Earthborn Cat Food Review of 2023: Recalls, Pros & Cons

Review Summary

Introduction

Owned by Midwestern Pet Foods, Earthborn Holistic is a pet food manufacturer based in the USA. The company offers both wet and dry food variants and all but one range is grain-free food. The food is made to enhance nutrition in your cat, and the manufacturer claims to use fresh ingredients. They contain meat proteins combined with essential vitamins and nutrients from vegetables and other natural sources.

Unlike a lot of companies with a baffling array of different foods, Earthborn only offers three lines of dry food. They do, however, have a broader range of wet food, which is sold in pouches and in cans.

Below, we have rated and reviewed both the dry and wet foods to help you decide whether to feed your cat Earthborn Cat Food.

At a Glance: The Best Earthborn Cat Food Recipes:

Earthborn Cat Food Reviewed

Who Makes Earthborn Cat Food and Where is it Produced?

Earthborn Holistic Cat Food is manufactured by Midwestern Pet Foods. This pet food manufacturer was founded in 1926 and is headquartered in Evansville, Indiana, although the Earthborn Holistic dry pet foods are all manufactured from the company’s manufacturing plant in Monmouth, Illinois. All the brand’s dry food lines are manufactured in the US, and they source many, although not all, ingredients from the US, too. It is also worth noting that the manufacture of the wet food lines has been outsourced to US Pet Nutrition, which is part of the Thai Union Group.

Meat Protein

Cats are obligate carnivores. This means that they eat meat through necessity, not through choice. Owners should provide their cats with a diet that consists primarily of meat because this ensures that they will get the type of protein that they require.

When shopping for cat food, as well as looking at the protein ratio, you also need to consider the protein source. A food might be 40% protein, but if almost all of that protein comes from vegetables and grain, it isn’t as beneficial as a 30% protein food that takes all of its dietary protein from lamb or another meat source.

Cat foods rarely list exactly what percentage of protein comes from meat and what comes from vegetables, but you can determine the likely ratios by looking at the primary ingredients.

In Earthborn Holistic cat foods, the primary ingredients vary, according to the flavor but include chicken protein, turkey protein, and fish-based ingredients. This means that it is safe to assume that a good portion of the protein is meat-based protein and that the food is nutritious for cats.

Vegetable Protein

However, some of the foods do list vegetable protein high up the list. For example, the Primitive Feline food lists pea protein as its third ingredient, after turkey meal and chicken meal. Although it is good that the primary protein sources are both meat-based, pea protein should ideally feature further down the ingredient list. It is still likely that the majority of the protein in this recipe comes from meat, but the pea protein content is worth bearing in mind.

A Grain-Free Diet

All but one of Earthborn Holistic Cat Foods are grain-free recipes. Cats are obligate carnivores and very little of their natural diet would be grain. However, they may consume a small amount of grain in the wild, and it is safe to feed domestic cats a similarly small amount of grain. With that said, grain is an allergen, and some cats may be sensitive to this type of ingredient. As a species, cats do not need grain, so it can be beneficial to feed them grain-free food.

Chelated Minerals

Although Earthborn offers primarily natural ingredients, they do include some supplementary ingredients. These vitamins and minerals help fill the nutritional gaps left by the natural ingredients, and you will see a list of vitamins and minerals in the ingredient list. It is good to see that many of these are chelated minerals.

Chelated minerals have been bound to protein and this makes it easier for your cat to digest the mineral. Chelated minerals are considered more bio-available than non-chelated minerals.

Probiotics

Another beneficial range of ingredients in Earthborn’s products is dried fermentation products. These act as probiotics. Probiotics are not only beneficial for people, but animals, too, and for many of the same reasons.

These good bacteria fight off bad bacteria and help ensure good gut health. Their inclusion means that your cat can convert more of the food to energy and they will be less likely to suffer from gastrointestinal complaints like diarrhea and vomiting.

Want to see more cat food reviews? Check out our review page here!

A Quick Look at Earthborn Cat Food

Recall History

There were several complaints filed against Midwestern Pet Foods since December 2020 regarding the Earthborn Holistic and SPORTMiX brands that were linked to over 100 pet deaths and caused even more illnesses. The toxin present in these pet foods was aflatoxins, a mold that grows on the kibble and can go undetected.

Midwestern Pet Foods issued a recall in early 2021 for potential salmonella poisoning in their Earthborn Holistic and Sportmix cat food varieties. This has been the only recall issued by Midwestern or Earthborn.

Reviews of the 3 Best Earthborn Cat Food Recipes

1. Earthborn Holistic Primitive Feline Grain-Free Natural Cat Food

Earthborn Holistic Primitive Feline Grain-Free Natural Cat Food is a grain-free dry food. Its primary ingredients are turkey meal and chicken meal. Turkey and chicken meal are considered more beneficial forms of raw meat. They have had the water and fat removed, which means that they have a higher concentration of protein and lower moisture content. Chicken and turkey are considered good sources of protein for carnivores like cats.

The next ingredient is pea. Although peas are a common ingredient in dry cat food, we would ideally like to see these ingredients further down the list, especially because pea starch, pea protein, and pea fiber are also found in the ingredients. This is known as ingredient splitting. If you add these ingredients together it is possible that they will appear even higher in the list than they do already and could even overtake the meat ingredients at the very top of the ingredient list.

The ingredients do include chicken fat, which is a good source of fatty acids. Flaxseed offers omega-3 fatty acids but is not considered a viable source for cats. Additional ingredients include vegetables and fruit for antioxidants and vitamins.  The food has 40% protein, although it is possible that a lot of this protein comes from the constituent pea ingredients.

Calorie Breakdown:

2. Earthborn Holistic Monterey Medley Wet Cat Food

Monterey Medley is a flaked fish in a fish broth. The primary ingredient in this food is fish broth, which is considered a beneficial ingredient for cats. Skipjack tuna and mackerel are the next ingredients on the list.

Although we often associate cats with eating fish, it isn’t that great a food source for the species. Fish is lacking in thiamine, which is essential for cats. This has been added to the food and can be seen in the ingredients, listed as thiamine mononitrate, but you should avoid feeding cats fish too often. Also high in the ingredient list of this food is potatoes, followed by sunflower oil. Neither of these ingredients is considered species-appropriate. Cats would not eat these ingredients in the wild and potatoes are high-glycemic ingredients.

Although sunflower oil is added as a beneficial fat source, animal fat would have been a preferred and healthier source.

Calorie Breakdown:

3. Earthborn Holistic Chicken Catcciatori Grain-Free Adult Cat Food

Catcciatori food from Earthborn Holistic is high in protein, which primarily comes from meat animal sources, and contains no artificial ingredients. While it does use potatoes and sunflower oil, its ingredients are considered generally high quality and beneficial to the species. However, the food is high in carbohydrates, due partially to the inclusion of potato.

The primary listed ingredients in this food are chicken broth and chicken. The next ingredient is potato, which cats would rarely if ever, eat as part of their natural diet in the wild. Sunflower oil is the next ingredient. Similarly to potatoes, while this ingredient is not harmful to cats and does serve a genuine purpose, it would be better to see animal-based fats make up this part of the ingredient list.

Calorie Breakdown:

What Other Users Are Saying

Here’s what others have to say about Earthborn Holistic cat food:

Conclusion

Earthborn Holistic offers a limited range of dry food and a more extensive selection of wet food. They use natural ingredients and their foods include animal protein sources as the top ingredients.

Although most of their foods do contain several species-inappropriate ingredients, none are considered dangerous or potentially harmful.

The existence of probiotics and chelated minerals in their dry range, which is manufactured in the USA, is positive, and so too is the fact that none of the company’s food has ever been subject to recall.

Featured Image: Earthborn Holistic, Chewy