The scores
Tiki Cat Born Carnivore Indoor Health Chicken & Turkey: B (75/100) — Good. Chicken first, chicken meal second, with peas, turkey meal, and chickpeas rounding out the top five. Dried pumpkin for hairball fiber, menhaden fish meal for omega-3s, and a grain-free legume base.
Instinct Original Kibble Real Chicken Recipe: B (78/100) — Good. Chicken and chicken meal lead, followed by turkey meal and menhaden fish meal; the raw coating on the kibble is freeze-dried pollock. No grains.
How the ingredients compare
The top five ingredients:
Tiki Cat: Chicken, Chicken Meal, Peas, Turkey Meal, Chickpeas
Instinct Original Cat: Chicken, Chicken Meal, Turkey Meal, Menhaden Fish Meal, Peas
The 3-point difference reflects protein architecture in the top ingredients. Both lead with whole chicken plus chicken meal — identical for positions one and two. At position three, the formulas split. Tiki Cat goes to peas (a legume carbohydrate), then turkey meal (a second animal protein) at position four, then chickpeas at position five. Instinct goes to turkey meal at position three and menhaden fish meal at position four, then peas at position five.
Tiki Cat’s dual-protein approach delivers chicken plus turkey inside the top four ingredients. Instinct’s top four carry three animal-protein sources: chicken, turkey, and menhaden fish.
Both formulas include menhaden fish meal (Tiki position nine, Instinct position four) and taurine — which is essential for feline cardiac and retinal function. Tiki Cat includes dried pumpkin explicitly for hairball-fiber management, relevant for indoor cats. Instinct skips pumpkin but includes pumpkinseeds further down.
Where Tiki Cat holds its own
Dried pumpkin for hairball fiber. Tiki Cat’s indoor formulation explicitly includes dried pumpkin at position eight — a fiber source that helps move swallowed fur through the digestive tract. Indoor cats are especially prone to hairball formation, and the pumpkin inclusion is a functional design choice. Instinct Original is not specifically indoor-formulated.
Explicit indoor-cat formulation. Tiki Cat Born Carnivore Indoor Health is built around the reality of indoor life — lower activity, higher hairball risk, different caloric needs. Instinct Original is a general-purpose grain-free formula. For owners of indoor-only cats, Tiki Cat’s targeting is a real advantage. Shop on Amazon →
Where Instinct Cat pulls ahead
Signature freeze-dried raw coating. Instinct’s differentiator is its raw coating of freeze-dried pollock, a fish, listed after the vitamins and minerals. Tiki Cat doesn’t include any raw component.
Brand commitment to raw feeding. Nature’s Variety (Instinct’s parent) also makes the Instinct Raw Boost and Instinct Frozen Raw Medallion lines. Tiki Cat is a premium kibble and wet-food brand, not a raw-feeding ladder. Shop on Amazon →
The bottom line
Instinct Original scores 3 points higher, B/78 to B/75. If indoor-cat formulation and dried pumpkin matter more, Tiki Cat Born Carnivore is the B/75 pick. If you value the freeze-dried raw coating and three animal-protein sources in the top four, Instinct Original is the B/78 pick. Both are legitimate premium grain-free cat formulas. See our best cat food guide for A-tier options like Acana (A/90).
Corrected 2026-10-19: we removed claims we could not support; we corrected factual errors, and grades and score comparisons that did not match our current scores.