Dave’s Pet Food Review - Unbiased Review

Kate Barrington / Cats.com

Dave’s Pet Food is a family-run business that offers premium products at a reasonable price. Though not as widely known as some of the big-name brands, Dave’s Pet Food has earned a positive reputation in independent and specialty pet food retail circles.

We put several products from Dave’s cat food line to the test to find out whether this brand lives up to its promises. Read on to find out what we discovered.

The Cats.com Standard—Rating Dave’s Cat Food on What Matters

We’ve rated the brand on six key criteria for quality. Here’s how it rates in each of these six crucial areas.

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Ratings

Species-Appropriateness – 8/10
Ingredient Quality – 9/10
Product Variety – 7/10
Price – 7/10
Customer Experience – 8/10
Recall History – 9/10

Overall Score: 8/10

In total, we give Dave’s cat food a 48 out of 60 rating, or an A- grade.

About Dave’s Cat Food

The Dave’s Pet Food brand was created by Dave Ratner in 2001. While the pet food brand is only about 20 years old, Ratner opened his first retail store—a soda shop—in 1975. Over the years, Dave began to notice an increasing demand for pet food, so he expanded his shop and rebranded it to Dave’s Soda and Pet City.

In 2001, Dave decided to claim a piece of the pet food market for himself and created Dave’s Pet Food. With the help of a veterinary nutritionist, he developed what he still calls “good food at a reasonable price.” Despite being a small, private-label brand, Dave’s Pet Food is now sold in over 2,000 independent retail stores across the United States, as well as online.

Dave’s Pet Food has continued to grow and expand over the years. In 2023, Dave’s teamed up with certified veterinary nutritionists to add functional diet recipes to the lineup. Today, Dave’s Pet Food continues to support the health and happiness of pets while remaining focused on quality nutrition at an affordable price.

Sourcing and Manufacturing

Dave’s Pet Food is based in Agawam, Massachusetts and most of the food is manufactured in the United States. The company partners with two co-packers to produce its canned cat foods, one based in the United States and one based in Thailand. The Thailand facility is a leader in sustainability and safe fishing practices.

The ingredients in Dave’s cat food are sourced primarily from the United States, but not exclusively. For example, the tuna in Dave’s wet cat food is sourced from Thailand where the food is made. The company states that no ingredients are sourced from China except the vitamin packs, as China is the only place in the world that supplies them.

Recall History

Dave’s Pet Food has been in business for two decades and only appears to have had one product recall during that time. The recall occurred in June of 2018 and only affected a single batch of Dave’s 95% premium beef dog food.

The recall was initiated after Dave’s received a report from the FDA that one lot of the product was found to have elevated levels of thyroid hormone. The FDA conducted the analysis after receiving complaints about four dogs with low thyroid levels. Dave’s issued a voluntary recall in response to the report, and the company has not experienced any recalls since.

What Kinds of Cat Food Does Dave’s Pet Food Offer?

Kate Barrington / Cats.com

Dave’s Pet Food offers a variety of wet and one dry cat food recipes as well as cat treats. Because affordability is one of the brand’s primary selling points, the wet food is sold in a variety of can sizes ranging from 3 ounces to 12.5 ounces. The brand recently started offering variety packs of canned food grouped by can size, food texture, or product line. Dave’s only dry cat food formula comes in 4-pound or 20-pound bags.

Here’s an overview of Dave’s wet cat food product lines:

Naturally Healthy – Complete and balanced wet and dry cat food recipes formulated to support whole-body nutrition.
95% Premium – High-protein wet cat foods featuring 95% animal-based ingredients with very low carbohydrate content.
Functional Diets – Recipes tailored to specific health concerns and made with restricted levels of phosphorus, magnesium, or protein.

Dave’s Naturally Healthy line includes a variety of flavors and food textures. Chicken, turkey, and tuna are often featured as the primary protein with complementary flavors like duck, beef, salmon, and shrimp. Dave’s wet foods come in pate, stews, and dinners in gravy or aspic. Newly added recipes to the Naturally Healthy line include goat milk for its appealing flavor and digestive benefits.

The Functional Diets line features prescription-style recipes tailored to common health concerns like kidney disease, urinary issues, and diabetes. Dave’s also offers a complementary kidney-friendly semi-moist cat treat.

What Did Our Test Cats Think?

We’ve tested cat food from Dave’s Pet Food numerous times over the past few years, most recently after the brand released the new goat milk products to the Naturally Healthy lineup. In the latest round of testing, I reordered some of the products I’ve tested before to see if my cats still liked them, along with the new goat milk recipes.

My cats enjoyed all the recipes they tried, particularly the kibble and the turkey recipe from the Naturally Healthy line. In previous testing, the Restricted Phosphorus recipe seemed a little dry (customer reviews suggest I wasn’t alone in having this experience). This time around, however, the consistency was closer to a typical pate and my cats ate it happily.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from the new canned foods containing goat milk but my cats didn’t hesitate to try them. The tuna recipe was a particular favorite, possibly because the texture was very moist and easy to eat.

Dave’s Cat Food—Top 5 Recipes Reviewed

Product Name	Food Type	Main Protein Source	Calories	Price	Our Grade
Naturally Healthy Grain-Free Turkey Formula Wet Cat Food	Wet	Turkey	33 per ounce	$0.38 per ounce	A-
Restricted Diet Phosphorus Chicken Liver & Chicken in Juice Pate Wet Cat Food	Wet	Chicken	24 per ounce	$0.64 per ounce	B-
Naturally Healthy Tuna Recipe in Gravy with Goat Milk Wet Cat Food	Wet	Tuna	26 per ounce	$0.42 per ounce	A-
Naturally Healthy Adult Dry Cat Food	Dry	Chicken	107 per ounce	$0.27 per ounce	C-
Renal-Friendly Sweet Potato Grain-Free Soft & Chewy Cat Treats	Treat	Dried Egg	80	$4.33 per ounce	B

#1 Naturally Healthy Grain-Free Turkey Formula Wet Cat Food

$48.99 At Chewy $48.99 At Amazon View Lab Report

This grain-free canned food features fresh turkey as the primary protein with flavorful chicken broth for moisture. Chicken liver and fresh chicken provide supplemental protein and likely provide most of the recipe’s fat.

Naturally Healthy Grain-Free Turkey Formula Wet Cat Food

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At roughly 45.5% crude protein measured on a dry matter basis, this formula is moderately high in protein. It’s energy-rich at about 23% dry matter fat and 33 calories per ounce. The recipe is grain-free and, while we generally prefer wet foods to be under 10% dry matter carbohydrate, the carbs in this recipe come largely from nutritious sweet potatoes and carrots rather than starchy beans and legumes.

This wet food is sold in 5.5-ounce and 12.5-ounce cans, so you can buy it in bulk to save money if your cat likes the flavor. Ratings for this product are generally positive, though some customers ordering from Chewy report receiving dented cans. Multiple customers say this is one of their senior cat’s favorite foods.

Ingredients

Chicken Broth, Chicken Liver, Chicken, Water Sufficient For Processing, Rice Flour, Pumpkin, Natural Flavor, Fish Oil, Calcium Carbonate, Guar Gum, Potassium Chloride, Choline Chloride, Vitamins (Vitamin E Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate, Niacin, Vitamin A Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Calcium Pantothenate, Riboflavin Supplement, Folic Acid, Vitamin B 12 Supplement, Vitamin D3 Supplement), Biotin, Tricalcium Phosphate, Salt, Minerals (Zinc Oxide, Reduced Iron, Sodium Selenite, Manganese Sulfate, Copper Amino Acid Complex, Potassium Iodide), Taurine.

Ingredients We Liked: Chicken Liver, Chicken, Fish Oil

Ingredients We Didn’t Like: Rice Flour, Guar Gum

Guaranteed Analysis

Crude Protein: 10%

Crude Fat: 5%

Crude Fiber: 1%

Moisture: 78%

Ash: 2.31%

Calcium: 0.63%

Phosphorus: 0.38%

Magnesium: 0.02%

Taurine: 0.09%

Dry Matter Basis

Protein: 45.45%

Fat: 22.73%

Fiber: 4.55%

Carbs: 16.77%

Caloric Weight Basis

Protein: 38.71%

Fat: 47.01%

Carbs: 14.28%

What We Liked:

Made with a limited number of high-quality ingredients
Contains about 45% crude protein on a dry matter basis
Rich in moisture to support your cat’s hydration
Fairly short list of high-quality ingredients

What We Didn’t Like:

Guar gum may trigger digestive upset in some cats
Not a single-protein recipe

#2 Restricted Diet Phosphorus Chicken Liver & Chicken in Juice Pate Wet Cat Food

$22.99 At Chewy $22.99 At Amazon View Lab Report

Made with chicken muscle meat and chicken liver, this formula belongs to Dave’s Restricted Diet duo. It contains lower-than-average phosphorus levels which can be helpful for cats with chronic kidney disease. This food is not nutritionally complete—it is for intermittent feeding only.

Restricted Diet Phosphorus Chicken Liver & Chicken in Juice Pate Wet Cat Food

Kate Barrington / Cats.com

Measured as dry matter, this paté-style food contains about 25% protein and 7.5% fat. Because these levels are controlled, the carbohydrate content is pretty high. Most of it comes from rice flour and tapioca starch, which aren’t particularly rich in nutrients. Fish oil, a species-appropriate source of omega-3s, makes up most of the food’s fat content.

While not suitable as a staple diet, this formula could be a good supplementary option for older cats at risk for kidney problems. It’s available without a prescription but shouldn’t be fed long-term without a veterinarian’s approval. The texture of this food gets mixed reviews, and some customers say the product they receive in the 3-ounce cans is softer than the food in 5.5-ounce cans.