Published Aug 18, 2019
Is Feline Natural safe, trustworthy, and nutritious? Find out in our unbiased Feline Natural cat food review.
The Cats.com Standard—Rating Feline Natural on What Matters
We’ve analyzed Feline Natural 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 – 10/10
- Ingredient Quality – 10/10
- Product Variety – 8/10
- Price – 4/10
- Customer Experience – 8/10
- Recall History – 5/10
Overall Score: 7.5/10
We give Feline Natural cat food a 45 out of 60 rating or a B+ grade.
About Feline Natural
Feline Natural is the cat food branch of K9 Natural, a company founded in 2006 by Geoff Bowers, a police dog handler and instructor. Inspired by three months watching wolves in Alaska and trying out raw diets on his dogs, Bowers created a raw dog food company.
The company was named New Zealand’s fastest-growing manufacturer in 2011 and launched Feline Natural around the same time.
Feline Natural emphasizes the nutritional value of whole prey and marries it with the allure of New Zealand ingredients and manufacturing standards.
But is Feline Natural worth it and how does it compare to other brands? Let’s take a closer look.
Sourcing and Manufacturing
Feline Natural is manufactured in the company’s New Zealand factory. New Zealand has earned an international reputation for healthy livestock, a clean supply chain, and high safety and quality standards.
Their ingredients are primarily sourced from New Zealand. All are sustainably-harvested, free-range, and grass-fed.
Has Feline Natural Cat Food Been Recalled?
Though Feline Natural cat food hasn’t been recalled, the company’s K9 Natural dog food has. In April of 2018, the company announced that it was voluntarily recalling two bag sizes of raw dog food due to potential listeria contamination.
What Kinds Of Cat Food Does Feline Natural Offer?
Feline Natural makes and sells both wet and dry cat food. Their lineup includes grain-free and grain-inclusive varieties, limited-ingredient foods, and recipes with multiple protein sources.
All of their foods are made from named cuts of meat rather than anonymous by-products and meat meals. They don’t contain artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives. Interestingly, their canned products don’t contain any thickeners, giving them a looser consistency than most other wet food.
Their dry foods use vacuum infusion to lock fats and oils into the pores of each piece of kibble. This process protects heat-sensitive fatty acids and nutrients that might otherwise degrade during cooking.
Feline Natural Cat Food – Top 3 Recipes Reviewed
| Product Name | Food Type | Price | Our Grade |
| Feline Natural Chicken & Lamb Feast Freeze-Dried Cat Food | Freeze-Dried | $3.72 per oz | A |
| Feline Natural Lamb & King Salmon Feast Freeze-Dried Cat Food | Freeze-Dried | $3.72 per oz | A |
| Feline Natural Canned Chicken & Venison Feast | Wet | $0.91 per oz | A |
#1 Feline Natural Chicken & Lamb Feast Freeze-Dried Cat Food Review
Chicken appears to be the primary protein source in this cat food.
This food’s ingredient list is decidedly meaty. Chicken is the first ingredient, followed by a few different types of lamb meat, including heart, kidney, and liver. For a cat, these ingredients are about as nourishing and nutrient-dense as you can get. The food also contains lamb blood, which isn’t a typical inclusion on a cat food ingredient list. Blood is an intensely nourishing part of the natural feline diet. It’s a natural source of B vitamins, iron, and preformed vitamin A, among other nutrients.
In total, muscle meat and organs account for 99% of the total recipe. The remaining 1% of the recipe is constituted of New Zealand green-lipped mussels, a source of omega-3 fatty acids, and flaxseed flakes, which Feline Natural includes as a source of fiber. To ensure that each meal is nutritionally complete and balanced, the food is fortified with synthetic vitamins, minerals, and amino acids.
Overall, this is a protein-rich food with moderate levels of fat and virtually zero carbohydrate content.
With a full array of animal ingredients and minimal plant matter, this food appears to be a truly carnivore-appropriate product. It’s expensive and, according to customer reviews, about 15% of cats don’t like it, but based on the ingredient list and macronutrient profile, this looks like a standout option.
The food has 185 calories per cup.
Ingredients
Chicken, Lamb Heart, Lamb Kidney, Lamb Liver, Lamb Blood, Flaxseed Flakes, New Zealand Green Mussel, Dried Kelp, Taurine, Vitamin E Supplement, Magnesium Oxide, Zinc Proteinate, Copper Proteinate, Manganese Proteinate, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Folic Acid.
Ingredients We Liked: Chicken, Lamb Heart, Lamb Kidney, Lamb Liver, Lamb Blood, New Zealand Green Mussel
Ingredients We Didn’t Like: None
Guaranteed Analysis
Dry Matter Basis
Caloric Weight Basis
Pros
- Contains an intensely-nourishing mix of muscle meat, organs, and blood
- Freeze-dried food retains the nutritional value of raw meat
- Low carbohydrate content helps keep blood sugar under control
Cons
- One of the most expensive freeze-dried foods you can buy
- Requires rehydration
#2 Feline Natural Lamb & King Salmon Freeze-Dried Cat Food Review
Lamb heart and salmon appear to be the primary protein sources in this cat food.
This recipe is a lot like the last one we reviewed. It’s another freeze-dried product that features animal ingredients over everything else. The food features lamb heart as the first ingredient—note that heart is a muscle, not an organ—followed by salmon, lamb kidney, lamb liver, and lamb blood.
These ingredients provide a diversity of animal-sourced nutrients. Like all Feline Natural foods, the product contains flaxseed flakes as a source of fiber. Fiber doe naturally appear in the feline diet and helps to promote healthy digestion.
New Zealand green-lipped mussel adds omega-3 fatty acids and may help to relieve inflammation while promoting skin and coat health. The ingredient list concludes with a short list of supplements added to make the food nutritionally complete as per AAFCO guidelines.
Overall, this food is protein-rich with moderate fat and almost no carbohydrate matter.
With grass-fed lamb and sustainably-caught salmon, a source of nourishing omega-3 fatty acids, and a pinch of fiber to keep things moving smoothly, this food appears to have everything you would want out of a raw or freeze-dried product.
The food receives good customer reviews, too, with 95% of Chewy reviewers saying they would recommend it to a friend.
The food contains 239 calories per cup.
Ingredients
Lamb Heart, Salmon, Lamb Kidney, Lamb Liver, Lamb Blood, Flaxseed Flakes, New Zealand Green Mussel, Dried Kelp, Taurine, Vitamin E Supplement, Magnesium Oxide, Zinc Proteinate, Copper Proteinate, Manganese Proteinate, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Folic Acid.
Ingredients We Liked: Lamb Heart, Salmon, Lamb Kidney, Lamb Liver, Lamb Blood, New Zealand Green Mussel
Ingredients We Didn’t Like: None
Guaranteed Analysis
Dry Matter Basis
Caloric Weight Basis
Pros
- Contains a nourishing mix of muscle meat, organs, and blood
- Rich in highly-digestible, minimally-altered animal ingredients
- Low carbohydrate content
- Gets great palatability ratings from cats
Cons
- Expensive
- Demands rehydration, which is time-consuming
#3 Feline Natural Chicken & Venison Feast Canned Cat Food Review
Chicken appears to be the primary protein source in this cat food.
Feline Natural isn’t just a raw or freeze-dried cat food brand. The Feline Natural lineup also includes a variety of canned foods.
This popular canned product is 99% chicken and venison, with chicken muscle meat, chicken heart, venison kidney, venison liver, and venison blood heading up the ingredient list. In standard Feline Natural fashion, the food contains flaxseed flakes for fiber and New Zealand green-lipped mussels as a source of omega-3s.
Overall, this food is rich in protein with moderate fat and almost no carbohydrate matter.
This food is almost identical to Feline Natural’s signature freeze-dried foods. The only difference is that it is up to 82.5% water, eliminating the need for rehydration and making it a good option for cats who like paté style foods.
The food has 862 calories per kilogram or 24 calories per ounce.
Ingredients
Chicken, Chicken Heart, Venison Kidney, Venison Liver, Venison Blood, Flaxseed Flakes, New Zealand Green Mussel, Dried Kelp, Taurine, Vitamin E Supplement, Magnesium Oxide, Zinc Proteinate, Copper Proteinate, Manganese Proteinate, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Folic Acid, Water added for processing
Ingredients We Liked: Chicken, Chicken Heart, Venison Kidney, Venison Liver, Venison Blood, New Zealand Green Mussel
Ingredients We Didn’t Like: None
Guaranteed Analysis
Dry Matter Basis
Caloric Weight Basis
Pros
- Contains a variety of chicken and venison parts, including muscle meats, organs, and blood
- Doesn’t contain any of the thickeners commonly used in wet cat food
- Low carbohydrate content
Cons
- About 14% of Chewy reviewers say they wouldn’t recommend the product to a friend
- Expensive
What Do Customers Think of Feline Natural Cat Food?
Feline Natural cat food is divisive. Happy customers are ecstatic and unhappy customers say their cats simply wouldn’t try it. Price is one thing both happy and unhappy customers agree on. It’s at the high end of most customers’ price range and that is hard to ignore.
Positive Reviews
“I am so happy a cat food is finally available with no additives like guar gum, artificial colors, flavors or other non-real food ingredients. This cat food is expensive but the best. My 3 cats love it and I am grateful to the manufactures. It looks and smells like meat which is what cats need to be truly healthy. Thank you Chewy for finding this food!” – Mamacat, reviewing Feline Natural Chicken & Venison Feast Canned Cat Food
“After trying several hundred dollars worth of food and spending several hundred dollars at the vet to try fixing chronic diarrhea in two cats (one adult with stomatitis and one kitten) I finally thought I would try a raw-food diet as a last resort before trying antibiotics. During my research I found the freeze-dried options and considered the ingredients; this brand won out based on the content of the food. At the time of this review (12/01/18), the other major freeze-dried cat food brand (from the northern USA) has some very questionable ingredients in their food. After two days of feeding this, the diarrhea vanished…I was stunned. Not only that, but both cats actually enjoy the food! I really hope this company continues to stay in business and that Chewy continues to sell their products. As for the food, it is dried to the point of being crunchy and flaky; it will crumble easily but is still easy for cats to consume in dry form. It is extruded into a cylinder-shape about 1/4″ in diameter and segmented at varying lengths. My cats seem to prefer it with a little warm water poured over it, but not so much as to turn it soft. They will eat it dry and will eat it completely soggy but that is not preferred. The only thing I really dislike about this food is the price! I assume most of that is to cover the outrageous shipping cost from NZ to the US. If a US-based pet food supplier could reproduce this product and bring it to market at half the cost it would be a game-changer. $120/month on this product is brutal.” – Chris, reviewing Feline Natural Chicken & Lamb Feast Freeze-Dried Cat Food
Negative Reviews
“I’m an old dude and have eaten a lot of cat food in my 15 years, but won’t touch this stuff. Neither will my 2 young girlfriends. Frank has put out 4 cans for us over the past couple of weeks. You’d think he’d have gotten the hint by now. We are more interested in watching the deer walk through our yard than in eating them.” – Kitty, reviewing Feline Natural Chicken & Venison Feast Canned Cat Food
“I clearly don’t understand my cat. From my perspective, there was nothing wrong with this food, but she has just refused to eat it. Right now, after having tried so many different types of freeze dried raw cat food, I think I will finally settle on Stella and Chewy which is the only brand she eats consistently. Cats!!” – Purcell, reviewing Feline Natural Chicken & King Salmon Feast Freeze-Dried Cat Food
How Much Does Feline Natural Cat Food Cost?
Regardless of which recipe you choose, Feline Natural products are some of the most expensive on the market. Assuming you have a 10-lb cat with typical calorie needs, it will cost about $4.33 per day to feed him one of their freeze-dried recipes or a whopping $6.57 per day to give him Feline Natural canned food.
How Does This Compare To Other Cat Food Brands?
The price of Feline Natural is comparable to other ultra-premium brands like Nom Nom and fellow New Zealand brand ZiwiPeak and a little more expensive than freeze-dried foods from Vital Essentials, Northwest Naturals, or Stella & Chewy’s.
Overall, Is Feline Natural A Good Choice?
If your budget is big enough to cover their foods’ astronomical price tags, Feline Natural appears to be one of the best cat food companies in the industry.
Their foods are made from sustainable, carefully-sourced ingredients and appear to be manufactured with care. The formulations are carnivore-appropriate with a mix of muscle meat, organs, and bone taking center stage.
Whether canned or freeze-dried, Feline Natural foods consistently deliver what we look for in cat food with none of the things we want to avoid. This is a brand to try.
Where To Buy Feline Natural Cat Food?
Feline Natural is exported to over 20 countries around the world, where it’s primarily sold in independent pet specialty retailers. You can also buy it through Amazon, Chewy, and other online retailers that sell cat food.
Do you know if the feline naturals canned and wet pouch foods (which were not reviewed in this article) are BPA free? I am trying to find out if this food is safe from the standpoint of them ingesting BPA. My cats like the freeze dried as well as the pouch foods. I do have this outstanding concern though. Appreciate it if you can find out this answer!
Hi there! I’ve seen the foods advertised as BPA-free, but I’m not entirely sure. I’ll send an email to the company and see if I can get you that answer.
Hi Mallory ,any updates from the company?
Yes! The cans are, indeed, BPA-free.
Hello,my cat,Beau( a Ragdoll, seal Bicolor,male) loves Feline Natural’s freeze dried foods. He loves all varieties like Beef and Hokie;Lamb and Chicken; Lamb and King Salmon, and their wet food- Chicken and Venison. Apart from this ,he loves to have Cat Man Doo’s Freeze dried chicken breasts. He is 3yrs old.Recently we took him for his annual check up and ran some blood work and urine tests.The result shows he has Hematuria and proteinuria. And the ph shows 7.Our vet recommended to change his freeze dried food to canned wet food from other brands.Our cat is on Feline Natural’s products since he is 6 or 7months old.I wanted to know whether the Feline Natural’s food is good for kidney functions or not? What is the Ph of these various food?
Hello there! All excellent questions, but I don’t have the answer for you just yet. One, I would recommend posting this question in the All About Cats Community for veterinary advice. Secondly, your cats bloodwork results sound like they may be indicative of kidney problems, rather than a problem with the food itself, but without knowing all of the values, it’s hard to say what’s going on. Feline Natural isn’t a particularly outstanding diet for cats with kidney problems, but its pH level should be appropriate for cats. However, I’d have to contact the company to share typical pH values on each of these recipes.
Hi Mallory,
Why is Feline Natural not good for cats with kidney problems? Are you referring to the freeze dried, canned, or both? The previous commenter sounded like his/her cat got kidney problems after consuming Feline Natural freeze dried for years. Also, some of their canned food, the calcium/ phosphorus ration is around 1.75:1 which seems a bit high on the calcium? Would that potentially cause kidney stones or problems in the long run? Thanks.
Hi Judy a reader passing by. I feed my cat Feline Natural canned food and the cans are BPA free, it is listed on the outside of them. Yet another reason to love the food brand!
The Feline Naturals Website claims less than 1% carbohydrates as fed and on a dry matter basis for all of their cat food options. Your information above lists a far higher amount. I must feed my cat a very low carb diet below 4% so it’s very important for me to know this information regarding the wet food carb % Thank you.
Did anyone ever answer the carbohydrate question? My cat is also on a very restricted carbohydrate diet. She normally eats Tiki Cat wet food, which has very little to no carbohydrates. I bought her a couple pouches of Feline Natural wet food based on the company’s claim that they are nearly carbohydrate free. Now I’m wondering if I should not feed this to her and should give it away and stick to the Tiki Cat.
Hi,
The 2 cans of Feline Natural Chicken and Venison that I opened contained pink food with black flecks on the top and within the food. The flecks on top were 1-2 mm in length, and the flecks in the food may be somewhat smaller. What is this? Is it the flax seed flakes, or is it mold? I called Chewy and wrote to Feline Naturals, but haven’t heard from Feline Naturals yet. Chewy thinks the flecks are black flax seeds. Can you please find out or at least tell me if you also see the flecks in your food sample? I worry because this food does not have preservatives. My cans were manufactured/canned in Oct 2021 with a best buy date of Oct 2024.
Thanks,
Trudi Treat
Hi Trudi, this review was originally written in 2019, and I, unfortunately, don’t have a current sample of the food to compare. I would recommend contacting Feline Natural directly to get answers about this.
My female cat, Simkah, and Mom’s male cat, Micah, LOVE Feline Natural freeze dried Lamb and Salmon, as well as, the packets of Lamb and Salmon. It’s expensive! But, it’s so protein and nutrients dense that you can get away with feeding much less food. Poops are smaller and less stinky. We make sure they are given plenty of wet food and water. They get the freeze dried food mixed with Orijen kibble at bedtime. Overall, we are happy campers. So too our cats.
The rating was lowered in 2023 from an A- to a B+ yet the rating on the wet food consistently remains an A. I can’t help but feel that this review is too biased. For one, recalls in dog products should not result in a 5/10 in recall history for feline natural. It’s not accurate as there is no correlation between the quality of their dog food and the quality of the cat food. Please update this accordingly.
Thanks for the input!
Aloha Mallory,
We stared feeding our three Ragdolls FN wet canned last November because we were having difficulties getting ZiwiPeak. Their stools virtually have no odor on FN, however all three started having VERY dry, crumbly stools and straining to eliminate. I know this isn’t healthy so we have reintroduced the ZiwiPeak mixing it with FN and their stools have returned to normal. (the odor has returned as well and I realize that this is probably because of the garbanzos ZiwiPeak adds. I was wondering if you’ve heard of anyone else has experiencing this.
(We always add extra water per can, appropriately 3 tablespoons but that didn’t make a difference in their stools with FN)
Hey Mallory! Thanks for all the research you do, its helped me tons with picking out food for my cats. Im feeding the Freeze dried chicken and lamb as about 30% of their diet along with wet food. I noticed that your review says its 547 cal/cup where as their website states 185kcal/cup. Do you mind explaining to me the large difference in calories? My one cat is supposed to be on a diet and Im wanting to make sure im not accidentally over feeding
Thanks!!
Hello Megan, thanks for contacting us! I must have made a mistake, as 185 calories per cup seems to be accurate! Thank you for letting us know—I’m correcting the content now.
My Cat has hyperthyroidism, at the very low end of the T-3, T-4 scale for it – high end of normal. I am trying to avoid using medication for the disease. I would prefer to feed her food with low iodine content. The percentage of iodine in cat food is not listed in the ingredients/analysis. I have to write to the manufacturer to get the amount. The recommended maximum amount of iodine for a cat with hyperthyroidism is 0.32 ppm or below.
Feline Natural used to show up on the list of best foods for cats with hyperthyroidism. It has a iodine content of 0.5. My cat love it. However, it is not on your list now. Why is that?
I prefer not to buy Hills as they use undigestible items as fillers in their ingredients. But Hills is the only company that makes food specifically for cats with Hyperthyroidism. They claim their food has 0.32 ppm of iodine. The percentage of older cats who get hyperthyroidism is high – I think 20% of the elderly cat population. Why don’t we have more choices?
Hi Barbara, we edited our list of the best food for hyperthyroidism to only include low-iodine foods, and the Feline Natural recipe didn’t make the cut. Previously, the list was focused on including a variety of foods that would support overall health in cats who were already being properly treated for their thyroid issues. Since the update, we’ve done extensive research to seek out iodine content from each candidate and narrowed the list down significantly. The reason we don’t have more choices for dietary management of this very common condition, I think, is because the amount of dietary iodine that it takes to control hyperthyroidism is so low that it makes the food no longer nutritionally complete. According to AAFCO guidelines, the one hyperthyroidism food on the market (from Hill’s) is a nutritionally deficient diet. Hence, in part, the “prescription” status—if it were available to anyone without a vet’s approval, they’d be feeding their cats nutritionally inadequate food. It takes extensive research and trialing to create a diet like this, for one, and two, “regular” brands who cannot label their food as a “prescription” or “vet diet” may have a hard time marketing a food that is nutritionally incomplete.
There’s arsenic according to the lab report for the chicken and lamb flavor?! I mean should this be considered into the rating? It’s not mentioned anywhere on this review. Does anyone has any more details?
Hi Amy, that’s a good point. We will investigate further and see what we can do to provide some more insight into what this reading means.