Dem Cats: A Review of Blue Wilderness Dry Cat Food

As promised, I am planning to roll out some reviews of the pet items I use here in my home with my two cats - and in case you missed my introductory post to them, here it is!

Like many others, I try to do the best I can for my pets - I think it's just human nature to be that way. With the advent of new, grain-free diets, I was interested, but I wasn't entirely sold on the idea. That was, until I lost a five year old cat, who had a lot of life left to live, to kidney failure. At the time, I was doing a dry diet, free-fed, with canned food once in a great while. What I found out in my research after the fact was a bit astonishing.

I had never bothered to look at the ingredients of the food I was using - that being regular blue bag Cat Chow. And when I did? I don't know exactly how I felt - maybe just bummed? Bummed to find out that I was feeding my cats a mixture of chicken heads and who knows what else. I had just purchased a new bag of food, and for whatever reason, flipped it over and read the ingredients. After I did that, I grabbed the receipt, got in my car, and drove back to the store where I'd purchased it, returning it immediately. This was in the beginning of my research, of course, and I had earmarked a few different foods I wanted to try instead.

Through research, and talking to my vet, I figured out that cats cannot thrive on just a dry diet. While it works, for the most part, a combination dry/canned, or just a canned diet is much better for cats in the long run. Why? Because they don't naturally drink a whole lot of water, and they get a lot of water from canned food. I attempted to combat the water problem by supplementing with canned food, as well as getting a water fountain (which I will review next), to generate interest. And it worked, all around!

My "natural" pet food journey started with a variety of Wellness-brand foods. Eventually, something didn't sit right with Vegas, and he started having some issues with vomiting and all else. So, I made the switch to Blue Wilderness. Initially, I was just using their Chicken recipe, and then this stuff came out - Blue Wilderness Chicken Recipe Indoor Hairball Control. My pet food savior!

Having two long-haired cats can be a bit of a challenge anyway, but with one who stress eats on occasion, as well as (in the past) yacked up at least one hairball a day, I couldn't not try it. And to be totally honest, it has changed my cats for the better in a multitude of ways. First and foremost, no more hairballs! On the rarest of occasions they still happen, but nowhere near the frequency as in the past. And not so much just this formula, but the Blue Wilderness brand as a whole, has changed everything from their energy levels to how soft their fur is! It is truly, truly a godsend.

While it may be more expensive than the old blue bag Cat Chow (a five pound bag will cost you around $13), it is definitely worth every penny. At this point, I feed a split diet, between this and a variety of canned foods (which I will cover in another post), and am so, so glad that I found this product, and will continue to pay the higher price tag in order to know that I am doing the best I can for my critters - and that's enough for me.