American Journey Cat Food Review
American Journey is a home brand of Chewy, and as a home brand you may expect it to be not very good.
It’s actually surprisingly good for a dry cat food, and in this review I’ll cover the ingredients and the reasons why.
I’ll focus on the Turkey & Chicken Recipe, but consider all in the range to be similar.
American Journey review
What the marketing says
The American Journey packaging is refreshingly simple. Aren’t you sick of picture of gourmet chicken on cat foods when the truth is it’s mostly grain and some token chicken by-products?
Not the case here!
The front of the bag has the recipe name, “Grain Free”, and a few claims about nutrition, and a picture of a regular run-of-the-mill cute cat.
We also find the recipes meet requirements for all life stages, so this food is suitable for kittens and senior cats alike.
What the ingredients really say
Take a look at the ingredients list (down below for reference). It’s a laundry list, there’s such a variety of ingredients.
Thankfully many of them are meat ingredients, which is what you want for your pet carnivore.
The first ingredient is deboned turkey. On the front of the bag they use the term real turkey which is pet food speak for fresh wet turkey. The opposite of “real turkey” is turkey meal, which is actually what we find second (which is kinda funny if you’re a pet food geek like me).
There’s pros and cons to turkey meal. Some say it isn’t of the same quality as “real” meat, but it really depends on the quality of meat. Meal is basically a dry powder protein which has been cooked previously to remove moisture.
Meal means it’s a very dense protein, telling us most of the protein in American Journey is from meat, like we want.
The meat ingredients don’t end there, as we have chicken meal as the third ingredient, and various other meat and fish inclusions further down as well.
I realize I’m talking a lot about meat, but compare the ingredients of American Journey to any supermarket brand and you’ll find why a recipe like this is much more appropriate to your cat. Most supermarket cat foods are grain.
We find some less appropriate ingredients in the formula, but as a dry food this is expected. All kibbles need binders, which are starches used to hold them together. These also cut costs, but they’re minimal in this cat food. Tapioca, pea protein, and peas.
Protein of 40% is really good, and combined with 15% fat would mean lowish carbs around 27% (or one third). That’s decent.
I’ll try and keep the rest of the ingredients analysis short, but most are decent. Although I don’t like seeing ambiguous stuff like natural flavor (probably animal digest), we also have eggs (dried egg product), menhaden fish, flaxseed, plus a few select fruits and veggies which provide minerals and vitamins in a small moderation.
Some of those longer words at the end of the ingredients are pre and pro biotics for gut health, so a nice inclusion, and they’ve opted to preserve the food with rosemary as a more natural alternative to chemicals.
All in all American Journey has the hallmarks of a decent dry cat food, for a reasonable price. Granted there are better, but it’s still very good.
Where to buy
American Journey is only available from Chewy.
Ingredients
Ingredients of American Journey dry cat food (Turkey & Chicken Recipe):
Deboned Turkey, Turkey Meal, Chicken Meal, Tapioca Starch, Dried Egg Product, Pea Protein, Peas, Deboned Chicken, Natural Flavor, Menhaden Fish Meal, Chicken Fat (Preserved with Mixed Tocopherols), Flaxseed, Pea Fiber, Choline Chloride, Potassium Chloride, Inulin, DL-Methionine, Taurine, Salt, Spinach, Apples, Blueberries, Carrots, Cranberries, Pumpkin, Mixed Tocopherols (Preservative), Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Proteinate, Zinc Sulfate, Vitamin E Supplement, Iron Proteinate, Niacin Supplement, Copper Sulfate, Sodium Selenite, Copper Proteinate, Vitamin A Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate, L-Carnitine, Manganese Sulfate, Manganese Proteinate, D-Calcium Pantothenate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin Supplement, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Folic Acid, Calcium Iodate, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Rosemary Extract, Yeast Culture, Dried Enterococcus Faecium Fermentation Product, Dried Lactobacillus Acidophilus Fermentation Product, Dried Aspergillus Niger Fermentation Extract, Dried Trichoderma Longibrachiatum Fermentation Extract, Dried Bacillus Subtilis Fermentation Extract.
Guaranteed analysis
Guaranteed analysis of American Journey dry cat food (Turkey & Chicken Recipe):
| Protein | (min) 40% |
| Fat | (min) 15% |
| Crude Fibre | (max) 4% |
| Carbohydrates * | Estimated 27%. |
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