy Feast Appitizers and those usually only the two Tuna flavors. Every once in a while we can get him to eat a chicken or salmon. And I thought I was finicky being a meat and potatoes guy.