Honest Black Hawk Cat Food Review in 2023

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Score: 6/10

Bottom Line

A brand that a had high hopes for, but doesn’t quite hit the mark for cats.

PROS

Australian sourced
Suits all ages
Chicken first

CONS

Lackluster taste
High in carbs
High in peas

We did this Black Hawk cat food review with our cat tester Oscar.

*Our cat Oscar trying Black Hawk cat food*

Black Hawk is an Australian and New Zealand owned pet food brand that offers wet and dry cat foods. Products are sourced from Australian meat and vegetables.

Review summary:

The good?

Uses chicken first.

Chicken is a tasty meat choice that most cats enjoy. Not made with by-products.

The bad?

Added peas.

Peas are a lower quality protein source, that can lead to digestive discomfort and food rejection.

The ugly?

Lacks range.

There’s scant choices online for cats, and not much flavors to mix things up.

In short:

Not quite there.

Black Hawk is one of those brands that is a ‘dog food’ first mindset, with cat food as an afterthought (hence the ‘doggier’ ingredients).

There’s not much variety and what’s there lacks the meaty goodness a carnivorous cat needs.

Black Hawk’s dry food is popular, which I suspect is down to it’s ‘set and forget’ quality.

But their wet food gets overshadowed by a slew of great alternatives at this price point.

Best for:

Adult cats (1-7 years)
Weight control
Kitten growth

>> Check out Black Hawk cat food here

After more info on Black Hawk cat food?

In this short Black Hawk cat food review I’ll go into more detail about:

Nutrition
Ingredients
Taste
Value for money

This includes results from testing.

I am a cat enthusiast and the goal of this website is to help cat owners learn more about taking care of their cats. I am not a veterinarian. The advice in this article is not intended as medical advice.

Let’s get into the article!

Black Hawk Cat Food Review

Ingredients

This cat food has mediocre ingredients. Whilst they include chicken as a first ingredient, there’s a lot of peas, an ingredient cats don’t benefit from.

Here’s a look at the ingredient list for the Chicken with Salmon Mature 7+ wet cat food product.

Ingredient list: Chicken, Peas, Chicken Broth, Plasma Protein, Salmon, Ocean Fish, Egg Powder, Fibre, Essential Vitamins & Minerals, Guar Gum, Carrageenan, Salt, Locust Bean Gum, Caramel, Xanthan Gum, Taurine, Emu Oil, Fish Oil, Glucosamine HCl, Chondroitin Sulphate, Cranberries, Blueberries, Coconut, Pumpkin, Dried Kelp

Since this label uses the ‘with’ descriptor, it means the amount of salmon ranges from 3-25%.

Whilst the first ingredient is chicken, peas come next. By the process of elimination, it’s clear that the amount of peas in this food is going to be high.

Aside from this there’s gums and carrageenan. I’ve talked about carrageenan in cat food in this article. It’s a thickener linked to some nasty health problems (although speculative).

There’s also some ingredients down the list that don’t benefit cats. This includes

Cranberries
Blueberries
Coconut
Pumpkin
Dried kelp

Dried fruit like cranberries is high in vitamin C.

Cat’s don’t need vitamin C. This nutrient can contribute to urinary tract blockages.

Coconut contains medium chain triglycerides. Cats don’t prefer the taste of these types of fats, instead liking animal fats like tallow.

Pumpkin offers beta carotene. Unfortunately, cats cannot turn beta carotene to the usable form of vitamin A in retinol.

This isn’t the worst list of ingredients you’ll ever see, but there’s too much doggy stuff cats don’t need.

This problem happens a lot in the pet food industry, where the lines get blurred.

Dogs are omnivores, whilst cats are strict carnivores. Whilst these ingredients benefit dog foods, they don’t hold up for a cats needs.

Get rid of some of the doggyness of this cat food and this food would be much better.

Learn more about the ingredients in Black Hawk cat food on their website.

Ingredients: 6.5/10

Note: I take into account relative weighing of ingredients based on the labelling words (e.g. recipe, dinner) as these words equate to different quantities of food.

Read more about what that means over in my cat food labelling guide.

Nutrition

A little lacking.

Unfortunately the nutrition of Black Hawk cat food doesn’t hold up. The carbohydrate content is over 20% on all products.

On the bright side, all Black Hawk cat food products meet the AAFCO nutrition requirements for life stages. This means the foods are suitable for kittens, adults, and senior cats.

When given the choice, cat’s choose food with around 52% protein, 12% carbohydrate, and 36% fat. Our analysis shows Black Hawk cat foods are a bit higher in carbohydrate than optimal.

Important thing to keep in mind is this food says it’s grain free. Just remember that grain-free doesn’t always mean low carb.

Here is the nutrition information from our selected product for this review

Black Hawk cat food	Type	Suitable for	Protein*	Fat	Carbs	Fiber	Ash	Taurine	Calcium to phosphate ratio	Kcal/kg
Black Hawk Chicken With Salmon	Wet, Jelly	All life stages	40.0%	20.0%	25.0%	5.0%	10.0%	N/A	N/A	795

Black Hawk cat food nutrition analysis *dry matter basis

Nutrition: 5.5/10

Taste

There aren’t many online reviews for Black Hawk cat food, being a newer product. Reviews are somewhat positive though on Pet Circle.

Unfortunately our cat taste tester Oscar didn’t enjoy this product and turned his nose up half way in. This was one of his least favorite foods, sadly.

My guess is the high pea content (which raises the carb level) contributed to the lackluster taste.

Here are the results of our taste testing:

Food Test: Black Hawk Mature 7+ Chicken with Salmon
Amount eaten: ~50%
Time to finish eating: 1 minutes 20 seconds
Food appearance: Gelatinous and looked very jelly like in appearance
Smell: Unpleasant smell

Here is a short video of Oscar the cat trying this cat food:

Our cat taste testing Black Hawk Mature 7+ Chicken with Salmon wet cat food.

*Black Hawk Mature 7+ Chicken with Salmon (food appearance)*

Here’s our score for taste:

Taste: 6.5/10

Value for Money

Black Hawk wet cat food is one of the more pricier options on the market.

Worth it?

For the quality you’re getting, it could be a bit better by decreasing the pea content and adding more meat.

Similar alternatives:

Tiki Cat food (see review)
Trilogy cat food (see review)
Advance cat food (see review)

Value for Money: 5/10

Frequently Asked Questions

Are There Any Black Hawk Cat Food Recalls?

To date there has been two recalls of Black Hawk dog food in 2018 and 2020.

The 2018 recall was due to a problem with bloody diarrhea, whilst the 2020 recall was due to mold.

There are no recalls of any cat food products as of the writing of this article.

Who Makes Black Hawk Cat Food?

Black Hawk is an Australian and New Zealand company, owned by Masterpet.

Masterpet also owns cat litter brand Trouble & Trix, as well as a health insurance brand. The company was founded in 1954, and is a publicly owned company.

What Are the Top 5 Healthiest Cat Foods?

For Australian cat owners, here are the healthiest cat food brands. They meet a cats dietary needs, are low in carbohydrate, and high in animal protein.

Learn More:

5 Healthiest Cat Food Brands

Conclusion

Black Hawk is a promising cat food brand that falls short in nutrition quality and taste. Our cat didn’t enjoy his serve of Black Hawk wet cat food.

Whilst this isn’t the worst cat food brand on the market, it could definitely be better. If this food lowered the carbohydrate and cut out peas, it might be a winner.

Best for: