Meow Mix Cat Food Review
Meow Mix cat food is a classic case of deceiving marketing. It’s mostly corn (and soybeans) for a carnivorous cat. How can that make sense?
In this Meow Mix cat food review I’ll give you an insight into what’s really going on with this very popular very well marketed product.
Meow Mix cat food review – Original Choice Dry Formula
What the marketing says
According to the bag, Meow Mix is “the only one cats ask for by name. ®”. I don’t know about you, but I didn’t realize cats could talk 🤔
We find some beautiful graphics of chicken, turkey, salmon, and ocean fish, but these are preceded by the words “flavors of”. In labelling terms this means these ingredients don’t need to be significant in the food, and you’ll find out when we look at the ingredients how insignificant they actually are.
The last point I’ll mention about the packaging is the picture of vibrantly-colored kibble. This is often a warning sign, as premium products focus on the ingredients, not the color. The only reason color is added to cat food is to make you think it’s enticing, but we all know how bad food colorings are, don’t we?
What the ingredients really say
It’s laughable that the main ingredient doesn’t feature whatsoever on the front of the bag, or the recipe name (in this case we’ll look at Original Choice). In fact it’s not on the front of the bag anywhere.
Does it surprise you the first ingredient in a diet for meat-eating cats is…. ground yellow corn!?
If that doesn’t surprise you enough, the second ingredient is also corn – the controversial corn gluten meal.
So basically, corn and more corn!
Ingredients on a cat food are listed in order of significance, so it’s very likely the majority of Meow Mix cat food is just corn.
When we get to the third ingredient, thankfully chicken by-product meal, in this sinking ship of a cat food, it feels too little too late. How much of the 31% protein in the food comes from corn, and how much comes from readily-digestible meat protein? Not much I imagine.
The fourth ingredient doesn’t improve matters, and is probably in the same amount as the chicken. This turns out to be soybeans. Again, not what you would expect in a food for a carnivore.
So why is all this corn and soybean in Meow Mix? The answer is simple – these are very very cheap ingredients. They’ve put profit well and truly before the health of your cat.
Meow Mix cat food is artificially-colored corn and soybeans with some token meat content, bagged up in glamorous and deceiving packaging.
So what about all that meat plastered on the front of the bag? We’ve only covered chicken so far! Sadly the turkey, salmon, and ocean fish are way down the ingredients after calcium carbonate as a calcium additive (which a cat would normally get from the bones of prey). Calcium is listed on the guaranteed analysis at 1%, so I’ll leave you to make an educated guess how much turkey, salmon, and ocean fish there is in Meow Mix.
Should I feed my cat Meow Mix?
If you ever needed proof that a cute advertising jingle (meow, meow, meow, meow) and a catchy slogan (Cats ask for it by name!) doesn’t mean anything towards the quality of the food, this would be your case study. It’s pretty much awful, but people report their cats do indeed love it. However, I look at it as akin to feeding your kid hot dogs every day. Sure you can, and they may love it, but does that justify it?
If you haven’t gathered through the course of the Meow Mix cat food review, I personally wouldn’t recommend this corn product for carnivorous cats. Simple as that.
Also, what’s the deal with all the added colors? That has to be one of the most pointless additions to a cat food, but it’s part of what appeals to owners of Meow Mix. Hey, it’s vibrant!! That means it’s good?? Actually no, it doesn’t.
I’ll let you decide if this cat food is for you, but I hope our Meow Mix cat food review has given you enough information to make a wise decision!
Where to buy Meow Mix cat food
For the best prices why not order on Amazon.com?
Ingredients
Ingredients of Meow Mix cat food (Original Choice):
Ground Yellow Corn, Corn Gluten Meal, Chicken By-Product Meal, Soybean Meal, Beef Tallow (Preserved with Mixed Tocopherols), Animal Digest, Calcium Carbonate, Turkey By-Product Meal, Salmon Meal, Ocean Fish Meal, Phosphoric Acid, Choline Chloride, Salt, Potassium Chloride, Titanium Dioxide (Color), Vitamins [Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin Supplement, Vitamin A Supplement, D-Calcium Pantothenate, Thiamine Mononitrate (Source of Vitamin B1), Riboflavin Supplement (Source of Vitamin B2), Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Source of Vitamin B6), Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (Source of Vitamin K Activity), Vitamin D3 Supplement, Folic Acid, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement], Minerals [Ferrous Sulfate (Source of Iron), Zinc Oxide, Manganous Oxide, Copper Sulfate, Calcium Iodate, Sodium Selenite], Taurine, Yellow 6, Yellow 5, Red 40, Blue 2, Rosemary Extract.
Guaranteed analysis
Guaranteed analysis of Meow Mix cat food (Original Choice):
| Protein | (min) 31% |
| Fat | (min) 11% |
| Crude Fibre | (max) 4% |
| Carbohydrates * | Estimated 40%. |
I hope our Meow Mix cat food review has been informative. If it has, please share this with others in your local cat communities. Corn isn’t great for carnivores. Thank you.
I had a cat who was allergic to this. I didn’t know anything about cat nutrition since it was my second cat I ever owned. My other cat is 3 years old and I’ve been feeding him meow mix since he was a kitten. However, my 1 year old cat ended up getting seizures and couldn’t move his back legs. A few months prior, he would throw up a lot and had red diarrea most of the time. Had I known how terrible this food is, I would have never given it to him! He died in an IV at the vet. He was diagnosed with some kind of neurological issue from something he ate. Now, my 3 year old is starting to meow a lot. He is typically a quiet cat. I did some research and was informed that it might be a sign of his health. So, last night I threw out the 13lbs bag, which was full.
Any suggestions?
I just bought this for our new kitten, and he started wheezing, like he was going to vomit, right after eating. I had to find a kitten food that didn’t contain wheat, since my son is allergic. I will be switching to Iams.
are there any suggestions or a list of healthy (yet affordable) dry cat foods?? my Indy is throwing up from the meow mix…i stopped giving it to her a few days ago. stumbled up this site doing a search and was surprised to find the info i found about it ! looking for suggestions
Not defending the food, but what is with your aversion to by-products? They are a natural part of a cats diet. Just because we humans are disgusted by things like kidneys, hearts, spleens and intestines that doesn’t mean that they are unnatural or devoid of nutritional value, some by-products are actually quite nutritious. And yes, by-products can sometimes be things of low nutritional value like feathers, but unless you actually are at the plant to see what they are putting into the food you can’t really objectively state that the by-products in any food is good or bad.
We recently switched our rescue cat Cookie to the cheap meow mix because that was what we could afford at the time, first thing I noticed was it did not smell good at all. A week after she had eaten it, she began to lose fur on the sides of her tummy, tail and legs. Cookie also threw up every other night. Gave her one last can the other day because we still didn’t know her food change could be making her sick, she ate everything except the “chicken”. So I took a closer look at the bowl of food and noticed the chicken had gray spots on it, never feeding her meow mix of any kind again. Trying to figure out ways to sooth her itching skin and stomach.
Wow. I found this page because I searched “my cats hate meow mix” to see if mine was the only one. I know it’s not great stuff, but I have fed him dry Purina most of his life, for no particular reason. He likes it, and he was apparently healthy.
Then I bought a bag of Meow Mix because it was on sale. That was a mistake. He hates the stuff. I didn’t realize what was going on right away, because he wasn’t out of his Purina when I bought it, but he started begging like crazy, and actually losing weight because he would eat just enough to take the edge off his hunger and then quit. If you could only eat food you didn’t like, you’d probably do the same thing.
He was low on the Meow Mix when I was at a retailer I don’t normally go to and they had a giant bag of Purina on sale at a price I couldn’t pass up, so I bought it and dumped it by the garage door to move in later. When I opened the garage door, he immediately bolted (“FREEDOM!!!!”) but then 3 seconds later he had circled back and was eagerly vocalizing to me about his interest in this new food. (I picked him as a kitten precisely because he is extremely vocal, and I love a cat who will talk to me.) I put some of the Purina out, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen the guy eat with such gusto. Apparently Meow Mix is not only nutritionally horrific, but tastes pretty bad, too.
I had always assumed that the dry cat foods were all pretty much the same nutritionally, and I suppose in a very narrow sense that might be true, but I never realized there was so much variation in formulation, even in mainstream dry cat food. Sorry, Tomcat. I’ll never buy Meow Mix again. Now I know.
Your kitty didn’t die from eating Meow Mix, and cats don’t get worms from commercial brand food. The reason changing foods didn’t help is because the food didn’t cause your kitty’s illness. Most commercial cat foods are only so-so and cats are frail. If they are not doing well on their diet, try something else. Meow Mix is not any worse than Purina or Staters brand or any other basic non-premium cat food. Check the label.
This food is garbage. Many years ago before I knew any better I fed my cat meow mix at the time and he was constantly I’ll and throwing up from this stuff. Stay away!
I understand what this review is doing, but there is the issue of low income families like mine that cant afford a big bag of high quality food for around the same price. I feed meow mix to my 8 month old fur baby and he handles it without a hitch, i just want a high quality, low cost food for him. One of my issues is that i only like to buy the big bags because with one guy, it’ll last a long period of time and gives me the time when he starts running low to budget in the money for another bag. Mind you, my Tytan has never gone without, but i always worry. If you have any suggestions for me, let me know.
There are other dry cat foods in the same price range which are better. Not great, mind you, but better. I feed my Tomcat Purina dry cat food, with no apparent ill effects. He despises Meow Mix and the one time I bought it because it was on sale he ate only enough to avoid starvation. Apparently it tastes really bad, at least to him. I put the whole story in my main comment.
You might try fixing your kitty some human foods. Cats love scrambled eggs, yogurt, ground beef, turkey or chicken, stew, some mixed veggies, and cottage cheese. Food for thought!
Hi Kai, unfortunately like most things “you get what you pay for” to an extent. Have a look at Applaws which can be found in the supermarkets and Kirkland available from CostCo if you have one nearby. Both these foods are great for their price, although more expensive than Meow Mix.
Buying big bags is obviously the most cost effective option. Most online retailers have regular foods on sale, so it’s worth keeping your ear to the ground.
My cats started having seizures they have been eating Meow Mix
I just paid 500.00 on a vet bill because my 6 month old kitten got so sick..I am going to switch from meow mix kitten. I thought they were required to make a quality product for especially kittens..she just can’t stomach this low quality food..
don’t get me wrong I agree meow Mix is a very very poor product, however I don’t see what’s wrong about something like beef tallow for a cat. It’s an animal fat and at least it’s species specific. cats are carnivores so I don’t see how this is a problem.
Not to mention that despite cats being carnivores, there is a food chain and if a house cat were to go up against a cow like how they’re supposed to with their prey, the cat would most definitely lose. If the cat can’t catch it on its own, the owner shouldn’t do it for them.
Hi Marie, it’s a question of quality, and this is often a very poorly manufactured ingredient in a pet food.
My cat kept throwing up everytime I gave it to him, idk wha,still in this but I will never use it again.
Most dry foods use dyes and Meow Mix is the worst. Your cat is experiencing an allergic reaction to the food dye to make it pretty to the human but toxic to the kitty. FYI.
I think the whole issue of the food choice depends on one thing-the cat. Is it healthy?Is it happy? Are its eyes bright and its coat healthy? If so, you are probably feeding it the right food, whatever that may be.
Meow Mix has a new wet food Tender Favorites (2.75 oz container). My cat vomited the food not 5 minutes after she ate it each time. Not saying its bad food, just use caution with this product. Went back to Fancy Feast Gravy Lovers 3 oz cans.
Meow mix has made all 4 of my cats SICK! 2 in the house and 2 outside kittys. I just bought a huge bag from SAMs. I will throw it away! I will cook all my kittys eggs if they will eat it. If they will not throw it up. If yours get violently ill, stop the meow mix. Imagine how we would feel if we were sick like that… We would know it was FOOD POISIONING! RIGHT?
I’ve been feeding my cats meow mix for 10 years. I remember thinking it was better than other brands at the time, and just never changed because they ate it fine, but how could I have thought it was good if I read the ingredients label?? I have no idea why I thought that. This might explain why they throw up so often (not fur balls, just their food not even digested). I feel awful and I’m really glad I decided to check into it today at someone’s suggestion. I’m changing their food immediately.
10 years ago I may’ve thought the same! Thankfully there’s much more awareness these days, and a lot more research into pet nutrition.
I tried giving them Wellness Core Grain-Free Original. One of my cats scarfed it down and licked her lips! Her sister seems less interested, although she’s never been much for dry food (she won’t even eat try treats). It might take a while to find something they both like. Going to try a wet food brand as well that seems good (Natural Choice) and see how they do with wet food in the evenings and dry during the day. So glad this was brought to my attention! Thanks for this review.
I feed my cat nothing but HUMAN GRADE INGREDIENT diets that are Grain Free for kibble (for 1 year), and recently Raw. I keep Abby on a consistently revolving order of many different brands but all Grain Free and all HUMAN GRADE INGREDIENTS.
When she was on Meow Mix (her first year) I notice weird lumps in her abdomen. I took her to the vet and the veterinarian scolded me for feeding her this crap. She then told me to feed Abby nothing but HUMAN GRADE INGREDIENT diets (like Nutrisource, Precise, Taste of the Wild, and FirstMate). Meow Mix was making my cat sick and costing me a fortune in vet bills. I was willing to try anything.
Abby just turned 2, with her new diet she is much happier, outgoing, stronger, and lost a lot of weight. She is also excited when its breakfast/dinner time, before she would puke and not poop consistently.
My cats poop smells so bad in meow mix. Have been buying because my wok situ has changed. Before was buying Iams. I cannot go a day without gagging from her feces without any change to litter. And she goes multiple times a day with meow mix cpompared to once a day and no odor with Iams. Thumbs so definitely down with meow mix. Very preying on the poor with horrible results
Some people here are talking about the wet Meow Mix, which actually is pretty okay. What this article is talking about and what is bad is the dry food Meow Mix. It’s a shame that they even have the same name on them really as they aren’t close to the same as each other.
The wet kind, although it’s not the best if you’re looking for high quality food, is also really somewhat okay. They have real pieces of meat in them you can see that aren’t ground all up and the main ingredient is meat. It’s been found that their wet food isn’t too bad. Although you can and should be looking for better stuff it’s not horrible to give a cat wet Meow Mix here and there either.
This stuff makes my cats sick and vomit. I bought it by mistake I used it before and it did the same thing.
My cat is 14 yrs old she has always ate meow mix she wont eat anything else the only food that doesn’t make her sick.
Cats are like people in that they get used to what they are used to. That’s a stupid way to say it, perhaps, but if you only ever feed a kid hot dogs, they will tend to not want to eat anything else, and their body will learn to cope with it, to a certain extent. That’s not to say they’ll be particularly healthy, but they’ll be able to keep it down. At 14 years old, I wouldn’t try to change things up now. She’s an old lady, and she’s set in her ways, and changing things up on her is just going to cause her stress. But for goodness sake, when she passes on, don’t feed your next cat Meow Mix!
Growing up, I had a cat that had an awful seizure. Spinning in circles and couldn’t walk. Took him to the vet, and he did eventually get better, however; it wasn’t but a few months later that he passed away from an unknown illness. Fast forward to 2006, and my cat, Shadow, has a horrific seizure in the middle of the night – screaming and spinning and lost use of her right side. Rushed her to the vet, where they diagnosed a seizure. Again, she improved over time, but eventually her organs shut down and she passed on. My best friend has 4 cats, after a time, all of them became quite ill at the same time: glossy eyes, couldn’t lift their heads, loss of appetite, etc.
All of the cats mentioned above had been eating Meow Mix.
There should be a lawsuit against the company.
im so srry to here that i have a cat named tiger and she eats meow mix and other brands but it didnt bother her except shes a rescue cat she had a worm in her neck and i saved her by begging my dad but she acts a little wierd im kinda worried im scared im going to loose my cat like she meows all the time she not really lovable she runs away from you somtimes im really scared but hopfully she will be ok
My cat is in very good health. And eats meow mix every day. It’s a very good cat food
My cat do eat meow mix and she is in a very good health , I do change to Le chat from time to time, but still use the wet food from meow mix , i do medical exams for her and she is totally healthy
People can eat McDonalds as a regular diet and appear to be in good health, but are they? It’s possible that they are, but also unlikely.
The ingredients in Meow Mix are fact, and any professional will tell you most of them serve no nutritional or health benefit to a cat. You statement of “It’s a very good cat food” seems very ignorant to me, but you’re entitled to your opinion.
All cats are different maybe it a good food to your cat. Im just saying that the Pet Food Ratings shouldnt call squirrel ignorant. Not all cats are the same no matter if the mass amount has had a bad time with it
Sorry, Kiki and Squirrel, but the fact that some cats seem to be able to eat this garbage and survive in no way means that it is “great cat food”! Looking at the ingredients, it is pure kitty junk food! The first two ingredients are grains, which should not be present AT ALL, and the third is “chicken byproducts. All pure garbage! I say this as someone who out of pure ignorance fed this crap to our cats for many years. Knowing what I know now, I wonder if this cheap lousy contributed to the deaths of our two Egyptian Maus, both from kidney failure. When our daughters surprised us with an adult Ocicat for Christmas in 2011, our first feline in almost five years, we did a lot of study and learned that grain free fresh or canned food is MUCH healthier than ANY dry food. We now feed them (we have since adopted a second Oci girl) a high quality canned food (Soulistic Good Karma Chicken), and at ages 3 and 5 they are both happy, healthy, very active, and at good weights. Do your homework and you will never feed your loved feline family members this garbage ever again!
This crab meat Meow mix has given both long haired kitties the runny eye syndrome. They only get as a treat not regular diet, but both have this and I have stopped. Some cats are more allergic than others. It really pays to get high quality food for your felines.
HORRIBLE FOOD BRAND! I hate meow mix very much after reading what is in it I refuse to ever give my cats this again. It is the worst selling food brand. I started giving my first cat Oliver meow mix and he died randomly. We never knew why but now we are starting to realize that it was meow mix. We now have cats Swiper and Jasmine and we have been giving them Meow Mix and Jasmine is fine on it for now because she is a strong cat but Swiper throws up at least once a week. We are finally learning about Meow Mix and we will no longer give this food to our cats. Wish we knew this sooner. R.i.p Oliver
Hi Angela, sorry to hear about Oliver. I’m glad reviews such as this reach people. It only takes a little bit of research to find out what’s in a pet food, but I always find it very difficult to raise such awareness. People are easily taken in by the marketing without any real thought of what’s actually in the food.
meow mix made our young cat very ill,she never recovered from constant loose bowels the vet could not help her, even when changing her to another brand the damage to her preciouse body was already done, shady rest in peace, you should of lived longer than 8 months you will be missed
My Bombay breed has worms again from this worthless waste of a product. She came from the shelter with worms and she was fed meow mix. Until we could get their Orijen (best food in the world) we had to give my girls meow mix for 2 days. It is going to the trash for good.
Meow mix oceon explosion made my cat vomit like crazy do not give it to them ever
Oh no so very sorry to hear that. I didn’t know that Meow Mix was this bad. Will never buy this brand of food ever again. ♡♡♡
Very sorry to hear that Bill