Freshpet Cat Food Review 2024

Freshpet is a US pet food brand that specializes in fresh, refrigerated cat and dog food. It offers a small selection of steam cooked cat food that is widely available across the US, providing complete and balanced nutrition for your fur-baby.

But is Freshpet the best option when choosing cat food for your fur-baby? To help you decide, we’ve put together this review of Freshpet’s product ranges and flavors, pros and cons, recall history, and more.

Freshpet offers a limited selection of product ranges for cats. Let’s take a closer look at each product line and what they have to offer for your feline friend.

Freshpet Select

Freshpet’s Select range comes in 2 different forms: Tender Bites and Gourmet Pate. Tender Bites are available in 2 grain-free recipes featuring ingredients such as US farm-raised chicken and beef, and they’re steam-cooked to lock in important nutrients. These recipes also don’t feature any gluten, soy, or fillers, and they provide complete and balanced nutrition for cats at all life stages.

There are also 2 Freshpet select Gourmet Pate recipes to choose from. These grain-free rolls are also steam-cooked, feature high-quality animal protein sources, and they provide complete and balanced nutrition for cats at all life stages.

Tender Bites

• Tender Chicken Recipe with Garden Vegetables
• Tender Chicken & Beef Recipe with Garden Vegetables

Gourmet Pate

• Chicken & Beef Grain Free Gourmet Pate
• Salmon Grain Free Gourmet Pate

Freshpet Vital

Freshpet Vital provides fresh food made with high-quality ingredients for your fur-baby. First in the range is a pate-style roll made with natural chicken, beef, and egg, which boasts a high moisture content to help your cat stay hydrated. 

The second option offers tender bites made with chicken and egg, and it features antioxidant-rich spinach and carrots to support your cat’s overall wellbeing. Both Freshpet Vital recipes are made with verified non-GMO ingredients.

The 2 recipes in this range are:

• Grain Free Chicken & Beef Recipe Pate
• Grain Free Chicken Recipe with Vegetables and Eggs

Freshpet Nature’s Fresh

There’s 1 Freshpet Nature’s Fresh recipe for cats: Grain Free Chicken Recipe with Vegetables. This steam-cooked recipe is made with sustainability in mind and features sustainably raised chicken. It’s Animal Welfare Certified to Global Animal Partnership standards, and 87% of this recipe is chicken and egg. It also features spinach and carrots to provide an added nutrient boost for your furry friend.

Vet recommended

Freshpet is one of the brands that Dr. Georgia Jeremiah, pet nutrition expert and one of Wag!’s veterinary consultants, recommends to her clients.

“Freshpet cat food offers fresh, whole-food recipes that are conveniently available in most grocery stores. These recipes feature real meat, poultry, fish, vegetables, and grains while avoiding gluten, soy, and fillers. With no by-product meals and protein as the first ingredient, they are gently steam-cooked to retain essential nutrients, providing balanced nutrition and improved palatability for finicky eaters. However, these diets do contain an added sodium source which may be inappropriate for cats suffering from certain health conditions; therefore, it would be worth consulting your veterinarian before switching to this brand.”

Quality ingredients

Freshpet offers wholesome nutrition for your cat, with recipes formulated by veterinary nutritionists. Each recipe starts with a high-quality animal protein source as the first ingredient, while farm-fresh fruit and veggies are also included to help your cat stay healthy and happy. Freshpet recipes are also steam-cooked to ensure that the nutritional benefits of each ingredient are passed on to your cat.

“Purrfect” for picky eaters

Fresh food is highly palatable to many cats. So if your feline is a fussy eater, dishing up Freshpet food at mealtime will have them licking their lips with excitement.

Environmentally responsible

Freshpet has an impressive commitment to the environment when producing its pet food. Recipes are prepared in landfill-free kitchens, while the manufacturer also runs several sustainability initiatives to help support the planet. Its kitchens also use electricity generated from renewable wind or solar energy.

Sourced and made in the USA

Freshpet fresh cat food is made in the USA, while 96% of its ingredients come from North America. So, if you like to keep a close eye on exactly what goes into your cat’s dinner bowl, you can enjoy extra peace of mind when giving Freshpet recipes to your cat.

Limited range

Freshpet offers a limited cat food product range compared to some other brands on the market. If you’re the type of pet parent who likes to rotate what they feed to give their pet variety, you may want to consider other brands.

Some controversial ingredients

Freshpet cat food recipes commonly include “natural flavors”, which typically consists of low-quality ingredients used to improve the flavor of a food. A lack of information about exactly what flavors are used may concern some pet parents.

Cost

There are cheaper pet food brands available on the market. So if you’re a pet parent on a tight budget, you may want to consider other options.

Short shelf life

As it offers fresh food that needs to be kept refrigerated, Freshpet has a much shorter shelf life than other cat foods. This makes it a less convenient option compared to kibble. 

“I started trying this a few years ago as my cat is picky with food and has been losing weight due to some health issues. She consistently eats this every day and has for months! Easy to keep in the fridge.”

“All 4 of our cats had digestive issues with the traditional dry foods that are loaded with carbs and hard for their digestive systems to break down. We transitioned them all over to Freshpet and the results are unREAL. Firm consistent stool, shiny coats, energetic demeanors. They LOVE breakfast and dinner and are always chowing down. I love the flexibility of how you can switch from one type to another within this brand and have no "transition issues." I seriously cannot say enough about this brand and highly recommend it for anyone who has an animal with digestive issues. It's the next best thing to feeding raw (which they would be eating in their natural habitats). We even switched our 12-year-old Yorkie over to it and had the same results. Try it. You won't be disappointed!”

“I have a picky cat who refuses to eat anything other than dog food. She’ll push my 70lb Pit [Bull] out of the way to get to it. She’s finally eating cat food now that I bought her this and the dog is thrilled that she’s leaving his bowl alone!”

Read more reviews on Petco.

Freshpet was founded in 2006 in Secaucus, New Jersey. Today, the company has 30,000 Freshpet fridges in North America and is publicly listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange.

Freshpet has issued 2 recalls in recent years.

The most recent was in June 2022, when one lot of Freshpet Select Fresh From the Kitchen Home Cooked Chicken Recipe was recalled due to potential Salmonella contamination.

In June 2021, Freshpet recalled its Freshpet Select Small Dog Bite Size Beef & Egg Recipe Dog Food, also due to potential Salmonella contamination.

Product images sourced from the Freshpet website. Copyright Freshpet.