Evanger’s Grain Free Cat Food (Wet) Review And Nutritional Analysis

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Here’s a few important points:

• NOTE: This is a Supplemental food only and is NOT a complete and balanced nutrition plan for your cat. Use as a topper for dry food, or as a protein supplement
• No fillers, just meat and guar gum as a thickening agent
• Novel protein sources are available for cats who have allergies to common proteins like chicken

Evanger’s Grain-Free product line includes 9 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.

• Evanger’s Grain-free Rabbit (S)
• Evanger’s Grain-free Wild Salmon (S) 5 stars
• Evanger’s Grain-free Quail (S)
• Evanger’s Grain-free Chicken (S)
• Evanger’s Grain-free Pork (S)
• Evanger’s Grain-free Buffalo (S)
• Evanger’s Grain-free Duck (S)
• Evanger’s Grain-free Chicken (S)
• Evanger’s Grain-free Beef (S)

Evanger’s Grain-free Rabbit was selected to represent the other products in the line for this review.

Ingredient Breakdown

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

Rabbit is an excellent food that is fairly commonly eaten by wild cats.

Very biologically-appropriate, and full of protein and micronutrients.

After water, the second ingredient is liver. Good.

Liver is an important organ meat that your cat would eat in the wild to get extra protein, vitamins, and minerals.

This is usually a sign of a high quality food.

The third 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.

This recipe includes no other ingredients.

There are no vitamins or minerals added, which means this is not approved as a full, complete, and balanced diet. Remember that it is a supplemental food.

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 Evanger’s Grain-free Wet Cat Food

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

Again, it is only for supplemental feeding. Add it as a topper on your dry food, or use it to boost the amount of meat-based protein of any other food.

All it is, is a main meat source, liver, and guar gum as a thickening agent. There are no fillers.

Nothing to complain about at all. For supplemental feeding, it’s a no brainer.

Note that because Evanger’s doesn’t provide ash content, the carbohydrate content calculation may be off. Liver and guar gum have a bit of carbohydrate in them, but just keep in mind that the carbohydrate calculation we use may not be perfectly accurate if we do not have all the information.

To review, on a dry matter basis, this food is 45% protein, 23% fat, and 16% carbs.

As a group, the brand has an average protein content of 47%, and average fat content of 24%, and an average carb content of 14%.

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

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

Because it this is just meat, really, our rating for this brand is 4.5 stars.

Recommended for supplementation.

Evanger’s 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 Evanger brand in the past:

• 2017 – Serious concerns about pentobarbital, an animal euthanasia drug, being present in a variety of dog foods, among other FDA violations
• 2011 – FDA violations

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 Evanger’s Grain-free Wet 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. 

Not Convinced?

Check out our ratings and reviews of the best cat foods in our comprehensive, data-backed guide right here.