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.
Same food, two bag sizes
Two of the bags sold under different names are the same food. Chewy’s Weight Control Alaskan Pollock 6-pound bundle and the Fit as a Fiddle Alaskan Pollock 12-pound bag share one description, Fit as a Fiddle Weight Control with Alaskan Pollock. The big bag works out to about $4.16 a pound against $5.66 for the small one.
That points at the real value story. The 6-pound grain-free bags cost about $5.50 to $5.66 a pound, close to Acana’s dry food. The 12-pound bags, Katz-n-Flocken lamb at about $4.05 a pound and Fit as a Fiddle at about $4.16, are the cheaper way to feed Solid Gold.
Solid Gold bags, priced per pound
| Recipe | Line on the bag | Bag | Price | Per lb | Pick it if |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chicken, Lentil & Apple | Let’s Stay In | 6 lb | $32.97 | $5.50 | Your indoor cat brings up hairballs. |
| Salmon, Lentil & Apple | Let’s Stay In | 6 lb | $33.94 | $5.66 | Same idea, for a cat that prefers fish. |
| Wild Alaskan Pollock & Eggs | Indigo Moon | 6 lb | $33.94 | $5.66 | You want the higher-protein grain-free bag. |
| Fit as a Fiddle Alaskan Pollock | Fit as a Fiddle | 12 lb | $49.97 | $4.16 | Your cat needs to lose weight slowly. Buy this size, not the 6 lb. |
| Katz-n-Flocken Lamb & Rice | Katz-n-Flocken | 12 lb | $48.56 | $4.05 | You want lamb with whole grains. The cheapest per pound. |
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.
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.
Is Solid Gold right for your cat?
Buy it if you want a clean ingredient panel from a company with a five-decade record, without paying premium-tier prices. The 6-pound grain-free bags cost about $33, close to Acana per pound, so the 12-pound bags are where the value is.
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.
Where Solid Gold lands
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.
Solid Gold questions
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 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.
Hello and welcome to The Ideal Cat!
We are some passionate cat owners from different professions. We love our cats and have a lot of experience in how to care for our pets. We are incredibly excited to share our knowledge, experience, and research with you. So you can take good care of your loving cat. We will answer most of the common questions about owning cats, taking care of them, etc. If you have any question contact with us. Thanks for visiting! Enjoy the content.
