Cat Food
Solid Gold Indigo Moon High Protein Chicken & Egg Review
97% animal-sourced protein, only 17% carbs as-fed, and 50 years of holistic pedigree — but 475 kcal/cup and "ocean fish …
Read Review →
In the early 1970s, Sissy Harrington-McGill was breeding and showing champion Great Danes in California when she lost two of her dogs to bloat. Searching for answers, she travelled to Germany to purchase Bismark — the son of the reigning World Champion Great Dane — and noticed something striking: German Danes were healthier, had better coats, and lived significantly longer than their American counterparts. The difference, she concluded, was diet. European pet food used real meat, whole grains, and vegetables. American pet food was built on rendered by-products, corn fillers, and artificial preservatives. Back home, Sissy began making her own dog food. She named it Hund-N-Flocken — German for "dog and flakes" — and started handing out free samples at dog shows. In 1974, Solid Gold was officially born. It was the first holistic natural pet food sold in the United States, and Sissy built it in an industry run entirely by men, with no investors and no corporate backing. Over the next four decades, the premium natural pet food category she single-handedly created grew into a $6 billion market. In 2014, private equity firm VMG Partners acquired the business. It later passed to Health & Happiness Group International Holdings — the Hong Kong-based company that also owns Zesty Paws supplements. Now in her early 90s, Sissy still worked five days a week at her pet supply store in San Diego as recently as 2019.
Long before probiotics and microbiome science became pet food marketing buzzwords, Solid Gold was formulating around digestive health. Sissy's original insight — that a healthy gut drives overall wellbeing in dogs — has become the brand's central pillar across every product line. Today, every Solid Gold recipe includes a combination of prebiotics, probiotics, and fibre-rich superfoods like pumpkin, blueberries, and kelp, designed to support digestion and immune function. The brand's newest innovation is NutrientBoost — a proprietary blend powered by animal plasma, which contains 18 amino acids, essential minerals, and immunoglobulins (natural antibodies). Solid Gold claims this is the first plasma-enhanced pet food on the market, and the science behind plasma as a gut-health supplement is supported by livestock research, though independent studies specific to companion animals are still limited.
All recipes use cage-free chicken, pasture-raised lamb, or wild-caught fish, and the brand states a preference for non-GMO ingredients — though it does not hold a formal non-GMO certification.
Solid Gold's recall history is minimal — a single voluntary recall in 2012 for Wolf Cub and Wolf King recipes, triggered by the industry-wide salmonella contamination at Diamond Pet Foods' South Carolina plant, not by any confirmed issue in Solid Gold products. However, in 2018 the brand faced a class action lawsuit in California alleging that certain products contained heavy metals, chemicals, and toxins — a claim described as fraudulent and negligent misrepresentation. The case brought unwelcome attention to a brand built on purity and transparency. On the ingredient side, Solid Gold recipes are feed-grade rather than human-grade, and some formulas rely on meat meals rather than whole meat as the primary protein — a distinction that matters to buyers who prioritise whole-food sourcing. Pricing sits in the upper-mid to premium tier, comparable to Wellness and Merrick. For pet owners who want a gut-health-focused food with a genuine heritage story, sustainably sourced proteins, and one of the cleanest recall records in the industry, Solid Gold is a brand that has earned its name over half a century. Just check whether the specific formula you are considering uses whole meat or meal, and whether the NutrientBoost plasma technology aligns with what you want to feed your pet.
1 review — sorted by rating.
97% animal-sourced protein, only 17% carbs as-fed, and 50 years of holistic pedigree — but 475 kcal/cup and "ocean fish …
Read Review →