We tried MAC’s cat food as it’s one of the best brands you can find in Europe offering grain-free wet cat food at a not-so-high cost, with relatively feline-appropriate nutrition, good especially for a multi-cat household. It’s the brand Dobby and Dot love to eat!
About the MAC’s brand and their cat food
According to their website, the MAC’s brand is a family-run business that started in 1993, when Werner Koller founded the company Pro Pet Koller in the village of Gemünd (Schleiden) in Germany, which was meant to import high-quality dog food from North America. Over the years the company flourished, and today they developed the MAC’s brand, which offers high-quality cat and dog food made in Germany with German-sourced human-grade raw ingredients.
The company is now managed by Koller’s sons, Markus and Michael, who are taking the business towards a promising future in the pet food industry in Germany, with distribution around Europe and looking to expand towards the Asian market.
From our experience, MAC’s cat food regularly improves its recipes and packaging, making sure our cats get the best food they can, based on the latest regulatory measures for pet food.
Depending on the wet or dry formula, some cat food products from MAC’s are ideal for carnivore nutrition, whilst others lack the species-appropriateness for feline nutrition by containing many plant-based ingredients or a considerable amount of carbs. All products are complete and balanced with all the necessary nutrients( taurine, vitamins, and minerals) a cat needs to thrive. And, every formula contains at least 70% animal meat and clearly named animal by-products like poultry hearts, livers, necks, or stomachs depending on the flavor.
The wet food is gently cooked preserving its natural taste and some of the recipes are also ideal for sensitive cats or cats with digestive problems. No grains, soy, or bone meals, free from artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives.
The only downsides of MAC’s cat food are that they include some fruits and vegetables in their recipes, and also vegetable oils, which are not necessary for a cat’s diet, but a least they use fruit and vegetables that are safe for cats to eat, keeping the carb content at an acceptable rate compared to other wet and dry cat foods on the market.
On the plus side, we tried all of their products and reviewed some of their top recipes!
MAC’s Cat Food products
MAC’s is producing a variety of wet and dry cat foods that come in many yummy flavors and textures and are packed in cans, pouches, aluminum trays, and bags, using human-grade meat sourced in Germany, so you can spoil your pets with a natural taste. They are available in many sizes to suit your every need, whether you have one cat or a bunch of them. They recently launched new flavors for their Gourmet Menu cans (Feinschmecker Menü) and upgraded the cans to 180g, adding 80g for free to the usual format of 100g per can! And have launched new flavors for the same line too! The company also produces a line of dry cat food and cat snacks.
The brand delivers to pet shops around Europe, but can also be found online on MAC’s online shop, on Zooplus online shops from many European countries, and you can even find it on Amazon Germany.
In our opinion these are MAC’s wet cat food top 3 recipes:
MAC's Poultry and Cranberry wet cat food in cans
MAC’s Pure Chicken wet cat food in aluminum trays
MAC's Rabbit and Poultry wet cat food in pouches
To see the flavors of each product line from MAC’s cat foods, click to expand the lists below:
MAC’s Wet Cat Food in Cans
MAC’s – Super Food for Cats – Wet Cat Food in Pouches
MAC’s – Super Food for Cats – Wet Cat Food in Aluminum Trays
MAC’s – Gourmet Menu – Wet Cat Food in Cans
MAC’s – Vetcare and Mono – wet cat foods for veterinary diets
MAC’s Dry Cat Food
MAC’s Shakery – Cat Snacks
When it comes to cat nutrition it’s hard to find either wet or dry cat food that it’s not filled with plant proteins and a high amount of carbohydrates, to which is added unnecessary binders, colorants, and taste enhancers. But MAC’s cat food is promising quality high-protein, grain-free wet cat food, so here we are to put it to the test.
Review: MAC’s Pure Chicken wet cat food in aluminum trays
The Pure Chicken and Pure Turkey recipes from MAC’s that come in ‘alutrays’ have the highest meat content of all the other wet cat food flavors packed in aluminum trays.
The Pure Chicken formula it’s entirely made out of chicken meat, nutrient-rich chicken organs, and some chicken broth. The pate contains 99% chicken ingredients and 1% added minerals!
Each aluminum tray is animal protein-packed focusing on a natural diet, including nutrient-dense animal organs. Organs like kidneys, liver, heart, gizzards, necks, etc., are a vital part of a cat’s natural diet, as they provide essential nutrients not found in the muscle meat. Animal organs are excellent sources of protein, vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients.
There is nothing in this recipe that is not good for your cat!
99% chicken (consisting of chicken meat, chicken hearts, chicken gizzards, chicken livers, chicken necks, chicken fat, chicken broth), 1% minerals
Nutritional additives: Vitamin D3 200 IU, Taurine 1,500 mg/kg, Zinc as Zinc sulfate, Monohydrate 25mg/kg, Manganese as Manganese-II-sulfate, Monohydrate 1.4mg/kg, Copper as Copper-II-sulfate, Pentahydrate 1.0mg/kg, Iodine as Calcium iodate, Anhydrous 0.75mg/kg
Guaranteed Analyses:
•Crude protein: min 10.8%
•Raw fat: 5%
•Crude fiber: max 0.4%
•Moisture: max 80 %
•Raw Ash: max 2.5%
•Raw Carbs: approx. 1.3%
Guaranteed Analyses Dry Matter:
•Protein: 54%
•Fat: 25%
•Fiber: 2%
•Ash: 12.5%
•Carbs: approx. 6.5%
❗ See here how to determine the cat food macronutrients on a dry matter basis.
MAC’s Pure Chicken wet cat food in aluminum trays
Overall this is the best recipe I found from Mac’s regarding their wet cat food, with optimal nutrient levels for a feline diet. The Pure chicken formula is carnivore-appropriate and is complete and balanced for adult cats, meaning it contains all the essential nutrients a cat needs in its diet to thrive.
The formula is high in animal protein, an optimal amount of fat, and a very low carb content. It also contains chicken fat which is a very appropriate source of fat for a feline. I can highly recommend the Pure Chicken, and the Pure Turkey recipes that come in aluminum trays from MAC’s, considering if your cat actually enjoys eating poultry-type meats.
MAC’s Pure Chicken wet cat food in aluminum trays
Review: MAC’s Rabbit and Poultry wet cat food in pouches
The pouches Super Food for Cats from MAC’s contain a special herbal mix that gives every pouch a special taste for your cat to enjoy, including a dash of catnip. These added herbs (depending on the recipe) offer natural vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants to your cat’s nutrition and are very similar to what a wild cat would ingest from eating the stomachs of its prey, like dandelion greens, or fruits like cranberries and apples.
The Rabbit & Poultry recipe is gently prepared into a paté -like consistency, with a grain-free, high-protein formula that provides all the necessary vitamins and minerals to be complete and balanced for adult cats, without containing any artificial or potentially harmful ingredients.
The recipe is made out of 98.8% chicken and rabbit meat, nutrient-rich organs, and broth, to which is added minerals, eggshell powder, and a splash of catnip and dandelion.
The eggshell powder is an eggcellent dietary supplement used as an ingredient in cat food because it is packed in essential nutrients like Calcium, Boron Magnesium, Manganese, Zinc, Copper, Iron, and Sulfur. Boron is a mineral essential to ensuring that calcium binds to the structure of the bones and helps improve bone strength.
To find out how each mineral in cat food helps your cat’s health, check out Cat food ingredients – How to read the cat food label! section of our article: Cat food – A complete Guide to cat nutrition.
Catnip, to be completely clear on this matter, is declared by experts 100% completely safe for cats and doesn’t contain any harmful chemicals for your cat. Catnip is just a common herb, a member of the mint family, that may even be helpful for a cat’s digestive tract when ingested. Catnip is usually used in human consumption for its antidiarrheal properties. The catnip only affects a cat’s behavior when cats smell the plant, making them behave more affectionately, relaxed, and happy. Some cats will be more playful or sometimes even a little aggressive because the catnip effects mimic the feline sex hormones.
Dandelion greens contain a fair amount of natural vitamins like A, D, and B that are very necessary to your cat’s health contributing to good night vision, healthy skin, a strong immune system, nervous system, and digestive tract. Cats are dependent on dietary intake to obtain these vitamins, that’s why they are added as supplements to cat foods.
The Rabbit & Poultry recipe, like all the wet cat food pouches from MAC’s, comes in 100g formats.
80.4% poultry (consisting of poultry meat, poultry liver, poultry hearts, poultry gizzards, poultry broth), 18.4% rabbit (consisting of rabbit meat, rabbit hearts, rabbit liver, rabbit kidneys, rabbit broth), 0.5% minerals, 0.5% eggshell powder, 0.1% catnip, 0.1% dandelion
Nutritional additives: Vitamin D3 200 IU, Taurine 1,500 mg/kg, Zinc as Zinc sulfate, monohydrate 20mg/kg, Manganese as Manganese II sulfate, monohydrate 2mg/kg, Iodine as Calcium iodate, Anhydrous 0.2mg/kg,
Guaranteed Analyses:
•Crude protein: min 10.8%
•Raw fat: 6.1%
•Crude fiber: max 0.4%
•Moisture: max 79 %
•Raw Ash: max 2%
•Raw Carbs: approx. 1.7%
Guaranteed Analyses Dry Matter:
•Protein: 51.4%
•Fat: 29%
•Fiber: 1.9%
•Ash: 9.52%
•Carbs: approx. 8.09%
MAC's Rabbit and Poultry wet cat food in pouches
Overall, the pouches from MAC’s seem to have better ingredients in their composition than the cans, but individually they cost more than the cans, which come in bigger formats.
The Rabbit & Poultry recipe is high in animal protein, with an optimal amount of fat and relatively low in carb content offering species-appropriate nutrition for cats, making it a very good choice for wet cat food. All ingredients are feline-appropriate in this recipe without a fault.
MAC's Rabbit and Poultry wet cat food in pouches
Review: MAC’s Poultry and Cranberry canned cat food
The formula is gently cooked into a meaty paté, mainly made out of animal proteins containing 70% poultry and beef meat, with clearly named animal by-products from organ meats like hearts, liver, stomachs, and tripe. The recipe is grain-free and contains all the vitamins, minerals, and essential amino acids necessary in a cat’s diet to be complete and balanced for adult cats.
The paté doesn’t contain any artificial additives, dyes, preservatives, thickening gums, or carrageenan as binders.
The only downfalls of this recipe are that it contains cranberries and safflower oil which are not harmful to cats, but totally unnecessary in the nutrition of a feline, considering cats lack the enzymes to properly process fruit and vegetables.
Cranberries are used in pet food because they are packed with antioxidants and are said to help with urinary tract problems. Still, there is no evidence that cranberries have the same healthy effects on cats as they do on humans, so most probably cranberries are used in pet food as a healthier alternative to grain fillers, and they also give the food more pigmentation making it look redder.
Safflower oil comes from the seeds of the safflower plant and is commonly used in cat food because it contains polyunsaturated fatty acids, like linoleic acid, an essential type of omega-6 fatty acid that cats can’t synthesize on their own, important in a kitty’s diet to keep its skin and coat healthy. Safflower oil also contains Vitamin E which is good for your cat’s skin.
The Poultry and Cranberry flavor, like all the canned recipes from MAC’s, come in 200g, 400g, and 800g formats.
Meat (min. 45% poultry, min. 25% beef) and meat by-products (poultry heart, poultry liver, poultry stomach, beef heart, beef liver, beef tripe), cranberry (3%), minerals (1%), safflower oil (0.2%).
Nutritional additives (per kg): Vitamin D3 (200 IU), Taurine (1500mg), Zinc [as zinc sulphate monohydrate] (15mg), Manganese [as manganese-(II)-sulphate monohydrate] (3mg), Iodine [as calcium iodate anhydrous] (0.75mg).
Guaranteed Analyses:
•Crude protein: min 10.8%
•Raw fat: 7%
•Crude fiber: max 0.5%
•Moisture: max 78 %
•Raw Ash: max 2.3%
•Raw Carbs: approx. 1.4%
Guaranteed Analyses Dry Matter:
•Protein: 49%
•Fat: 31.8%
•Fiber: 2.27%
•Ash: 10.45%
•Carbs: approx. 6.50%
MAC's Poultry and Cranberry wet cat food in cans
Overall, this is not the very best wet cat food you can get for your cat, but nonetheless a very good grain-free, paté style wet cat food you can find in Europe that is affordable, with a recipe still high in animal protein, moderate in fat, and low in carb content that is made without any harmful additives or potentially carcinogenic ingredients like carrageenan. If they would use fish oil as a source of fat instead of safflower oil and they did not add vegetable ingredients, the recipe would be optimal for a cat’s nutrition.
MAC's Poultry and Cranberry wet cat food in cans
MAC’s Duck, Turkey & Chicken Dry Cat Food
MAC’s Duck, Turkey & Chicken dry cat food is grain-free, complete, and balanced for adult cats, consisting of 63% poultry ingredients. Starting with fresh chicken (30%), followed by a chicken meal (20%), poultry fat (5%), turkey meal (4%), and duck meal (4%) the first five ingredients look very good. Animal meals are protein-rich ingredients in pet food that contain healthy amino acids and by law, animal meals do not contain any feathers, heads, feet, or entrails of an animal.
The composition list is followed by a considerable amount of dried vegetable ingredients like potatoes, sweet potatoes, peas, beet pulp, and cranberries, ingredients that significantly increase the carbohydrate content.
The recipe is using chicken fat and salmon oil as primary sources of fat, ingredients rich in Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids that help maintain your cat’s healthy and shiny coat.
As with all their cat food formulas, the dry cat food from MAC’s doesn’t contain any artificial ingredients, additives, preservatives, colors, or flavors and no added sugars.
The Duck, Turkey & Chicken formula contains New Zealand green-lipped mussels, a bioactive protein that has anti-inflammatory properties and is also a great source of iron, protein, and omega-3.
The recipe also contains FOS (Fructo Oligosaccharide) prebiotics, used in cat food to keep the intestinal flora of your cat in balance. FOS is naturally fighting against E. Coli bacteria and supports the development of healthy bacteria in the gut like Lacto-bacteria and Bifidobacteria, keeping a normal mucosal in the intestine. FOS also helps with mineral absorption making your cat’s poop less smelly.
63% poultry (consisting of 30% fresh chicken, 20% chicken meal, 5% poultry fat, 4% turkey meal, 4% duck meal), potato*, sweet potato*, peas, 2% salmon oil, beet pulp (desugared), brewer’s yeast, Allgäu Mountain meadow herbs, Cranberries*, fructooligosaccharides (FOS), New Zealand green-lipped mussel, Yucca schidigera, (*dried)
Guaranteed Analyses:
•Crude protein: min 34%
•Raw fat: 16.50%
•Crude fiber: max 2.5%
•Moisture: max 8 %
•Raw Ash: max 7.5%
•Raw Carbs: approx. 31.5%
•Calcium: 1.40%
•Phosphorus: 1.10%
•Magnesium: 0.09%
•Omega 3: 0.75%
•Omega 6: 2.2%
Guaranteed Analyses Dry Matter:
•Protein: 36.95%
•Fat: 17.93%
•Fiber: 2.71%
•Ash: 8.15%
•Carbs: approx. 34.23%
MAC's Duck, Turkey & Chicken Dry Cat Food
Overall this dry cat food has a moderate protein content, is low in fat, and has a high amount of carbs. And, like all other cat foods high in carb content, this type of dry cat food increases your cat’s risk of developing diabetes.
MAC's Duck, Turkey & Chicken Dry Cat Food
Is Mac’s a good choice of cat food?
Overall, Mac’s appears to have relatively species-appropriate cat food with their wet cat food range. Most of their recipes contain a high amount of animal protein from muscle and organ meats, with an optimal amount of fat and relatively low carb content. The foods are rich in moisture and contain all the necessary nutrients a cat needs for a carnivore diet.
The ingredients are all-natural, sourced in Germany, and appear to be human-grade with low allergenic potential. The recipes are grain-free and without any artificial ingredients or potentially dangerous binders. Their wet food is gently prepared and easily digestible, some of the formulas are even ideal for cats with sensitivities or special diets.
The downside of some recipes is that they contain between 2 to 4% vegetable ingredients like cranberries, carrots, apples, and other non-grain vegetable fruits or vegetables depending on the recipe, and also most of the recipes contain small amounts of vegetable origin oils.
Here are our choices for MAC’s wet cat food top 3 recipes reviewed above:
MAC’s Pure Chicken wet cat food in aluminum trays
MAC's Rabbit and Poultry wet cat food in pouches
MAC's Poultry and Cranberry wet cat food in cans
On the other hand, the dry cat food recipes from MAC’s are higher in carbohydrate content, like many other dry cat foods on the market, but they appear to use an appropriate source of animal fat and still remain grain-free, using in their formulas only potatoes, sweet potatoes, peas or cranberries to fill in the palatability of the food.
We hope you found what you were looking for in our reviews. If you have any questions please leave us a comment below.
Have a meowgical day!
