| Website | Ivory Coat |
| Country of origin | Australia |
| Available from | Pet Circle Lucky Pet |
15/09/2020 – Due to numerous consumer issues regarding Ivory Coat from The Real Pet Food Company we advise avoiding this product.
Update 19/04/2024 – Please read consumer reports on APOG – Ivory Coat if you are considering feeding this brand.
If your pet has suffered any ill effects from feeding this product please give details in the comments section below or add a report on the APOG website above.
Ivory Coat have established a loyal following with their Australian made dog food, so it’s great seeing the release of a cat food range. There are 3 formulas in the range – Ocean Fish & Salmon for all cats, Chicken & Kangaroo for indoor cats, and finally a kitten formula. For this review we’ll take a look at the Chicken & Kangaroo formula.
The ingredients get off to a great start with a combination of chicken meal and kangaroo meal, both excellent lean meats in protein-dense form with moisture removed. This is exactly what we expect to see in a food for a carnivorous animal. Big tick.
All dry foods need something to bind the kibble. This is traditionally a grain in most commercial foods, or something like potato or sweet potato for a grain free food. We’re seeing a trend lately in the use of tapioca, which is what we find here. It’s an ingredient with very little nutritional merit and as it’s high GI it’s not great if your cat’s diabetic. Potato would’ve been a better choice, which is what Ivory Coat used in their original dog foods, or better something like chickpeas or lentils.
Peas are the forth ingredient. Going by the rather high 7% fibre in the food we can deduce a significant amount of peas in the formula, and this will significantly contribute to the protein in the food. By no means are they a bad ingredient, but there are concerns about feeding peas in excess. The reason being is legumes are high in phytates which can lead to diabetes and obesity. There’s a simple solution to this, and that’s to rotate foods and offer your cat variety.
There’s some welcome inclusions in the food such as flaxseed which has a number of beneficial effects for overall health, skin, and coat. Coconut oil is another nice inclusion for skin and coat as well as offering a boost to the immune system. Yucca is great for joint health, arthritis, and helps with digestion.
Overall this food is a welcome addition to the cat food arena.
Ingredients
Chicken Meal, Kangaroo Meal, Tapioca, Peas, Chicken Fat (preserved with Mixed Tocopherols), Ground Flaxseed, Coconut Oil, Pea Fibre, Yucca, Apples, Cranberries, Pumpkin, Spinach, Vitamins A, B1, B2, B5, B6, B12, D3, E, K3, Niacin, Biotin, Folic Acid, Iron, Iodine, Zinc, Manganese, Copper, Selenium, Natural Prebiotic, Taurine and Green Tea Extract.
Dangerous food for cats! Do not buy!
Both my cats have been eating Ivory Coat dry food since they were kittens. Last month they were both vomiting a lot. I was confusing the vomit with excess shedding due to the chance in seasons. But then my tabby started puking blood. And we couldn’t ignore that anymore. They are both ok now, but the food was making them both very sick. So we have switched to Orijen based in part on the high quality reviews on this page. The new food is pricey, but great quality and does no have iodine or other chemicals which can be so harmful to cats. My cats are as healthy and happy with the new food as ever. Thank you to the author of this page for the honest reviews. I have loved learning more about how to be a wholesome pet parent to my furry family members.
Hi Lis, firstly I’m glad your cats have recovered – I’ve found the issues with Ivory Coat have continued for many years without any accountability, and it’s always sad to hear how our pets are continuously affected.
I strongly urge you to add a report on the APOG website with whatever information you can – https://www.apog.com.au/recall-issue-log/ivory-coat/
I changed to Ivory Coat when Blackhwak stopped producing the grain-free food I had been feeding my cats since I rescued them. I mixed it with the remaining BlackHawk and the cats liked it but it produced very severe vomiting in my male cat. I’m now trying Meals for Meows.
If you switch to something else, certainly don’t to Royal Canine. Cats love the taste overall but the ingredients are sh… . Read devastating reviews just a couple of days ago and cancelled an order. Bought Ivory Coat. He seems to do well with that, but reading these comments will make me look further into other grain free, natural dry food. Any recommendations? He doesn’t seem to like the ZiWi products.
Tried both my cats on both wet and dry Ivory coat. First night I gave it to them I fed them before bed and closed the door to their room as I usually do every night. In the morning I woke up to vomit and diarrhoea everywhere around the bathroom. SO much of both. They couldn’t even make it to their litter box, the poor kitties. I booked them an appointment at the vets for the next day, they were fine the rest of the day and the same thing happened after their meal of ivory coat again that night. I stopped the food and went back to their usual food and they have been fine since.
Do not recommend this food
Hi Emma, I’m very sorry to hear about your issues with Ivory Coat. Sadly this is one report of many, and I strongly urge you to add a report to the following page – https://www.apog.com.au/recall-issue-log/ivory-coat/
My indoor cat is 17yo, in good health and never had any issues with food. I tried ivory coat salmon and ocean fish for the first time and within 2 days she vomited all the kibbles up, within 4 days she’s vomited 3 times and now has terrible diahorrea. Wish I seen this review before I bought a bag. I thought being an Aussie brand I was doing the right thing, now I feel terrible and she’s just lying listless in her bed.
Can anyone comment on their wet food? I have always known Ivory Coat to be a good brand. I have just bought their chicken and gravy from pet circle. Can anyone give me any input? I have a domestic short haired tabby. She loves anything chicken!
Id like to know about the wet food too
I started feeding Ivory Coat Chicken and Kangaroo (Indoor) a few years ago, after reading the (excellent at the time) reviews here. I was looking for a high protein, Australian made product. I had also tried Black Hawk and Vetalogica. Both my Devon Rex cats prefer the Ivory Coat. I feed fresh meat in addition to the dry. Recently, both cats started vomiting regularly, bringing up whole, undigested biscuits. I have ordered a bag of Healthy Everyday Cats and will transition to that over the next couple of weeks.
Cat just vomited 3 times after being given Ivory coat chicken and coconut dry food. She never vomits.
My cats haven’t had an issue with this but I swit h up between this, Canidae and Wellness Core. Not issues in sickness and toileting with this one. I use the chicken and or kangaroo on. Chicken Canidae and duck and Turkey wellness core.
Just read your reviews of ivory coat and Applaws chicken dry food. Recently on the advice of my pet store owner I changed to Ivory Coat
I am going back to Applaws.
I wonder why everyone recommends it in stores, there is a lot of those lately, maybe their on some kind of IC payroll or something. They must know of these issues, but hey who cares right? clearly they don’t or they would have stopped recommending it.
Ivory Coat used to have such a great reputation. It’s a shame to see the product has clearly gone downhill in recent years yet still retains some of that reputation.
DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT!
(Chicken and Kangaroo)
My usual cat food was out of stock due to supply issues stemming from Covid backlog. We went with this brand wanting to stick with an Australian product, big mistake! My cat is right now at the vet with a catheter in as he had a blockage in his urinary tract. He is 9 years old and has NEVER had any health issues or problems in his lifetime, it is absolutely devastating for me to witness my fur-baby in such a horrible scenario. I only wish I had found this review website earlier to have been informed of the potential for health complications. More so disgraceful is that my local pet store recommended this product and having seen the warning on this page was posted August 2020 is sickening. I do take responsibility for not doing my own research into this product but pet supply stores should have a market research/purchasing officer that does their due diligence before suppling these products to their customers, where is the duty of care?!
I used to love it, I still have quiet the memory of when it first came out. The feeling I got from it, the ingredients were amazing at the time.
The ocean fish blend was favoured above all. So many oils! Rusty became so shiny and soft I was left in a WOW daze.
Than RPFC took over them and I just knew it would be bad and it was.
Damned shame to ruin such a prominent brand, IC doesn’t seem to care anyways or they’d have broken off if they did. So they’d loose a lot of lines of food, but at least they’d go back to being good.
I hope that Chinese investor doesn’t ruin Ziwi, I know investors are different to buy outs by other companies. But I’m still worried, like anyone would be. I took pictures of all the foods for dogs and cats, if anything changes I’ll know.
Hi, I have been feeding Ivory Coat chicken with kangaroo for about 6 months now and have two of my three cats with noticable bald patches along their hind legs and tail. I am wondering if anybody else has experienced any adverse reactions or allergies?
Hi Lisa,
Yes exactly same issue here after I fed Ivory Coat wet food to my 1 year old ginger. 1 patch on his hind leg and it was growing big until I stopped this food. My vet told me it could be caused by food allergy, which reminded me that I recently tried Ivory Coat food and then I stopped, and my cat started getting better.
This food is indeed toxic, no idea why it’s still allowed in the market.
Hi Lisa, I haven’t heard of anyone else having this issue. It could be the food, or it could be environmental. It’s definitely worth switching to a different brand to see if the condition improves. Are the two cats related?
My cats did fine with Chicken & Kangaroo, but with the fish one one of my cat gets very dry coat and quite some dander.
Not impressed with the small coloured bits of plastic in some of the biscuits.
Hi Lynne, they had an issue about 2 years ago. Is that what you’re referring too? I believe it was an issue with one of their suppliers which has now been changed. Applaws had a similar issue which was resolved by changing suppliers.
I’m not aware of any similar issues since.
If you switch to something else, certainly don’t to Royal Canine. Cats love the taste overall but the ingredients are sh… . Read devastating reviews just a couple of days ago and cancelled an order. Bought Ivory Coat. He seems to do well with that, but reading these comments will make me look further into other grain free, natural dry food. Any recommendations? He doesn’t seem to like the ZiWi products.
Hi i only bought my first bag of cat food 2 months ago. I on and off feed applaws to my dog and cat and the plastic was identical to what used to be in that. The reason i didn’t bother letting ivory coat know is because i had taken detailed photos of the applaws and emailed and never got a response back
Hi Lynne, could you post pics of the stuff you found in the Ivory Coat product? I’m just curious as to what I should be looking for.
Sorry my cat finished first bag a week ago. I didn’t purchase that brand again. The ttpieces are red and aqua type colour. Its extremely easy to go unnoticed
Yeah not replying is actually normal, they prefer to ignore and hope you go away then to actually respond to your concerns.
I asked a dog treat company one time about ingredients they never got back to me.
Asked Sunday Pets some stuff only got back to me twice out of like 4 questions and took them 1 month to reply.
Asked even Coles to reply to me for a vegetarian dish, it’s been a year they don’t care lol.
Mars who makes Pedigree kept discounting that their foods contain metal and plastic despite being visible.
So in essence yeah they don’t care lol.
You should definitely tell the company about that, might have an issue somewhere that might expand if their warned about it.
Their certainly not the first and they won’t be the last I guess.
This brand is definitely to be rated 5 stars! I have three extremely fussy cats that, to my surprise, ate every last biscuit. I know that I am giving my kitties the best nutrients they need with Ivory Coat. You only need to look at there social media to know that they truely care about the animals they are feeding.
Hi Stevie, a rating of 4 stars is very respectable and it still puts Ivory Coat far above most other cat foods on the market. It doesn’t quite make 5 stars if you compare it to other cat foods we’ve rated 5 stars such as Ziwipeak (more expensive) and as a kibble Wellness CORE (also more expensive) which has significantly more meat, protein, and less carbs (potato).
Have a 8 week old Kitten. I read your review when we got him a week ago and tried some of the 5 star foods recommended. We started with Earthborn Holistic, lucky I had chicken mince as a back up because Simba (kitten) refused the eat.
We are currently trailing Ivory Coat and he actually eat. No wet food or chicken mince required. His bowel motions are nice and soiled. He has LOTS of energy. My vet has said he is a happy, healthy kitten.
I do confess to having a bag of Wellness Core to try as well due to its high meat content but when I offered him a few pieces as a sample he walked away and didn’t touch it. With the Ivory Coat kitten formula he ate it like a treat.
We also have Ziwipeak that I give him a small amount of every other day as a treat. He eats around it and its normally my German Shepherd that eats it.
The great thing about feeding premium food is that your not only taking care of the welfare of your pet, you have less mess to clean up, they have better breath, their coat is shinier, and you are giving them the right start to a happy healthy life.
The lovely people that breed Simba (kitten) thought they were doing great by him by feeding him Whiskers Kitten. I know the process to change them over I just couldn’t bring myself to feed any animal something that poor in nutrition, he would have gotten more benefit eating the packaging.
Any recommendations on the 3-6am zoomies, where kitty has an explosion of energy would be appricatted. My first cat in a very long time.
One thing I’d do is add a canned food, cats don’t have a very big thirst drive like dogs do and it’s very easy for them to get dehydrated and eventually develop urinary stones.
It’s a very real problem in cats I read about almost everyday.
At the moment I am feeding him organic chicken mince. He get about 80 grams a day.
I am trying to get him to recognise his name so I am feeding this by hand. We are also working on coming when called.
Yes, I am attempting to use positive reinforcement to train a kitten.
My dogs get raw kangaroo at night but I felt this was to rich for the kitten.
The organic chicken mince works out cheaper then a can a grain free kitten food and at least I know what’s in it.
Then maybe just a splash of water onto the kibble just to be sure, once he gets it then it’s quiet a difficult problem to fix and mighty expensive, not sure if chicken mince has enough water.
Hope the positive reinforced training works out, I don’t really know about cats, just about cat diabetes and stones sadly, so I guess if you made it sound like that then it’s not common to do so?
thanks for the great advice. My mother in law unfortunately had the same issues with all her cats. Cancers and renal issues. Not cheap and devastating when you loss them.
He is currently a graze feeder. Will he still want his biscuits if they are wet and soggy?
His water bowl is right next to his food bowl and I do notice he tends to drink before he eats and after, and in between, but is he getting enough water? He is set up in the study, just happened that way, but that is how I am learning his habits.
Hubby adds water to our dogs biscuits, but they eat a different way entirely. They just eat, no grazing.
Cancers are due to feeding low quality foods with cancer causing agents that and continuing to feed the foods well after your cat or dog has gotten the cancer, as after that the cancer feeds on the carbs and sugars the kibble produces when digesting.
Which is why raw, cooked with minimum carbs and freeze dried or dried like Ziwipeak are best to continue on with after the pet has gotten cancer, some just froze in their tracks or disappeared completely.
Our girl is a grazer, she has no real idea what to do with food that’s soggy as she has always known the food to be dry, so I guess it could be a problem.
The mince as part of his diet plus the amount he drinks could very well be enough moisture, I’m not personally there to see it however and so I can only take guesses, but it seems like it would be good enough.
Our boy on the other hand the one in the picture, he’s missing that food stop dna strand haha, he will eat all the time and he doesn’t care if the food is wet or dry he inhales it all, best type of pets ever the ones that inhale, however it brings its own set of problems, like weight gain, the need to feed foods with green lipped mussel for joint health because of said weight and yeah, oh and the risk of triggering pancreatitis.
If you get the feeling that the chicken mince (or any mince for that matter) is going to be a large part of his diet for a while, it might pay to look at the Vet’s All Natural ‘Complete Mix’ product for cats, which is intended to complement a mostly raw meat diet and fill in some of the missing pieces. Since it’s sort of a wet soggy cereal texture when mixed up, it could also be a handy way of getting more water into him as Amateria suggested.
Thanks for the recommendation. He has been fussy whilst we have been selecting a biscuit (kibble) for him. Would it be worth changing it again once this bag starts to run out of just stay with what I know he likes?
I’ve had to return 2 other foods that he just refused to eat.
At the moment considering how playful he is, he seems health enough, He is due back to the vet next week for his next vaccination. We are on monthly visits at the moment, whilst I catch him up on everything that his breeders didn’t do.
Should this be an issue form now or when he is older? He was born on the 16/01/2017.
Hi Anna, lots of great advice here from Alan and Amateria but I’ll throw in a few other points…
I’ve found dogs and cats to be really enthusiastic with Ivory Coat, much more so than Wellness. Cats are slightly autistic and often confused with new foods, so they’ll often walk away from a new food because they simply don’t recognise it as food. I’m actually feeding my own cat Wellness Core at the moment and he seems to be loving it which is surprising, and he’s not much of a dry food eater.
No problems feeding a cat kangaroo. It’s a fantastic meat for cats and dogs. Offal / organs are very nutritious so consider them too, especially when you can buy these cheap in the supermarkets. Chicken necks are also great for cats to chew on (great for their teeth too).
Hi Anna,
I really don’t have enough experience with cats to give you an intelligent answer to the question of what to expect as he ages. Having said that, it’s been my amateur observation that a cat who is ‘permitted’ to become a fussy eater tends to remain a fussy eater if that makes sense, so you have this sort of balancing act between making sure the cat is eating *something* to sustain him whilst also pushing the boundaries. There’s an element of tough love of course, as a hungry critter is always more motivated to try something unfamiliar, and it all comes undone if pussy figures out that enough yowling or mischief soon results in his favourite food appearing.
But whether it’s dogs or cats, you really want to keep adding to your repertoire. Manufacturers disappear or change formulas, critter requirements change etc. etc.
Regarding foods that are rejected and need to be returned, I’m not sure if you’re aware but most of the manufacturers have samples available one way or another. This tends to be dry products much more than wet products but even so it might save some hassle if you check the manufacturers website of a potential new food and if there’s no mention of samples, drop them a message to ask if samples are available. Ivory coat is one that makes samples readily available, and it sounds like you’ve had good luck with one of their formulas already.