If you are a cat owner, then you want the best for your cat or cats. Part of giving them the best life possible involves giving them the best food possible.

A lot of cat owners prefer dry cat food, and we are among them. If you think that dry cat food is the best option, then we want to help you pick out the best dry cat food possible.

In this article, we will review five different dry foods and tell you what makes them good. We are also including a helpful buying guide. If you are in a rush, we recommend going with the Purina Beyond Grain Free Natural Recipe, Adult Dry Cat Food.

 

A Spotlight On Some of The Best Dry Cat Food 2019

 

Dry Cat Food Reviews :

Blue Buffalo Wilderness High Protein Grain Free, Natural Adult Dry Cat Food, Chicken

We want to start off this best dry cat food review list right, so we are starting out by reviewing Blue Buffalo cat food, more specifically, Blue Buffalo Wilderness High Protein Grain Free Dry Cat Food. Experienced pet owners may recognize why the name Blue Buffalo is significant, but for those who don’t, just know that they make some absolutely amazing pet foods, and this is one of them.

First off, Blue Buffalo only uses the best ingredients in their foods. For this particular dry cat food, they only used real pieces of chicken. That’s especially worth noting because a lot of companies will use things like chicken meal (a mixture of low-quality meat) instead of actual chicken in their chicken flavored foods. But that isn’t the case with Blue Buffalo, they use 100% real chicken.

In addition to the real chicken, Blue Buffalo has also included real sources of fiber in the mixture. The fiber aids with digestion and ensures that your cat has a healthy digestive system. The presence of fiber also makes the food a lot easier on your cat’s stomach.

It also comes with a special blend of vitamins and nutrients referred to as “LifeSource Bits.” This mixture of nutrients includes important ones like fatty acids, which help keep your cat’s skin and fur coat healthy. The other nutrients also aid in keeping your cat’s vital organs and systems in good condition (this includes the nervous system, digestive system, circulatory system, etc.).

Just as important was what Blue Buffalo includes in their food is what they don’t include. Blue Buffalo’s dry cat food doesn’t include any sort of grain product. It also doesn’t include any sort of artificial ingredients, this includes no artificial flavorings, no artificial colors, and no artificial preservatives.

Pros:
Comes with Blue Buffalo’s exclusive LifeSource Bits nutrient mixture.
Contains fatty acids for healthy skin and coat.
No artificial ingredients.
Uses real chicken.

Cons:
Fairly pricey.
Only comes in one size option.
Only comes in one flavor.

Purina Beyond Grain Free Natural Recipe, Adult Dry Cat Food

Purina is a very famous brand that makes both high-quality cat food and dog food, so you probably aren’t all that surprised to see them on our best dry cat food list.

The first thing that we want to bring to your attention is the wide variety of choice that you get when it comes to this dry cat food. With the previous entry on this list, you didn’t get any choice; you only got one size and one flavor to pick from, but that isn’t the case with the Purina Beyond Dry Cat Food.

First off, you get three different flavors to choose from, including a chicken and egg flavor, a salmon, egg, and sweet potato flavor, and finally, the flavor that we are reviewing, which is ocean whitefish and egg. Having multiple flavors is great because it ensures that if your cat doesn’t like one flavor, but you really want them to like the food, then you can try one of the other flavors.

In terms of size, this food gives you four different sizes to choose from. You can start with a small, 3 lbs. bag or a 5 lbs. bag. Once you are done with the smaller sizes, you can move onto the bigger sizes, like the 11 lbs. or the 16 lbs. options.

Again, having lots of size options is really helpful because it means you can start off by buying a smaller, cheaper bag and seeing if your cat likes it or not. Then, you can move up to the bigger bags if they do.

The quality of the food is very high (obviously we can only speak for the flavor that we reviewed, but we assume all three flavors are equally good). They use real pieces of both fish and egg, giving this a very high protein content, which is good for your cat’s muscles and energy levels.

It also has added sweet potato, to give it some extra taste and to make it a bit more nutritious.

As with most other high-quality dry cat foods, this one doesn’t have any sort of artificial ingredients, soy products, or wheat products. It is made using entirely high-quality ingredients.

Pros:
Affordable.
Uses real fish and meat.
Rich in protein.
Lots of different sizes and flavors to choose from.
No artificial ingredients, soy, or wheat.

Con:
High sodium content might make it unsuitable for certain cats.

CRAVE Grain Free High Protein Dry Cat Food

In comparison to Blue Buffalo and Purina, Crave is a relatively lesser-known brand. However, maybe they shouldn’t be because as you will see in this review, their dry cat food can easily compete with the best cat foods on the market.

You get a choice of four very unique flavors. We will be looking at the chicken and salmon flavor, but you can also pick from the chicken, the chicken and duck, or the salmon and ocean fish flavors.

As you would expect from a dry cat food that is being featured on the best dry cat food list, all the flavors use real meat. There are no chicken meal-like substitutes used. Everything in the food is 100% real. There is also no wheat or soy products used in the making of the cat food.

Because it uses real meat and real ingredients, Crave’s dry cat food is extremely high in both protein content and high in carbs. It is suitable for both older cats and for kittens.

Pros:
Four different, high-quality flavors.
Comes in adult and kitten variants.
Three different size options.
High in protein and carbs.
No artificial ingredients or “meal.”
Easily resealable bag.

Con:
Has a very strong odor that could be off-putting.

Taste of the Wild Grain Free High Protein Real Meat Recipe Premium Dry Cat Food

Next up on the best dry cat food list, we are continuing with the trend of high-quality dry cat foods from relatively unknown brands. Taste of the Wild Dry Cat Food comes in two very unique flavors. You can choose from venison and salmon (which is the food that we are reviewing) or salmon and trout.

The main draw of Taste of the Wild is the huge amount of nutrients that are jam-packed into each piece of kibble. Not only does your cat get all the essential vitamins and nutrients that it needs, but it also gets a healthy dose of antioxidants and fatty acids, which help to keep your cat’s body healthy. Of course, because of the heavy meat content, this food is also an amazing source of both protein and energy.

The food also contains probiotics. These probiotics help to make the food more digestible and they also help to keep your cat’s digestive system working well.

Pros:
Two very unique flavors.
Comes with plenty of important nutrients, vitamins, and minerals.
Made entirely in the USA.
No grain, filler, or artificial ingredients.

Con:
Flavors might not appeal to particularly picky cats.

Halo Holistic Grain Free Natural Dry Cat Food For Indoor Adult Cats

If you have a cat who suffer from digestive issues or who has a weak stomach, then you are going to love this last entry on our best dry cat food list. The Halo Holistic Grain Free Natural Dry Cat Food For Indoor Adult Cats is a delicious, high-quality dry cat food that is made to be extremely easy to digest.

It has a mixture of nutrients, vitamins, and probiotics that make digestion easier and that make the food lighter on your cat’s stomach. So, if your cat often has issues digesting food or if they seem prone to vomiting and/or diarrhea, you might want to give this food a try.

Of course, Halo also has all the other standard things that you look for in a high-quality dry cat food. It doesn’t have any artificial ingredients, preservatives, flavors, or colors. The animal meat used in the recipe comes from animals raised without any sort of hormones or antibiotics.

It is also a good option for overweight cats because the formula that Halo uses is particularly light on both calories and fat content. So, if you want your cat to shed some pounds, it isn’t a bad option.

Pros:
Holistic blend of ingredients.
No antibiotics, artificial colors, or artificial preservatives.
Three different flavors.
Easily digestible.
Helpful for cats with weak stomachs.

Cons:
One of the pricier Halo dry cat foods out there.
Low-calorie and low-fat content may not be the best option for thin cats.

Dry Cat Food Buying Guide

Above you have five examples of some of the best dry cat food on the market today, but you may still be wondering why they are there. In other words, how did we decide which dry cat food to feature on this list and which to leave off of it?

That’s not a simple question, but we are going to try and give you insight into what factors went into our decision making when picking the best dry foods to feature on our best of list. In the process, we are also going to give you some good tips on what factors to look for when shopping for dry cat food on your own (if you happen to not want to buy one of the options off our list).

Ingredient Quality

Much like with people food, the number one thing to consider when buying food for an animal (this applies regardless of if it is a cat, a dog, or any other kind of pet) is the ingredient quality of the food. Good quality ingredients almost always result in good quality food.

So, what do we mean when we say good quality ingredients. Well, since dry cat food is usually made of meat, the number one thing to look for is real, high-quality meat. You want to be especially careful here because some companies (naturally, none of the ones we listed on our best dry cat food list) do try and sneak in lower-quality meat.

For example, dry cat food that uses “chicken” may try and use substandard parts of the chicken, such as the skin, organ meat, etc. To guard against this, always look for foods that advertise that they use real meat and make sure that the food doesn’t use things like “chicken meal.”

You also want to avoid foods that have things like artificial preservatives, artificial colors, and artificial flavorings. These things aren’t necessarily harmful for your cat, but they do signal that the food may not be of the highest quality. All the best dry cat foods use only real, pure ingredients.

That is why when assembling our best dry cat food list, we placed a heavy emphasis on artificial ingredients because we recognized that the best cat foods simply don’t use artificial ingredients.

Kibble Size

The idea of looking at the kibble size of a food may seem a bit strange, but it is actually something that you might want to consider.

It also happens to be something that people often overlook. Some dry cat foods do make their individual kibbles a bit too big. This can cause issues with smaller cats or older cats, who may have issues swallowing the bigger kibbles.

Avoid Fillers

A lot of cat foods use what are commonly referred to as “filler ingredients.” Filler ingredients refer to things like corn, wheat, soy, etc. These products don’t have much in the way of nutritional value, but they are instead used to make the food more filling for your cat.

You should try your best to avoid cat foods that make heavy use of fillers.

For example, when we were picking out cat foods to review for our best dry cat food section, we made sure that all the foods that we picked had either minimal or no filler product. If you go through the review section again, you will notice that none of the foods have things like wheat or soy product.

Avoiding fillers is good for a few reasons. Firstly, filler products really aren’t all that nutritious and thus act as a sort of “empty calories” for your cat. It fills them up, but it doesn’t give them what they need.

Secondly, filler products, especially wheat and soy can cause digestive issues for many cats. Many other cats can suffer rashes or other issues if they eat what and soy products. Finally, a lot of cats can be allergic to these filler products.

If you know that your cat is allergic, then you likely already go out of your way to avoid them. However, there is a chance that some of you out there may not know if your cat is allergic or not, and so it is just better to not run the risk.

Dry Food Vs Wet Food

Now that we have gone through some of the most important factors to consider when shopping for a dry cat food, we can move onto the second part of this buying guide, where we are going to explain why you should consider going with dry food over wet food.

If you search around online, you can find a lot of myths about dry food, with the most important one being that dry food is bad for your cat because it doesn’t contain enough moisture.

While it is true that dry food doesn’t have the same moisture content as wet food, it won’t cause any issues with your cat. It is however recommended that you occasionally supplement your cat’s dry food with some wet food, to make sure that they are receiving a balanced diet.

It should also be stated that there are quite a few benefits to dry cat food. For example, you can leave dry food out longer and it won’t spoil as quickly as wet food would. This is especially useful because cats can be very choosy about when they eat (something many cat owners are familiar with no doubt).

So, being able to just leave a plate of food out is incredibly helpful.

Conclusion

If you liked our best dry cat food article or if you disliked it, we want to hear from you.

We encourage everyone who read the article to leave us a comment telling us their thoughts.