Nom Nom Cat Food Review: The Best Fresh, Homemade Cat Food Delivery Service

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If you’re convinced of the benefits of a fresh, homemade diet for your kitty, but are a little apprehensive about pulling it off yourself, Nom Nom is here to save the day.

While we do recommend many cat parents try a homemade diet, we also realize how hard it is for most people to fit it into their schedule.

You’ve got to buy all the tools, including, for many recipes, a meat and bone grinder.

You’ve got to regularly buy ingredients.

You’ve got to make a big batch of food every week or every month (if you’ve got the freezer space, that is).

You’ve got to clean up all that equipment and your kitchen when you’re done.

You’ve got to make sure you pick a biologically appropriate recipe that covers all the micronutrient needs your cat has, which is especially tricky when you realize that cats need to eat certain amino acids because they don’t produce them all themselves.

Veterinarians see far too many cats who become sick due to a poor homemade diet that doesn’t deliver adequate nutrition, so for many, it’s not worth the chance.

It’s such a wonderful gift to give your cat, but it’s pretty obvious why more cat parents aren’t doing this.

So if you’re determined not to buy commercial cat food, we think you’re going to love our pick for the best fresh, homemade cat food that can be delivered right to your doorstep every week.

What Is Nom Nom?

Nom Nom delivers healthy and nutritious pet food made with the freshest, restaurant-quality ingredients (there’s a video of the founders eating the food…it’s that good!) – all with the convenience of home delivery and free shipping.

Nom Nom meals are cooked weekly in the company’s local FDA-compliant kitchen, individually proportioned, tailored to meet the specific nutrition needs of each pet, and ready to serve with no preparation.

You’ve probably heard about those human-food delivery companies, right? They either send you ingredients and recipes to make it yourself, or they send you prepared food that saves you a ton of time and headache.

Nom Nom is like that, only for your cat.

Why Should You Use Nom Nom To Feed Your Kitty?

1. Give your cat a biologically appropriate diet that will see her thriving and give her the best chance to spend many more years at your side.

This is obviously at the top of our list, because the whole point of feeding fresh food like this with amazing ingredients, is to give her a long, happy, and healthy life.

There is nothing in this food that seems to detract from this goal, and with a team of veterinary nutrition experts to back them up, it’s hard to find anything wrong with the formulations.

Nom Nom gives you all the benefits of a fresh, homemade, biologically-appropriate feline diet, and removes all of the headache involved with doing it yourself.

2. All recipes are formulated by one of the country’s leading veterinary nutritionists, Dr. Justin Shmalberg.

Unfortunately, too many pet parents don’t do the research required to craft a balanced and nutritious diet when they begin feeding their cat a raw or homemade diet.

Vets see heartbreaking cases frequently, where a cat suffers horribly because he’s only given muscle meat, for example.

If you’re not a cat nutrition expert, or follow the recipes created by one to the letter, then you’re at risk of doing irreversible damage to your cat. It could even be fatal.

Thankfully, Nom Nom’s recipes are formulated by Dr. Justin Shmalberg, a leading veterinary nutritionist.

Nom Nom has had years of success using the recipes he’s formulated, and it’s no wonder when you look at what they include.

Their recipes, which we’ll get into below, are mainly meat (and not just muscle meat, which is inadequate for cats), with a few carefully selected produce ingredients, and a nutrition mix that rounds out the dietary needs of felines (things like vitamins and minerals).

3. Made in an FDA-compliant kitchen, the food is all-natural and Human-Grade.

There’s a fun news story that was done on Nom Nom before they were even making cat food, that shows one of the founders eating some of the dog food they created because it’s such high-quality food.

It’s Human-Grade, which means it’s not the past-due meat from supermarkets which frequently make their way into commercial cat foods, and it’s not the “gross bits” we’d trim off of the meat before eating the food ourselves.

You could eat this yourself, and it would be fine…it’s just that it’s formulated to meet your cat’s needs!

They also own their kitchen, which is a big deal, since many other companies outsource and therefore lose some control over the quality and the process. The food is not mass-produced, and the environment in which it’s made meets FDA standards.

4. It’s incredibly convenient.

You go to the site, enter a little info about your kitty (age, weight, and target weight), select the recipe you’d like, and go through the checkout process.

It’s simple, quick, and convenient.

They then buy the ingredients and make your food. It may take a couple of days to a week or so to get your first order, but I think since they’re making the food fresh, that’s a good thing!

5. It comes in easy-to-open (no scissors necessary), recyclable packaging.

Everything is super easy about using Nom Nom, including giving your cat her food.

You just tear open the package and put it into her bowl.

Then you can recycle the bag it comes in, which is a fantastic touch!

Great customer service and the ease of use we’ve come to expect with on-demand options like Uber and Airbnb

Why It Might Not Work For Your

1. It is a more expensive option than feeding a standard commercial cat food.

While it’s not prohibitively expensive, it does cost more than most commercially available foods out there.

As an example, at full price, a week’s worth of fresh, healthy food will cost you $35.89/week for a 3-year-old, 10-pound cat. (They will give you 50% off your first week’s order if you sign up through the link we’ll provide below, but let’s focus on the normal price for now.)

While we don’t doubt your dedication to your feline friend’s health and lifespan, that can be hard to afford for some budgets.

2. It’s not all that customizable.

While you can indeed get feedback from their nutrition experts while you’re placing your order, they won’t custom-formulate a recipe for you.

I think this is fair since customized orders would mean they wouldn’t be able to do anything at scale, which means they’d likely raise prices significantly, or maybe even not find the business profitable anymore.

However, if you aren’t 100% in love with the recipes, it means you don’t have much of an option.

3. Not many recipe options.

Pretty sure your kitty will devour the two chicken and fish recipes they do have, but if for some reason your cat doesn’t like either or both of them, you’re out of luck.

They do only offer the two recipes.

Again, if your cat either doesn’t like the taste, or is allergic to one of the ingredients, you won’t be able to mix it up every once in awhile and will be left finding another provider (or making it yourself).

Nom Nom’s Cat Food Recipes

Studies have shown that when offered commercial wet foods, cats will “self-select” a diet that comes out to be 52% protein, 36% fat, and 12% carbohydrate.

When it comes to feral and stray cats, studies show that cats will, on average, eat a diet made up of 52% protein, 46% fat, and just 2% “N-free extract” (basically, whatever sugars, starches, and vitamins are left over). Or, on a dry-matter basis (removing the water), 62.7% protein, 22.8% fat, 11.8% minerals/ash, and 2.8% NFE (carbs, etc.).

While it’s technically correct that they are strict carnivores, it ignores the fact that one of the first things a cat will eat of prey animals is the stomach contents.

It may sound gross, but the stomach contents of a mouse or small critter like that can be full of partially digested plant matter, which many of the studies above don’t fully account for.

Cats don’t need a whole lot of this, but it’s telling that it’s among the first things they eat when they make a kill.

This is how cats consume most of their carbohydrates in the wild, and so some vegetables and roughage in their diet is a good thing, especially when combined with probiotics or enzymes that help to break it down in their stomachs.

ANYWAY!

The reason I’m telling you all this is because the recipes DO include some produce, and we’ve seen some people say that’s a bad thing.

I believe that unless you’re going to be serving live mice to your cat, adding a few fruits and vegetables in, as long as they’re cooked or broken down into small pieces and more easily digestible, can help balance the nutrient profile of a meal.

Chicken Cuisine

Chicken is a fantastic protein source for your cat, especially if you include a variety of parts of the bird.

Nom Nom uses the thigh, breast, and liver, for a nice balance of fat, protein, and vitamins.

As I touched on above, they do include some non-meat ingredients, but the carbohydrate range is very low compared to commercial cat foods, and certainly within acceptable levels.

Here are the ingredients:

• Chicken thigh, breast and liver
  • Tasty source of protein, vitamins, and minerals (iron, copper, vitamin D)
• Asparagus
  • Excellent source of vitamins and minerals, including potassium to keep your cat’s heart healthy
• Carrot
  • Beta carotene serves as an antioxidant
• Spinach
  • A superfood that boosts the immune system and strengthens the digestive system
• Cantaloupe
  • Packed with beta carotene, potassium, amino acids, and antioxidants—plus that melon flavor cats can’t resist
• Nom NomNutrient Mix
  • Expertly formulated nutrition blend

And here’s what’s in that Nom NomNutrient Mix, according to the ingredients label: 

dicalcium phosphate, calcium carbonate, salt, citric acid (natural preservative), taurine, choline bitartrate, zinc gluconate, ferrous sulfate, vitamin E supplement, copper gluconate, manganese gluconate, thiamine mononitrate (vitamin B1), selenium yeast, riboflavin (vitamin B2), vitamin B12 supplement, cholecalciferol (source of vitamin D3), sodium iodide.

On a calorie basis (and assuming grams/1000 calories), the macronutrient profile is:

• Protein: 161 grams (56%)
• Fat: 40 grams (34%)
• Carbs: 29 grams (10%)

On a Dry Matter basis, which can give you a better idea when comparing it to dry cat foods, because it calculates the nutrients without the water (i.e., you can accurately compare wet and dry foods), the macronutrient profile is:

• Protein: 66.67%
• Fat: 14.81%
• Carbs: 11.11%

Very similar to what the studies point to as an optimal diet for cats.

The carbs might be a bit high compared to “perfection”, but compared to some dry foods that have 40%+ carbs, this is an insanely good profile.

Fish Feast

If your kitty loves fish, this omega-fatty-acid-packed recipe will have her thinking she gets to eat treats instead of a balanced meal every day…only it is a balanced meal that will help her thrive.

Two types of fish give a variety of nutrients, beef fat, and a couple of vegetables make up the recipe, plus the variety of vitamins and minerals in their nutrient mix.

Here are the ingredients:

• Tilapia
  • Protein, vitamins, minerals, and omega-3 fatty acids for a luxurious coat
• Salmon
  • More omega-3s, vitamins, and minerals—plus a tasty flavor cats love
• Beef fat
  • A source of choline and unsaturated fatty acids for a healthy coat and skin
• Yuca
  • Calcium, vitamin C, and minerals galore for strong bones
• Carrot
  • Beta carotene serves as an antioxidant
• Nom Nom Nutrient Mix
  • Expertly formulated nutrition blend

And again, here’s the Nutrient Mix: 

dicalcium phosphate, calcium carbonate, salt, citric acid (natural preservative), taurine, choline bitartrate, zinc gluconate, ferrous sulfate, vitamin E supplement, copper gluconate, manganese gluconate, thiamine mononitrate (vitamin B1), selenium yeast, riboflavin (vitamin B2), vitamin B12 supplement, cholecalciferol (source of vitamin D3), sodium iodide.

On a calorie basis (and assuming grams/1000 calories), the macronutrient profile is:

• Protein: 143 grams (50%)
• Fat: 53 grams (45%)
• Carbs: 15 grams (5%)

On a Dry Matter basis, which can give you a better idea when comparing it to dry cat foods, because it calculates the nutrients without the water (i.e., you can accurately compare wet and dry foods), the macronutrient profile is:

• Protein: 60%
• Fat: 20%
• Carbs: 13.33%

Again, super close to what researchers have found to be the “ancestral” or “wild” diet of felines, though we don’t recommend feeding a fish-heavy diet as the main source of your kitty’s nutrients.

How Much Does Nom Nom Cost?

Here we’ll give a couple of examples, but feel free to play around with their estimator.

Example 1:

• Age: 3
• Weight: 10 lbs
• Target Weight: 10 lbs
• Recipe: Chicken
• Price: $35.89/Week ($17.95/week for your first order…plus free shipping)

Example 2:

• Age: 8
• Weight: 19 lbs
• Target Weight: 16 lbs
• Recipe: Fish
• Price: $40.59/Week ($20.30/week for your first order…plus free shipping)

What Do Other People Say About Nom Nom?

I may have gone in-depth into Nom Nom and their recipes, but I find it useful to look through a couple of other sources, just to make sure there are no common problems.

Happily, they’ve got amazing Google and Trustpilot reviews.

Google: 4.7/5 star rating, with 85+ reviews

Trustpilot: 9.5/10 star rating, with 180+ reviews

So, Should You Use Nom Nom?

Short answer: Yes, if you can afford it.

The nutritional profiles alone are easily among the best that I’ve seen, and I’ve looked through hundreds of cat foods.

It’s got most of the benefits of homemade foods with none of the hassle. And if you can afford the premium price you’ll pay to avoid the hassle, it’s a great decision to make.

If it’s the right choice for you, sign up through our link below to get 50% off your first order!

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