Solid Gold was making holistic pet food in 1974, which is roughly two decades before most people had heard the word applied to anything you could buy in a bag.
The origin story is genuinely odd. The founder noticed European Great Danes were outliving American ones, decided the difference was diet, and started a company about it.
Fifty years later the record is unusually clean: one recall in the company’s entire history, and it was not cat food.
- Solid Gold launched in 1974 as one of the first natural pet foods sold in the United States.
- Solid Gold has had one recall in 45 years, a 2012 dog food recall over suspected salmonella at a third-party Diamond Pet Foods facility.
- Every Solid Gold formula is free from animal by-products, artificial ingredients and carrageenan.
- Solid Gold does not source ingredients from China.
- A 2018 consumer lawsuit alleged undisclosed heavy metals, though testing showed levels within FDA tolerable limits.
Our Top Picks
Solid Gold Real Chicken, Lentil & Apple Recipe Grain-Free Indoor Dry Cat Food, 6-lb bag
Solid Gold High Protein Wild Alaskan Pollock & Eggs Recipe Grain-Free Dry Cat Food, 6-lb bundle
Solid Gold Katz-n-Flocken Lamb & Rice with Barley Dry Cat Food, 12-lb
Solid Gold range compared
| Product | Best for | Size | Price | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Solid Gold Real Chicken, Lentil & Apple Recipe Grain-Free Indoor Dry Cat Food, 6-lb bag | Best overall | Dry bag | $32.97 | Grain-free chicken |
| Solid Gold Real Salmon, Lentil & Apple Recipe Grain-Free Indoor Dry Cat Food, 6-lb bundle | Best fish recipe | Dry bag | $33.94 | Grain-free salmon |
| Solid Gold High Protein Wild Alaskan Pollock & Eggs Recipe Grain-Free Dry Cat Food, 6-lb bundle | Best high protein | Dry bag | $33.94 | Pollock & egg |
| Solid Gold Weight Control Alaskan Pollock Grain-Free Gut Health Dry Cat Food, 6-lb bundle | Best for weight control | Dry bag | $33.94 | Weight control |
| Solid Gold Fit as a Fiddle: Alaskan Pollock Dry Cat Food, 12-lb bag | Best for indoor cats | Dry bag | $49.97 | Fit as a Fiddle |
| Solid Gold Katz-n-Flocken Lamb & Rice with Barley Dry Cat Food, 12-lb | Best novel protein | Dry bag | $48.56 | Lamb & rice |
What holistic actually means here
Holistic is an unregulated marketing word in pet food, so it is worth checking whether a brand using it does anything specific. Solid Gold mostly does.
The formulas exclude animal by-products, artificial colours and preservatives, and carrageenan, a thickener some owners avoid in wet food. Ingredients are not sourced from China. Recipes add superfoods such as pumpkin, cranberry, blueberry, kelp and chia, plus probiotics for digestion.
Two honest caveats. The superfood inclusions are present in modest amounts, so treat them as a small bonus rather than the reason to buy. And excluding by-products is a transparency choice rather than a safety one: by-products are organ tissue and are genuinely nutritious, they simply are not disclosed in detail on a label.
What you are actually paying for is a clean, named ingredient list from a company with a very long track record. That is a reasonable thing to pay for. All formulas meet AAFCO nutrient profiles, so they can be fed as a sole diet.
The recall record and the lawsuit
Two separate things get raised about this brand and they deserve separating.
The recall. One recall in 45 years, in 2012, covering Wolf King and Wolf Cub dog foods over suspected salmonella. The contamination traced to a Diamond Pet Foods facility in South Carolina that manufactured for multiple brands, which is a recurring pattern in pet food recalls: a shared contract facility affects several unrelated companies at once. No Solid Gold cat food has been recalled.
The lawsuit. In 2018 a consumer sued alleging Solid Gold cat food contained undisclosed heavy metals including arsenic, cadmium, mercury and lead. Third-party testing did find them. It was also established that the levels were within the limits the FDA considers tolerable.
That last point matters and gets dropped from most write-ups. Trace heavy metals occur in almost all pet food, and in human food, because they exist in soil and water. The question is always concentration, not presence. Check the live recall position yourself in the FDA recall database.
The 6 Solid Gold products, reviewed
Solid Gold Real Chicken, Lentil & Apple Recipe Grain-Free Indoor Dry Cat Food, 6-lb bag: best overall
Real chicken with lentil and apple, grain free. This is the everyday bag and the best value in the range. Meat leads the label, there are no by-products or artificial ingredients anywhere, and the superfood additions like pumpkin and cranberry are real inclusions rather than dust on the bag.
Solid Gold Real Salmon, Lentil & Apple Recipe Grain-Free Indoor Dry Cat Food, 6-lb bundle: best fish recipe
Real salmon with lentil and apple. Worth rotating with the chicken recipe rather than feeding either exclusively, since a cat locked onto one protein for years becomes harder to switch later if they ever need a different diet.
Solid Gold High Protein Wild Alaskan Pollock & Eggs Recipe Grain-Free Dry Cat Food, 6-lb bundle: best high protein
Wild Alaskan pollock and egg, the higher-protein option in the grain-free line. Egg is one of the most digestible protein sources available to cats, and pollock is a less common fish than salmon or tuna, which makes this a useful rotation choice.
Solid Gold Weight Control Alaskan Pollock Grain-Free Gut Health Dry Cat Food, 6-lb bundle: best for weight control
Weight Control with Alaskan pollock, keeping protein up while trimming calories. Cats must lose weight slowly, because rapid loss risks hepatic lipidosis, a serious liver condition. Agree a target and timeline with your vet rather than guessing.
Solid Gold Fit as a Fiddle: Alaskan Pollock Dry Cat Food, 12-lb bag: best for indoor cats
Fit as a Fiddle with Alaskan pollock, aimed at less active cats. Indoor formulas across every brand are mostly about calorie density and added fiber rather than anything exotic, and this one does that competently.
Solid Gold Katz-n-Flocken Lamb & Rice with Barley Dry Cat Food, 12-lb: best novel protein
Katz-n-Flocken with lamb, rice and barley. Grain-inclusive rather than grain free, which is a deliberate choice and not a compromise. Lamb is uncommon enough in cat food to be useful if your cat has reacted to poultry or fish.
How it compares
- Against Wellness: Solid Gold has one recall to Wellness’s five. Similar ingredient philosophy, better record.
- Against Acana or Orijen: those carry far higher animal content. Solid Gold is cleaner than mid-market but not maximum-meat.
- Against budget brands: no contest on ingredients, and the price gap is smaller than you would expect.
- Grain-inclusive options exist, which is useful since grain-free is a preference rather than an upgrade for most cats.
Who should buy Solid Gold
Buy it if you want a clean ingredient panel from a company with a five-decade record, without paying premium-tier prices. The value on the grain-free line at around thirty-three dollars a bag is genuinely good.
Skip it if you want maximum animal content per dollar, where Acana does more. Compare across the market in our best dry cat food guide, and remember that adding wet food does more for most cats than upgrading kibble.
The bottom line on Solid Gold
Solid Gold is a quietly good brand that does not shout. Clean recipes, no by-products or carrageenan, no China sourcing, probiotics included, and one recall across forty-five years that did not involve cat food.
It is not the meatiest food available and the superfood marketing oversells a modest inclusion. But on record and value it is one of the more sensible buys in its tier. Solid Gold Real Chicken, Lentil & Apple Recipe Grain-Free Indoor Dry Cat Food, 6-lb bag is the bag to start with. This article is educational rather than veterinary advice.
Frequently asked questions
Q: Is Solid Gold a good cat food?
Solid Gold is a good holistic cat food. Recipes exclude by-products, artificial ingredients and carrageenan, meat leads most formulas, and no ingredients are sourced from China. The company has had one recall in 45 years.
Q: Has Solid Gold cat food been recalled?
No Solid Gold cat food has been recalled. The company’s single recall was in 2012 and covered Wolf King and Wolf Cub dog foods over suspected salmonella traced to a third-party Diamond Pet Foods facility.
Q: What was the Solid Gold heavy metals lawsuit about?
A 2018 consumer lawsuit alleged Solid Gold cat food contained undisclosed heavy metals including arsenic, cadmium, mercury and lead. Testing found them present, but at levels within the limits the FDA considers tolerable. Trace heavy metals occur in most pet and human food.
Q: Is Solid Gold grain free?
Solid Gold makes both grain-free recipes and grain-inclusive ones such as Katz-n-Flocken with rice and barley. Grain-free is a preference rather than an automatic upgrade, since grain allergy in cats is uncommon.
Q: Does Solid Gold contain by-products?
No. Every Solid Gold formula is free from animal by-products, artificial ingredients and carrageenan. By-products are nutritious organ tissue, so excluding them is a transparency choice rather than a safety one.
Q: Where is Solid Gold cat food made?
Solid Gold does not source ingredients from China. The 2012 dog food recall involved manufacturing at a third-party Diamond Pet Foods facility in South Carolina.
Q: Is Solid Gold better than Wellness?
Solid Gold has had one recall in 45 years compared with five for Wellness, with a similar clean-ingredient philosophy. On record Solid Gold is the stronger of the two.
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