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You can get just about any type of food delivered these days, from meal kits to local produce to snacks from the local corner store. There’s nothing quite like having that magical box or bag show up at your front door, and it’s even better when it’s filled with fresh, healthy ingredients and recipes for how to turn them into a nutritious and delicious meal. But convenient delivery of healthy foods isn’t just for us humans—it’s for our cats, too!
There are a variety of cat food delivery services out there, and more are turning up every day. Our Rover staff decided to test a few of them, letting our finicky cats decide on the very best cat food delivery options available.
Smalls
While not every flavor of Smalls fresh wet food appealed to every cat, we loved the variety that they offer. Plus, the freeze-dried kibble was a unanimous hit, inspiring plaintive meows and kitty efforts to track down more of the good stuff.
Why Food Delivery for Cats?
The old adage “you are what you eat” applies to cats as well as humans. The cat foods you buy at the store are convenient and affordable, and they can be a great option for feeding your cat. However, they’re also designed to sit on supermarket or warehouse shelves for months, so they’re typically highly processed and laced with preservatives. Many have grain or vegetable fillers, and important vitamins, minerals, and amino acids (such as taurine) are added as supplements rather than derived directly from the ingredients.
Feeding your cat a diet made of fresh ingredients is one way to ensure that they’re getting all the right nutrients naturally, without fillers or supplements. There’s less need for preservatives, and amino acids often come directly from meat, which usually makes up most of the food’s content. But a fresh cat food diet is also a lot more work, and it’s just not realistic for busy pet parents to pop out to the store as often as necessary to keep a cat well fed.
Cat food delivery services that focus on fresh, whole foods offer the best of both worlds, offering a convenient, healthy option for pet parents and their feline friends. According to the delivery companies we reviewed, the benefits for your cat include healthier (and less stinky) poops, cleaner teeth, and a shiner coat, to name a few.
Of course, we wanted to test those claims for ourselves, so we enlisted two groups of cat testers and got to work.
The Review Process
For this review, we tested four different delivery services and the foods they offer:
- Smalls—frozen and freeze-dried fresh cat food
- Nom Nom—fresh cat food frozen in portion-size pouches
- Cat Person—wet cat food and dry kibble with minimal preservatives
- Milk Pet—fresh wet food shipped frozen
Note that none of the foods our kitties tested were raw foods. Some pet owners may prefer a raw diet for their feline friend, but we stuck to pre-cooked or freeze-dried foods for this review.
In addition, while we wanted to see how our cats responded to the food, we weren’t looking to completely change our tester cats’ diets. Instead, we integrated the cat food delivery options into their regular feeding schedules. The new foods were offered to the cats at random times over a three-week period, sometimes as treats and other times as meals.
None of the feline reviewers in either group currently eat much high-protein food, so the fresh cat food was a new experience for all of them. As all of the food delivery companies we tested point out, introducing new foods to cats can be a challenge because cats are neophobic by nature—they dislike new things. The companies’ recommend starting with a small spoonful of fresh food placed in a separate dish, pretending to eat the food yourself, and slightly warming the new food.
With this in mind, the testers each got two small bowls of food. One bowl held a half-portion of their usual canned food, and the other bowl held a half-portion of the new food. This made it easy to introduce the new food and to see their preferences too.
Meet the Tasters
We couldn’t possibly go into the results of our testing without first paying the cat tax, so let’s meet our testers.
Lewis, Clark, Beso, and Brillo
Perdita, Tink, Mr. Tippy, Max, and Zoe (Toby not pictured)
The first group of reviewers included Lewis, Clark, Beso, and Brillo, who range in age from one to seven and in size from small to large. Overall, they are pretty “average” cats—though they would surely disagree with that term. No one is particularly overweight or suffering from any health issues. Lewis, Clark, and Beso will not eat wet food (they lick the sauce off and leave the actual food), but Brillo, who is the baby, is a superfan. Lewis also has a real affection for fresh things like spinach.
Six senior cats make up our second group of taste testers: Perdita, Tink, Mr. Tippy, Max, Toby, and Zoe. The cats range in age from 11 to 23 and in size from tiny to massive. Perdita, Tink, and Mr. Tippy usually prefer wet food to kibble, as they’re all missing some teeth. All six cats are fans of Facy Feast pâtés, one of the most popular canned cat foods found in the supermarket. They’re also allowed to graze on dry food too, though only four of them eat it.
Most of the foods we tested were human-grade, though humans did not do any taste testing themselves on this occasion—we left it up to the cats. Read on to see what they thought.
Best Kibble: Smalls
Smalls offers a wide variety of healthy, real food recipes carefully formulated for your cat’s needs. Our Smalls box included wet food in various flavors, freeze-dried kibble in two flavors, freeze-dried chicken giblet treats—and crocheted cat toys, which were a huge hit with all of the cats.
Recipes
Smalls recipes are AAFCO-approved for kitty nutrition in all life stages. Their wet cat foods come in a wide variety of flavors, including minced fresh chicken, the main ingredients of which include chicken thigh, breast, and liver, plus green beans and peas.
The freeze-dried foods came in two flavors—chicken and duck—and contain a variety of meats (the duck flavor has duck heart, liver, gizzard, egg, and blood) as well as ingredients such as raw goat’s milk, eggshell membrane, and herring oil.
Price
Smalls boxes are delivered monthly and custom-built for your cats’ needs, so prices will vary. For just one cat of average size and age, the costs start around $1.25 per meal for a two-week trial subscription.
Testing Highlights
- A wide variety of flavors and food types are available, so most cats will find something they like.
- Wet foods were less of a universal hit than the kibble and treats.
- Wet food texture options include minced and pâté, which are easier for cats to eat (and leave less of a mess for humans to clean up).
- Trial comes with a risk-free, money-back guarantee.
- Wet food comes in 11.5-ounce frozen “logs” that need to be thawed before serving. Markers on the packaging make it easy to measure out 50-calorie servings.
Smalls
While not every flavor of Smalls fresh wet food appealed to every cat, we loved the variety that they offer. Plus, the freeze-dried kibble was a unanimous hit, inspiring plaintive meows and kitty efforts to track down more of the good stuff.
Most Convenient Cat Food Delivery: Cat Person
Cat Person makes easy-to-serve, high-protein wet and dry foods. While their offerings are not technically “fresh” cat foods, they have minimal preservatives and are not designed to sit for months on a supermarket shelf or your pantry, making Cat Person meals a convenient compromise between fresh food delivery and supermarket options.
Recipes
Cat Person offers a wide variety of wet food recipes, so there are plenty of options to please picky cats. Our delivery included three shredded foods in broth (tuna, chicken, and turkey & chicken) and five pâtés (duck & chicken, chicken pate, tuna, mackerel & bream, and beef recipe)—and there were more that we didn’t get to try.
Cat Person’s foods do have a longer list of ingredients than the other options we reviewed. The Tuna Shreds in Broth recipe, for example, includes tuna, fish broth, tapioca (for texture), sunflower oil, tricalcium phosphate, natural flavor, taurine, choline chloride, magnesium sulfate, celery powder (for flavoring), zinc oxide, Vitamin E supplement, reduced iron, salt, niacin supplement, thiamine mononitrate, Vitamin A supplement, manganese sulfate, Vitamin B12 supplement, copper amino acid complex, pyridoxine hydrochloride, calcium pantothenate, riboflavin supplement, biotin, Vitamin D3 supplement, folic acid, potassium iodide, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (a FDA-approved source of Vitamin K activity). It’s a lot, but this and other Cat Person recipes do meet or exceed the AAFCO nutritional profiles for all life stages.
Cat Person kibbles are not as high-protein as the Cat Person wet foods, but they’re not as expensive either. We tested a salmon & tuna recipe with salmon bites and a chicken & turkey recipe with chicken bites.
Price
The $20 Starter Box from Cat Person contains five 2.75-oz cups of wet food in two flavors and one 2-pound bag of kibble, enough food to feed the average cat for about two weeks. Monthly meal plans come with four or five packs of wet food (your choice of recipes) and two or three bags of kibble—all at a cost of about $2 a day.
Testing Highlights
- Wet food comes in convenient plastic cups.
- The starter pack includes a Serve and Store set, with scoops, spoons, and soft, flexible plastic lids for storing leftovers.
- All the packaging is attractive, from the shipping box that converts into a cat playhouse (or, in our testers’ case, toy storage) to the boxes that contain the sleek cups of food.
- All six testers went wild for the tuna shreds in broth and the tuna pâté recipes and the kibble too.
- The recipes are not fresh and contain a wide range of additives and supplements, but they do meet AAFCO’s standards.
Cat Person
What we loved about Cat Person was the convenience! Mealtime can be a bit chaotic with six cats, but it was so simple to open the wet food plastic cups (no splashing), and our testers went nuts for the tuna recipe. Plus, the starter pack came with lids for easy storage of leftovers—and the shipping box converts into a cat playhouse.
Best for Portion Control: Nom Nom
All of Nom Nom’s recipes are developed by board-certified veterinary nutritionists. Meals are perfectly portioned at delivery, making it easy to serve up without worrying about overfeeding or trying to store extra food for freshness.
Note: On February 22, 2022, Nom Nom announced that they were discontinuing the production of cat food due to limited availability of ingredients. A mailing list is available for pet owners interested in future cat recipe releases.
Recipes
Nom Nom’s frozen cat food delivery includes two fresh cat food recipes, Fish Feast and Chicken Cuisine, both of which meet the AAFCO nutritional profiles for all life stages.
The main ingredients of Fish Feast are tilapia, salmon, beef fat, cassava root, and carrots. Chicken Cuisine’s main ingredients include chicken thigh, breast, and liver, along with carrot, asparagus, cantaloupe, and spinach.
Price
At the time of testing, Nom Nom offered several options for purchase, including:
- A variety pack of six 90-gram meals (three chicken/three fish) for $15.
- Single cat household subscriptions (based on an eight-pound cat) ranged from $27.52 weekly (14 meals) to $110.07 monthly (56 meals).
- Based on the same, a two-cat household subscription ran from $45.43 weekly to $181.73 monthly.
Testing Highlights
- Portioned servings make this human grade cat food delivery extra convenient.
- The food is frozen, requiring room in the freezer and thaw time before meals.
- All of the fresh cat food ingredients are recognizable in the bowl.
- Flavors were appealing to all but one test cat.
Nom Nom
All of the ingredients in Nom Nom’s tasty fresh cat food are visible, so you know exactly what’s in each package. The tasty recipes unleashed the natural instincts of one cat tester, who dragged chunks of meat around, growling like he’d killed it himself (despite the fact that he’s never been beyond his catio).
The Runner Up: Milk Fresh Cat Food
Milk combines healthy human-grade meats with precise amounts of key vitamins, minerals, and amino acids that cats need to be healthy. In short, its frozen cat food delivery features home cooked, veterinarian-approved recipes that meet or exceed the AAFCO nutritional profiles for cats of all life stages.
Recipes
Milk has just two cat food recipes: chicken-and-salmon or turkey. Both offerings are made with human-grade ingredients. The containers of wet food are now shipped frozen, but we received them chilled with the option of freezing or using them immediately. Once you open a container, it must be refrigerated and used within three to four days.
The chicken and salmon recipe we tested included USDA-certified chicken thighs, USDA-certified salmon, chicken broth, pumpkin, chicken liver, dried shaved bonito, and Milk Nutrient Blend (calcium phosphate, calcium carbonate, taurine, sea salt, choline, kelp, vitamin E, vitamin D3 supplement, iron, zinc gluconate, thiamine, copper, manganese, and biotin).
Price
The meal plan for cats starts at $15 per week or $60 a month. Orders in Boulder, Colorado, are delivered by courier, while all other deliveries arrive by shipment.
Testing Highlights
- Only two recipes are available, and unfortunately neither recipe appealed to our particular cat testers.
- Human grade cat food delivery made with vet-approved, high-quality ingredients.
- Portion control was a challenge, as the food is delivered in 10-ounce containers. The packaging has since changed to daily portions in plastic.
- The coarse texture of the shredded meat we tried may be too much for cats accustomed to easy-to-eat pâtés or finer shreds.
- The food is shipped frozen. Once thawed, it should be used up within four days.
Milk Cat Food
Milk offers human grade cat food delivery, with preservative-free, high-protein homemade cat food. But while we appreciated the quality of the food, the packaging was a struggle—and our cats couldn’t get into the flavors.
The Cat Food Delivery Winners
The first group enjoyed all of the Nom Nom and Smalls options, with some variations in individual enjoyment levels based mostly on the product’s texture. By far their favorite cat food delivery option was the Smalls freeze-dried kibble. It’s definitely a contender to add into their regular diets.
For the second group of cats, the Cat Person tuna shreds in broth was a unanimous “yes!” They also dug into the Cat Person kibble, making that brand a clear winner all around.
If you want to get your own cat’s opinion, all of these foods are available for delivery in small amounts for testing, so you can see if any of them catch on with your cat.
What About Fresh Raw Food for Cats?
While none of the fresh foods tested were raw foods, raw diets for cats are also very popular, and there are several raw cat food companies on the market that offer home delivery.
As mentioned in Rover’s in-depth analysis of raw food diets for cats, “Cats adapt well to raw food diets that are fresh meat-based with minimal carbs,” says Jim D. Carlson, DVM CVA CVTP, a holistic veterinarian and owner of Riverside Animal Clinic & Holistic Center in McHenry, IL. “A raw food diet reduces the risk of diabetes, obesity, and other inflammatory problems.”
Whether you choose to create your own or go with a commercial raw food maker, it’s also a good idea to consult with your veterinarian first. It’s a big change that requires a big commitment on your end, so be sure it’s right for both you and your kitty before making the leap.
If you do decide you’d like to explore a raw diet for your cat, be aware that it means more than just serving up some quality meat. Cats are obligate carnivores so, while meat is most definitely on the menu, raw diets also need to include specific amounts of proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals, and taurine—an amino acid critical for a kitty’s good health—and should be handled, prepared, and stored properly to avoid spoiling and contamination of a number of pathogens.
If you’re considering a raw food delivery service for your cat, some popular brands include:
More Food Delivery Services for Cats
The brands included in our testing are just a few of the cat food delivery services available. In addition to the the raw food delivery services listed above, Raised Right Pets is another human-grade cat food delivery option with custom food plans for both cats and dogs. Plus, many pet retailers also offer subscription delivery of both traditional and fresh cat foods. Just check out your favorite pet store for its subscription options.