The scores
Purina Cat Chow: D (38/100)
Friskies: D (37/100)
A 23-point gap — one of the largest we’ve seen between sibling brands. Both are budget cat foods from the same parent company, yet Purina clearly made different decisions about where to cut corners. Friskies landed in F territory while Cat Chow at least held on to a low D. That’s the difference between “bad” and “significantly worse.”
How the ingredients compare
Here are the key ingredients side by side:
Purina Cat Chow: Corn Gluten Meal, Soybean Meal, Whole Grain Corn, Poultry By-Product Meal, Beef Fat (preserved with Mixed Tocopherols), Whole Wheat, Whole Grain Oat Meal, Brewers Rice, Dried Yeast, Calcium Carbonate, Animal Liver Flavor, Phosphoric Acid, Salt
Friskies: Ground Yellow Corn, Corn Gluten Meal, Chicken By-Product Meal, Soybean Meal, Beef Tallow (preserved with BHA), Animal Digest, Phosphoric Acid, Salt, Calcium Carbonate, Added Color (Yellow 5, Red 40, Yellow 6, Blue 2)
Both lead with corn-based ingredients and plant protein fillers. Neither puts a named whole meat first. But look past the shared weaknesses and the differences become clear — Cat Chow includes some actual whole grains (wheat, oat meal) and uses natural preservation, while Friskies doubles down on the cheapest possible formulation with BHA and a cocktail of four artificial dyes.
Where Purina Cat Chow pulls ahead
Natural preservation. Cat Chow preserves its beef fat with mixed tocopherols — a form of vitamin E that’s widely considered safe. Friskies preserves its beef tallow with BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole), a chemical the FDA’s National Toxicology Program has identified as “reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen.” The amounts in pet food are small, but many pet owners and veterinary nutritionists prefer to avoid BHA entirely. Better cat foods manage preservation without it, and Cat Chow proves Purina knows how to do exactly that.
No artificial colors. Friskies contains four artificial dyes — Yellow 5, Red 40, Yellow 6, and Blue 2. These exist solely to make the kibble look appealing to human shoppers. Your cat doesn’t care what color their food is. Cat Chow skips the dyes entirely, which is one less category of unnecessary additives going into your cat’s body.
Some whole grains. Cat Chow includes whole wheat, whole grain oat meal, and whole grain corn alongside its less desirable ingredients. These are still filler in a cat food context — cats are obligate carnivores — but whole grains provide more fiber and micronutrients than the processed corn and by-products that dominate Friskies’ formula. Shop on Amazon →
Where Friskies holds its own
Price. Friskies is typically the cheapest cat food on the shelf, often undercutting Cat Chow by a noticeable margin per pound. If absolute lowest cost is the only constraint, Friskies delivers calories for less money. That’s the beginning and end of its advantage.
Availability. Friskies is sold in virtually every grocery store, gas station, and dollar store in the country. Cat Chow has wide distribution too, but Friskies edges it out for sheer ubiquity. Neither food requires a specialty trip to purchase. Shop on Amazon →
The bottom line
Purina Cat Chow wins this comparison by 23 points, and the gap is well-earned. Same parent company, but meaningfully different ingredient decisions — Cat Chow uses natural preservation and skips the artificial colors that drag Friskies down to F grade. That said, a D/38 is still a D. Neither food contains a named whole meat in the top ingredients, and both rely heavily on corn products and plant protein fillers that don’t align with what obligate carnivores need.
If you’re currently feeding Friskies, switching to Cat Chow is a step up. But the most impactful change is upgrading past both — a B-grade cat food like Wellness (B/80), Blue Buffalo (B/76), or Taste of the Wild (B/76) costs more per bag but delivers named meats first, no BHA, no artificial dyes, and a genuine quality jump your cat will benefit from.
Read our full reviews of Purina Cat Chow and Friskies for the complete ingredient breakdowns.