RAVE

I’ve previously reviewed the same brand, Bench and Field natural cat treats which are great. This is their dry cat food called “BENCH & FIELD HOLISTIC NATURAL FELINE FORMULA”.

Bench and Field make excellent pet food products. Their tag line is “Health Food for Pets”. Pretty good line, you gotta like that.

The B&F HOLISTIC NATURAL dry cat food is the more expensive of the two brands* of dry cat food Trader Joe’s carries, the other being the dry food sold under TJ’s own brand name, which is also quite good and a bit more economical.* So I buy both brands of food, on and off. Both of the dry cat foods TJ carries are quite good and better than say, large commercial brands like Purina Cat Chow, Meow Mix, and the like.

Compared to the TJ brand dry cat food, I would say Bench & Field scores a bit higher from a standpoint of ingredients listed, which if you look at the label all seem to be good, “honest”, healthy stuff (for instance, no “chicken by-products” which even Purina Pro Plan has). The label says 32% protein which comes from a variety of meats and grains: chicken, brown rice, anchovy, sardines, egg, oatmeal. Also has a bunch of fruits and veggies, plus other good stuff if you look closely at the listed ingredients like kelp, quinoa and a lot of probiotics too! Yes – “Health Food For Pets”.

I cut and pasted this info from B&Fs website (and no i don’t work for them, just reviewing a decent product)

HOLISTIC NATURAL FELINE FORMULA NUTRITION & INGREDIENTS

For cats of all ages and the owners who love them, Holistic Natural ™ Feline Formula is the right choice. Fortified with vitamins and minerals, and made with a bounty of wholesome, healthful ingredients including:

Nature’s Greens and Grains including oatmeal, flaxseed, organic quinoa and dehydrated kelp.
Made with fruits and veggies including carrots, sweet potatoes, cranberries, apples, peas, papaya, blueberries and more.
Omega 6 / Omega 3 Fatty Acids and flaxseed help maintain skin and coat.
3 Primary Antioxidants: Vitamins A, E and Beta-Carotene.
Oatmeal & Yucca Extract and Flaxseed.

More info can be found at Bench and Field’s site

TJ’s sells 3 lb bags of this Natural Dry Cat Food for $7 (which works out to about $2.30/lb) (UPDATE; TJ’s dry cat food was discontinued!) The other dry food they carry, again quite good, is Trader Joe’s brand “Premium Dry Cat Food” chicken and rice formula. The packaging went from a green paper bag to a plastic pink bag now, and the price which was $5 for a 4 lb. bag went up to $6 (so about $1.50/lb). This is also a good quality cat food, I buy this too, so if you want to save a bit of money the TJ brand is definitely an option (compare the labels of the two bags) Certainly the 4 lb “TJ” bag, lasts a bit longer of course. My two furry friends love both bags of the dry food TJ sells, TJ’s and B&F.

When I feed my cats I mix wet food with dry food and add a spoon of water and mix it up. Most vets say dry food alone is not ideal for cats. So mix it up, with some wet with the dry food. Some cats don’t like to drink water or don’t drink enough water daily. If you have non-water drinkers, you can even get them to drink water mixed in with the wet food and then they’ll probably lap up the smelly water (sneaky huh?) Tuna water works really well in our cat household.

DIY HOMEMADE CAT FOOD RECIPE: BTW, I make my own wet cat food for my cats and if you are a DIY type, you can too. Really its not that hard. Here’s a simple cat food recipe to try out. Boil 3 or 4 chicken legs with plenty of water to cover for an hour and a half or so to make a nutritious bone broth. Simmer until the chicken basically is falling off the bone. Bones and cartilage have tons of collagen. Throw in a handful of brown rice (and/or steel cut oats) and a few organic carrots, maybe a small potato, maybe some frozen peas. Cook all till soft, another hour on simmer with the cover on. Remove the chicken and bones with tongs. Let it cool a bit and take all the meat off the bones, keep the cartilage too (you will chop that). I use my fingers to debone everything, messy but effective. Chop all the chicken stuff up with a large knife including the cartilage and skin. Throw the chopped chicken back into the pot. Cook another half hour then mash everything up with a potato masher till it looks like well, cat food. Throw in an egg and mix in and cover it for five minutes. The egg will cook from the residual heat, if it doesn’t put on a small fire for 3 minutes. Let it cool for an hour or two. Package it. I save my yogurt tubs with lids for storing this. Use within a week or so or freeze the rest.

If your cats reject this food, it may not have the strong cat food smell they are used to, so in that case you can put a can of their favorite wet food (or skipjack tuna) and mix it into the DIY food. Always give cats some commercially made food (dry or wet) which contains needed nutrients such as Taurine which is vital for cats. If your cats still reject the food, put some canned cat food or a little tuna on top of this until they get used to your DIY wet food. Good luck!

Update – * since this was written TJ discontinued the dry food they sold under TJ brand. B&F Holistic is now the only dry cat food they carry. (Winter 2020-present)