Diamond Cat Food Review 2024

Diamond Pet Foods is a family-owned American manufacturer that aims to provide high-quality pet food at an affordable price. Based in Missouri, Diamond produces a variety of wet and dry cat foods to meet the nutritional needs and taste preferences of your hungry cat.

But is Diamond cat food any good? Does it offer the right nutrition for your feline family member? Keep reading for a detailed guide to the Diamond cat food range, its pros and cons, and the brand’s history.

Diamond offers 3 different cat food product ranges. Let’s take a closer look at the nutrition and benefits each range has to offer.

Diamond

There’s only 1 dry food in the standard diamond cat food range: Diamond Maintenance Cat. This recipe features chicken by-product meal, whole grain ground corn, wheat flour, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols), and corn gluten meal as its first 5 ingredients. It’s designed for moderately active adult cats and features omega fatty acids for skin and coat health, probiotics to support the beneficial bacteria in your cat’s gut, and antioxidants like vitamin E and selenium to support a strong immune system.

Diamond Naturals

The Diamond Naturals range takes a holistic approach to feline nutrition. These foods feature prebiotic fiber to support healthy digestion, and they include ingredients like chia seed and spinach to provide extra nutritional goodness for your furry friend. There are 6 Diamond Naturals cat food formulas to choose from, with 3 dry and 3 wet recipes.

Diamond Naturals dry recipes are:

• Active Cat Chicken Meal & Rice. Designed to meet the higher energy needs of active cats, this recipe is high in protein and fat. Its first 5 ingredients are chicken meal, ground white rice, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols), natural flavor, and flaxseed. It also boasts antioxidants from ingredients like blueberries and spinach.
• Indoor Cat Chicken & Rice. With omega fatty acids for skin and coat health and probiotics for healthy digestion, this recipe can help reduce the formation of furballs. Its first 5 ingredients are chicken meal, chicken, ground white rice, cracked pearled barley, and grain sorghum.
• Kitten Chicken & Rice. Designed for kittens and nursing adult cats, this recipe features DHA for cognitive and vision development as well as taurine for heart health. The top 5 listed ingredients are chicken, chicken meal, brown rice, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols), and dried yeast.

Diamond Naturals wet recipes are:

• Chicken Dinner for Adult Cats & Kittens. This recipe features prebiotic fiber along with important vitamins and minerals. Its first 5 ingredients are chicken, chicken liver, chicken broth, carrots, and brown rice flour.
• Indoor Cat Hairball Control Dinner for Adult Cats. This hairball control recipe features insoluble fiber to aid healthy digestion. Its 5 main ingredients are chicken broth, chicken, chicken liver, fish, and brewers rice.
• Whitefish Dinner for Adult Cats & Kittens. Made with real fish and meets the nutritional levels established by the AAFCO Cat Food Nutrient Profiles for growth and maintenance. Its first 5 ingredients are whitefish, fish broth, chicken, ocean fish, and chicken liver.

Diamond CARE

The Diamond CARE range is designed to provide diets to meet specialized health needs, but to also come with an affordable price tag. There are 2 vet-developed dry cat food recipes to choose from in this range:

• Urinary Support Formula for Adult Cats. This recipe is designed to reduce pH level for urinary tract health. It features balanced levels of magnesium and phosphorus, and its first 5 ingredients are chicken meal, brown rice, brewers rice, corn gluten meal, and chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols).
• Weight Management Formula for Adult Cats. If your cat needs help getting back to a healthy weight range, this grain-free formula features L-Carnitine to support fat metabolism. its top 5 ingredients are chicken, chicken meal, turkey meal, chickpeas, and lentils.

Check out the reasons why we think Diamond cat food is a good choice for your pet.

Vet recommended

Dr. Georgia Jeremiah, pet nutrition expert and one of Wag!’s veterinary consultants, recommends Diamond cat food to her clients. “Diamond offers a diverse range of products catering to various dietary needs, featuring real meat and quality ingredients, free from artificial additives or preservatives. It is an established and affordable brand; however, it is important to note that Diamond has faced multiple product recalls in recent years, which may raise some concerns for consumers.”

Reasonably priced

Diamond is a reasonably affordable pet food brand. For example, an 18 lb bag of Diamond Naturals Active Cat Chicken Meal & Rice Formula sells for approximately $34 (or $1.89 per lb) at online pet retailers. This makes Diamond a brand worth considering for pet parents searching for a budget-friendly cat food.

Probiotics for healthy digestion

All dry recipes in the Diamond naturals range feature guaranteed probiotics to support digestive health and a strong immune system. Viables Probiotics are beneficial bacteria that help maintain a healthy gut microbiome, and Diamond Naturals formulas feature 80 million colony forming units per pound.

Care range

If your cat needs help staying in a healthy weight range or maintaining their urinary tract health, the Diamond Care range provides nutrition tailored to their needs. They’re also more affordable than similar foods from some other brands.

Made in the USA

For added peace of mind, all Diamond pet food formulas are made in the USA.

What should you consider before buying Diamond cat food? Be sure to take the following factors into account.

Recalls

Diamond pet foods have been the subject of a few recalls over the years, which may be cause for concern for some pet parents. Check the recalls section further down the page for full details.

Some controversial ingredients

Some ingredients used in Diamond pet food formulas are controversial in the eyes of some pet parents. For example, Diamond Maintenance Cat features chicken byproduct meal as its first ingredient. Check the ingredients list of any food before deciding whether it’s the right choice for your fur-baby.

Limited range compared to other brands

There are only 9 cat food products to choose from in the Diamond range. So, if you’re searching for a manufacturer that offers a comprehensive variety of cat food products, you may want to consider other options.

“It's a big hit with the cats! They took to it right away. I like that it has good nutrition and probiotics. And I really like the reasonable price, too.”

“I’d just like others to know this has good ingredients and isn’t highly priced. I researched dry cat food because I have a small feral cat community I recently ‘inherited’ because a neighbor died. Had them all caught/fixed/vaccinated and I didn’t want to feed just the cheapest food I could find. This is a good one.”

“Got this cat food as a healthy alternative for my four cats. To my surprise, as I opened the bag all four were interested and all four dug right in to eat. Definitely would recommend this cat food.”

Read more reviews on Chewy.

Brothers-in-law Gary Schell and Richard Kampeter founded Diamond Pet Foods back in 1970 in Meta, Missouri. Their aim was to create high-quality pet food that was also affordable, and they purchased an old milling plant to turn their dream into a reality.

The Meta milling plant has since been upgraded and now sits alongside Diamond’s 5 other manufacturing facilities spread across California, South Carolina, Arkansas, and Kansas. Diamond is still owned by the Schell and Kampeter families, and the manufacturer also produces the well-known Taste of the Wild pet food brand.

Diamond Pet Foods has issued multiple recalls in years past. The most recent was in 2013, when Diamond Naturals Kitten Formula was recalled due to low levels of thiamine.

The brand made headlines in April 2012 when it recalled its Diamond Naturals Lamb Meal & Rice and Puppy Formula dog foods due to salmonella contamination. The recall was expanded further during April and May to include a wider range of Diamond products and other brands including Taste of the Wild. According to the CDC, 49 cases of human salmonella infection were reported as a result of the outbreak.

The FDA carried out an inspection of Diamond Pet Foods’ Gaston, South Carolina, manufacturing plant and found that Diamond did not take "all reasonable precautions” to ensure safety. Diamond later paid $2 million to settle a class action lawsuit resulting from the salmonella outbreak.