The 7 Best Dry Foods for Maine Coon Cats in 2024

Most dry foods aren’t the best way to go when it comes to feeding indoor cats. In fact, many popular options you see on grocery store shelves are full of unhealthy carbs and ingredients you can’t even pronounce, let alone recognize – yikes!

Between the hundreds of available options and clever marketing tactics, it can get incredibly hard to weed out poor-quality kibble out of the healthier options.

And considering Maine Coons and their high protein needs, you’ll have to be even more selective in your kibble choices. It’s essential to analyze the contents and nutritional information of the dry food to ensure your cat gets a balanced diet, which is what we’ll be doing in this post.

We’ll review seven of the best dry foods for Maine Coon cats, with pros and cons, ingredient analysis, and more, specifically with regard to our giant feline friends that have slightly different nutritional requirements than most cats.

Quick Look: Best Dry Foods for Maine Coons 2024

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What is the Best Dry Cat Food for Maine Coons?

Maine Coon diets only differ in one way from the rest of the feline kingdom – they need extra protein. Because most Maine Coons are larger and with more muscle mass than other cats, they need a high-protein diet to support it.

In dry foods, these protein levels should be at a minimum of 26%. Ideally, it should be above 40% to nourish their large, muscular bodies.

The best dry food for a Maine Coon will also have fewer carbohydrates – the leading cause of obesity in most indoor cats.

Since most popular grocery store dry foods have cheap filler ingredients in them that are full of carbs, we suggest opting for a grain-free diet that has very less bad carbs and only some necessary, digestible carbs that active Maine Coons may need.

Can Maine Coons Live on Dry Food?

Yes, they can, but they won’t exactly be ‘thriving’ on dry food alone. In fact, dry food-only diets are one of the leading causes of kidney diseases and urinary issues in felines because of the low moisture content in kibble.

It’s highly recommended by experts and vets to feed your cat a combination of wet and dry food to maintain hydration in their bodies. Ideally, wet food should be offered once a day, but you can also do with offering it a few times a week, while on other days, they can eat their favorite kibble.

You can also try to add some water to the kibble to rehydrate it, but many cats don’t prefer the mushy texture it turns into.

7 Best Dry Foods for Maine Coon Cats

1. Best Overall: Instinct Original Grain-Free Recipe (Chicken)

Made in: USA – Grain-free: yes – Guaranteed protein: 41% – Calories per cup: 505 kcal

Kibble is notorious for its unhealthy carbs and shady ingredients, but the Instinct Original Grain-Free Recipe by Nature’s Variety has found a way to make dry food as healthy as possible for your cats.

With a raw, freeze-dried meat coating on every kibble piece, the formula ensures your cat gets the nutrients (and taste) that come with raw diets. The kibble itself has chicken, chicken meal, turkey meal, and menhaden fish meal listed as the first four ingredients that make up 81% of it.

Peas, carrots, apples, and cranberries are used as a source of vitamins and antioxidants while acting as a healthy binding agent. Other than these veggies, you won’t find any other source of carbs in their recipe, which eliminates the extra calories that come with dry cat foods.

Alongside poultry, it also contains some freeze-dried pollock and dried Bacillus coagulans that support your cat’s gut health. Keep in mind this isn’t low in calories – it’s only meant for healthy adult Maine Coons that are active and playful

That said, it is high in protein, which is exactly what you want for a large Maine Coon. You can find this formula in three other flavors – salmon, rabbit, and duck – depending on what your cat prefers.

While it’s available in many sizes, the 11 lb bag turns out to be the most affordable, with the per pound price rounding to about $4 – a great price for a wholesome and healthy kibble recipe.

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2. Best Weight Control: Merrick Purrfect Bistro Complete Care Weight Control Recipe

Made in: USA – Grain-free: yes – Guaranteed protein: 32% – Calories per cup: 350 kcal

Calories aren’t exactly an indoor cat’s best friend, which is why the Merrick Purrfect Bistro Weight Control recipe can be the perfect pick if you’re looking for fewer calories, a decent formula, and affordability at the same time.

It happens to be grain-free to cut down on extra calories, while ingredients such as sweet potatoes and peas help add more fiber to the diet, bind things together, and help cats feel fuller with less food.

While this formula doesn’t offer the same kind of calorie control as freeze-dried products do, it does offer an affordable per-pound price point without the addition of cheap fillers like some other brands.

With 350 kcals per cup, you can better maintain your Maine Coon’s weight and even bring it down if you add wet food to its daily meals.

When it comes to protein, deboned chicken, – which means not measuring the chicken’s weight with bones in it – chicken meal and turkey meal happen to be the first three ingredients. This brings the total crude protein in the formula to 32%.

Aside from essential vitamins and minerals, the formula includes five different strains of bacteria to help digest meals and strengthen the gut.

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3. Best Budget: Purina One True Instinct Cat Food

Made in: USA – Grain-free: yes – Guaranteed protein: 35% – Calories per cup: 356 kcal

Typically, cheaper dry foods provide very limited nutrition to your cats, but the Purina One True Instinct offers the best of both worlds: affordability and quality ingredients.

This grain-free recipe includes ocean whitefish and chicken meal, both of which are listed as the first ingredients. Together with soybean and pea protein, it brings the total protein content of this dry food to 35%.

With the added beef fat and some liver flavor, most cats enjoy the taste of this diverse recipe. Of course, if you buy the biggest 14.4 lb bag, the cost per cup rounds out to about $0.75 per cup, and considering the fact that there aren’t any fillers in this recipe, this is quite an impressive budget pick. However, you get to choose from just two flavors – chicken and whitefish.

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4. Best for Food Sensitivities: Instinct Limited Ingredient Grain-Free Real Rabbit

Made in: USA – Grain-free: yes – Guaranteed protein: 35% – Calories per cup: 457 kcal

Digestive issues often arise from food sensitivities due to the dozens of ingredients present in dry food. With Instinct’s Limited Ingredient and grain-free formula, this problem gets solved.

Available in three flavors – rabbit, turkey, and salmon, this is a single-protein recipe that eliminates the chances of allergic reactions to meat. If you choose rabbit, rabbit meal will be the first ingredient you find, with rabbit meat listed as the fifth one, and freeze-dried rabbit further along the list. There’s no other meat other than this, which is great for cats who are allergic to a certain kind of protein.

Apart from canola oil (a not-so-desirable but acceptable addition to increase fat content) and peas, the recipe is free from veggies, grains, and soy. Depending on the flavor and bag size you choose, the cost per pound can be anywhere from $5-$10, which is pretty high-cost.

Considering how natural their formula is, this price can prove to be worth it for cats that need help in regulating bowel movements and relieving symptoms of digestive upsets.

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5. Best High-Protein: Dr. Elsey’s Cleanprotein Chicken Recipe

Made in: USA – Grain-free: yes – Guaranteed protein: 59% – Calories per cup: 523 kcal

There are plenty of kibble on the market that have high protein content, but none come close to Dr. Elsey’s Cleanprotein Chicken Recipe.

Their chicken recipe, in particular, contains a whopping 59% of crude protein, making it the best choice for highly active, large Maine Coons who need a lot of protein to maintain their muscle mass.

This protein comes mainly from chicken, which is listed as the first ingredient. Hydrolyzed pork – a highly digestible protein derived from pork bones, liver, and skin – is the second ingredient, whereas pork plasma is the third.

Without any grains, legumes, or other veggies, this kibble becomes a protein-packed, highly nutritious formula for indoor cats. Another ingredient worth noting is FOS, which helps in digestion.

Unsurprisingly, a bag of this dry food recipe comes at a steep price, varying between $8-10 per pound, depending on the size you get. This makes it almost impossible to make this kibble a part of your cat’s daily meals. Instead, we suggest offering it 2-3 days a week for a protein boost.

The price varies between the four other available flavors, but they’re not as readily available as the chicken recipe.

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6. Best for Kittens: Wellness CORE Grain-Free Kitten Formula

Made in: USA – Grain-free: yes – Guaranteed protein: 45% – Calories per cup: 497 kcal

Maine Coon kittens have remarkable energy, which is why you need a high-protein and calorie-dense dry food recipe for them to grow. The wellness CORE grain-free kitten formula offers just that, alongside affordability and quality ingredients.

It contains 5 types of protein – deboned turkey, turkey meal, deboned chicken, chicken meal, and herring meal. Peas are listed as the fourth ingredient on the list, and dried ground potatoes as the seventh. While these veggies help bind the kibble together, they also help provide some extra carbs that kittens need to play for hours at a time. No grains are used, making it a nutritious recipe that aids in rapid growth phases.

With a minimum protein content of 45% and calories at 497 kcals per cup, the formula is great for young kittens who need dry food for free grazing throughout the day. Alongside this, the formula also contains salmon oil for that extra fat (18% minimum) and four probiotics that aid in digestion. 

On top of that, it’s a pretty affordable kibble for kittens. However, the biggest bag you can find is only 5 lbs, which might not be the best if you have more than one Maine Coon kitten. Do keep in mind that it also has a very strong smell that kittens may like, but for humans, it’s quite unpleasant.

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7. Best Freeze Dried: Primal Turkey Formula Nuggets

Made in: USA – Grain-free: yes – Guaranteed protein: 57% – Calories per Oz: 123 kcal

Primal’s Turkey Formula Nuggets are one of the best ways to offer a high-protein diet to your cat that’s also high in moisture. Since they’re freeze-dried to preserve freshness, all you need to do is pour a little bit of water into some nuggets, and you’ve got some nutritious, safe, raw wet food for your felines.

These nuggets are made of cage-free turkey (with bones) and turkey liver, bringing the total crude protein level to a whopping 57%. There’s a bunch of veggies added in the recipe too, such as kale, carrots, and squash to add essential nutrients to the formula without the need for supplements. The vegetables are organic to provide the best of the best to your cat.

With the help of four probiotics, these nuggets are highly digestible and help maintain your cat’s gut health too. Other than this, there isn’t much added in the recipe, apart from some seeds that are used to increase the fat content of the nuggets. It would have been better if animal fat was used instead of plant-based ingredients, though.

Keep in mind that these nuggets are quite big, almost as long as a thumb, so you need to crumble them before rehydrating them and serving them. They’re also pretty expensive – around $2.50 per oz, but rehydrating the nuggets almost doubles them in size, so you won’t run out of them as quickly. It’s still far more expensive than most dry cat foods, but it’s also much healthier with much less calories.

Other than turkey, you can find these nuggets in 5 different flavors.

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