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Cat Food Ingredient

Salt

Our ingredient score: 2 / 5 · Salt · How We Score

Salt provides sodium and chloride, minerals that regulate the body's fluid balance, nerve signaling and digestion. By making a cat drink more water, it can dilute the urine and can help lower the risk of urinary stones. On the other hand, low-cost foods often use salt to boost flavor, and too much is undesirable for cats with heart, blood pressure or kidney problems. A reasonable amount of salt is not a problem for a healthy cat; however, if it appears near the top of the ingredient list, it deserves attention.

Salt also appears on labels as Iodized Salt.

Common Questions

Is it bad if salt is near the top of the ingredient list?

A reasonable amount of salt is not a problem for a healthy cat, but salt near the top of the ingredient list deserves attention.

Is salt bad for cats?

Salt on a cat food label means sodium chloride. Cats need both sodium and chloride. In a small 2004 study of young adult cats with no known disease, a diet with moderately higher salt increased water intake and urine output without raising systolic blood pressure. For a cat with heart or kidney disease, ask your veterinarian about sodium.

Source: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Why is salt in cat food?

Salt is in cat food to supply sodium and chloride, two minerals cats need for fluid balance and nerve function. It also adds flavor. The amount is usually small, and salt tends to sit in the lower half of a dry food's ingredient list.

Does salt make cats drink more water?

Yes. A 2004 study in the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine found that young adult cats fed a diet with moderately increased salt drank more water and produced more urine, with no rise in systolic blood pressure. The authors called it a preliminary study, and the cats had no known disease.

Source: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Is the salt in cat food the same as table salt?

Yes, salt on a cat food label is sodium chloride, the same compound as table salt. It is used in measured amounts in the recipe. AAFCO requires ingredients to appear in order of predominance by weight, so the position of salt on the list gives a rough idea of how much is used.

Source: aafco.org

How does Pettings score salt?

Pettings gives salt 2 out of 5 and lists it as a salt. It appears on 123 of the 149 dry cat foods we list. Our How We Score page explains how ingredient scores are set. Each food's page shows how it scores overall.

How Foods With Salt Compare

Salt is on the label of 123 of the 149 dry cat foods we list. Their average Ingredients score is 55 out of 100. The 26 foods without it average 70.

An average describes the foods, not this ingredient alone: one ingredient is only a small part of a food's score.

Top-Ranked Foods Without Salt

  1. Orijen Guardian 8 (91)
  2. Orijen Kitten (91)
  3. Orijen Original Cat (91)
  4. Acana Highest Protein Wild Atlantic (90)
  5. Tiki Cat Born Carnivore Herring & Salmon (87)

Ranked the same way as our best lists: nothing on the Avoid List and a Nutrition score of at least 6/10 first, then by Ingredients score.

Foods With Salt (123)