The Natural Cat Food Throwdown — Does Solid Gold Take the Gold?

Indigo Moon, made by Solid Gold, is the final contender in the Natural Cat Food Throwdown, where I emailed a number of natural cat food manufacturers to determine which was the greenest company. Based on my findings of the vet-recommended foods, I would select a brand to help Furball control his struvite crystals. Solid Gold ignored my email sent weeks ago, so I decided to call them. Here’s what I found out:

They only have a dry food product that’s low grain. This already rules them out because Furball’s vet recommended a wet food so that his diet would have a higher moisture content, which would help to prevent an episode of blocked bladder in the future. For those of you interested, I’ll report on what I found out.

Pluses

Ingredients are human-grade and sourced from the U.S.
Food is processed in the U.S.
They don’t work with Menu Foods
No animal testing

Minuses

Customer service needed me to elaborate when I asked about green practices. I suggested things like a green policy, humane animal practices and company-wide recycling. It wasn’t until I asked about recycling when she was able to answer. Asked if there was company-wide recycling, she told me, “No.”

THE JUDGE’S VERDICT

Because it’s a dry food and I’m looking for wet food, Indigo Moon automatically is disqualified from making it to the next round of the Natural Cat Food Throwdown. Since this isn’t their fault, I thought I’d give them a fair hearing and report on what I learned. Basically I learned that the company is typical of the pet industry, with no set policies or procedures to be more eco-friendly. It just goes to show that you can’t judge a book by its cover. Looking at the “earthy” retro design of their bags, I always had assumed that Solid Gold was a progressive earth-friendly company. No gold medal for this competitor :(.

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