Fussy Cat Kitten Chicken Mousse – The Best Cat Food Reviews

Last Updated on July 8, 2023 by Indy the Cat

History

Fussy Cat is a cat food brand under the Real Pet Food Company, a pet food company with origins dating back to 1994. You may have come across some of their other brands which cater for both felines and canines. This includes popular brands such as Ivory Coat, Doctor B’s Barf, Trilogy, and VIP Pet Foods.

Fussy Cat itself was originally launched in 2004 while the parent brand was still under the name VIP Pet Foods (later renamed to Real Pet Food Company in 2015). The Fussy Cat brand focuses on grain free food derived from premium meat without fillers. The brand manufactures their dry, wet and raw foods across its various Australian factories.

Note: While Fussy Cat’s current product lines are manufactured in Australia, this previous line was manufactured in Thailand

Recalls

To date, Real Pet Food Co has not had a recall with their Fussy Cat brand. In Australia, pet food recalls are only mandatory for brands that have decided to work within the Australian Standard for Manufacturing and Marketing of Pet Food (Standard AS5812:2017). All members of the Pet Food Industry Association of Australia comply with these standards and Real Pet Food Co is a certified manufacturing member of the Association. 

Product Line Commentary

Today, we will be looking at the Fussy Cat Kitten Chicken Mousse formula. This Fussy Cat formula is actually a discontinued formula, which may raise a few eyebrows as you read this review. After all, why review a formula that is no longer offered? Well, read on!

Firstly, Fussy Cat is a brand found in your everyday supermarkets such as Woolworths and Coles. It positions itself as an affordable brand with premium meats and grain free formulas. A look into this formula will provide some insight into how Fussy Cat stacks up to other cat foods.

As mentioned in the Wellness CorePâté Kitten review, the wet kitten food market is fairly limited in Australia, so it never hurts to have more options in a rotation diet, even if it’s only for a short period during part of their kitten phase. The mousse texture is not very common, so it’s nice to expose your cat to a different texture early as a kitten.

Is it a premium cat food?

The ingredient list is simple and offer few details beyond generic listed ingredients. This isn’t necessarily a terrible thing since all formulas meet AAFCO requirements, so we can be confident that the food is complete and balanced. That being said, named detailed ingredients tend to be found in more premium foods, so for this price point (under $0.70/can), it’s acceptable.

The single protein in this wet cat food is chicken and as the first ingredient in the list, it’s the main ingredient. It doesn’t mention anything specific, but they also do not specify byproducts or chicken meal as other products do. There are no vegetarian protein sources, which is a good thing as cats areobligate carnivores (they need meat!).

Beyond that, all the other ingredients (such as Taurine) are the minimum of what you would need for a balanced cat food. While we would prefer not to see sunflower oil as a source of fat and fatty acids, this is the type of ingredient you will see in budget foods. The food is grain free (part of the Fussy Cat philosophy), which is a nice positive, and they do not replace it with other fillers (e.g. rice/potato) like some other brands.

Bring it back Fussy Cat

As mentioned earlier, Fussy Cat Chicken Mousse is complete and balanced for kittens and thus can be fed on its own or alongside other foods. At 66kcal per 85g can, it is lighter in calories compared to typical wet foods in this size range. The breakdown shows that it would be considered a moderate protein, low fat, and low carbohydrate cat food.

All in all, this is a reasonable budget friendly wet kitten food that never got replaced with a followup product line. It should never have been discontinued! We would love to see Fussy Cat bring back a similar formula to cater for our precious kittens!

Guaranteed analysis

Crude Protein (min) – 7.5%

Crude Fat (min) – 2%

Note: Most wet foods have at least 70-75% water so it can be fairly safe approximation that ~15% of the analysis is other macros such as carbohydrate, fibre etc. As this is an older and discontinued food, Fussy Cat does not supply further details such as dry matter basis analysis on their website. We have reached out to Fussy Cat for further nutritional information beyond the guaranteed analysis.

Where to Buy and Cost

While this is a discontinued product, Budget Pet Products still stocks this item and has carried stock throughout all of 2021. However, the last of their stock expires in April 2022, so buy it now while you can!

Normally priced at $31 for 48 cans (85g), this comes to a nice budget friendly price of $0.65/can. As it is lower in calories, we often paired this food with a more calorie dense wet food for Indy’s other meals.

Ingredient List

Chicken, Sunflower oil, Thickening & Gelling Agents, Vitamins & Minerals, Fish Oil, Taurine

Nutritional Information

Chicken – source of meat protein

Sunflower oil – source of fat and fatty acids such as omega 6

Thickening & Gelling Agents – non specifiedadditive. Used for thickening agent (potentially an issue for sensitive stomach cats)

Vitamins & Minerals – not specified but will cover essential vitamins such as Vitamin B, D, E etc.

Fish Oil – source of fatty acids, amino acids and omega-3’s

Taurine –essential amino acid 

Indy’s Review

So does Indy the cat like it? 

Yes! He added this to his rotation around the 6 month mark and continued till he transitioned to adult food.

He did go through a period of fussiness as a teenager and this was one of the foods he would sometimes reject outright. It’s not his favourite food, but was still a key part of his kitten rotation.

While it’s labeled as premium cat food, the ingredient breakdown shows a clear lack of quality named ingredients. Maybe Indy suspects something as well!

The good

• Meat source protein only
• Grain free without similar substitutes 
• Budget friendly
• Adopted by Indy in terms of palatability 

The bad

• Thickening agents are not listed and likely will be ingredients such as guar gum. They are considered more controversial and can be an issue for some cats
• Generic ingredients
• Labeled as premium cat food but quality of ingredients suggest otherwise

Rating 

• Species appropriate (weight 0.3) – 7 / 10
• Ingredients (weight 0.3) – 6 / 10
• Recall Track record (weight 0.2) – 10 / 10
• Price (weight 0.2) – 9 / 10

Average Score – 8 / 10

Weighted Score – 7.7 / 10

The Bottom Line: Indy the Cat‘s favourite budget friendly kitten food. Try it while you still can!

If you spot an error in this article, please do not hesitate to let us know!