Here at Maine Coon Hawaii, we review a lot of cat products. At first, we were focused on products fit for Maine Coons or other large cats. However, a ton of products we use and buy daily apply to all cats, which is why we talk about general cat products, too.
Maine Coons and cats involve a lot of gear and there’s no shortage of companies releasing products, quick as can be. Some are wonderful, others less so.
In all cases, we take reviews seriously, because we cover items like cat food, litter, tall cat trees, and even carriers to transport our furry friends. We want the best for your cat. A bad recommendation can be a waste of money and time, a minor inconvenience, even worse.
Mainecoonhawaii.com never accepts products from companies in exchange for a favorable review. If we mention a product, we really recommend it. If you click on a link and land on a vendor website to purchase, we may earn a small commission. Your price is never affected.
Product recommendations are the result of hundreds of hours research. This research is comprised of the below:
Approval from the proper authorities
Cat food in the USA is among the most regulated consumer products sold, to ensure safety and nutritional requirements. This oversight is from organizations like the FDA, USDA, and AAFCO.
All foods we recommend should have or be actively seeking to meet the safety and nutritional standards of these governing bodies, at the least.
Other pet supplies are actually not regulated by an organization, so we rely on real user reviews and feedback, and see what the “word on the street is” and what the cat community has to say.
We are watching for talk of exorbitant silica content in cat litter; we are looking for mention of BPA and phthalates in anything plastic; we see if toys or food bowls contain potentially toxic dyes or chemicals, to name a few.
Analyzing user reviews and customer feedback
We alluded to this above. We extensively sift through large pools of positive and negative customer reviews to find the general consensus of a product, along with commonly expressed points. The larger the sample review size, the better it is for us. We pay special attention to recent feedback, as product lines change.
We then present this analysis in an easy to digest manner with a Pros and Cons section. No product is perfect, and we do not accept curated product samples in exchange for positive marks.
Personal experience and knowledge
My Maine Coon and I (mostly her!) uses many of these products regularly – like her Petmate Giant Litter Pan or the Furminator Deshedding Tool. In other instances, certain products really got us out of a bind, like with Stella and Chewy’s Freeze Dried Morsels or Dr. Catsby’s Whisker Relief Cat Food Bowl.
Those are detailed experiences and stories we always highlight in reviews, with lessons and takeaways. We’re objective, practical, and logical here, so if something is not right, we’ll bring it up.
Taking a closer look at the brand and their claims
Marketing is huge in the pet product industry, so we dive deeper into the product brand and investigate their own claims. Brands rely on jargon and supposed benefits of that jargon to sell more stuff.
In many reviews, we point out marketing jargon, and clarify what it really means with a critical eye. For example, in cat food, we’ll mention when a company uses a “proprietary blend” and look closer at what the actual benefits could be based on ingredients and the science behind them.
With cat litter, brands claim to be 100% dust free or 99% odor blocking. And in our posts, we push back, and tell you that no cat litter is 100% dust free, and that the goal is just to reduce dust as much as possible, without sacrificing other key aspects of a litter.
During our brand analysis, we look at past performance and operations to determine if it is worth including. These include things like recalls, governing body warnings, lawsuits, place of manufacture, customer complaints, BBB status, among others.