5 Best Cat Foods for Hairballs In 2024 (Buying Guide Included)
We all know how much cats love to lick their fur. But it can be a big problem for cat owners facing hairballs. Cats will either cough up these hairballs or have them clog their digestive system. The only worthwhile solution to this is to get some cat food that gets rid of hairballs.
To help you pick the right cat food, we’ve listed down 5 of the best cat foods for hairballs. We’ve picked these cat foods from some of the most trusted and major brands out there. You will find some top picks from brands like Wellness, Purina, IAMS, and Blue Buffalo.
Our picks are pooled over using different criteria so that they’re suitable for a wide range of people. We’ve considered different price points for our picks. You can find our top picks for the best cat food for hairballs down below.
Best Cat Food for Hairballs 2024
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1. Wellness Complete Health Natural Dry Cat Food Hairball Control Chicken Recipe
Wellness Complete Health is a popular brand of hairball control cat food. It has built up a fairly good reputation for its health benefits. As the name implies, this cat food contains all the natural ingredients.
The Wellness Complete Hairball Control is cat food in dry form, and you can buy it in three different quantities of 2.5, 6, and 12 pounds. It’s mostly meant for adult cats and is designed to help your cat to stay healthy and hairball free.
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As advertised, there are no meat by-products, fillers, or artificial preservatives. It even incorporates vitamins, minerals, and trace nutrients into the formula for a healthier diet. It also promises to support your cat’s skin and overall coat health.
To help with hairball control, the Wellness Complete Health contains natural fibers. These fibers enable any stray hairs to pass through easily. It also promises to stop hairballs from forming in the first place. The main ingredients in the formula all seem to contribute to health benefits for your cat. The chicken gives a high source of protein, flaxseed supports a healthy coat, rosemary gives its antioxidant properties, and cranberries help with any urinary tract issues.
All in all, the Wellness Complete Hairball Control cat food provides an all-out healthy option for your cat to not only control hairballs but also to provide some excellent nutritional value.
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2. Purina One Hairball Formula Adult Dry Cat Food
Purina is one of many top brands of cat food out there. They are known for making all kinds of different varieties and flavors of cat food. The Purina One is highly popular among cat owners and gets very favorable reviews online.
The Purina One is a dry blend cat food that comes in bagged quantities of 3.5, 7, 16, and 32 pounds. It has a natural formula and is suitable for adult cats that have problems with hairball control.
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The ingredients list for the Purina One is simple and natural. The main ingredient in the cat food blend is real chicken, which adds a good source of protein as well as some flavor for your cats. Aside from this, you can find natural fibers in the mix that can greatly help with hairball digestion and management.
The Purina One formula is completely natural and does not contain any fillers in it. The mixture is also free from most harmful ingredients like artificial flavoring or preservatives. The blend is just a simple mix of real chicken, carrots, peas, and natural fibers. This is what makes it healthy and effective.
Purina One is one of the top choices for quality cat food. It is highly recommended by users and veterinarians alike, and it does the job well.
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3. IAMS Proactive Health Indoor Weight and Hairball Care Dry Cat Food
IAMS is a popular brand among health-conscious cat owners. They provide decent value for their products, and their hairball control cat food is very effective.
The IAMS Proactive Health is a dry blend cat food that comes in bags of 7, 20, and 45 pounds. It’s not only advertised to work great against hairball control but is also recommended by animal experts for weight control.
[amazon fields=”B07T5JJL7P” value=”thumb” image_size=”large” image_alt=”IAMS Proactive Health Indoor Weight and Hairball Care Dry Cat Food”]
The IAMS Proactive Health is designed specifically with indoor cats in mind. The formula contains natural ingredients with 10% less fat than other leading brands. This means that it is suitable for keeping your cat’s weight in check. The primary source of nutrition from this cat food is the chicken blend, which provides a decent amount of protein for your cat’s growth.
Overall, the unique low-fat blend of the IAMS Proactive Health helps you to keep your cat in good shape. Many reviewers have praised this cat food for reducing problems like overeating, diarrhea, and hairballs. It can be an ideal solution for indoor cats that don’t go out much.
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4. Blue Buffalo Indoor Hairball & Weight Control Natural Adult Dry Cat Food
Blue Buffalo is rated as one of the top cat food brands for natural ingredients. It’s particularly suited for adult cats that spend most of their time indoors.
The Blue Buffalo Natural is a dry cat food that is available in two different quantities of 3 and 7 pounds. The primary ingredients for the Blue Buffalo Natural are real chicken as the main ingredient, followed by whole grains, garden vegetables, and fruit. This unique blend gives your cat a wholesome nutritional value with a protein source, vitamins, essential minerals, antioxidants, electrolytes, and much more.
[amazon fields=”B00NW1LGRU” value=”thumb” image_size=”large” image_alt=”Blue Buffalo Indoor Hairball & Weight Control Natural Adult Dry Cat Food”]
In addition to providing health benefits, the Blue Buffalo is also good for active weight control. It can keep your cat’s weight balanced at a healthy level even if your cat isn’t keen on physical activity. There aren’t any unnecessary or harmful ingredients in the mix like by-product meals, corn, wheat, soy, artificial flavors, and preservatives.
The Blue Buffalo is a great option for a healthy blend of cat food. It not only manages to provide hairball control but will also be beneficial for your cat’s overall health.
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5. Purina Pro Plan Entrees in Gravy Adult Canned Wet Cat Food
Purina Pro is a special product line by Purina that is designed for a better life of your cat. It’s one of the most highly recommended canned cat foods out there.
The Purina Pro Plan is cat food in gravy form that comes in canned portion sizes of 3- and 5.5-ounce cans. You can find the Purina Pro in over 10 different flavors with some classics like chicken, beef, and turkey flavors.
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The Purina Pro Plan contains only natural ingredients. The cat food comes submerged in a gravy which makes it easier for your cats to eat and digest it. The ingredients include a primary protein source accompanied by nutritional ingredients. The formula has 25 essential vitamins along with taurine. The taste is also unique, and most cats enjoy eating this cat food without hesitation.
The portioned cans make it easy for you to layout meals for your cats. You can get 24 can packs with different flavors and even a variety pack. It makes it worth trying if you’re trying to find the right flavor for your cat.
Overall, there’s great value in the Purina Pro Plan along with quality and flavor for your cat. This is the kind of cat food you should check out.
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Cat Food for Hairballs Buyer’s Guide
Buying the best cat food for hairballs can be a very tall order with so many brands out there to choose from. To help you make the perfect buyer’s decision, we will be listing some points to help you pick out the perfect cat food.
What to Look for in Cat Food
When buying cat food, you should be looking for a few important traits. These will help you differentiate between different offerings from different brands and will make it easier for you to pick out the best cat food for hairballs according to your cat’s specific needs. Here are some important aspects to look out for.
Ingredients
The most important part about looking at different types and brands of cat food is to focus on the ingredients. Cat food that is made from top-quality ingredients should be first on your list. All other aspects can be compromised, but the ingredients will affect the health and growth of your cat while also affecting the effectiveness of hairball removal.
Quality cat foods list ingredients naturally like whole meats at the top of the list. These act as a good source of protein for your cat while also suiting to your cat’s tastes. Some cheaper cat food brands will use ingredients like meat by-products or rendered meat. These are made from waste meat and should be purchased with caution.
Another important thing to look for on the ingredients list is fibers. Natural fibers aid in digestion and help hairballs pass through your cat’s stomach. They’re one of the primary reasons why a hairball preventing cat food can do its job.
Any other ingredients like grains, wheat, soy or digestible carbohydrates have very little use and should be in low quantity. Cat food brands that include a large quantity of these ingredients usually do so as a form of filler to save costs.
Taste
Taste plays a big role when picking out decent cat food. Some cats can often be selective in the kind of food they want to eat. And if they happen not to like the cat food you picked for them, then that’s your money wasted.
This is why you can find dozens of varieties of the same cat food in different forms and flavors. Cat food is commonly available in chicken, fish, turkey, and countless other flavors. There’s no universal answer for what kind of flavor cats prefer. Ultimately, it all depends on what your cat likes. The best way to figure out what flavor to get is to look at what your cat has previously taken a liking to.
Consistency
Another thing that can impact your choice in cat food is the consistency of the cat food. There is an entire range of different forms that you can find your cat food in. The most common ones include sliced, pâté, minced, chunks, morsels, shredded, kibbles, cubes, strips, and much more.
The consistency of the cat food will affect how easily your cat can swallow and digest the food. Usually smaller forms are easier to digest than larger ones. Cats will discuss dental issues will prone to more processed forms of cat food that allows them to chew it easily. Certain forms of cat food can also be easier to store than others.
Important Things to Consider When Getting Cat Food
Some basic criteria can be helpful when preferring to go for one brand of cat food over the other. However, there are additional things to keep in mind when buying food for your cat. Sometimes these things can end up being the difference between good and bad food. Here are some things you should keep in mind:
Artificial Flavors and Preservatives
Things like artificial flavoring and preservatives are often added to cat food to make it taste better and last longer. These things do serve important purposes in being added to cat food, but they can also be damaging.
Some of these additives contain harmful chemicals like Ethoxyquin, which are bad for your cat’s overall health. While not all additives are inherently bad, you should try to avoid cat food that contains any artificial additives. Natural preservatives, on the other hand, like rosemary and Vitamin C are perfectly safe and are great for your cat’s health.
Dry vs. Wet Cat Food
If you’ve ever bought or looked at cat food before, you might have noticed that they come in two basic varieties. Almost all cat food out there is either available in dry or wet forms. There are different upsides and downsides to buying each variety which we’ll explain below.
Dry Cat Food:
Dry cat food is typically available in sealable bags and pouches. It’s easier to store, and it doesn’t spoil as quickly, which makes it beneficial to get in large quantities. Dry food is also much cheaper, and you can portion it out as much as you want.
The big downside of dry food is that it can be much harder to digest. This makes it unsuitable for cats that are old or ill. It can also be harder to eat for cats that have dental or digestive issues.
Wet Food:
You can usually find wet food in pre-portioned cans making it easier to feed your cat. They’re much easier for your cat to be able to chew and digest.
The problem with wet food is that it can spoil very quickly after it has been opened. It also has a much shorter expiration period than dry foods, which means you will frequently have to stock up. Wet food can be much more expensive than an equal quantity of dry food.
Conclusion
There are many great cat foods to choose from. But for us, the clear winner for the best cat food for hairballs is the Blue Buffalo Indoor Hairball & Weight Control Natural Adult Dry Cat Food. It is made of natural ingredients, which are something most other brands lack, and it even has some additional nutrition to help boost your cat’s health. It manages to fulfill all your hairball and weight control needs.
