Cat Food

Everything we stock as cat food sits here — dry and wet, from kitten mousses to indoor, hairball, urinary and digestive-care formulas. Cats are obligate carnivores, so the questions are narrow: how much moisture the diet carries, where the protein comes from, and whether your cat will eat it.

Wet, dry, or both

Cats have a weak thirst drive and are poor at making it up by drinking, so wet food does real work: at roughly three-quarters moisture it carries much of the day’s water. Dry food is easier to leave down for a grazer and easier to measure, but it is calorie-dense: an indoor, desexed cat gains weight on a portion that looks small. Air-dried and freeze-dried foods from Ziwi and Feline Natural count as dry but are fed in smaller amounts. Texture preference is largely set in kittenhood, which is why Royal Canin sells the same diet as both a gravy and a jelly.

Life stage and living situation

Kittens need a growth formula for the first year, usually starting on a mousse or soft texture at weaning. Adult food covers about one to seven years; from seven, ranges such as Royal Canin Indoor 7+ suit a slower, less active cat. Indoor formulas cut calories and lift fibre so hair moves through rather than back up — the same idea behind the hairball ranges from Advance, Royal Canin and Hill’s Science Diet. Urinary and digestive-care lines are stocked too, but a diagnosed problem is a diet to choose with your vet.

Reading the label and changing foods

Ingredients are listed by weight before cooking, so a fresh meat at the top of a dry food shrinks once cooked down. The Guaranteed Analysis panel gives protein, fat, fibre and moisture, but a wet food’s protein figure cannot be read against a dry one — the wet food is mostly water. Check that taurine appears; it is an essential amino acid for cats. Cats are far more neophobic than dogs, so change food over ten days or longer, a quarter at a time and mixed through. If a cat refuses food for more than a day, go back to the old diet and speak to your vet.

Shop Royal Canin by need

Royal Canin's retail cat range is organised around how a cat lives rather than around a diagnosis. These are daily foods, not veterinary diets, so a cat with a diagnosed condition still needs a diet chosen with your vet.

• Royal Canin cat food — the full feline range, dry and wet, kitten through senior.
• Royal Canin Indoor — fewer calories and more fibre for cats that get little outdoor exercise.
• Royal Canin Sterilised — for desexed cats, whose energy needs drop while appetite often does not.
• Royal Canin Hairball Care — a fibre blend that helps swallowed hair pass through the gut instead of coming back up.
• Royal Canin Urinary Care — an everyday formula aimed at urine dilution, not a replacement for veterinary advice.
• Royal Canin kitten food — growth formulas for the first twelve months, in both kibble and pouch.

Shop Hill's Science Diet by need

Hill's Science Diet is the second large cat range on this page, and it is organised around how a cat lives — indoors, prone to hairballs, or carrying a little more weight than it should. These are everyday foods rather than veterinary diets, so a diagnosed condition is still one to work through with your vet.

• Hill's Science Diet cat food — the full feline range, dry and wet, kitten through Adult 11+.
• Hill's Science Diet Indoor — Adult Indoor, Indoor Kitten and the senior indoor formulas, for cats that spend the day inside.
• Hill's Science Diet Hairball Control — the Hairball Control and Urinary Hairball Control recipes, in kibble, cans and pouches.
• Hill's Science Diet Perfect Weight — the Perfect Weight range; it covers dogs as well as cats, so check the pack before you order.
• Hill's Science Diet kitten food — growth formulas for the first year, including an indoor kitten kibble.

Brands on this page

Royal Canin is the largest single range, then Hill’s Science Diet, Advance and Black Hawk. Applaws, GranataPet and Ivory Coat cover the high-meat wet end in cans and pouches; Feline Natural, Ziwi and Absolute Holistic handle air-dried and freeze-dried; ORIJEN covers high-protein dry; and Kit Cat and Zealandia round it out.

• Dry cat food
• Wet cat food
• Kitten food
• Royal Canin
• Hill’s Science Diet
• Applaws

More cat food ranges

• Air dried cat food — ZIWI Peak, Absolute Holistic and Air Proudi, fed straight from the bag with no rehydrating.
• Applaws cat food — limited-ingredient pouches and tins. The Natural range is complementary, so feed it alongside a complete diet.
• Pure Life cat food — Natural Boost dry in 1.5kg and 6kg plus 80g x 12 pate multipacks.
• ADVANCE kitten food — 85g trays and pouches for kittens.
• Indoor cat food — every brand's indoor recipes, dry and wet.
• Hairball cat food — hairball control recipes across brands.
• Urinary cat food — everyday urinary care recipes; a diagnosed condition is one for your vet.