Earthborn Holistic Cat Food Review 2024

Earthborn Holistic is a pet food brand that offers wet and dry recipes made with high-quality ingredients and added vitamins and minerals to nourish your cat. It takes a natural approach to feline nutrition, offering whole grain and grain-free options for cats and kittens alike. Many of its recipes are also free of chicken and/or gluten, making it a good choice for cats with food allergies or sensitivities. Earthborn Holistic is also an eco-conscious brand and has a couple of programs that support the environment. 

Many pet parents choose to feed their cats Earthborn Holistic due to the quality of its products, but is it the right food for your feline friend? Let’s take a closer look at this brand so you can decide!

Earthborn Holistic offers several grain-inclusive and grain-free wet and dry foods for cats. Let’s check them out!

Earthborn Holistic dry cat food

Earthborn Holistic has three dry foods for cats of all life stages, with grain-free and grain-inclusive options. Each recipe starts with an animal-based protein such as chicken meal, salmon meal, and turkey meal as the first ingredient. Other ingredients include wholesome fruits and veggies like blueberries, cranberries, apples, spinach, and carrots. Feline Vantage, the grain-inclusive variant, contains easily digestible grains like brown rice, oats, and barley. 

All recipes are enriched with taurine for heart health, probiotics for digestive health, and omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids for skin and coat health. Vitamins and minerals like vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin E, zinc, calcium, thiamine, and vitamin B12 are also added to support immunity and wellness.

Earthborn Holistic dry cat food flavors:

Whole grain:

• Feline Vantage

Grain-free:

• Primitive Feline
• Wild Sea Catch

Earthborn Holistic wet cat food

Earthborn Holistic’s dozen or so wet foods are all grain-free, which is good news for cats with a grain allergy. Some recipes are for adult cats only, while others are suitable for kittens as well. All recipes feature quality sources of protein such as chicken, beef, tuna, salmon, whitefish, and shrimp, and all seafood variants are dolphin-safe. Other ingredients include chicken, fish, or beef broth for moisture; sunflower oil for healthy skin and coat; and vegetables like potatoes, carrots, pumpkin, peas, and celery for extra nutrients.  

For complete nutrition, essential vitamins and minerals are added as well. Delicious and versatile, these wet foods can be given as a stand-alone meal or as a food topper or mixer. 

Earthborn Holistic wet cat food flavors:

Cans:

• Catalina Catch Mackerel Dinner with Shrimp in Gravy 
• Chicken Catcciatori Chicken Dinner in Gravy
• Harbor Harvest Salmon and Whitefish Dinner with Vegetables in Gravy 
• Monterey Medley Skipjack Tuna and Grilled Mackerel Dinner in Gravy
• Chicken Jumble with Liver Chicken Dinner with Liver in Gravy
• Chicken Fricatssee Chicken Dinner with Vegetables in Gravy
• RanchHouse Stew Beef Dinner with Vegetables in Gravy

Pouches:

• Autumn Tide Tuna Dinner with Pumpkin in Gravy
• Fin & Fowl Tuna Dinner with Chicken in Gravy
• Key West Zest Tuna Dinner with Mackerel in Gravy
• Lowcountry Fare Tuna Dinner with Shrimp in Gravy
• Riptide Zing Tuna Dinner in Gravy 
• Upstream Grille Tuna Dinner with Salmon in Gravy

Here’s what makes Earthborn Holistic a highly rated cat food!

Made with high-quality ingredients

Earthborn Holistic is made with high-quality ingredients that have been carefully selected to create a complete and balanced diet for its four-legged consumers. These include premium proteins, antioxidant-rich fruits and veggies, and wholesome grains. Ingredients are sourced from US suppliers whenever possible, and recipes do not contain artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives.

Options for cats with sensitivities 

Many of Earthborn Holistic’s recipes are free of grain, gluten, corn, and/or chicken, making them suitable for cats who are allergic to these ingredients. Chicken can sometimes be hard to avoid in cat food, but Earthborn Holistic has several chicken-free flavors. 

High in moisture

Earthborn Holistic’s wet foods contain more than 80% moisture, which is great for cats who need to increase their water intake. Proper hydration reduces the risk of various health conditions, including kidney disease and bladder stones or crystals. 

Cares about the environment

All Earthborn Holistic dry food and treat packaging can be recycled through the Earthborn ReBorn Store Drop-off Program in partnership with TerraCycle. In addition to recycling the bags, Earthborn Holistic will donate to pet charities nationwide. The company will also plant a tree for every UPC pet parents mail in. 

Family owned and operated

Earthborn Holistic has been family-owned since 1926 and is now in its fourth generation of family leadership.

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

Expensive

Because Earthborn Holistic is made with quality ingredients, you can expect it to be on the pricey side. For example, a case of 24 3-ounce cans of Monterey Medley costs $40.09, or  $1.67 per can. According to the feeding guidelines, an adult cat weighing 9 pounds will have to eat 4 to 6 cans daily, which works out to $6.68 to $10.02 per day.

Some cats won’t eat certain flavors

Pet parents have reported that their cats turned up their noses at some flavors even though they enjoyed other variants, so you may have to try a few different flavors before finding something your cat likes. 

Recall history

Earthborn Holistic dry cat food has been recalled in the past. For details, see the “Earthborn Holistic recall history” section below.

“Cats are fussy, we all know that. But all three of mine go for Earthborn's Monterey Medley. Sometimes there are larger chunks which I chop up. But it all disappears.”

“My 2 cats gobble this up. My male cat, Widget, is putting on weight and I've been looking for another food that is less caloric but I can't seem to find one that also has really good ingredients. I kind of wish they didn't like this so much because it is pricey. The quality of this food is top notch, and my vet commented on that last time he saw them. Except for darling Widget packing on the pounds!”

“This food is very expensive but it's also very high quality. When you open the can you see chunks of real fish and even chunks of salmon! My cats are addicted to it, I wish they weren't because like I said it's pretty expensive.”

Earthborn Holistic is made by Midwestern Pet Foods, a family owned and operated business that started in 1926 as a small milling company. Currently in its fourth generation of family leadership, Midwestern Pet Foods specializes in producing dog and cat foods and treats. It manufactures its own dry foods and treats in its kitchens in Indiana, Illinois, New York, and Oklahoma.  

In late 2023, Midwestern Pet Foods rebranded Earthborn Holistic dog food through new, modernized packaging and improved recipes. No changes were made to Earthborn Holistic cat food, with the packaging and recipes remaining the same. 

Headquartered in Evansville, Indiana, Midwestern Pet Foods also owns Ultimates, Wholesomes, and Sportmix.

In March 2021, Midwestern Pet Foods issued a voluntary recall of specific expiration dates of different dog and cat food brands produced at its Monmouth, Illinois facility due to potential Salmonella contamination. The recall included some lots of Earthborn Holistic Primitive Feline and Wild Sea Catch. No illnesses were reported, and the recall has since been completed and terminated by the FDA.

A class action lawsuit was filed in response to this recall and another one in December 2020 and January 2021. (The earlier recall did not involve Earthborn Holistic.) Midwestern Pet Foods has agreed to create a settlement fund to pay cash benefits to class members; claims processing is currently ongoing.