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Kit & Kaboodle Cat Food Review of 2023: Recalls, Pros & Cons

kit and kaboodle review
Last Updated on November 16, 2023 by Christian Adams
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Review Summary

Our Final Verdict

We give Kit & Kaboodle Cat Food a rating of 2.9 out of 5.0 stars.

This food is one of the most inexpensive out there. However, the quality is quite low, with low-quality filler ingredients taking up the majority of each formula. It is cheap for a reason.

Kit & Kaboodle is a brand owned by Purina, which also produces a variety of other cat food. It is considered a budget option because its foods are typically extremely inexpensive compared to other options. Usually, owners looking for budget food are drawn to this brand.

However, this brand is budget for a reason. It uses extremely low-quality ingredients—some of the worst that you can select for cat food, actually. It does provide complete nutrition, and it is inexpensive, so it may be the best option for those on a tight budget. But most people probably want something a bit higher quality for its feline.Cat ball divider 1

At a Glance: The Best Kit & Kaboodle Cat Food Reviews:

ImageProductDetails
Winner
Kit & Kaboodle Dry Cat Food Kit & Kaboodle Dry Cat Food
  • Four fun, crunchy shapes
  • 100% complete and balanced nutrition
  • Crafted in USA facilities
  • Second place
    Kit & Kaboodle Outdoor Dry Cat Food Kit & Kaboodle Outdoor Dry Cat Food
  • Encourages shiny, lustrous coat
  • Two fun shapes
  • For all life stages
  • Third place
    Kit & Kaboodle Indoor Dry Cat Food Kit & Kaboodle Indoor Dry Cat Food
  • Contains added fiber
  • Helps support healthy weight
  • Balanced nutrition for adult cats
  • 3 cat face divider

    Kit & Kaboodle Cat Food Reviewed

    Who Makes Kit & Kaboodle & Where Is It Produced?

    Kit & Kaboodle is owned by Purina. This company owns many different brands with a variety of different names. While it has inexpensive cat food, it also makes a few high-quality options as well. Its higher-quality food options are often quite good. However, the cheaper options usually aren’t great for your cat.

    Most of Purina’s food is currently made in the U.S.A. In fact, it claims that 99% of its food is made in the United States. Many of its ingredients are sourced from the U.S.A., though not all. While it claims that its meat often comes from USDA sources, this likely only applies to its more expensive brands, not Kit & Kaboodle.

    All its vendors do have to meet specific requirements. However, these guidelines are not made public.

    Ingredients Commonly Used

    The ingredients do vary from recipe to recipe. However, they are strikingly similar. The food tends to be packed full of low-quality ingredients. Many include things like yellow corn flour high on the ingredient list, before the meat products. Similar grain fillers are included throughout. This is the major reason that these foods are so low-quality. They just don’t use high-quality ingredients. Your cat is what they eat, after all.

    Ground yellow corn is a common ingredient in these foods, taking up the most room. This ingredient is exactly what it sounds like: ground-up corn. Cat are obligate carnivores, which means they evolved to get all their nutrients from meat. They cannot always absorb nutrients from plant products. If they can absorb these things, they can’t always convert them into usable forms.

    For instance, cats can absorb beta-carotene, but they can’t convert it to vitamin A, like people and dogs can. They simply must get many of their nutrients from meat. Therefore, heavy use of ingredients like ground yellow corn usually leads to fewer nutrients for your feline.

    cat after eating food from a plate
    Image Credit: mik ulyannikov, Shutterstock

    The use of corn gluten meal is also fairly common. This is the protein part of the corn, which raises the protein content of the food. However, cats can’t always absorb or properly use the nutrients from plants, so much of this protein may be useless. Don’t let the protein content of a food fool you when gluten is high on the ingredient list.

    The meat products that this company does use are often fairly low-quality as well. For instance, meat and bone meal commonly appear. This is meat and bone that have been dehydrated and powdered. Meal itself isn’t a low-quality meat form. In fact, it is more nutrient dense than whole meat.

    The problem is the source of this food is unknown. You don’t know what sort of meat or bone it is. This can be a serious problem. If the company wanted you to know where the meat came from, it would have it listed. The fact that it doesn’t should be worrisome. It is likely something that people wouldn’t approve of, or it’s getting the meat from different sources often and making its food with whatever is available.

    Soybeans are common ingredients. They are high in protein and inexpensive, so they are often used as filler to raise the protein content of food. However, this is a plant, so it isn’t quite as bioavailable as other options.

    Variety

    This cat food brand does not provide many different options. It only has three dry food formulas currently, and it does not make any wet food formulas. Most of its formulas are similar as well. The outdoor and indoor formulas are not particularly different from each other.

    Overall, this brand has a small variety of foods. If you’re looking for something to switch flavors with often, this likely isn’t a suitable brand for you.

    Cost

    Generally, this is an extremely inexpensive brand. It is one of the cheapest on the market, which is one reason that owners are often drawn to it. However, this cheapness comes at a price. It is not nearly as high-quality as some other options on the market. It saves money by using extremely low-quality ingredients. Often, its food formulas do not include whole meat or even much meat at all.

    Recalls

    This particular brand has not had any recalls. However, it doesn’t sell much food or have many formulas, so this is to be expected. There are many reports of this brand making cats sick, though. Quite a few customers reported that their cats vomited after consuming this food, though this is likely simply because it is low-quality.divider-catclaw1

    A Quick Look at Kit & Kaboodle Cat Food

    Pros
    • Inexpensive
    • No recalls
    Cons
    • Low-quality ingredients
    • Little meat included
    • Full of fillers
    • Additives and artificial colors included
    cat + line divider

    Reviews of the 3 Best Kit & Kaboodle Cat Food Reviews

    1. Kit & Kaboodle Dry Cat FoodKit & Kaboodle Dry Cat Food 2

    According to the bag, Kit & Kaboodle Dry Cat Food is chicken, liver, turkey, and ocean fish flavor. However, there aren’t actually much of those actual ingredients in the cat food. The first ingredient is ground yellow corn. This is just a cheap filler that doesn’t offer much nutritional value. It is cheap, though, which allows the company to keep its prices so low. The next few ingredients are low-quality plant products as well, including corn gluten meal and soybean meal. Both of these are high in protein. However, cats are not good at absorbing nutrients from plants. Therefore, while they raise the protein content of the food, your cat is likely unable to get much from these few ingredients.

    Finally, meat and bone meal is the fourth ingredient. While this is a form of meat, it is fairly low quality. You don’t know what meat it comes from. It could literally be anything. If it was something high-quality, the source would have been listed. Therefore, it is safe to assume that this meat is likely something that you’d rather your pet not have.

    There are other meat ingredients in this food, though. For instance, chicken by-product meal is included. This isn’t as low quality as meat and bone meal, but it is still on the low-quality side. Things like turkey by-product meal and fish meal are included as well.

    The protein content of this food is also low. This is likely because it includes a great deal of grain and other low-quality fillers. Much of the protein is likely from the gluten in these fillers, not actual meat products. This makes the protein that is included low quality. Generally, there is little high-quality protein in this cat food.

    All that said, this food is 100% balanced and a complete diet for your cat, though the nutrients included are low-quality.

    Pros
    • Inexpensive
    • Complete diet
    Cons
    • Low-quality ingredients
    • Poor meat ingredients
    • Low in protein

    2. Kit & Kaboodle Outdoor Dry Cat FoodKit & Kaboodle Outdoor Dry Cat Food

    According to the advertising, Kit & Kaboodle Outdoor Dry Cat Food is the outdoor version of this brand’s food. It is flavored with both chicken and ocean fish. It doesn’t contain much of either meat, however.

    The first ingredient is ground yellow corn. This is a low-quality option. It is mostly a filler, with few nutrients for your feline. Because it is a plant, your cat may be unable to convert many of the nutrients in it into useable vitamins and minerals.

    Corn gluten meal and soybean meal are next. These are low-quality protein sources. Cats may be unable to completely use the nutrients in this dry cat food, which can result in fewer vitamins for your feline.

    Meat and bone meal is the first meat ingredient included. While meat is important for felines, this is a low-quality meat option. The source is completely unknown.

    There are a few higher-quality meat options here, including chicken by-product meal and fish meal. However, these are much lower on the list of ingredients and aren’t that high-quality either.

    This food is so-so on protein. It is 30% protein, which puts it in the moderate range compared to other things on the market. However, much of this is plant-based protein. This isn’t the highest quality option by any means. While there is quite a bit of protein included, it is low quality.

    Pros
    • Higher in protein
    • Inexpensive
    Cons
    • Lower-quality protein
    • Many grain products included

    3. Kit & Kaboodle Indoor Dry Cat FoodKit & Kaboodle Indoor Dry Cat Food

    The Kit & Kaboodle Indoor Dry Cat Food is this brand’s indoor cat food option. However, it isn’t much different from other options that this brand makes. It has multiple flavors, but that’s all they are: flavors. There isn’t actually much chicken, salmon, turkey, salmon, and garden greens. Ground yellow corn is the first ingredient. This is a low-quality filler that doesn’t include many nutrients. Unlike other options, though, chicken by-product meal is the second ingredient.

    By-products are not the best meat product out there. The problem is that you don’t exactly know what parts of the animal are included. Sometimes, they include organs and other parts of the animal that are nutritious but not usually eaten by humans. These are good for cats! They would typically eat these sorts of prey parts in the wild as well. But sometimes, the by-products include low-quality parts, like feathers, instead.

    Meal is a perfectly fine type of meat. This simply means the meat is dehydrated into a powder, which is useful for crafting kibble.

    Despite chicken coming in as the second ingredient, there are plenty of fillers in this food. Many are high in protein to improve the protein content of the food, such as soybean meal and corn gluten meal. These are lower-quality protein sources for felines and cheap fillers.

    This formula includes only 28% protein, which is lower than most other options. Much of this protein is low quality as well, as it comes from plant sources.

    Pros
    • Includes chicken by-products as the second ingredient
    • Inexpensive
    Cons
    • Low in protein
    • Low-quality protein
    • High in fillers

    cat face divider 2

    What Other Users Are Saying

    The reviews of this food are mixed. Some people reported that their cats were healthy on this food. They had shiny coats and plenty of energy. Others claimed that their cats regularly vomited up this food or began to gain excess weight.

    Not every cat is going to respond to food the same way. Many cats will act just fine on low-quality food, only to develop a chronic health condition later. Other cats react immediately to food that doesn’t sit well in their stomach. Sometimes, cats may vomit due to other problems, like an underlying illness.

    In many of these reviews, it’s not clear exactly why the cats were vomiting, nor do we know if the food was actually healthy for the other cats. For this reason, all these reviews must be taken with a grain of salt. We don’t know if other factors were involved in affecting the behavior and health of the cats.

    There were a few people that reported that their cats wouldn’t eat it. Because the kibble is all different sizes and flavors, some cats may pick out the pieces that they like and leave the others in the bowl. This can be annoying and often leads to much of the food not being consumed.

    However, other picky cats loved it. Like with most cat foods, it seems to be mostly cat-dependent. Some cats absolutely love this food, while others don’t like it.

    cat paw divider

    Conclusion

    Kit & Kaboodle is a fairly inexpensive food. It is one of the cheapest options on the market. However, the company can make this food so cheap because it uses low-quality ingredients. Most of these foods contain fillers like ground corn meal. These ingredients don’t provide much nutritional value, and cats may be unable to absorb them completely.

    Most of its foods include little meat. Usually, grains and fillers take up the first few ingredient spots. The meat that is included is typically low-quality. For instance, meat and bone meal occurs in all of its current foods. This is the lowest quality meat product that you can put in a cat food. The higher quality ingredients are usually further down the ingredient list. In other words, there isn’t much of them.

    Overall, this food is extremely cheap. However, it is cheap for a reason, as quality has been substantially sacrificed.

    About the Author

    Christian Adams
    Christian Adams
    Christian is the Editor-in-Chief of Excited Cats and one of its original and primary contributors. A lifelong cat lover, now based in South East Asia, Christian and his wife are the proud parents of an 11-year-old son and four rescue cats: Trixie, Chloe, Sparky, and Chopper.

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