Acana Cat Food Review 2024

One of the world’s leading pet food brands, Acana has been around since 1985 and is known for using fresh local ingredients in its premium recipes. It is made by Canadian company Champion Petfoods, which pioneered Biologically Appropriate nutrition. This means Acana recipes are crafted to mimic the diet a cat would eat in the wild, i.e., more animal protein and fewer carbohydrates. 

Acana cat foods contain between 65% and 85% animal ingredients, which include meat, poultry, fish, organs, and bones. Each product is formulated by a team of experts and is made in Champion’s own world-class kitchens following industry-leading food safety processes.  

Acana’s commitment to quality has made it a preferred brand among pet parents and veterinarians alike. But is Acana cat food right for your feline friend?  Let’s take a look at its recipes, pros and cons, and more to help you decide!

Acana makes dry and wet cat foods for felines of all ages. With more than a dozen products under three lines, there’s a good variety to choose from. Let’s check them out! 

Acana Cat Dry Cat Food

Acana Cat comprises four dry foods that contain 65% to 75% animal ingredients. Each recipe lists chicken or salmon as the first ingredient, followed by other ingredients that support key health benefits such as a shiny coat, heart health, and good digestion. These recipes include meats, meat meals, and organ meats such as turkey, duck, quail, herring meal, chicken liver, and chicken heart, as well as fruits and vegetables such as peas, lentils, chickpeas, kelp, and cranberries. 

The kitten recipe has a higher protein content to promote muscle and bone growth and development, while the senior recipe has fish oil to support joint health. For cats that are prone to hairballs, the indoor recipe has fiber from oat groats and miscanthus grass to help with this issue.

Acana Cat is available in the following flavors:

• First Feast Kitten with Chicken & Herring
• Bountiful Catch with Salmon & Herring
• Indoor Entrée with Chicken & Turkey
• Senior Entrée with Chicken & Turkey

Acana Highest Protein Dry Cat Food

As its name suggests, Highest Protein is Acana’s high-protein line of dry cat food. All recipes contain 75% animal ingredients, with the top 3 being fresh or raw ingredients such as chicken, turkey, salmon, duck, eggs, chicken liver, mackerel, herring, or hake. Other ingredients include plant and animal proteins such as red lentils, pinto beans, green lentils, turkey giblets, pollock meal, Acadian redfish, and flounder, as well as fruits and veggies such as cranberries, pumpkin, collard greens, apples, carrots, and pears.

These recipes feature a blend of protein, fiber, and probiotics for digestive health, balanced omega fatty acids for skin and coat health, and taurine for eye and heart health. All but one recipe are suitable for all life stages.

Acana Highest Protein is available in the following flavors:

• Highest Protein Kitten with Chicken, Turkey and Salmon
• Highest Protein Meadowlands with Chicken & Turkey, and Chicken Liver
• Highest Protein Grasslands with Duck, Chicken & Eggs
• Highest Protein Wild Atlantic with Mackerel, Herring & Hake

Acana Premium Pâté in Bone Broth Wet Cat Food

Premium Pâté is Acana’s canned food line. These recipes are made with 85% animal ingredients including chicken, tuna, beef, lamb, salmon, chicken liver, chicken heart, beef liver, and lamb kidney. Chicken, fish, and/or beef bone broth, which provide hydration and extra flavor, are also among the top ingredients.

Most of these recipes contain pumpkin which is rich in vitamin A and can aid in digestion, and salmon oil which is an excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids. Taurine and essential vitamins and minerals such as vitamin E, thiamine, vitamin D, and potassium are added as well. All Premium Pâté recipes are grain-free. 

Acana Premium Pâté in Bone Broth is available in the following flavors:

• Premium Pâté Chicken & Tuna Kitten Recipe
• Premium Pâté Chicken & Fish Recipe
• Premium Pâté Beef, Chicken & Tuna Recipe
• Premium Pâté Lamb & Lamb Liver Recipe
• Premium Pâté Tuna & Chicken Recipe
• Premium Pâté Salmon & Chicken Recipe

Here are some reasons why Acana is a “pawsome” cat food brand!

Crafted in award-winning kitchens

Acana dry foods are made in Champion Petfoods’ own custom-designed kitchens, which are some of the most advanced in the industry. In 2017, Champion’s DogStar Kitchen in Auburn, Kentucky received the first-ever Global Markets Award from the Global Food Safety Initiative; this international award represents one of the highest food safety achievements in both the human and animal food industries. 

Made with fresh ingredients

Acana has focused on fresh, high-quality ingredients since day one. Since its kitchens are located in agricultural heartlands, they are closer to many of the company’s suppliers and ingredients typically arrive within 48 hours of harvesting. Fresh ingredients use refrigeration as the only method of preservation, while raw ingredients are frozen at the peak of freshness to preserve nutrients.  

Has recipes for different life stages

In addition to recipes suitable for all life stages, Acana offers life stage specific recipes to meet the unique nutritional needs of kittens and senior cats. 

Vet recommended

Acana is formulated by a team of pet nutrition experts that includes nutritionists, food scientists, and in-house and external veterinarians. Dr. Georgia Jeremiah, pet nutrition expert and one of Wag!’s veterinary consultants, personally recommends Acana to her clients as well. 

Dr. Jeremiah says, “Acana offers both wet and dry recipes and prioritizes human-grade fresh or raw animal ingredients. These protein-rich diets are available in grain-free varieties and are enriched with an omega fatty acid and probiotic blend to promote a healthy digestive tract, skin and coat. For cats struggling with hairballs, the Acana Entrée diet offers an increased fiber content utilizing miscanthus grass and oat groats to aid digestibility and limit symptoms.”  

Helps pets in need

Champion Petfoods has partnerships with animal shelters, rescues, and other charitable organizations. Every year, the company donates more than 3.5 million meals to cats and dogs in need at local animal welfare organizations near its kitchens and to national shelter networks, including the Best Friends Animal Society and Edmonton Humane Society.

Here are a few things to consider before buying Acana cat food.

Lack of limited ingredient recipes

A limited ingredient diet is ideal for felines with food intolerances and sensitive stomachs, but Acana doesn’t have a limited ingredient line for cats like it does for dogs. 

Expensive 

While Acana is less expensive than its sister brand Orijen, it’s still a premium cat food and its quality puts it on the pricey side. For example, a 10-pound bag of Indoor Entrée costs $39.99 ($4 per pound) and a 10-pound bag of Grasslands costs $49.99 ($5.00 per pound).

Mislabeling lawsuits

In 2020, Animal Equality and Organic Consumers Association filed consumer protection lawsuits against Champion Petfoods. AE alleged that Champion marketed farm-raised trout as “wild-caught,” while OCA claimed that the company used the term “free-run” for some products containing chicken without properly defining it. Champion resolved both lawsuits by agreeing to provide better clarity on future packaging and marketing materials.

“If I could give this 10 stars, I would. My cats love this food, to the point where if [I] try to give them another kind, my Burger will refuse and go and stand in front of the shelf where I keep the cat food until I (hopefully) give him the Acana. My cats are a part of my family and it’s really important to me that the food they’re eating is high-quality. Most pet foods are made from toxic industrial CAFO animals. I don’t eat that myself, and I don’t want my cats ingesting that, nor grains that are not a biologically correct diet for carnivores like cats but present in most cat food. I want them healthy and happy for a long time and I feel with Acana they will be. No stinky poop either!”

“I have 11 permanent feline residents at my house and 3 fosters currently. It is rare that I find a food everyone enjoys but this seems to be it! All of the cats at my house are excited to eat this food. It’s a nice size of kibble that even my younger kitties don’t struggle to eat. I love that it is a high quality, high protein food because it’s good for them and it leads to less poop for me to deal with later as they get full with less food. This food is one we can all agree to love!”

“I was a little concerned at first about how my cats would react to this new food, but surprisingly, they absolutely adore it! Not only do they love it, but I also appreciate the top-notch ingredients it contains. The best part is, even my cat with a delicate stomach has been perfectly fine since we switched to this food. I can confidently say that I highly recommend it!”

Read more reviews on Chewy.

Acana is manufactured by Champion Petfoods, a Canadian company founded by Reinhard Mühlenfeld, who had several successful businesses prior to delving into the pet food industry. Recognizing that there was an opportunity for him to become the first pet food manufacturer in Alberta, he started producing dog food in his feed mill using secondhand equipment and only one bagging unit.

Reinhard’s customers were initially local farmers and ranchers. With the launch of Acana in 1985, the company quickly grew to serve pet parents across Canada and the US. Champion Petfoods, which also makes Orijen, has always focused on crafting premium quality pet food, with an emphasis on Biologically Appropriate nutrition and WholePrey animal ingredients.

In 2016, Champion opened its state-of-the-art DogStar Kitchen in Auburn, Kentucky and Research and Innovation Center. In 2020, it opened one of the most advanced pet food kitchens in the world, its NorthStar Kitchen in Acheson, Alberta. Today, the company has over 700 employees and distributes Acana and Orijen to more than 90 countries worldwide. 

In February 2023, Mars Petcare, which owns Royal Canin, Whiskas, and Temptations, acquired Champion Petfoods. Champion currently operates as an independent business unit within Mars Pet Nutrition. 

Acana has a spotless recall history and has never been recalled.