We’ve rated Nutrience on ingredient quality, species-appropriateness, recalls, and more. Read our Nutrience cat food review to learn how this brand stacks up.
The Cats.com Standard—Rating Nutrience on What Matters
We’ve rated the brand on six key criteria for quality. Here’s how it rates in each of these six crucial areas.
Ratings
- Species-Appropriateness – 6/10
- Ingredient Quality – 8/10
- Product Variety – 8/10
- Price – 7/10
- Customer Experience – 7/10
- Recall History – 10/10
Overall Score: 7.6/10
In total, we give Nutrience cat food a 46 out of 60 rating or a B+ grade.
About Nutrience
Nutrience is a Canada-based pet food company. Its mother company, Hagen, was founded in 1955 with a mission to produce high-quality pet food. Today, Nutrience continues to produce pet food formulas made with locally sourced, humanely raised, and sustainably harvested ingredients.
Now in their second generation of family ownership, Nutrience controls every aspect of their dry food production to ensure the quality and safety of their products. Their website states it is their “priority to create every bag of Nutrience to the highest possible standards.”
Sourcing and Manufacturing
All Nutrience dry pet foods are manufactured in a jointly held facility located in Vancouver, British Columbia. Nutrience wet foods and treats are sourced from co-packers who, according to Nutrience, “specialize in the creation of high quality, small batch production using locally sourced ingredients.”
Speaking of ingredients, Nutrience sources theirs from Canada and the U.S. They use locally sourced proteins, fruits, and vegetables as much as possible and produce their pet foods in small batches.
Recall History
To our knowledge, Nutrience has not had a product recall in the company’s history.
What Kinds of Cat Food Does Nutrience Offer?
Nutrience offers a wide variety of products for cats including dry food, wet food, and treats. Their wet cat food products are primarily pate texture, made with premium animal proteins like free-range chicken, turkey, duck, and ocean fish. They also offer several specialized wet food formulas designed to address specific issues like weight control and urinary health.
As for their dry foods, Nutrience offers several different product lines including grain-free, raw-infused, and indoor formulas. They also offer several recipes catered to specific health concerns.
What Do Customers Think of Nutrience Cat Food?
As a Canadian brand, it’s difficult to find Nutrience in stores in the U.S., let alone customer reviews online. We were, however, able to find a few of their products on Amazon and some products had reviews on Canada’s PetSmart website.
For the most part, customers seem to love Nutrience – especially the Subzero recipes. Many customers appreciate the fact that Nutrience offers chicken-free formulas and there are plenty of comments about the high-quality ingredients. Other customers noted improvements in their cat’s skin and coat – one even commented that her cat’s tear stains disappeared.
Negative comments about Nutrience are mostly related to its limited availability and some customers found their cats simply didn’t care for it.
Let’s take a look at a few reviews from some of the most popular recipes from Nutrience.
Positive Reviews
My two cats have been eating the other two flavors of Nutrience SubZero and always love this brand But since I bought this blue flavor, one cat who had been having tear stains since he’s two months old, the tear stains magically disappeared! When I switched back to the other two flavors, the tear stain comes back. So I’m switching back to this blue package. Hope it’ll show magic again!” – Cloudypony reviewing Nutrience Grain-Free SubZero Canadian Pacific Dry Food
“Though the price may be high, it is truly worth it for your cat. I had a 20lb cat who was picky and I would try different brands. He seemed to love this one… I would recommend this food to ANY owner. It’s healthy, the perfect amount of calories per day for a adult male cat, my cat Raichu loves it and the money I pay is WELL worth it.” – Danny W. reviewing Nutrience Infusion Adult Indoor Canned Cat Food
Negative Reviews
“My Ragdoll/Himalayan is allergic to chicken so I’m happy to have this food to offer him. We’ve been using it for 5+ years successfully, however, I’ve noticed his favourite part, the freeze dried bits have decreased in quantity significantly. I feel bad for him as this is the first thing he always picks out and they are few and far between now!” – Wonderbeecats reviewing Nutrience SubZero Prairie Red Dry Food
“We’ve got several cats, some old, some younger, and can always use cat food. Unfortunately, none of them have liked this, short of the strays that come around sometimes looking for food. Straight up, the house cats we have absolutely refuse to eat it. We decided to mix it with the Purina we normally feed them. Surprisingly, they literally picked out the Purina to eat, and still refused to eat this.” – Hansen reviewing Nutrience Natural Healthy Adult Dry Cat Food
What Did Our Test Cats Think?
Bagel enjoyed the Prairie Red flavor which was packed with pieces of freeze-dried raw beef liver. Kate Barrington / Cats.com
Though Nutrience is a Canadian cat food, I was able to find a U.S. retailer who had two recipes available: SubZero Fraser Valley and SubZero Prairie Red. I ordered one bag of each but, unfortunately, received two bags of the SubZero Prairie Red instead. That’s the only recipe I was able to try.
Though my experience testing Nutrience was limited, it was incredibly positive. As soon as I took the bags out of the box and set them on the counter, my dog was already going crazy – he could smell it. Once I opened the bag, it didn’t take long for my cats to show up.
I poured a small bowl of the dry food and my test cat Bagel started chowing down. She wouldn’t let the other two in for a bite, so I had to pour them their own.
Overall, I was impressed with Nutrience SubZero Prairie Red. The kibbles were appropriately sized and there were plenty of large, freeze-dried raw chunks. I appreciated the resealable package as well.
Nutrience Cat Food – Top 3 Recipes Reviewed
Product Name | Food Type | Main Protein Source | Calories | Price | Our Grade |
Nutrience SubZero Prairie Red Grain-Free Dry Cat Food | Dry | Beef | 455 kcal/cup | $5.63 per lb | B |
Nutrience Original Healthy Adult Chicken Meal with Brown Rice Recipe | Dry | Chicken | 465 kcal/cup | $0.28 per oz | B- |
Nutrience Infusion Adult Indoor Cat Food Formula | Dry | Chicken | 960 kcal/kg | $0.4 per oz | B |
How Much Does Nutrience Cat Food Cost?
As a Canadian cat food, it’s difficult to make general comments about the cost of Nutrience cat food. Using prices from Amazon and PetSmart Canada, it looks like Nutrience products are on par for similar products, pricewise.
Their highest quality line SubZero averages about $1.75 per ounce while their most affordable Original recipe is priced under $0.30 per ounce. Canned food prices vary but hover between $0.30/ounce and $0.50/ounce.
Overall, Is Nutrience Cat Food a Good Choice?
Nutrience is a difficult brand to judge because they use a lot of really high-quality ingredients including locally sourced proteins and wild-caught fish. The problem is most of their recipes make heavy use of plant ingredients, including concentrated plant proteins. We’re glad to see Nutrience doesn’t use low-value grains like corn, wheat, and soy, but the overall carb content is high across the board.
Though we can’t give Nutrience a hearty recommendation due to the carb content of their dry foods, their wet foods are much lower in carbs. Another thing to consider is that they do offer some chicken-free formulas which are great for cats with food allergies or sensitivities.
Where Is Nutrience Cat Food Sold?
Though Nutrience is a Canadian cat food company, you can purchase their products in the U.S. through online retailers like Country Max. If you live in Canada, you can find Nutrience in local pet stores or shop online through major retailers like PetSmart, Petland, PetMax, Pet Only, and more. Nutrience also has several international partners in Australia, Chile, Colombia, and elsewhere.
Why did the SubZero recipe get a B grade when Open Farm’s dry food get A- when they look so similar? The guaranteed analysis, dry matter basis and caloric weight basis percentages are basically the same. The ingredients quality is high on both, 2 ingredients on the we didn’t like list are the same on both and while SubZero has one ingredient more than Open Farm on the list, that takes a food from a A- down to a B?
Hey Christine, thanks for the question, and I apologize for the delayed response! Hope you’re doing well. Open Farm foods get overall higher ratings due to their “ethical” sourcing and superior transparency compared to other brands. The company also offers full typical nutrient analyses, which Nutrience also does. These considerations weigh into the way that the individual products are rated.
I was informed to avoid catfood containing taurine. What is it and why is it put in canned cat food?
I’m not sure where you heard that! Taurine is an essential amino acid that must be added to cat food for your cat’s health. Cat food without added taurine is considered nutritionally inadequate and can cause heart problems and other issues. In fact, before we knew that cats required supplemental taurine in their diets, it’s believed that tens of thousands of cats died of heart disease each year as a result of incomplete diets. This article from 1987 sheds light on the matter.