Buying guide
Buying dry kitten food
Confirm growth suitability, then compare sizes of the recipe you want.
Keep kitten food in a growth comparison
Check growth or all-life-stages suitability on the feeding statement before comparing kitten recipes. An adult food at a lower price per pound isn’t the same purchase.
Once the recipe is chosen, compare bag sizes without changing the feeding amount just to match another food’s price.
Which brands should you compare first?
Purina, Hill’s, Royal Canin, and Iams are commonly recommended by U.S. veterinary practices using WSAVA’s food-selection criteria. Those criteria examine nutrition expertise, formulation, quality control, and research.
WSAVA doesn’t certify brands, and this shortlist doesn’t establish that every other food is unsuitable. Choose a complete-and-balanced cat food appropriate for your cat’s life stage and health needs, then compare prices for that recipe.
Compare the same recipe by weight
For a familiar food, price per pound makes different bag sizes and multipacks easy to compare. Count all the bags in a bundle and check the flavor and recipe name.
Choose a bag size you can use within the maker’s storage guidance. A large bag can have a lower unit price without being the most practical purchase for one cat.
Consider how much you feed
A recipe change can change the daily portion. For an estimate, divide the bag’s grams by your cat’s daily grams, then divide price by days of food. If you use a cup measure, use the grams per cup for that food.
The calorie statement can help you spot why portions differ. AAFCO describes the label’s calorie figures per kilogram and per serving unit.
- Source: AAFCO: reading pet-food labels