Black Hawk Cat Food Review
Since Black Hawk opened a brand spanking new state-of-the-art facility in 2022 in Parkes (NSW) I find the brand hard to ignore as a top recommendation.
Quality has clearly improved, and given the formula is decent and the price tag reasonable it will likely suit you if you’re simply looking for a decent dry cat food.
Let’s take a deeper look…
Some history of Black Hawk pet food
Black Hawk were an Australian success story.
They hit the market at a time when people were crying out for a “proper Australian pet food”, and they rode the success until being bought out by New Zealand’s Masterpet.
By then they’d established a remarkable reputation, and still do today.
Despite being New Zealand owned, Black Hawk is still very much an Australian brand of pet food, being made in Australia using Australian produce.
Black Hawk review
This review is for the grain-based Chicken formula, but given the choice you’re better off with the grain-free formula. Let’s take a look anyway…
Chicken Meal is the first ingredient.
Yay!
That’s good news for your cat!
It’s the next three ingredients which – like most kibbles – are included more to keep production costs down, and they are rice, vegetable protein, and oats.
None of these scream “carnivore” to me, but compared to other cat foods these are slightly better choices, and the way to get around it is to feed your cat other types of food instead – wet food, raw food, BARF, and so forth. Variety matters.
The Black Hawk dry cat foods are preserved naturally with Rosemary Extract, so that’s a box ticked in favour of chemical preservatives and antioxidants.
They also use Coconut Oil which is nice to see, but it’s a few stops down the ingredients list from canola oil and honestly not a very noteworthy ingredient.
There are better cat foods for more money, but there are far far worse as well. If you want a decent Australian dry cat food, it has to be said Black Hawk ticks a lot of boxes.
Where to buy?
Ingredients
The ingredients of Black Hawk cat food:
Chicken Meal, Rice, Vegetable Protein, Oats, Chicken Fat (preserved with Mixed Tocopherols [source of Vitamin E], Rosemary Extract, Vitamin C), Beet Pulp, Canola Oil, Salt, Egg Powder, Chicory Root, Flaxseed, Fish Oil, Pumpkin Seed Powder, Alfalfa, Probiotic (Bacillus Coagulant), Natural Antioxidants, Coconut Oil, Yoghurt Powder, Emu Oil, Blueberries, Cranberries, Rosemary, Essential Vitamins & Minerals.
I really liked this food, it’s better than supermarket brands and cheap if you buy in bulk, my cats coats always looked really nice while on this food and the loved the taste, I had to change when I adopted a cat with a sensitive stomach otherwise I would still be buying it.
Can I ask what you have changed to I have adopted a new kitty and she seems to have very soft poos with it. My other kittys been on this for 3 years and both have beautiful shiny coats now but I think I might have to change for new kitty.
I like how with Black Hawk you don’t question the protein level, however there are foods with a greater protein level that you question.
There is also question over BH meat sources Chicken Meal, while being a great source, is the only source of protein
Hi Paul, the protein level in Black Hawk is average for a dry cat food. Chicken meal isn’t the only source of protein in the food (but it will certainly contribute to the majority of protein). I don’t see an issue with it being a singluar meat source? Do you see that as an issue, and if so what is your reasoning? Thanks.