Ziwi Peak Cat Food (Air-Dried) Review And Nutritional Analysis

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Ziwi Peak Air Dried Venison is one of our top 3 choices for best air- or freeze-dried cat food overall.

Here’s a few important points:

• Packed with high-quality meat ingredients, including organ meat
• Very close to a natural, wild diet – very biologically appropriate
• Chelated minerals for better absorption and digestibility
• No added fillers

The Ziwi Peak Air-Dried product line includes 4 air-dried 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.

• Ziwi Peak Air Dried Mackerel & Lamb (A)
• Ziwi Peak Air Dried Lamb (A)
• Ziwi Peak Air Dried Beef (A) 4 Stars
• Ziwi Peak Air Dried Venison (A) 5 Stars

Ziwi Peak Air Dried Venison was selected to represent the other products in the line for this review.

Ingredient Breakdown

The first ingredient in this cat food is venison meat, including up to 3% finely ground bone. Good.

A lean, high quality meat, venison is a novel protein, which can help with cats who have allergies or sensitive stomachs.

The addition of bone is very good, as cats would eat some bone in the wild, and they are packed with nutrients.

The second ingredient is venison organs (liver, lung, tripe, heart, and kidney). Good.

Organ meat is very protein-rich and full of nutrients.

Getting such a wide range is very biologically appropriate and very much like how your cat would eat in the wild.

The third ingredient is green-lipped mussel. Good.

These mussels come from the New Zealand coast, and are added to a number of high quality New Zealand-made recipes.

They contain properties that help reduce inflammation, and support the repair of cartilage. Therefore, they are beneficial to your kitty’s joint health.

The fourth ingredient is lecithin. Good, but not defined enough.

Lecithin improves vitamin absorption and contains 3 essential fatty acids that your kitty needs to thrive.

It also helps improve the immune system.

Unfortunately the source is not defined.

Lecithin typically comes from soy or sunflower. 

If it comes from soy, many people prefer to stay away from it because of GMO concerns.

The fifth ingredient is chicory inulin. Good.

While inulin can be used as a sweetener, it is used in cat foods to act as a prebiotic and aid digestion. 

If too much is consumed, it could cause gastrointestinal distress, much like an abundance of fiber.

The sixth ingredient is dried kelp. Good.

Kelp is added as an industry standard source of iodine.

Iodine is an essential nutrient for cats, containing two hormones which are responsible for regulation of the thyroid gland.

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 still a few things you should know about.

This recipe uses the chelated form of minerals, which means that they should be easier to digest for your cat, and be more readily available for her body to use to maintain her health. This is usually a sign of a quality 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 Ziwi Peak Air-Dried

From top to bottom, this is an above average air-dried product.

From the numerous cuts of meat, to the lack of fillers, to the added vitamins and minerals, this just ticks all of the boxes.

This is a fantastic example of the type of food you should be feeding your cat.

Since this food is almost exclusively meat. we can assume that this is a meat-based cat food.

To review, on a dry matter basis, this food is 52% protein, 29% fat, and 7% carbs.

As a group, the brand has an average protein content of 47%, and average fat content of 35%, and an average carb content of 5%.

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

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

Because it contains almost exclusively quality meat products, our rating for this brand is 4.5 stars.

Highly recommended.

Ziwi 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 Ziwi brand in the past:

• We found no instances of recall events in Ziwi’s history.

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 Ziwi Air-Dried 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.