Last updated Apr 19, 2023
Lily’s Kitchen pet food is made with freshly prepared meat and natural ingredients. Their pet foods are sold in western Europe, the middle East, and the Asian Pacific. Find out if Lily’s Kitchen cat food is a good choice for your cat in our unbiased review.
The Cats.com Standard – Rating Lily’s Kitchen Cat Food on What Matters
We have analyzed Lily’s Kitchen cat food and rated it according to our standards here at Cats.com. Our grades are based on the species-appropriateness of the food, the quality of the ingredients, product variety, price, customer experience, and recall history. You can read more about our ratings here.
Here are our ratings for Lily’s Kitchen in these key areas:
Ratings
- Species-Appropriateness – 8/10
- Ingredient Quality – 7/10
- Product Variety – 8/10
- Price – 6/10
- Customer Experience – 8/10
- Recall History – 9/10
Overall Score: 7.7/10
We give Lily’s Kitchen cat food a 46 out of 60 rating (76.67) or a B grade.
About Lily’s Kitchen
Lily’s Kitchen cat food is considered to be one of the best cat foods in the UK and Europe. The company has headquarters in London.
According to the company web site, Lily’s was started some ten years ago when the owner began making food for her sick dog. She then worked with vets and nutritionists to develop recipes that would become the foods for Lily’s Kitchen.
The company mentions organic ingredients in their section on company values. Some recipes do contain organic ingredients but not all of Lily’s Kitchen cat foods are organic.
Lily’s is a founding member of the B Corp, a group of businesses working to change the world for the better. You can read Lily’s Kitchen’s report here.
Some of the ways Lily’s applies these beliefs to their cat foods includes never using meat meal, cheap fillers, or added sugars. They always label their recipes clearly. Their meals are nutritionally complete. And Lily’s Kitchen always uses proper, freshly prepared meat.
Lily’s Kitchen also says that their foods are nutritionally tailored to a cat’s life stage. Recipes contain offal, which is good for cats. Vegetables are steam-cooked which retains more natural vitamins and minerals.
Lily’s Kitchen was purchased by Nestle-Purina PetCare in 2020 but it continues to operate as a stand-alone business. Nestle-Purina has similar arrangements with several super-premium niche pet food companies in the United States such as Merrick and Castor & Pollux.
Lily’s Kitchen has sales through 6,000 stores in around 30 countries of about 85 million pounds ($105 million).
Sourcing and Manufacturing
The information we found for Lily’s Kitchen is several years old so it may be out of date. At that time, Lily’s Kitchen had three warehouses and outsourced their manufacturing to five factories.
It’s possible that Lily’s Kitchen is using Nestle-Purina manufacturing facilities at this time. Nestle-Purina has pet food manufacturing facilities in Horley, Wisbech, and other places in the UK.
According to the company, they use “responsibly-sourced” ingredients though they do not provide details about where the ingredients are sourced.
Has Lily’s Kitchen Cat Food Been Recalled?
We didn’t find any recalls online for Lily’s Kitchen cat food. This brand is not associated with the 2021 recalls connected to pancytopenia in the UK.
What Kinds of Cat Food Does Lily’s Kitchen Offer?
Lily’s Kitchen makes cat foods for cats based on different life stages – kittens (up to a year), adults (1-6 years), and seniors (7+ years). The company also makes special diets: grain-free, organic, and hypoallergenic. You can choose from food that is wet or dry. They also offer treats and selection/variety boxes.
Lily’s Kitchen has a wide range of meat proteins to choose for your cat: beef, chicken, duck, lamb, pork, prawn, salmon, trout, and turkey. Vegetables are also a choice.
There are also multiple dietary choices available: sweet potato-free, single protein, potato-free, pork-free, pea-free, organic, grain-free, and chicken-free.
Lily’s Kitchen has 55 offerings in all, including fillets, shredded foods, pâté, cuts in gravy, and dry food.
Based on their web site rankings, their pâté foods are their most popular sellers.
Lily’s Kitchen Cat Food – Top 3 Recipes Reviewed
| Product Name | Food Type | Primary Protein | Calories | Price | Our Grade |
| Lily’s Kitchen Salmon & Chicken Pâté Cat Food | Wet | Salmon | 87 kcal per 100g | £6.67 per lb | B+ |
| Lily’s Kitchen White Fish & Salmon Dry Food for Cats | Dry | Fish | 377 kcal per 100g | £1.39 per lb | B |
| Lily’s Kitchen Organic Beef Paté Cat Food | Wet | Beef | 91 kcal per 100g | £8.00 per lb | A |
#1 Lily’s Kitchen Salmon & Chicken Pâté Cat Food
We chose Lily’s Kitchen Salmon & Chicken Pâté for review because it’s one of the brand’s top sellers. It sounds like a food that our own cats would enjoy. This recipe was previously called “Catch of the Day.”
According to Lily’s Kitchen, their smooth pâté recipes are old favorites with their customers. The food has a soft, smooth texture. It has no added sugars. It is grain-free and nutritionally complete.
This salmon and chicken formula is made with “proper” meat and fish. It is made up of 30 percent salmon, 15 percent chicken, and 5 percent prawns. The food also contains 15 percent pork.
This food has 87 kcal per 100 grams.
Salmon is a high quality protein and so are prawns. Salmon is rich in omega-3 fatty acids (EPA and DHA), B vitamins, and potassium. Along with salmon oil, it’s thought that salmon can help improve brain function.
Prawns are packed with vitamins, especially B vitamins. They’re also a good source of iron and calcium.
Prawns can be an allergen for some pets. If your cat has ever had an allergic reaction to any kind of seafood, you should avoid cat food with prawns.
Chicken and pork are also good sources of protein. Chicken can be an allergen for some pets so you would need to avoid this food if it’s a problem for your cat.
Algae is being used in more and more pet foods today. We don’t know what kind of algae this is which is too bad. It makes a difference. It could be something like this innovation.
These appear to be good quality ingredients and this food seems to be high in animal protein which is good for your cat.
Lily’s Kitchen Salmon & Chicken Pâté has a higher ash content than we expected. The crude ash content of a pet food refers to the minerals that are left over in a food after the food is burnt away. If a lot of minerals are leftover, it can suggest that the food contained a lot of bone, for example.
Meat or fish with lots of bone can be a lower quality cut. (Here is a good explanation from an American pet food company.) It might be possible for this to happen with fish as an ingredient if the bones are left in when the food is prepared.
Ingredients
Freshly Prepared: Salmon, Chicken, Pork, Prawn, Minerals, Salmon Oil, Algae
Ingredients We Liked: Salmon, salmon oil, prawns, chicken, pork
Ingredients We Didn’t Like: Algae raised questions; we would have liked more specific labeling
Guaranteed Analysis
Dry Matter Basis
Caloric Weight Basis
Pros
- Lily’s Kitchen uses real, proper meat and fish
- The company doesn’t use meat meal, cheap fillers, or added sugars
- Meals are nutritionally complete
- The foods are widely available
- The company is socially-conscious
Cons
- Lily’s Kitchen is expensive
- It’s hard to find information about where their foods are made or where they source ingredients
- The high ash level is concerning
#2 Lily’s Kitchen White Fish & Salmon Dry Food
Lily’s is one of the brands that offers both wet foods and dry foods to give your cat a choice. Some cats will prefer a dry kibble or you can use both kibble and wet food in your cat’s diet. Their dry foods come in formulas for kittens, seniors, and adult cats. They have recipes using chicken casserole, white fish & salmon, chicken & white fish, and fish & turkey.
This review looks at Lily’s Kitchen White Fish & Salmon Dry Food called the Fisherman’s Feast. It contains 70 percent fish so if your cat likes fish, this recipe will likely appeal to your cat’s taste buds.
This recipe is grain-free and contains no meat meal. It features meat, fish, and healthy offal which is good for cats
Other ingredients include potatoes, potato protein, and eggs. You may not associate potatoes with cats but dry foods do require some carbohydrate source so they can be made into a dough for the machinery. It is a fairly common ingredient in many pet foods today. Most cats tolerate potatoes well. Plus, potatoes are a source of vitamin C, B vitamins, and potassium.
Eggs provide added protein in your cat’s diet.
This food also contains several prebiotics to improve digestibility along with antioxidants for your cat’s immune system health.
Lily’s Kitchen White Fish & Salmon Dry Food has 377 kcal per 100 grams. Lily’s Kitchen doesn’t provide a percentage for moisture but we estimated it to be about 10 percent.
With 70 percent freshly prepared fish, prebiotics, antioxidants, and other ingredients for your cat’s health, Lily’s Kitchen White Fish & Salmon dry food is a good alternative for cats that like dry cat food.
Ingredients
70% Freshly Prepared Fish: Seasonal White Fish (52.5%), Salmon (17.5%), Potato, Potato Protein, Egg, Chicken Gravy, Cellulose, Minerals, Fish Stock, Flaxseed, Prebiotic-Fructooligosaccharides 0.7g/kg, Italian Cheese, Seaweed, Carrot, Cranberries, Bilberries, Parsley, Fenugreek Seeds
Ingredients We Liked: Freshly prepared fish: seasonal white fish, salmon, fish stock, prebiotics, cranberries
Ingredients We Didn’t Like: Cellulose
Guaranteed Analysis
Dry Matter Basis
Caloric Weight Basis
Pros
- Lily’s Kitchen uses real, proper meat and fish
- The company doesn’t use meat meal, cheap fillers, or added sugars
- Meals are nutritionally complete
- The foods are widely available
Cons
- Lily’s Kitchen is expensive
- It’s hard to find information about where their foods are made or where they source ingredients
#3 Lily’s Kitchen Organic Beef Paté
Previously called “Organic Beef Dinner,” Lily’s Kitchen Organic Beef Paté is made with all-natural ingredients. It’s grain-free. It contains no added sugar. It’s sure to please the cat with the discriminating palate. And, it provides complete nutrition.
As with other Lily’s Kitchen recipes, it contains no meat meal or fillers. It is made with 26 percent beef, 20 percent chicken, and 10.5 percent pork so your cat will get plenty of meaty goodness. The food has a soft, smooth texture that appeals to cats.
This food only has a few meaty ingredients along with vitamins and minerals so there’s nothing added that could be harmful to your cat. The food uses chelated minerals which are complexes that are easier for cats to absorb. This helps your cat achieve optimal health.
Lily’s Kitchen Organic Beef Paté contains 91 kcal per 100 grams. We estimated that this food has 7.2 percent carbohydrates (DMB).
If your cat enjoys a paté-style cat food, this organic beef paté from Lily’s Kitchen looks very good. It’s high in beef and other real meats and contains no unwanted ingredients. Your cat should love it.
Ingredients
Organic Beef (26%), Organic Chicken (20%), Organic Pork (10.5%) Minerals, Algae
Ingredients We Liked: Organic beef, organic chicken, organic pork
Ingredients We Didn’t Like: Algae raised questions; we would have liked more specific labeling
Guaranteed Analysis
Dry Matter Basis
Caloric Weight Basis
Pros
- Organic meats are a plus
- The company doesn’t use meat meal, cheap fillers, or added sugars
- Meals are nutritionally complete
- The foods are widely available
Cons
- Lily’s Kitchen is expensive
- It’s hard to find information about where their foods are made or where they source ingredients
What Do Customers Think of Lily’s Kitchen Cat Food?
There are lots of customer reviews for Lily’s Kitchen online. Most of them are very favorable. These reviews come from Trustpilot.com.
Positive Reviews
“Arrived promptly and seems good quality; there’s nothing left in the bowl, so our two 14 year old cats are very happy with their food. I would recommend it. Our 9 year old cat won’t eat it but then she prefers dry food generally and we haven’t found any wet food that she will eat!” – by Zoe on Aug 24, 2021
“My senior cat loves this . It’s been a problem finding a cat food that he really enjoys and which suits his sensitive stomach , but I think I’ve found the solution . We are both happy!” – by J.McLennan on Aug 16, 2021
Negative Reviews
“Purchased two packets of dried cat food, which was much more expensive than my usual brand and my cat wouldn’t eat either, he just walked away as cats do! Gave it to a stray cat that I feed and he did the same, so won’t be purchasing it again. Thank you” – by Jen on Nov 30, 2020
Reply from Lily’s Kitchen
Dec 1, 2020
Hi Jen, we’re sorry to hear your cat didn’t like our dried recipes. Cats can be quite particular about what smells they do and don’t like, so it can be tricky to move them from one brand to another.
Our recipes are all packed with natural ingredients, like fresh meat, sustainably sourced fish and real fruit and veg. Depending what your cat was eating before, these real ingredients can be quite a change from the additives and fillers of other brands, which might be why he didn’t initially seem keen on it. If you’re still keen on feeding him on our proper food for pets, we would suggest introducing the new food gradually to see if he takes to it. We really hope this helps!
“Expensive food and my cat didn’t even eat the crunchies. She liked the pouches for a bit then went off them. She is a greedy cat who normally eats pretty much anything” – by ASW on Dec 8, 2020
How Much Does Lily’s Kitchen Cat Food Cost?
A 2 kg bag of Lily’s Kitchen dry chicken cat food for adult cats costs about £23-24.
A pack of 19 small cans of wet food (85 grams each) costs about £23.
Overall, Is Lily’s Kitchen Cat Food a Good Choice?
Yes, we think that Lily’s Kitchen cat food is a good choice for cats. Some customers have said there have been changes since Nestle-Purina purchased the company but this appears to be a small percentage.
The vast majority of customers (and their cats) seem to really love this brand. The food has a lot of meat and/or fish without having ingredients you don’t want your cat to eat.
How Do You Order Lily’s Kitchen Cat Food?
You can buy Lily’s Kitchen in over 6,000 stores, from online retailers, and on the Lily’s Kitchen web site. You can also set up an account on the Lily’s Kitchen site for the subscription service.
The subscription service gives you 5 percent off your orders. You can choose the schedule for your orders to arrive. You can also update, pause, or cancel your orders at any time.
I bought Zoe cat kibble and I don’t know if what is in it is good for my cat . It is weight control as she needs to lose some weight. Joan. [email protected]
Thanks for sharing Sandra!