Avoderm Natural Grain Free Cat Food (Wet) Review And Nutritional Analysis

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3.5 Star

• Meat is the first ingredient – 1 Star
• Does not use unnamed meats – 0.5 Star
• Average protein content – 0.5 Star
• Less than 4 controversial ingredients – 1 Star
• Catological Discretionary Rating – 0.5 Star

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Here’s a few important points to consider for this particular line:

• Meat is the first ingredient, but about half of the recipes are very fish-heavy, which we don’t think is appropriate for feeding at most meals
• Most recipes contain minimal fillers, but some contain peas and tapioca – check each recipe carefully
• Contains added vitamins and minerals
• A decent formulation, but the non-fish formulas are lower on protein than we’d like to see

The Avoderm Natural Grain Free product line includes 10 wet recipes/flavors.

Each recipe below includes its related AAFCO nutrient profile when available on the product’s official webpage or packaging: Growth (G), Maintenance (M), All Life Stages (A), Supplemental (S) or Unspecified (U).

The star rating is a rough average of all of the flavors in a single line of food. If an individual recipe scored lower or higher, we will mark that below, next to the flavor.

• AvoDerm Natural Grain Free Chicken Herring (A)
• AvoDerm Natural Grain Free Chicken Chunks in Gravy (A)
• AvoDerm Natural Grain Free Sardine Shrimp Crab (M)
• AvoDerm Natural Grain Free Tuna Chicken (G, M)
• AvoDerm Natural Grain Free Salmon Chicken (A)
• AvoDerm Natural Grain Free Chicken Duck (A)
• AvoDerm Natural Grain Free Chicken Duck Pouch (A)
• AvoDerm Natural Grain Free Ocean Fish Pouch (A)
• AvoDerm Natural Grain Free Tuna Pouch (A)
• AvoDerm Natural Grain Free Salmon Pouch (A)

AvoDerm Natural Grain Free Chicken Chunks in Gravy was selected to represent the other products in the line for this review.

Ingredient Breakdown

The first ingredient in this cat food is chicken. Good.

While quality of the individual ingredient can vary, chicken is a very good protein source for cats.

It’s also important to note that chicken contains about 70% water, so when it is processed and cooked for use in cat food, it will become a smaller part of the total recipe.

The second ingredient is chicken broth. Good.

Instead of using water for processing, chicken broth is added for moisture.

Broth may contain vitamins and nutrients from the original animal (chicken, in this case), that water would lack.

This is usually a sign of a high quality food.

The third ingredient is sunflower oil. Good.

This is a decent source of fat for energy and potentially for a healthy coat.

The fourth ingredient is salt. Good.

Cats need salt – about 21 mg/day. 

Without knowing exactly how much is in here, it’s hard to say if it’s too much or not enough. 

Too much salt can lead to kidney and heart disease and hypertension. In some cases it can be used to encourage cats to drink water, since they do not have a strong natural thirst drive.

The fifth ingredient is guar gum. OK, but with reservations.

Guar gum comes from guar beans, and is a thickening agent.

In small quantities, like those in cat food, it should be a harmless ingredient.

However, some research has shown that including guar gum in a commercial cat food “had a significant negative effect on apparent protein digestibility in many of the cats and tended to depress apparent fat and energy digestibilities.”

While not heavily substantiated beyond this study, it might mean your cat needs to eat more protein to make up for the lower digestibility.

The sixth ingredient is tricalcium phosphate. Good.

Tricalcium phosphate is both a useful phosphorous supplement to help regulate acidity in the body, and an emulsifier.

It helps the food stay together a bit more in general, but without “caking” or “clumping”.

The seventh ingredient is avocado oil. Good.

The steam, pit, leaves, and skin contain persin, which is not good for your cats.

However, the actual flesh of the avocado is a reasonable source of fats.

It is mostly a gimmicky ingredient that doesn’t drastically alter the makeup of this food.

This recipe includes a number of other ingredients, but once you get down this far, none of them will be in large enough quantities to make a real difference, except for the added vitamins and minerals.

However, there are a few things you should know about.

It also uses carrageenan, another thickening agent.

Carrageenan is a very controversial ingredient. It is derived from a red seaweed.

One of it’s forms, degraded carrageenan, is a potential carcinogen.

While degraded is not used in food applications, some people have concerns that the ingredient could become degraded from a cat’s stomach acid, therefore potentially increasing cancer risk.

It is likely fine, but with so many other options on the market, many people choose not to take the risk.

To read a more in depth article about any of the ingredients listed here, check out our Cat Food Ingredient Wiki (currently under development).

The Catological Verdict on Avoderm Natural Grain Free Wet Cat Food

From top to bottom, this is an average wet product.

Meat is the first ingredient, but many recipes rely on fish, which we do not support feeding to cats as their main food source. There aren’t a lot of fillers, but they are still there. 

It does contain extra vitamins and minerals. 

Overall, this is an okay example of a wet food to feed your cat, but the fish recipes should not make up the majority of your kitty’s diet.

There are a variety of meat ingredients, and not a ton of extra plant-based proteins, so we can safely say this is a meat-based cat food.

To review, on a dry matter basis, this food is 44% protein, 11% fat, and 22% carbs.

As a group, the brand has an average protein content of 53%, and average fat content of 16%, and an average carb content of 7%.

Compared to the other 2000+ foods in our database, this line of food has:

• Above average protein.
• Average fat.
• Below average carbs.

Because it has multiple meat proteins, minimal fillers, but is too reliant on fish in some cases, our average rating for this brand is 3.5 stars.

Recommended, but there are better out there.

Avoderm Cat Food Recall History

We do not believe that a recall indicates a low quality food or company, and we respect the fact that sometimes things happen that cause a manufacturer to recall a food.

Usually these things are non-life-threatening, and we think it’s important to take a moment to be thankful about just how few recalls there really are in the industry, considering the enormous volume of food produced.

However, we do believe that a history of recalls may point to a larger issue with a company, and that discerning consumers want to know who they’re buying from, especially when it comes to something as important as the food you feed your beloved cat. 

Here is a list of recalls that have affected the Avoderm brand in the past:

• September 2012 – Possible salmonella contamination – 1 dog food recipe affected

If you want to stay up to date on the latest recall information affecting your cat’s food, sign up to our email list and receive an email every time a recall is announced. We’ll also let you know about any updated ratings, recipe changes, or new cat foods on the market. (Our alert system will be launched shortly, check back soon.)

Where To Buy Avoderm Cat Food

We recommend purchasing your pet products from Chewy.com. They continually prove that they walk the walk while talking the talk, and I’ve never dealt with a more dedicated pet-parent base of people than those who work at Chewy. 

Plus, they offer 20% off and free shipping on lots of orders.