Vetalogica Cat Food Review


The Vetalogica cat food range is quite good, and I’m happy to say one of the few cat food brands which has improved over time rather than going downhill.
Read on though, as you’ll be surprised.
In this review we’ll take a look at the Hunter Valley Harvest recipe for Adult cats, but you can use this review as a benchmark for other recipes in the range.
The best price at the time of writing is Pet Circle, and their auto-delivery feature can help save money on various brands.
Let’s take a look and figure out why Vetalogica might be the cat food you’re looking for!
Vetalogica “Hunter Valley Harvest” cat food review
Vetalogica use a trick which most pet food companies use to make you think a food is meatier than you think, but credit where credit’s due they have been more transparent than other brands.
It goes like this – meat is listed first, but then the list of non-animal ingredients greatly outweighs that meat. Given we only read the headlines, that fools most of us (except you and I, of course!)
In Vetalogica Hunter Valley Harvest we find four animal ingredients to four non-animal ingredients. Let’s consider those ingredients, as they make up most of the food:
Chicken Meal, Duck Meal, Tuna Meal, Mackerel Meal, Sweet Potatoes, Chickpeas, Green Lentils, Red Lentils.
What if those ingredients were listed in reverse?
Red Lentils, Green Lentils, Chickpeas, Sweet Potatoes, Mackerel Meal, Tuna Meal, Duck Meal, Chicken Meal.
It reads completely differently, doesn’t it?
We know our cats are obligate carnivores. Predators. Devourers of meat, and not stuff like lentils, chickpeas, and potatoes. That means the second list of ingredients may put us off, understandably, but what if I were to tell you this could well be the case if all those ingredients were in the same proportion? After all, they probably are.
That said, many dry cat foods are worse.
It’s better to have a range of legumes, and sweet potatoes over potatoes, than it is to have some scant meat content and a pile of cereal by-products or wheat.
When I mentioned transparency, I am happy to credit a pet food company when they give us further information. With the Vetalogica cat foods, they tell us some useful stuff:
- 65% from animal ingredients.
- 35% from superfoods, fruits, vegetables, vitamins, and minerals.
Hunter Valley Harvest is 38% protein which is good, but a little low on fat at 10%. When it comes to dry cat foods, low fat only means higher carbohydrates, and it’s better to feed a cat animal fats than starchy carbs.
I estimate this Vetalogica cat food to be around 34% carbohydrates, which should give you a better picture of how much legumes and sweet potato there are (if you’re a nerd, the below table shows the average protein and carb content of these ingredients):
Ingredient | Protein (%) | Carbohydrate (%) |
---|---|---|
Sweet Potatoes | ~7% | ~92% |
Chickpeas | ~19% | ~67% |
Green Lentils | ~25% | ~63% |
Red Lentils | ~27% | ~60% |
Moving on to the more minor ingredients, after chicken fat (which will likely cover the 10% fat), we have a range of inclusions which look beneficial to me – ground flaxseed, eggs, coconut oil, kale, blueberries, spinach, and so forth.
Although these will amount to around 1% (maybe a little more in some cases), I see these as beneficial – even to a carnivore.
However, what I would argue isn’t as beneficial – which is the case for pretty much all dry cat foods – is the whopping amount of plants, potatoes, or non-animal ingredients in general. The trouble is, a cat food made mostly of “whole prey” would also come with a price tag most would balk at.
Compared to many excuses for cat food in Australia, I have to say Vetalogica is much better. The ingredients are better, and the amount of animal protein is what your cat will benefit from the most.
If it were me, and I were to choose Vetalogica for my cat, I would supplement it with fresh meat, organs, raw meaty bones, and perhaps some fish, eggs, and anything else suitable for a factually carnivorous predator animal.
If you feed Vetalogica to your cat, it’s not a bad choice.
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Ingredients
The ingredients of Vetalogica cat food (Hunter Valley Harvest Adult)
Chicken Meal, Duck Meal, Tuna Meal, Mackerel Meal, Sweet Potatoes, Chickpeas, Green Lentils, Red Lentils, Chicken Fat (Naturally preserved with Mixed Tocopherols), Ground Flaxseed, Eggs, Coconut Oil, Kale, Dried Blueberries, Dried Spinach, Tomato Pomace, Dried Pumpkin, Chicory Root (Prebiotic), Kelp, Potassium Chloride, Choline Chloride, Sea Salt, Vitamins (Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin (Vitamin B3), Calcium Pantothenate (Vitamin B5), Riboflavin (Vitamin B2), Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B6), Thiamine Mononitrate (Vitamin B1), Folic Acid, Biotin, Vitamin A Supplement, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Menadione (Vitamin K3), Minerals (Zinc Sulfate, Ferrous Sulfate, Magnesium Oxide, Copper Sulfate, Manganese Oxide, Iodine, Sodium Selenite, Zinc Propionate), Turmeric Root, DL-Methionine, Taurine, Yucca Schidigera Extract, Mixed Tocopherols (a Natural preservative), Rosemary Extract.
Guaranteed Analysis
The guaranteed analysis of Vetalogica cat food (Hunter Valley Harvest Adult)
Protein | 38% |
Fat | 10% |
Crude Fibre | (max) 3% |
Carbohydrates * | Estimated 34% |
* May be estimated. Read how to calculate carbohydrates in a pet food.