Ziwi Peak Cat Food (Wet) Review And Nutritional Analysis

Our review process is unbiased and based on extensive research. If you buy through the links on our site, we may earn a commission.

Ziwi Peak Venison is one of our top 2 choices for best overall hypoallergenic food for kitties with sensitive stomachs.

Here’s a few important points:

• Packed with meat, including organ meat
• Only one filler ingredient
• Novel protein for cats with allergies
• Likely has more protein than the minimum guaranteed amount indicated on the label

The Ziwi Peak product line includes 5 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.

• Ziwi Peak Lamb (A)
• Ziwi Peak Venison (A) 4.5 stars
• Ziwi Peak Mackerel & Lamb (A)
• Ziwi Peak Beef (A) 3.5 stars
• Ziwi Peak Rabbit & Lamb (A) 4.5 stars

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

Estimated Nutrient Content

Method	Protein	Fat	Carbs
Guaranteed Analysis	9%	4.5%	NA
Dry Matter Basis	41%	20%	20%
Calorie Weighted Basis	37%	45%	18%

Ingredient Breakdown

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

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

The second ingredient is venison broth. Good.

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

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

This is usually a sign of a high quality food.

The third ingredient is venison 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 fourth ingredient is venison lung. Good.

Lungs are 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 fifth ingredient is venison heart. Good.

You may not love the sound of it, but your cat sure does.

Organ meat has vital nutrients your kitty needs.

It is pure muscle, which means it’s full of protein. It also has minerals and important vitamins that white meat does not have.

This is usually a sign of a high quality food.

The sixth ingredient is venison kidney. Good.

Venison is a very lean cut of meat that cats can do very well on, as long as they have organ meat to go along with it.

Kidney is a great source of protein, vitamins, and minerals.

This is usually a sign of a high quality food.

The seventh ingredient is venison tripe. Good.

Another part of the animal’s guts that are nutritious and biologically appropriate for your cat to eat.

It’s high in selenium, vitamin B12, and zinc.

The eighth ingredient is chick peas. OK, but with reservations.

An obvious non-biologically appropriate carbohydrate filler, beans are at least potentially better than corn.

They are unlikely to do any damage to your cat.

However, some cats may have trouble digesting them.

They are also protein-rich, which means the actual meat content of this recipe may be lower than the macronutrient profile suggests.

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.

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 Wet Cat Food

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

From the abundance of meats, including organs, to the limited ingredients, to the addition of important minerals and vitamins, this ticks most of the boxes.

This is a good example of the type of food you should be feeding your cat, and we believe the total protein amount is actually higher than the minimum guaranteed analysis. 

Being so low on the ingredients list, we do not believe there are enough chick peas in this recipe to increase the carbohydrate content as much as our data shows.

Since meat shows up frequently, and right at the top of the ingredient list, we can assume that this is a meat-based cat food, with enough meat to make it biologically appropriate for a cat’s dietary needs.

To review, on a dry matter basis, this food is 41% protein, 20% fat, and 20% carbs.

As a group, the brand has an average protein content of 39%, and average fat content of 22%, and an average carb content of 20%.

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

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

With an ingredient list like this, it is nearly impossible for the food to actually rank so poorly on protein and carbs. 

This may be the only food we recommend highly with below average protein and above average carbs, simply because the recipes don’t leave room for this to be fully accurate.

Because it is full of quality meat products, including organs, and only limited other ingredients, our average rating for this brand is 4 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 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.