The cat’s out of the bag—sustainable cat food is here to support planet-friendly purring. In addition to providing more ethical, humane, and nutrient-rich meals for our feline friends, it also helps clean up the act of the cat and dog food industries.
According to Forbes, US$58 billion is spent on pet food per year in the US, driven by the enormous growth in pet ownership. And given cats mostly eat meat or fish, the ethical and environmental impact is significant.
For this article, we looked for brands that aim to address as much of this impact as possible, while maintaining healthy food options for cats, through organic ingredients, certified humane or free-range animal products, and no fillers or synthetic preservatives. We also looked for green business practices and ethical sourcing.
As we all know, this is not quite enough to fully evaluate sustainability attributes and progress so we’ll be clawing our way through more via our new Brand Rating System. This system takes into account 22 criteria, ranging from product safety to climate action, and much more you can learn about here.
We independently research all featured brands and we ask them to confirm their claims. In many cases we personally review recommended products. This post contains affiliate links which means we may earn a commission if you buy something. Learn more here.
Ethical Cat Food Brands We Paw-sitively Love
Using ethical, human-grade, and mostly organic ingredients, The Honest Kitchen has over 20 years’ experience and offers a range of cat food and treats.
One of the more sustainable cat food options is home cooked meals and Holistic Vet Blend can help with recipe guides and a vet approved supplement, made with organ meats from New Zealand.
The Castor & Pollux ORGANIX range is packed with USDA organic meat and superfoods and is free of artificial preservatives, corn, soy, and wheat.
Index: Eco-Friendly Cat Food Brands
- The Honest Kitchen Jump to brand
- Holistic Vet Blend Jump to brand
- Castor & Pollux ORGANIX Jump to brand
- Lily's Kitchen Jump to brand
- Petcurean Jump to brand
- Tender & True Jump to brand
- Halo Jump to brand
The Honest Kitchen
Price Range: $7–$64
Humanely raised free-range chicken, Marine Stewardship Council-certified fish, organic grains, and non-GMO produce are some of the ingredients that The Honest Kitchen is cooking up for cats of all life stages, crafted with a vet nutritionist to support healthy stools, urinary tract health, healthy digestion, and more.
Their wet cat food features recognizable ingredients like dandelion greens, salmon, duck, blueberries, and carrots. For kitties with a refined palate, you can impress them with “câté” (read: chicken, turkey, salmon & turkey, beef & chicken, or salmon & cod pâté).
The Honest Kitchen’s pet food isn’t made of 4D meats (dead, dying, diseased, or disabled). You also won’t find any fillers or artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives on the ingredient list.
The dehydrated and dry cat food are no different, and they also offer cat treats, protein-packed toppers, and supplements to support the overall health and wellness of our feline friends.
In addition to being fit for human consumption, The Honest Kitchen ethically and transparently sources non-GMO and largely organic ingredients—84% of which are from North America.
The Certified B Corp also offers a special discount for 501(c)3 nonprofit animal shelters and rescues.
Holistic Vet Blend
Price Range: $49–$55
Holistic Vet Blend’s Feline Premix cat food supplement was created by holistic vet Dr Dody Tyneway Robi DVM and uses human-grade ingredients like New Zealand grass fed organ meats (beef liver, heart and kidney), ginger, taurine, and more.
The supplement is designed to cover the more difficult aspects of your cat’s nutritional needs so you can make their food at home without worrying about whether they’re getting the proper nutrients and amino acids.
Choose between an adult/kitten or a senior cat formula, both of which are made in the USA, satisfy AAFCO and NRC guidelines, and tested for heavy metals, contaminants, and bacterial contaminants.
One plastic tub contains enough for one month of feeding per cat, ideal for batch cooking. Vet approved recipes accompany the order in a digital mini cookbook.
You can buy the supplement via The Kind Pet and your order will come in 40% recycled cardboard from their carbon-neutral warehouse.
Castor & Pollux ORGANIX
Price Range: $43–$53
Organic meat is the #1 ingredient in the cat foods offered by ORGANIX by Castor & Pollux. They boast the only complete line of USDA organic certified cat and dog food.
The organic free-range chicken meal or turkey meal base is supplemented with nutrient-packed and USDA-certified organic superfoods. These include brown rice, blueberries, coconut flour, flaxseed, dried egg, coconut oil, and cranberries.
Both wet cat food and dry varieties are available. While some formulations are designed for kittens, most are suitable for adult cats and all life stages.
Products are cooked in an organically certified USA kitchen.
Lily's Kitchen
Price Range: £1–£93
Only available in the UK, Lily’s Kitchen recipes are free of bone meal, meat meal, and rendered meat. Instead, offal—high in amino acids like taurine—is used. It’s paired with herbs and botanicals, such as antioxidant-rich marigold petals and mineral-rich burdock root.
Ingredients are freshly prepared and minimally cooked to retain most of their natural benefits. They’re also ethically sourced and some are organic.
Shop by age or special diet, or simply peruse the range of wet food, dry food, treats, selection boxes, and extras.
Lily’s Kitchen is a Certified B Corp. They also have a diversity & inclusion policy and an environmental policy that highlights initiatives like using recyclable packaging and renewable energy.
Petcurean
Price Range: $55
Carbon neutral, Petcurean began as a little family operation in the Fraser Valley of British Columbia, Canada.
Their eco-friendly cat foods come in wet and dry options for every size and stage of life, including some designed for unique dietary needs, and a GATHER range made with USDA organic ingredients.
If you’re looking for true organic chicken, rest assured the GATHER cat food uses 100% USDA-certified organic chicken along with peas, flaxseed, oatmeal, and barley.
It’s packed with complex carbohydrates, omega fatty acids, and antioxidant-rich ingredients like cranberries. You won’t see artificial ingredients, GMOs, animal byproducts, or any wheat, corn, or soy in the ingredient list.
All of their healthy food options are minimally processed, made with premium-quality meats and fish, and free of animal byproducts or meat meals.
Their certified and organic ingredients must meet their five key sustainability pillars: humane animal welfare; protection of water supplies; protection of producer livelihoods; preservation of natural resources; and preservation of biodiversity.
As one of the few brands prioritizing packaging, their commitment extends beyond ingredients. They work with the packaging industry to encourage research that will result in 100% recyclable packaging.
Currently, the dry cat food packaging’s interior liner is made from non-recyclable material (but is essential since preservatives aren’t used to keep the food fresh).
Their GATHER line uses packaging that is 30% plant-based (sugarcane) and their wet cat foods come in cans that are 100% recyclable or Tetra Pak recyclable packaging made with FSC-certified paperboard.
Tender & True
Price Range: $13–$74
Certified humane and locally-sourced chicken and turkeys from the USA form the basis of what goes into Tender & True’s bagged and canned cat food, some of which is USDA-certified organic. Both dry and wet cat food are available.
If it’s not chicken and turkey, then it’s certified sustainable seafood: MSC-certified ocean whitefish or tuna in a grain-free formula.
They also include a blend of natural ingredients, antioxidants, minerals, and vitamins—no corn, wheat, or soy.
In 2014, Tender & True became the first Global Animal Partnership (GAP) certified pet food company and remain the only brand with a full range of humane cat food and dog food that meets GAP standards.
They’re independently owned and based in the Midwest, with personal relationships with the fisheries and growers they source ingredients from.
Halo
Price Range: $13–$57
With a line-up that includes wet cat food, dry food, and treats, Halo has something for every feline friend. They believe that pets are the best kids, and they provide healthy pet foods to unapologetically show that.
For more than 30 years, they’ve based their USA-made recipes on natural, science-based nutrition, partnering with vet and nutrition experts for recipe development.
In addition to a range of preferred whole-meat proteins (chicken, red meat, salmon, or lamb), they also offer options with or without grains. Only non-GMO fruits and vegetables are used, and all recipes are free of artificial ingredients and preservatives.
Some of the wet and dry cat foods are free from foods commonly associated with sensitivities (or simply not tolerated by picky eaters): chickpeas, peas, lentils, potatoes, and poultry.
Their Halo Holistic line has certifications from the Global Animal Partnership and Marine Stewardship Council, meaning that some of the pet foods are animal and planet-friendly.
Why Choose Ethically Sourced Cat Food?
They may be small and cuddly, but cats have an environmental paw print comparable to humans.
According to a 2017 study assessing the impact of the 163+ million dogs and cats in the US, researchers found that our furry friends consume about 33% of the amount of animal-derived calories that humans do.
This means that through their diets, our fur babies are associated with the significant use of land, water, biocides, phosphates, and fossil fuels. Their food is known to release up to 64 million tons of CO2 equivalent greenhouse gas emissions, namely nitrous oxide and methane (which is actually 25x more potent than CO2).
When these animal-derived ingredients aren’t produced in a lower impact way, they can be associated with depleted land, agricultural runoff, and factory farms with abysmal conditions for other animals—like cows, chickens, and lambs.
Worse, when cat food companies use recipes made up of more than 50% corn, rice, and wheat, it can be linked to biodiversity loss and heavy reliance on agricultural inputs (water, fertilizer, pesticides). But is grain-free cat food or a vegetarian or vegan diet better?
Grains in cat food have been given a bad rap in recent years. As obligate carnivores, a cat’s diet should consist primarily of high-quality meat protein. Many believe that grains (and other plant-based foods) are not a natural food type for these animals and should be avoided or at least kept to a minimum.
However, there’s no conclusive evidence that grains are always a bad thing, and they can provide important nutrition. To sort the wheat from the chaff, we have to look a little closer at the ingredients lists and ask why they’ve been included.
In low quality cat food, grains, and other carbohydrates such as peas and potatoes, are often added as fillers to bulk it out and decrease the cost. But at what expense to a cat’s health?
In recent years, many brands have moved away from using corn, rice and wheat as cheap filler ingredients, offering “grain-free” pet food instead. When the focus is on producing foods with a high meat content using good quality meats, this is all well and good. The problem is that some brands have merely swapped out the grains for other cheap fillers and there is potential evidence linking grain-free meals to worsened heart conditions.
The bottom line: not all “grain-free” cat foods are created equally. Look for ones that prioritize a high meat content and avoid unnecessary fillers, whether grain-based or otherwise.
Vegan & Vegetarian Diets For Cats
What about vegan cat food? Can cats just go plant-based to support the planet?
No; as obligate carnivores, cats thrive on meat-based diets. In the wild, this includes small prey like rodents, and even large prey, such as deer. While domesticated cats may only “hunt” the light from your laser pointer, they still require a similar diet—unlike dogs which can eat a meat-free diet.
As members of the Carnivora (flesh devourer) order of mammals, cats are unable to synthesize or convert fatty acids, amino acids, and specific vitamins, which means they must get them from animal protein, like meats and organics.
This is why it’s important to look for high-quality meat ingredients and cat food with more sustainable fish to provide balanced nutrition. To reduce the carbon impact of the meat industry, seek out locally-sourced and certified humane sources, for everything from chicken broth to chicken meal.
How Do You Feed A Cat Sustainably?
As you dump out yet another can of stinky, gray mush, you may find yourself asking, “What is the healthiest food to feed my cat?”
Just as it is when using sustainable foods to DIY your meals, it’s equally sustainable and nutritious when you play chef for little Simba.
Make your own cat food
The most sustainable and ethical cat food is likely a product of your own kitchen. You’ll be more likely to use real pieces of ethically sourced meat and seafood and will generally have a better idea of what’s going into your cat’s food—and where it comes from.
Plus, when you buy ingredients package-free and use plastic-free food storage, you’ll eliminate the need for plastic waste altogether.
There’s a ton of homemade cat food recipes available online (including from The Holistic Vet Blend which comes with the cat food supplement ordered from The Kind Pet)
You do however, want to be sure that your cat’s nutritional needs are being met, including calcium and taurine.
Crushed eggshells or bone meal work for the former. For the latter, you’ll want to make sure that your kitty is getting the recommended amount of taurine per day, either in the form of supplements or through feeding raw animal hearts and livers.
Before pursuing this avenue, we strongly urge you to discuss the matter with your veterinarian first to ensure your cat is getting a nutritionally complete diet.
Buy in bulk
When you don’t have the time or space to make and store refrigerated homemade cat food, buying in bulk from sustainable cat food brands is the next best thing.
Not only is it cheaper to stock up on cat foods, but it’s better for the planet.
Bulk orders typically use less packaging and when you support sustainable cat food retailers online, a single order has a lower shipping footprint than multiple orders.
Just be sure you have plenty of space to store the dry or wet food and take some time to explore your options.
Pro-tip: Cats can be notoriously picky eaters and have a habit of going off their previously favorite food from time to time. To avoid waste, if you are doing a big order, make sure to vary the flavors to keep them keen!
We’d be pawsitively thrilled if you’d pass this on to other cat lovers in your life! Let’s spread the word about the best eco-friendly cat food for our feline companions.
