The best dry cat food for senior cats aid in the vitality and longevity of your darling cat. As your feline friend gets older, their demands change. They may get lazy plus need more rest & care.
Moreover, their changing activities like less interest in games and exercise will change their nutritional needs. They require high protein, easily digestible, and fewer calories food. Have a look at our thoroughly researched best dry cat food for your older feline companion.
Our Top Picks
Meow Mix Tender Centers
Purina Friskies Tender & Crunchy
Best Dry Cat Food for Senior Cats 2024
List of Dry Cat Food for Older Cats 2024
Dry Cat Food Name | Ratings | Price |
---|---|---|
Meow Mix Tender Centers, Chicken & Tuna Recipe | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | |
Iams Proactive Health, Healthy, Chicken Recipe | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | |
Hill's Science Diet, Oral Care, Chicken Recipe | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | |
Purina Friskies Tender & Crunchy Combo, Chicken Recipe | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | |
Hill's Science Diet, Chicken Recipe | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | |
Blue Buffalo Healthy Living Natural, Chicken & Brown Rice Recipe | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | |
Purina One, Sensitive Stomach & Skin, Turkey Recipe | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | |
Hill's Prescription Diet, Chicken Recipe | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | |
Nutro Wholesome Essentials Indoor & Sensitive Digestion, Chicken Recipe | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | |
Solid Gold Indigo Moon, High Protein. Grain-Free, Chicken Recipe | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
1. Meow Mix Tender Centers Senior Dry Cat Food
- Top of the list because it contains 100% complete and balanced nutrition plus all the main minerals and vitamins that your cat requires every day.
- Multiple textures kibble surrounded by soft meaty layer inside plus crunchy layer outside aid your cat’s craving irresistible.
- Moreover, the delicious flavor basted bites are made up of chicken and tuna that cats love.
- Also, it is suitable for Adult cats, and you can mix this food with wet and treats to keep your cat happy and healthy.
Nutritional Information:
- Even picky eaters love this.
- Improves health conditions
- Helps to maintain a healthy weight
- Inexpensive
- No More Hairball
- May cause vomiting
2. Iams Proactive Health, Healthy Senior Dry Cat Food
- Grab it if you want to support your senior feline vitality and health as this food contains real chicken as the number 1 ingredient.
- In comparison to Iams Healthy Adult food, this food includes two times the antioxidants to restore the immune responses.
- Crunchy Cat Kibble aids in reducing plaque buildup to keep your senior feline teeth healthy.
- Moreover, to cherish healthy joints and the strong bones of your feline, it contains all nutrients and calcium.
- In addition, this food helps to maintain your senior indoor cat’s healthy weight with L carnitine.
- Lastly, this food supports to keep your cat heart healthy with nutrients like potassium and calcium.
Nutritional Information:
- No fillers and artificial preservatives are present.
- Help in weight management
- No urinary tract problems
- Fuel up energy in senior cats
- Good for senior cats having fewer teeth.
- May cause constipation and vomiting sometimes
- Picky eaters may refuse it.
3. Hill’s Science Diet, Oral Care, Senior Dry Cat Food
- This is the best dry cat food for older cats with bad teeth and improves oral health.
- Additionally, the cylinder size kibbles are clinically proven used to reduce tartar and plaque build in senior cats.
- Every bite of this food helps freshen breadth plus scrub and clean teeth of your cat with interlocking fiber technology.
- Moreover, this food helps make coats shiny and luxurious fur with Omega six and Vitamin E.
- This food is not recommended for your nursing or pregnant cats and kittens.
Nutritional Information:
- Help to fix tartar issues.
- The best alternative to treats
- Improve physical and oral hygiene conditions
- No more bad breath and gingivitis issues
- Big kibble size can make it hard to chew for some senior cats
4. Purina Friskies Tender & Crunchy Combo Senior Dry Cat Food
- This food contains meaty, tender pieces made with a combination of beef, chicken flavor, green beans, and carrots to help support strong lean muscles.
- Besides this food helps to support the healthy coat and skin of your cat with essential fatty acids.
- To improve the healthy immune system of your feline, it contains antioxidants.
- The pleasing crunchy kibble shapes grab your feline attention at mealtime.
- Lastly, this food is suitable for making belly happy for all life stages because this formula contains 100% balanced and complete nutrition.
Nutritional Information:
- Picky eaters love this recipe.
- Soft and crunchy nuggets are easily digestible
- Good Price and worthy of buying
- Stained your light carpet if your cat pukes a lot.
- May throw up.
5. Hills’s Science Diet Senior Dry Cat Food
- If you are looking for the best dry cat food for older cats with kidney problems, give this food a try.
- This food is suitable for Adults 11+ and senior cats having kidney and bladder health issues.
- Moreover, this food contains natural ingredients, vitamins E and Omega 6 fatty acids to make your feline’s coat and skin healthy and shiny.
- Additionally, this US-crafted mature cat food contains easy-to-digestible ingredients plus natural fiber that helps older cats’ stomach sensitivity.
- Lastly, this is a vet-recommended premium cat food that improves your cat’s heart health with taurine.
Nutritional Information:
- Make senior cats coats more shinny
- Small kibbles are easy to digest
- Make your senior feline more interactive and energetic
- Help in resolving digestive issues
- Aid in fixing mild kidney issues, arthritis problems
- Not suitable for sensitive stomach senior cats that may lead to diarrhea.
6. Blue Buffalo Healthy Living Natural Adult Dry Cat Food
- Blue Buffalo senior cat food is the best option if you are searching for the best grain-free dry cat food for senior cats.
- In addition, This brand always features real meat as 1st ingredient that provides high protein to your feline to build strong lean muscles.
- Moreover, it improves the digestive health of older cats with natural fiber sources and high-quality protein.
- Most importantly, this food contains a combination of carefully selected vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants to improve the immune system and maintain oxidative balance.
- Lastly, this food contains vitamins, and minerals enriched natural ingredients plus no fillers and artificial preservatives to maintain a healthy weight.
Nutritional Information:
- This food is approved by pick senior eaters
- Make sleek, sexy, and smooth coats
- Little kibbles are best for fewer teeth older cats
- No more matted hair issues
- Good for sensitive skin
- May cause bladder stone
- After eating salmon Flavor he may not like chicken Flavor
7. Purina One Sensitive Stomach & Skin, Senior Dry Cat Food
- This is the best dry cat food for senior cats that vomit, sensitive stomach, and skin because it’s a smooth digestible formula for your cat.
- Real Turkey is the number one source of high protein that helps to build strong muscles and a healthy heart.
- Moreover, it helps to create a robust immune system of your feline with a rich blend of antioxidants, and your cat will love to come back again and again.
- Also, these deliciously crunchy kibbles contain omega-six fatty acids to make your cat’s coat and skin healthy and shiny.
Nutritional Information:
- Good for cats with missing fur
- Solve vomiting issues
- No more throwing up issues
- Help in passing stool and cause no more smell.
- Very good for sensitive tummies.
- Not suitable for kitties with IBS
- Food allergic cats shouldn’t eat this
8. Hill’s Prescription Diet Adult Dry Cat Food
- This food the best dry cat food for senior cats with kidney problems that help to reduce chronic kidney disease progression.
- The kidneys maintain the normal balance of minerals and fluid within the body by filtering toxins and waste from the blood.
- With the age of the cat and other pets, kidney tissue damage may occur, and it’s an irreversible process until the loss of kidney function.
- This decrease in kidney function may lead to loss of muscle mass, and less food intake results in sick cat health.
- This clinically tested diet is developed with a veterinarian’s and nutritionist’s prescription.
- Lastly, this food supports your feline kidney function properly, helps maintain muscle mass and lengthen their lives.
Nutritional Information:
- Help in solving renal issues
- Help to slow down over water intake
- Good for kitty digestion and constipation issues
- Aid in stopping the throwing up issues
- Little Expensive but worth it
9. Nutro Wholesome Essentials Indoor & Sensitive Digestion Senior Dry Cat Food
- This is the best dry cat food for senior indoor cats that are uniquely crafted to support elderly cat’s health.
- Moreover, this rice and chicken recipe made up of Non-GMO high-quality ingredients obtained from trusted suppliers to provide fruitful food to your mature cat.
- Additionally, it helps support the heart and immune health of aging cats with essential nutrients and antioxidants.
- Lastly, it contains omega 6, obtained from natural fats, to build a shiny coat and healthy skin for your favorite cat.
Nutritional Information:
- Make fur softer, silkier, and good shaped
- No more hairball issues
- Healthy Weight Management
- No more undue sickness and dietary issues
- Help to stop overeating and litter box smells better
- Some cats may throw up
- Little tough packing to open
10. Solid Gold Indigo Moon High Protein Grain-Free Senior Dry Cat Food
- This is grain-free food suitable for all life stages and made with US raised chicken as 1st ingredient and egg for the active metabolism of your cat.
- Moreover, this high protein diet contains no artificial preservatives, colors crafted with balanced minerals and vitamins for overall health.
- Most importantly, this food is one of the highest proteins up to 42% on the market, and ideal for diabetes issues.
- Additionally, this food contains fiber-rich peas for balancing all ash content plus omega fatty acids for the shiny and soft coats of your cat.
- Also, this food is famous for supporting the gut’s health and immune system of your feline with balanced, cleanse, and fatty acids.
- Lastly, this food is crafted with carefully selected superfoods that provide 100% satisfaction and make it ideal for all life stages cats.
Nutritional Information:
- Improve Poop color
- Improve fur color plus make it more shiny and silky
- Keep weight healthy
- Picky cats love this food
- No more GI issues
- May cause digestion issues and diarrhea for kittens
Best Dry Cat Food for Senior Cats Buying Guide
Older cats are still your companion, so you need to keep in mind some factors that will increase their life span. Choosing the best food that fulfills all the nutritional needs and essential vitamins and minerals is a confusing task. So here is a guide to minimize all your problems so that you can choose the best dry cat food for your senior cat.
How to choose a High-Quality Senior Dry Cat Food
You need to consider many factors while selecting the best dry cat food for your older cat, which are the following.
Understanding Ages:
- Usually, cats live till the age of 10, 15, and very rarely until 20 years.
- So it’s necessary to understand that a cat will be called older around 11 years of age.
- Well, it’s not a hard and fast rule because breeding differences may result in age differences.
Animal Protein:
- It is the most preferable and important factor while choosing the senior’s cat food.
- The reason is that we need an amino acid and protein-rich diet, which can’t be sourced from plants.
Complex Carbohydrates:
- Senior cats require more energy and as compared to younger cats.
- So complex carbohydrates are the best way to gain this energy.
Fiber:
- It’s an important factor to maintain the gut health of your older feline.
- But choosing the right type and source of fiber has a huge impact on your senior feline’s weight maintenance and overall health.
Antioxidants:
- It helps reduce the aging effects in senior cats that are sourced from different vegetables and fruits.
Color, Preservatives, and Flavors:
- We need to choose that food that contains natural color, preservatives, and flavor for the overall wellbeing and health of your feline.
- Whereas Artificial color, preservatives, and flavors are harmful to the pets because it doesn’t have any nutritional value.
- So, while choosing the dry cat food, don’t forget to check the ingredients to avoid artificial ingredients.
Should senior cats eat Gluten-free or Wheat Free dry cat food?
- It’s a complex debate on whether to choose gluten-free or wheat-free dry food for your cat buddy.
- Well, some professionals and cat owners believe in feeding a gluten-free diet to the cat. While some suggest that to avoid digestion issues, there should be no grains in the cat food.
- Moreover, the whole grain recipe with vegetables helps us to provide complex carbohydrates.
- So it depends upon your cat’s health like if your cat isn’t allergic and doesn’t have tummy upset complaints, then you can feed them food that contains wheat.
FAQ’s
Should we feed treats to old cats?
- All cat lovers want to feed treats to their feline companions. But it is one of the causes of obesity in senior cats.
- So we will recommend feeding treats as minimum as possible until they are more beneficial for them.
What is the best/healthy/top-rated dry cat food for senior/elderly cats?
- If you are looking for the best senior dry cat food overall, we recommend you Meow Mix Tender Centers. While for the healthiest senior dry cat food we will recommend you Iams Proactive Healthy.
What is the best dry cat food for older indoor cats?
- We will recommend you Nutro Wholesome Essentials Indoor & Sensitive Digestion Dry Cat Food for your senior cat.
Do cats eat less as they get older?
- Age doesn’t impact the food intake while lifestyle does. As your cat gets senior there metabolism slows down because of fewer activities.
- So you need to feed them less food because fewer calories are required. You need to notice your cat’s weight and feed accordingly.
Should senior cats eat dry food?
- Yes! If older cats have teeth, then they can easily chew dry kibbles.
- If your cat has missing teeth, then you may prefer wet cat food.
- But still, some cats can eat dry kibbles without teeth if you softened them with warm water.
How many calories does a senior cat need?
- The calories need for senior cats are almost similar to adult cats, roughly between 280-360 daily calories.
- But it depends upon the healthy lean weight of your feline buddy to keep them healthy.
Do senior cats need special food?
Yes! With time when your cat becomes senior then he needs food that should have
- High-Quality Protein
- Easy to digest
- Complete and Balanced Nutrients
- Controlled fat level
- Delicious and tasty diet.
- Essential Carbohydrates
Final Verdict:
We have thoroughly researched the available options available in the market for senior cats. We have some researched recommendations for your ease. Additionally, If you are looking for teeth clean formula for senior cats, we recommend Hill’s Science Diet Oral Care. Moreover, there exist some older cats having kidney problems, so that we will recommend Hills’s Science Diet Senior Dry Cat Food. Lastly, If you want to tackle Sensitive Stomach & Skin problems, we recommend Purina, One Senior Formula.
So, which food worked best for your senior cat? Please let us know in the comment section. We really appreciate your precious feedback.