If you have a skinny cat that needs to gain weight, an older cat, or a cat with a mouth sore, it may be important to find the best high-calorie cat food to ensure she gets enough nutrition. to maintain a healthy weight.
Our review process is unbiased and based on extensive research. if you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a commission.
Our review process is unbiased and based on extensive research. if you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a commission.
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what happens with high-calorie foods
Before moving on to the actual reviews, it’s important to note that it’s not the number of calories in a certain food that matters here, but the number of calories your cat is actually eating.
I highly recommend you check out our guide on how much to feed your cat.
this will give you a good idea of your cat’s actual caloric needs.
For most healthy adult cats, you should consider feeding them a little more than any high-quality cat food you currently purchase. (If you’re looking for new food, here’s a list of the best of the best.)
however, we understand that there are some circumstances in which you may need to feed a cat a high calorie food, which we will discuss below.
Another quick note: We recommend wet food over dry food in almost all cases. dry foods lack sufficient moisture, and prolonged consumption of dry kibble can lead to dangerous dehydration, kidney disease, and urinary tract problems.
why feed your cat high calorie cat food?
Higher calorie cat foods basically contain more energy in each bite than other foods. that means your cat could eat the same amount of food that he is currently eating, but he would start to gain weight. Weight loss would only occur if she still couldn’t get enough calories, and she may need help from her vet at that point.
This is a great way to put a little fat on a cat without force-feeding it!
There are some types of cats that may require a higher calorie diet than normal.
senior cats
When cats are 10 to 12 years old, they enter their senior years and their bodies need 1.1 to 1.6 times more calories and protein. this is because your body kicks into gear and begins to process food more quickly.
You may find one on this list to help, but we recommend you check out our article on the best foods for senior cats here.
sick cats with poor appetite
When your cat is sick, they may not have the same hunger drive they usually do.
if this is the case, and you are trying to nurture him back to health, a high calorie food could save his life.
in general, wet foods will be better for these cats (as with all cats), mainly because they are easier to eat and generally taste better to your kitty.
cats with mouth/teeth problems
if your cat has a sore mouth or dental problems, it can be incredibly difficult for him to eat enough.
feeding a brand with more calories than usual is one way to make sure you don’t starve yourself or lose too much weight.
again, soft food is probably the best choice, as it is much easier to eat than a hard, dry, crunchy kibble.
Kittens
Kittens can eat up to 2.5 times more than adult cats!
that’s because they’re growing up and pack a ton of weight for their little bodies in the first year of their lives.
We’ve covered kitten-specific foods in our best kitten food article here.
underweight cats
If your adult cat is healthy but underweight, you may want to consider one of the options on our list below.
Of course, as we mentioned, the most important thing is to make sure he’s getting enough calories every day, and that could mean that all you need to do is increase the amount of food you feed him at mealtime.
However, if your cat is a picky eater or for some other reason just doesn’t want to eat a lot of food, then the list below should be a great way to find your next food option.
how we choose the best high-calorie cat food
We have a huge cat food database (more than 2,000 foods), which we’ll explain a bit more below. But it’s important to mention what criteria we used when creating this list of the best high-calorie foods.
on our list of foods, we rate them from 1 to 5 using 5 different rating points. the foods below have at least 4 out of 5 stars. that means they are much better than average.
The average calorie for wet foods in our entire database is 98 calories/100 grams or 0.98 calories/gram.
The average calorie for dry food across our entire database is 377 calories/100 grams, or 3.7 calories/gram.
To count as “high calorie” for our purposes, we chose only wet foods with more than 130 calories/100 grams (1.3 calories/gram) and only dry foods with more than 430 calories/100 grams ( 4.3 calories/gram) .
what cats really want to eat
studies in both commercially fed domestic cats and feral and stray cats show that cats will self-select food sources that result in a macronutrient profile in this range (dry matter basis used):
- protein: 52-63%
- fat: 22-36%
- carbs: 2.8-12% (with “feral” cats at the lower end of this range)
- aafco valuation
- list of ingredients
- macronutrient profiles (guaranteed analysis, dry matter basis and caloric basis)
- price and price per pound
- calories per 100 grams
- if meat is the first ingredient
- how each food compares to the average of all foods based on macronutrients
- if the recipe uses more than 4 controversial ingredients
- if the first ingredient in the meal is meat, score 1 point.
- if the meal does not use unnamed meat ingredients (“meat by-products”), it scores 1 point.
- If the food has a higher than average protein level in dry matter, compared to all other foods in the database, it scores 1 point. if you have an average amount, you get 0.5 points.
- If the recipe contains fewer than 4 controversial (not necessarily bad) ingredients, it scores 1 point. if it contains exactly 4, it gets 0.5 points.
- End Point Available is a discretionary point we award based on things like carbohydrate content, probiotic and vitamin inclusion, and other points, and is our criteria for the quality and biological suitability of a food for use cat.
What we think this shows is that cats have evolved to thrive on a high protein, moderate fat, low carbohydrate diet.
how we rate food
our cat food database contains over 2000 individual foods.
we collect all relevant information about each product, including:
each of these data points works together to form a star rating on a scale of 1 to 5 stars (including half points).
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We believe this system provides a fair and transparent system whereby we can compare all foods on an equal footing and give you the easiest possible time to choose the best of the best.
