Cat Food Ingredients to Look For: The 5 Out of 5 List

We have read the ingredient labels of every dry cat food on Pettings and scored each ingredient from 0 to 5. Of the 324 ingredients in our ingredient dictionary, 55 get the full 5 points. This guide covers the ones you are most likely to find on a real bag, ordered by how many of the 149 dry foods we list include them.

One caveat before the list. The Merck Veterinary Manual reminds readers that animals need nutrients, not ingredients, and that a label is not allowed to state an ingredient's quality or grade. A 5 out of 5 ingredient tells you what the food is made of. It does not replace the guaranteed analysis or a conversation with your veterinarian.

What Earns 5 Points

On our scale, 5 points go to ingredients such as animal proteins whose species is named on the label (chicken, salmon meal, turkey), fish or algae oils, and taurine (the full rules are on How We Score). A protein or fat whose animal is not named scores lower because the label does not say what it is: we rate fish meal 4 out of 5 and animal fat 2.

Where the Ingredient Sits Matters

AAFCO requires ingredients to be listed by weight, heaviest first, and each one must appear under its own name rather than a group term such as "grain products". So a 5 point ingredient in first place does far more for a food than the same ingredient in fifteenth place. That is why the average of the first five ingredients makes up 70% of the Pettings Ingredient score.

Water also shifts the order. Merck's example: if a fresh ingredient such as chicken is 75% moisture, it adds much less to the dry matter of the food than the same ingredient added in a dry form, such as chicken meal. Many good labels pair the two: fresh meat first, a meal of the same animal close behind.

The Most Common 5 Out of 5 Ingredients

Taurine is the 5 point ingredient you will see most often: 146 of the 149 dry foods on Pettings list it. Cats need taurine in their diet, and Merck notes that plant protein sources contain none, so a cat diet needs animal protein or added synthetic taurine. Because nearly every label has it, it rarely separates one food from another. Our taurine guide explains why.

Chicken appears in 75 foods and chicken meal in 60 foods. Chicken meal is chicken that has been cooked down so most of the water is gone, then dried and ground. It is the same animal in a more concentrated form, which is why both score 5. Compare both with chicken by-product meal, which we rate 2 out of 5 and which shows up in 42 foods. The full comparison is in Is Chicken Meal Bad for Cats?

Egg is in 57 foods. Merck notes that egg has been given the highest biologic value of any protein, a measure of how well its amino acids match what the body needs. On most labels it sits further down the list: only 4 of those foods have it in the first five.

Fish oil appears in 38 foods and salmon oil in 23 foods. Fewer foods list herring oil, pollock oil or marine microalgae oil. Merck names oily fish, krill oil and algae oil as the best dietary sources of the omega 3 fatty acids EPA and DHA, which it lists among the essential fatty acids cats need during growth and reproduction. Unlike meat, "fish oil" scores 5 even though the fish is not named: we rate these oils by the fatty acids they supply.

Salmon is in 32 foods and salmon meal in 21 foods. As with chicken, the meal is the concentrated form. If you want to avoid chicken, see Grain-Free Cat Food Without Chicken.

Turkey appears in 20 foods and turkey meal in 16 foods. Turkey usually turns up alongside chicken: 28 of the 32 foods with turkey or turkey meal also list chicken. Check whether it is in the first five or further down.

Menhaden fish meal is in 13 foods and herring meal in 11 foods. Here the name decides the score. Plain fish meal, which does not say which fish, is more common at 39 foods but scores 4 out of 5. When a label names the fish, you know what your cat is eating.

Chicken liver is in 10 foods and chicken heart in 7 foods. Merck notes that organ and skeletal meats have a higher biologic value than plant proteins. It also lists liver among the sources of the preformed vitamin A that cats need, since they cannot make vitamin A from beta carotene, and warns that feeding only liver can cause too much vitamin A. In a complete food, liver is one ingredient among many.

Less Common 5 Out of 5 Ingredients

The remaining 5 point ingredients each appear in fewer than ten dry foods on Pettings. Most are named proteins from smaller recipes or limited ingredient lines, such as duck, lamb, rabbit, quail, trout and pollock.

Foods That Put These Ingredients First

These are the dry foods with the highest Ingredient score among those with nothing on the Avoid List and a Nutrition score of at least 6, the same rule as our Best pages. We show one food per brand. The second column counts how many of the first five ingredients score 5.

Every food in the table has a 5 point ingredient in first place, but they are not the only good choices. Prices and the full lists are on each food's page.

What a 5 Point Ingredient Does Not Tell You

A single 5 point ingredient does not make a food score well. Look at:

• Position: a named protein in the first two spots counts for more than one in tenth place.
• The rest of the first five: starches and plant protein concentrates in those spots pull the score down, even next to chicken.
• The Avoid List: a food can list salmon meal and still contain artificial colors or synthetic preservatives. See Dry Cat Food With Nothing on the Avoid List.
• The guaranteed analysis: ingredients show what goes in; the label numbers show protein, fat and carbohydrates. Our label reading guide covers this.

If your cat has a food allergy or a medical condition, ask your veterinarian which proteins to avoid before choosing by ingredient.

Quick Checklist

• Find a named animal protein in the first one or two ingredients.
• Check whether a meal of the same or another named animal follows it.
• Look for a fish or algae oil further down the list.
• Prefer named species over "fish meal", "animal fat" or "poultry by-product meal".
• Confirm taurine is listed.
• Check the Avoid List count and the guaranteed analysis before deciding.

You can see every dry food on Pettings sorted by Ingredient score.

Sources

• AAFCO, "Ingredients Making Pet Food": order by weight, each ingredient under its own name, no group terms.
• Merck Veterinary Manual, "Dog and Cat Foods": ingredient order and moisture, no quality or grade on the label, nutrients rather than ingredients.
• Merck Veterinary Manual, "Nutritional Requirements of Small Animals": biologic value of protein, taurine, EPA and DHA, vitamin A.
• Pettings, How We Score: ingredient points and the Avoid List.
• Food figures from the Pettings food and ingredient pages; ingredients copied from the makers' labels.

Scores describe what the label says. They are not medical advice.