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Evanger's Cat Food Ingredients

According to our research, Evanger's manufactures 22 cat food recipes using 145 unique ingredients. To evaluate the quality of ingredients used by Evanger's, we've studied all 145 ingredients. In this article, we'll share our findings on Evanger's ingredients.

Cat Food Recipes	22
Unique Ingredients	145
Artificial Colors	0
Animal By-Products	0
Anonymous Meats	0
Controversial	3
Harmful	0

First 5 Ingredients

Cat food ingredients in the United States are listed in descending order of pre-cooked weight. The first 5 ingredients typically constitute a significant portion of the recipe.

For Evanger's, these are the most common ingredients found within the first 5 cat food ingredients.

chicken
water sufficient for processing
water sufficient for processing
tomato paste
tomato paste

As you can see, the most common first ingredient in Evanger's is chicken. The most common 2nd ingredient is water sufficient for processing, followed by water sufficient for processing, tomato paste, and tomato paste.

Artificial Food Coloring Dyes

Evanger's does not use any artificial food coloring dyes. According to our records, none of the 22 Evanger's cat foods contain artificial food dyes.

Artificial food coloring dyes are unnecessary and potentially harmful ingredients. In general, we not not recommend feeding any pet foods that contain artificial dyes.

In 2010, the CSPI raised serious concerns regarding the safety of many artificial dyes. Most of the studies referenced by the CSPI involved prolonged or excessive consumption. Since most cats consume the same foods throughout their lives, concerns raised by the CSPI are alarming to say the least.

To read more about Artificial Food Dyes, click here.

Animal By-Products

According to our records, Evanger's does not contain any animal by-products.

Animal by-products are basically the leftover parts of the the carcass after its been processed for meat. AAFCO defines by-products as the non-rendered, clean parts, other than meat, derived from slaughtered mammals.

Although by-products are still fairly nutritious ingredients, consumers have equated them with slaughterhouse waste. Therefore, most premium brands, including Evanger's have decided to remove by-products and instead use named organ meats (beef liver, chicken gizzards).

For further reading on the controversy over animal by-products, click here.

Anonymous Meat Ingredients

Anonymous meats are inexpensive low-quality ingredients that can come from practically any animal. These type of ingredients are often used to produce very inexpensive cat foods.

In general, we prefer ingredients which specify the animal source used to derive the ingredient. For example, ingredients such as duck fat are much better than animal fat or poultry fat.

In our analysis, we've looked through all 145 Evanger's ingredients. According to our data, Evanger's does not contain any anonymous animal-based ingredients.

Cereal Grains

For cats, we typically recommend choosing a grain-free recipe. Cats are obligate carnivores and therefore grains are not species appropriate.

According to our data, Evanger's cat food recipes do not contain grains. In other words, all recipes are grain-free.

Please note, kibble production requires a binding agent. Grains are commonly used for this purpose in cat food. When purchasing grain-free cat food, grains are often replaced with another starchy source. This is also not ideal.

To avoid grains and other starchy additions, consider feeding wet or frozen recipes.

Controversial Ingredients

In most cases, ingredients which are given the controversial classification can be substituted with higher-quality alternatives. You should evaluate each controversial ingredient independently to see if there is truly a valid cause for concern.

Keep in mind, certain sacrifices often must be made to produce cat foods at a reasonable price. In general, the more expensive the product, the fewer controversial ingredients you'll find.

In our analysis, we've identified 3 controversial ingredients inside Evanger's products. These controversial ingredients are listed below. Click on each ingredient for more information.

pea protein

1 Recipes

Pea protein is produced by removing the starchy parts of peas. Pea protein is considered controversial because it provides a substantial plant based protein boost. This boost is undesirable because plant based protein is typically lower in biological value when compared to meat based proteins.

The following recipes contain pea protein:

Evanger's Grain Free Dry Food Meat Lover's Medley Recipe With Rabbit

liver

5 Recipes

Liver is a controversial ingredient because the source animal is not specified. Anonymous animal ingredients are typically very low quality and may contain almost any animal, including dogs and cats!

The following recipes contain liver:

organic liver

2 Recipes

Organic liver is a controversial ingredient because the source animal is not specified. Anonymous animal ingredients are typically very low quality and may contain almost any animal, including dogs and cats!

The following recipes contain organic liver:

Potentially Harmful Ingredients

Harmful ingredients are those which have been linked to adverse health effects. In general, we do not recommend feeding any product which contains any harmful ingredients.

During our review, none of the Evanger's ingredients analyzed were classified as harmful by our system. The absence of harmful ingredients is indicative of a relatively premium cat food brand.