The 10 Best Premium Dry Cat Foods, According to 299 Cats

Best Overall

Hill's Science Diet Dry Cat Food

$24 $22 at Amazon $61 at Chewy $29 $22 at Walmart

Hill's Science Diet Dry Cat Food is our top choice for most cats, and among our panel of 299 cat guardians, the food received the highest score in overall quality satisfaction with the ingredients used. It supports overall health with omega fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals, and the food is never made with artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives.

Hill's Science Diet dry cat food is divided into four life stages—Kitten, Adult 1-6, Adult 7+, and Adult 11+, and the recipe is specialized within each stage to address the nutritional needs of a growing cat, like DHA for brain development and taurine for heart health.

The main source of protein and primary ingredient is chicken, but there are also recipes made with salmon, pollock, or ocean fish as the first ingredient depending on the formulation your cat requires. Additional ingredients include whole grains, fish oil, animal fat, vegetable fibers, and amino acids, with variations, like grain-free, to make the food more amenable for cats with allergies and sensitivities.

The brand is highly recommended by veterinarians for daily feeding and to address specific ailments, including Hairball Control, Oral Care, Weight Management, and Sensitive Stomach & Skin options. And the Indoor Cats formula is designed to reduce hairballs and support digestive health, making it easier for your cat to use their litter box correctly and reducing the effort you have to put in to keep their bathroom tidy.

Plus, the dry food recipes from Hill's Science Diet are also available as canned cat food, offering the same level of reliable quality along with the added benefit of helping your cat stay hydrated.

_{Life Stage: Kitten, adult 1-6, adult 7+, adult 11+ | Flavors: Chicken | Package Sizes: 4, 7, or 16 pounds}

Best Budget

Purina Friskies Dry Cat Food

$22 at Amazon $28 at Chewy $45 $25 at Walmart

For adult cats, Friskies Dry Cat Food from Purina is available in seven flavors—Seafood Sensations, Ocean Favorites, Surfin' & Turfin' Favorites, Indoor Delights, Gravy Swirlers, Tender & Crunchy Combo, and Farm Favorites—all made with animal-source protein to support healthy muscles, fatty acids for skin and coat maintenance, and vitamins and antioxidants for immunity.

Friskies received the highest overall rating among the 299 cat parents we surveyed, with many emphasizing the brand's overall value and their cat's enjoyment of the food. Friskies packages its poultry and seafood recipes by spotlighting the lead source of protein, but all of the flavors list yellow corn as the first ingredient. Corn is a healthy whole grain that is easy for cats to digest when it's cooked and ground for use in dry cat food, but we recommend limiting your cat's intake of treats that also list corn as a lead ingredient to keep your obligate carnivore's diet high in protein.

Friskies, a brand from Purina, is manufactured in the United States, and the line of dry cat food is affordably priced. But some flavors, like Seafood Sensations and Farm Favorites, are easier to come by online and in stores than others.

_{Life Stage: Adult | Flavors: Seafood Sensations; Ocean Favorites; Surfin' & Turfin' Favorites; Indoor Delights; Gravy Swirlers; Tender & Crunchy Combo; Farm Favorites | Package Sizes: 3.15, 16, 22, or 30 pounds}

Best for Kittens

Purina ONE Plus Healthy Kitten Dry Cat Food

$11 $9 at Amazon $9 at Chewy $10 at Walmart

Purina One +Plus Healthy Kitten Dry Cat Food is our top choice for cats less than a year old. It's affordably priced and readily available, and among the current and former kittens who participated in our panel, the food seemed to have an appealing texture and flavor.

For healthy brain and vision development, this kitten food is fortified with DHA, a naturally occurring omega-3 fatty acid that baby cats usually get from their mother's milk but that is also found in fish oil. The crunchy kibble is made with real chicken as the first ingredient and primary source of protein. In each serving, the food provides calcium for strong teeth and bones and vitamins E and A for immunity, and it's never made with artificial flavors or preservatives.

Purina One offers +Plus Healthy Kitten Dry Cat Food in three sizes (3.5, 7, or 16 pounds), but even the largest bag of kibble runs out quickly if you are feeding more than one kitten at a time.

_{Life Stage: Kitten | Flavor: Chicken | Package Sizes: 3.5, 7, or 16 pounds}

Best Variety

Purina Fancy Feast

$18 at Amazon $66 at Chewy $11 at Target

Surprise and delight your kitty by mixing up the flavors in their bowl at mealtime. Fancy Feast from Purina offers variety bundles of dry cat food combining two flavors of crunchy kibble, or pairing the dry food with Fancy Feast broths or Fancy Feast canned cat food.

Fancy Feast has three flavors of kitty-appealing dry food: Savory Chicken & Turkey, Filet Mignon Flavor With Real Seafood & Shrimp, and Ocean Fish & Salmon. All recipes are enhanced with vitamins and minerals to provide nutritionally complete and balanced meals in each serving.

But the primary ingredient used in all recipes for dry cat food from Fancy Feast is rice followed by poultry by-product meal as the second ingredient. By-product meals typically make use of nutrient-rich parts of an animal, like organs, that might otherwise go to waste in an effort to keep costs down and reduce food waste. Rice, a whole grain, is easy for cats to digest, but be sure to keep your cat's overall intake of treats made with grains to a minimum while focusing on protein-packed snacks to satisfy your purring carnivore's appetite for meat.

_{Life Stage: Adult | Flavors: Savory Chicken & Turkey; Filet Mignon with Seafood & Shrimp; Ocean Fish & Salmon | Package Sizes: 3, 7, 12, or 16 pounds}

Best for Weight Loss

Blue Buffalo Tastefuls Weight Control Adult Dry Cat Food

$52 $47 at Amazon $47 at Chewy $67 $47 at Walmart

If your cat is carrying around an extra few pounds, giving them food formulated for weight loss and maintenance can help them achieve their optimal size while sating their appetite. Blue Buffalo's Tastefuls Weight Control Adult Dry Cat Food is our top recommendation and the protein-rich recipe is made with chicken as the first ingredient along with whole grains and vegetables.

There are two weight-focused formulas to choose from, Weight Control and Weight & Hairball Control. Both are fortified with antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals to support a cat's immune system and overall health. To help your cat feel full in between meals and support digestion, the food provides natural fiber. For hairball control, the food also contains a blend of psyllium seed husks and cellulose to help your cat's internal system process ingested fur from grooming.

Blue Buffalo pet foods are always made without corn, wheat, soy, by-product meals, artificial flavors, and artificial preservatives, which is exceptionally helpful if your cat has allergies or sensitivities to any of these items.

_{Life Stage: Adult | Flavor: Chicken & brown rice | Package Sizes: 3, 5, 7, or 15 pounds}

Best With Probiotics

Purina Pro Plan Complete Essentials Dry Food

$63 $50 at Amazon $50 at Chewy $50 at Walmart

Purina Pro Plan Complete Essentials is a high-protein cat food developed with digestive health and immunity in mind. The primary ingredient is real chicken or salmon, combined with rice and a blend of live probiotics and prebiotics. This dry cat food also has omega-6 fatty acids for a healthy coat and skin, along with eggs, animal fat, amino acids, and a range of essential vitamins and minerals.

_{Life Stage: Adult | Flavors: Chicken | Package Sizes: 16 pounds}

Best Grain Free

Open Farm Homestead Dry Cat Food

$30 at Amazon View on Petflow.com $28 at Onlynaturalpet.com

Open Farm's Homestead Dry Cat Food is made from high-quality, ethically sourced animal protein and no fillers, by-products, or artificial ingredients. The brand values transparency so much that all of the ingredients are fully traceable to the source. The meat is humanely raised without the use of antibiotics or growth hormones.

About 10 percent of the protein in these recipes is derived from plant-based sources such as lentils and chickpeas, which is common in grain-free diets. There are eight grain-free recipes, and some are made with more than one animal protein, like chicken and turkey or lamb and whitefish, so this might not be ideal for a cat with food allergies. The recipes also include non-GMO ingredients, like cranberries to promote urinary tract health, and anti-inflammatories, including coconut oil, turmeric, and dandelion.

_{Life Stage: Adult | Flavors: Turkey & chicken, whitefish, wild-caught salmon, lamb | Package Sizes: 2, 4, or 8 pounds}

Best Organic

Tender & True Organic Cat Food

$22 $19 at Amazon $39 at Chewy $19 at Walmart

Tender & True Organic Cat Food uses USDA-certified organic and Global Animal Partnership-certified humanely raised ingredients to make their dry cat food. The two recipes are also free of artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives.

Considering the premium, certified organic ingredients, which also include peas, chickpeas, and flax meal, it is reasonably priced compared to similar organic dry cat food. However, there are only two flavors, so you don't have many chances to test out flavors to find one that appeals to your cat.

_{Life Stage: All life stages | Flavors: Turkey & liver, chicken & liver | Package Sizes: 3 or 7 pounds}

Best for Oral Care

Royal Canin Veterinary Diet Dental Dry Cat Food

View on Chewy

For cats prone to dental tartar and plaque buildup, Royal Canin's exclusive veterinary formula is approved by the Veterinary Oral Health Council (VOHC) to remove buildup on teeth. The kibble size and shape encourage cats to chew, creating a tooth-brushing effect that helps reduce tartar, while calcium and phosphorus help support healthy teeth. However, some cats may find the kibble too large and be turned off by the food.

The recipe contains a blend of dietary fiber to stimulate the intestines to pass the hair your cat swallows, thereby helping to control hairballs. It also promotes a urinary environment that lowers the risk of bladder crystal formation.

_{Life Stage: Adult | Flavors: Chicken | Package Sizes: 1.3 or 7.7 pounds}

Best Raw

Stella & Chewy's Raw Blend Cat Food

$37 at Amazon $20 at Petco View on Stellaandchewys.com

Stella & Chewy's is known for putting; high-quality animal protein front and center of their formulas and its Rew Blend Cat Food is no exception. Chicken is the first ingredient and primary animal protein, followed by turkey and duck in the cage-free formulation, while wild-caught salmon is the primary ingredient in the fish recipe.

The formula is free of grains, potato, soy, and by-product meals and rich in omega fatty acids to support healthy skin and coat, taurine for heart health, and probiotics for digestive health. The cage-free blend consists of dry kibble coated with raw freeze-dried chicken and freeze-dried raw chicken bits, which many cats love—though they're not quite so fond of chewing the bigger kibble pieces. Some pet parents also find that the kibble's size doesn't work well in automatic feeders.

Nevertheless, pet parents appreciate that this cat food provides balanced nutrition while honoring their feline's carnivorous nature. Like other products from Stella & Chewy's, it's made with premium responsibly sourced ingredients. minimally processed and made in small batches in the USA with no added hormones, antibiotics, preservatives, or artificial colors and flavorings.

_{Life Stage: All life stages | Flavors: Chicken, turkey, and duck; wild-caught salmon | Package Sizes: 2.5, 5, or 10 pounds}