Last updated Feb 2, 2024
Heart To Tail cat food is an economy brand sold through the grocery chain Aldi in the United States. The brand makes both wet and dry foods. Learn more about Heart To Tail in our unbiased review.
The Cats.com Standard – Rating Heart To Tail Cat Food on What Matters
We have analyzed Heart To Tail cat food and rated it according to our standards here at Cats.com. Our grades are based on the species-appropriateness of the food, the quality of the ingredients, product variety, price, customer experience, and recall history. You can read more about our ratings here.
Here are our ratings for Heart To Tail in these key areas:
Ratings
- Species-Appropriateness – 5/10
- Ingredient Quality – 4/10
- Product Variety – 6/10
- Price – 9/10
- Customer Experience – 5/10
- Recall History – 9/10
Overall Score: 6.33/10
We give Heart To Tail cat food a 20 out of 30 rating (63.33) or a D grade.
Why Trust Cats.com
To get a feel for how real cats (and their humans) feel about Heart to Tail, I ordered three of their foods for my cat and me to test. While my cat assessed the food’s palatability, I researched and contacted the brand for in-depth background information on ingredients, history, and recalls to provide a complete review of Heart to Tail. The food included both wet and dry options.
As my cats and I tested Heart to Tail, I evaluated how appealing each product was to my cat, along with its appearance and texture. I also evaluated the brand’s ingredients and processes. After researching and testing, I rated Heart to Tail in six crucial categories according to the Cats.com Standard.
About Heart To Tail
Heart To Tail is a relatively new product line. Online information is scarce. However, we can say that the brand is sold through the German-owned grocery chain Aldi which has been expanding in the United States since the 1970s. Aldi is closely connected to the popular chain Trader Joe’s.
Sourcing and Manufacture
There is various information online about who manufactures Heart To Tail for Aldi. Our best guess is that Sunshine Mills (Evolve, Triumph, Sportsman’s Pride, and many other pet foods), with manufacturing plants in Alabama, makes the brand’s kibble. Sunshine Mills is a large company with seven plants (as of 2020).
There is speculation that Heart To Tail wet cat food is made by Big Heart Pet Brands (formerly part of Del Monte, now owned by J.M. Smucker) in Texas and Washington. Big Heart Pet Brands also makes 9 Lives and other pet foods. However, Heart To Tail cat foods have stated at times on their labels that they are products of Canada. We’re not sure who makes Heart To Tail wet food for Aldi.
Aldi doesn’t provide this information, so we can only guess based on online comments and occasional press releases.
There is no indication of where the ingredients are sourced. Aldi doesn’t provide this information about the food. As a private label brand, Heart To Tail doesn’t have a website, so the information isn’t easily available.
We do take this lack of information into account when rating foods. Many customers today want to know who makes pet food and more information about the ingredients. Secrecy about these issues leads to suspicion that the brand has something to hide.
Has Heart To Tail Cat Food Been Recalled?
We found recalls for some Sunshine Mills pet foods from 2020 and 2021 that included some Aldi dog foods such as Pure Being. However, no Heart To Tail cat foods appeared to be involved.
What Kinds Of Food Does Heart To Tail Offer?
Heart To Tail offers wet foods, dry foods, treats, and cat litter.
Heart To Tail canned foods are available in assorted flavors (5.5-ounce cans): salmon, turkey and giblets, whitefish, and tuna.
Heart To Tail entrees are available in assorted varieties (3-ounce cans): Gourmet Chicken Entrée, Beef Entrée, or Cod, Sole, & Shrimp Entrée
Their dry cat food comes in a Complete Nutrition formula (16 pounds), Special Medley (3.15 pounds), and Indoor Cat (3.15 pounds) formula.
What Did Our Test Cats Think?
Heart To Tail cat foods are a mixed bag. The 3-ounce canned entrees are the best of their foods. At 49 cents per can, they are an affordable food for people on a budget.
The 5.5-ounce wet foods cost a little less, but they are not quite as good as the 3-ounce entrees.
Heart-to-tail kibbles appear to have ingredients of poorer quality than their canned foods. We would not recommend them if you can buy something better.
Heart To Tail Cat Food – Top 3 Recipes Reviewed
| Product Name | Food Type | Primary Protein | Calories | Price | Our Grade |
| Heart to Tail Premium Cat Food Salmon Entree (Made With Real Salmon) | Wet | Salmon, Fish | 1190 kcal per kg | $1.13 per lb | C- |
| Heart To Tail Premium Cat Food Gourmet Chicken Entrée (Made with Real Chicken) | Wet | Chicken | 1158 kcal per kg | $1.13 per lb | C- |
| Heart To Tail Premium Adult Cat Food Indoor Formula dry cat food | Dry | Fish | 3220 kcal per kg | $2.85 per lb | D |
#1 Aldi’s Heart To Tail Premium Cat Food Salmon Entree (Made With Real Salmon)
Some private label/store brands do a very good job of providing information about their products. Aldi is not one of these stores. A look at their Heart To Tail products online will not provide you (or me) any information about the nutrition in the foods.
The information for these reviews has been pieced together from various places online. Even the ingredient lists have come from other online sites. You can’t find the ingredients or guaranteed analyses on the Aldi site.
Heart to Tail Premium Cat Food Salmon Entree (Made With Real Salmon) is a wet food in a 5.5-ounce can. Aldi doesn’t provide a price on its website, telling you to check your local store. However, these 5.5-ounce cans are inexpensive. One older review from a couple of years ago lists them at 39 cents (US) per can.
This product is also available in White Fish & Tuna and Turkey & Giblets.
The main ingredients in the food are meat by-products, salmon, poultry by-products, fish, and brewers rice. We do not automatically condemn foods that contain meat or poultry by-products. There are some highly respected veterinary nutritionists who say that meat and poultry by-products can be good for cats since cats are obligate carnivores.
Some may not want to eat these parts, but many cats love organ meats and entrails – and they are good for cats. Salmon and fish are also good ingredients.
Brewers’ rice is a common carbohydrate found in some pet foods. Most people don’t like cereals and grains in wet foods. While not especially harmful in small amounts, they are low in nutritional value. You can make some excuses for some carbohydrates in dry foods since starch is necessary for the kibble, but it’s harder to excuse this kind of starch in wet food.
Other ingredients in the food do raise some flags, such as artificial flavors, added color (red and other artificial colors), guar gum and carrageenan, and sodium nitrate. Your cat doesn’t care about the color of the food, and the sodium nitrate is used to help retain the added colors.
Note that the can says on the front label that there are no artificial flavors, so it’s possible the ingredients have changed. (Remember, we are only piecing together the information we found online for this food.)
Heart to Tail Premium Cat Food Salmon Entree (Made With Real Salmon) is formulated to meet the nutritional levels established by the AAFCO Cat Food Nutrient Profiles for Growth and Maintenance.
Heart to Tail Premium Cat Food Salmon Entree (Made With Real Salmon) could be a budget-friendly fallback food. However, it contains some concerning ingredients.
Calorie Content (ME Calculated): 1190 kcal/kg; 186 kcal/5.5 ounce can/156grams
Ingredients
Meat By-products, Water Sufficient Enough For Processing, Salmon, Poultry By-products, Fish, Brewers Rice, Natural & Artificial Flavors, Guar Gum, Added Color (Red And Other Artificial Colors), Salt, Potassium Chloride, Dl-methionine, Vitamins (Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin Supplement, D-calcium Pantothenate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin Supplement, Vitamin A Supplement, Biotin, Vitamin D-3 Supplement, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Folic Acid), Carrageenan, Taurine, Minerals (Ferrus Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Copper Proteinate, Potassium Iodide, Manganese Sulfate, Sodium Selenite), Choline Chloride, Sodium Tripolyphosphate, Sodium Nitrate (To Promote Color Retention)
Ingredients We Liked: Salmon, fish
Ingredients We Didn’t Like: Brewers rice, artificial flavors, added colors, sodium nitrate
Guaranteed Analysis
Dry Matter Basis
Caloric Weight Basis
Pros
- Salmon and fish are good sources of protein for cats
- Meat by-products and poultry by-products can be good sources of nutrients for cats
- Very affordable
Cons
- Contains artificial colors and flavors
- Brewers rice is usually considered a filler ingredient, especially in wet foods
- Contains both guar gum and carrageenan
#2 Aldi’s Heart To Tail Premium Cat Food Gourmet Chicken Entrée (Made With Real Chicken)
If you have ever wondered which food items most commonly show up as food allergens for cats, they are beef, fish, and dairy. Who knew, right? These are probably some of a cat’s favorite foods.
They have also been fed to cats for a long time, hence the reason why some cats have developed allergies to them. The more animals (or humans) encounter something, the greater the possibility that they can develop an allergy to it.
Oddly enough, chicken has not yet reached that stage with cats in general, though an individual cat can have an allergy to chicken.
If your cat likes chicken, we have a review for Heart To Tail Premium Cat Food Gourmet Chicken Entrée (Made with Real Chicken), sold at Aldi’s. This 3-ounce can of food sells for slightly more than the 5.5-ounce can of wet foods reviewed above. It’s also available in Beef Entrée and Cod, Sole, and Shrimp Entrée.
The main ingredients are chicken, animal liver, meat by-products, fish, and poultry by-products.
The good news is that chicken is the first ingredient. This food, like the food for the 5.5-ounce cans, also contains meat by-products and poultry by-products. Again, this doesn’t automatically make it a “bad” food. Organs are good for your cat.
However, it is usually better when ingredients are specifically identified. For example, instead of “animal liver,” it would be nice to know what kind of animal it is. Meat and poultry by-products could be more clearly identified by animal.
The label on the Aldi website states that the food contains no artificial flavors or preservatives, which also makes it an improvement over the 5.5-ounce cans.
Heart To Tail Premium Cat Food Gourmet Chicken Entrée (Made with Real Chicken) is formulated to meet the nutritional levels established by the AAFCO Cat Food Nutrient Profiles for Growth and Maintenance.
Heart to Tail Premium Cat Food Gourmet Chicken Entrée (Made with Real Chicken) is an improvement over Heart To Tail’s 5.5-ounce cans. It has slightly more protein, no artificial flavors or preservatives, and it omits the added carbs from the brewer’s rice. It costs slightly more, but it is worth the extra cost.
Calorie Content (ME Calculated): 1158 kcal/kg and 98 kcal/3 ounce can/85 grams
Ingredients
Chicken, Water Sufficient For Processing, Animal Liver, Meat-byproducts, Fish, Poultry By-products, And Natural Flavor … Complete list not found online. (See this page for a picture of an older version of the can.)
Ingredients We Liked: Chicken, fish,
Ingredients We Didn’t Like: Added color, sodium nitrite
Guaranteed Analysis
Dry Matter Basis
Caloric Weight Basis
Pros
- Chicken – a named animal protein – is the first ingredient
- Contains slightly more animal protein than Heart To Tail’s 5.5-ounce cans
- No artificial flavors or preservatives
- Still affordable
Cons
- Contains added colors
- Contains sodium nitrite for color retention
#3 Aldi’s Heart To Tail Premium Adult Cat Food Indoor Formula
We had a heck of a time finding information about this food (or any of Heart To Tail’s dry foods) online. We finally found the ingredient list on Instacart. Then we found the food on Amazon.com, where it’s not supposed to be sold. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have any information to give you about the food.
Heart To Tail Premium Adult Cat Food Indoor Formula dry cat food has main ingredients such as corn meal, poultry by-product meal, soybean meal, corn gluten meal, and animal fat.
Other ingredients lower in the list are concerning, such as corn distillers, dried grains with solubles, rice bran, beef and bone meal, and wheat middlings. This food is very high in carbohydrates and the protein seems to be low quality.
Although the protein percentage for this food looks high, a lot of it comes from plant sources such as corn and soybean meal.
This food is very affordable. It’s sold in 3.15-pound bags for about $3 at Aldi.
Heart To Tail Premium Adult Cat Food Indoor Formula is formulated to meet the nutritional levels established by the AAFCO Cat Food Nutrient Profiles for adult cat maintenance.
Most of the comments we found online suggested that Aldi’s wet foods were better than their dry foods. We agree. Heart To Tail Premium Adult Cat Food Indoor Formula dry cat food might be suitable in an emergency, but we would not recommend this food if you have other options. Not every cat gets to eat filet mignon for dinner, but there are many cat foods, even dry cat foods, that have better ingredients than this one.
Calorie Content (ME Calculated): 3220 kcals ME/kg; 366 calories per cup
Ingredients
Corn Meal, Poultry By-product Meal, Soybean Meal, Corn Gluten Meal, Animal Fat (preserved With Mixed Tocopherols), Corn Distillers Dried Grains With Solubles, Rice Bran, Beef And Bone Meal, Wheat Middlings, Powdered Cellulose, Fish Meal, Chicken Liver Digest, Rice, Phosphoric Acid, Potassium Chloride, Choline Chloride, Calcium Sulfate, Vegetable Oil, Lecithin, Taurine, Parsley Flakes, Vitamins: (vitamin A Supplement, Vitamin D Supplement, Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin, Calcium Pantothenate, Riboflavin, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Thiamine Mononitrate, Folic Acid, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement), Minerals: (zinc Sulfate, Ferrous Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, Manganese Sulfate, Calcium Iodate, Sodium Selenite, Salt)
Ingredients We Liked: Fish meal
Ingredients We Didn’t Like: Corn Meal, Soybean Meal, Corn Distillers Dried Grains With Solubles, Rice Bran, Beef And Bone Meal, Wheat Middlings
Guaranteed Analysis
Dry Matter Basis
Caloric Weight Basis
Pros
- Contains some reasonably good animal protein, such as fish meal
- Very affordable
Cons
- High in carbohydrates
- Contains lower quality plant and animal proteins
What Do Customers Think of Heart To Tail Cat Food?
Opinions of Heart To Tail cat foods varied. Some people said that their cats really loved some of the wet foods. A few people said their cats liked the dry foods. We also found customers who said their cats used to like the foods, but they had recently refused to eat them. They speculated that the formulas had changed.
Positive Reviews
“Both of my cats,16y/o and 8y/o loved this food. However, it’s cheaper to get it at Aldi.”-Richard A. Pillot, on Amazon.com, reviewing Whitefish Tuna Entree, on November 7, 2023
“Product looks and smells good. Good consistency. Cats love it. Price is fair also.”-Ibidibi, on Google.com, reviewing the Special Medley Formula Dry Food, on February 3, 2023.
Cat owners who love Heart to Tail cat food highlight how much their feline companions love the food and how great the price is, especially when you buy it from Aldi.
Negative Reviews
“My cats hated this food. As soon as I opened it, I knew it was not going to be something they enjoyed. They didn’t finish it, and when I came home from work my house looked like a horror scene. Cat puke EVERYWHERE. Never again! My cats are adopted from a shelter and were found in the ditch. They are not picky cats and have never puked from any other food.”-Krissi Jane, on Amazon.com, reviewing Turkey & Giblets Entree, on January 5, 2024
“I should have realized you get what you pay for. I have two strays and an indoor cat not one of them would eat that food I would throw the food outside for the birds. The birds wouldn’t even eat that food I think you need to do another taste test, very disappointing, had no choice but to leave a 1-star review.”- Diana Rosado, on Google.com, reviewing the Special Medley Formula Dry Food, on February 3, 2023.
Negative reviews mentioned that their cats would not touch the food, nor would any other wildlife, for that matter. Others said the food bothered their cat’s stomach leading to intestinal issues.
How Much Does Heart To Tail Cat Food Cost?
All of Heart To Tail’s cat foods are inexpensive. The 5.5-ounce cans cost around 39 cents per can in the United States (unless the price has increased during the pandemic), and the 3-ounce cans cost about 49 cents per can.
Heart To Tail dry foods are also very affordable. The indoor food for cats costs about $3 for a 3.15-pound bag, and the Special Medley formula, also 3.15 pounds, costs about $3.
Heart To Tail makes a complete and balanced dry cat food – 16 pounds – that costs about $9. These prices are for in-store sale.
How Do You Order Heart To Tail Cat Food?
Heart To Tail cat foods are only available through Aldi stores. (Though we did find two foods for sale – at an outrageous price – on Amazon.com.)
I bought the Heart to Tail adult cat food (indoor formula) because they seemed to like the wet food….However, neither of my cats like this food AT ALL. They just won’t eat it. I’m going to try to get a refund.
While I liked the review and research done for it, I am finding the rating scale interesting- this 38/60 is a C- but a 39/60 (Fancy Feast) is a B- and another 36/60 (Friskies) is a C. ? usually read the ingredients and liked the explanations given on what the cats should or should not have. My cat has been sick for 4 months, now recovering after losing 3 pounds and is now a picky wet food eater and loved the salmon. I liked that it had a much higher protein value than most other brands, as I am trying to get him to gain weight. I have been feeding him Fancy Feast kitten food with an offering of dry available. He does not care for any of the more expensive (natural) brands, so I need to find the one he will eat with the highest protein content. I recently purchased this brand and based on the review will keep purchasing it because it does seem comparable to the Fancy Feast.
Hi Kathy, thanks for your feedback. We’re in the middle of updating our rating scale along with a page that explains our ratings in detail for each category. In the meantime, I’m glad the Fancy Feast is working for you! I have a picky senior cat myself and I’m happy to feed her whatever she’ll actually eat.
Carlotta, You have a very nice way of imparting important info with carefully balanced “pros and cons” If you have a monetary connection to the Heart to Tail brand..it isn’t obvious, biased, etc. and you fooled me! My two cats have been trained by me to eat anything. Here cats, here is your meal..eat it or go hungry. Charlie is about 15 years old and just an agreeable sort. Dextrina (which appeared on our back deck about 1 1/2 years ago ) is now only about 60 % feral and digging the domestic life. She eats anything, diving in before I get the bowl down on the deck. So, H to T Brand is enjoyed. I constantly mix it with tuna in water, Dave’s, Friskies, Triumph wet foods. I throw in a bit of dry kibble made by Crave. They like that too. Thanks for your coherent and concise reviews. At Aldi, the 5.5 oz. cans are .55 cents, so what’s not to like? Dee
What nice feedback—this is what we’re aiming for (and no, we don’t have any relationship with Heart to Tail that might skew our reviews). Thank you; I’m sure Carlotta will appreciate it as well. Thanks for sharing your experience with both this brand and feeding your cat in general.
Would you be able to make a video on this brand please? I love your videos they are so helpful
Hi Reami, thanks for the request! Will consider it. 🙂
😊 Hi Mallory! I really love your YouTube channel it’s so informative and just fun to watch. Aldi also has cat toys. I think this is very recent! Thank you so much, also forest is so ADORABLE!!