Basic Search vs Advanced Search

Cat Food Central offers two ways to search for dry cat food products: a basic search available to everyone, and a more powerful Advanced Search for signed-in Catboard users.

Basic search

Basic search opens as a modal whenever you click the search field, and it's available to everyone, whether you're signed in or not. It includes the following:

• Free text - type a product or brand name. Results appear automatically once you've typed 3 or more characters.
• Quality Score range - a slider that lets you filter products by their Cat Food Central quality score, from 0 to 100.
• Life Stage - filter by ALS (All Life Stages), Adult, Kitten, or Senior.
• Category - filter by one or more of the following:
  • Hairball - formulas aimed at helping with hairball control
  • Light - formulas aimed at weight management
  • Prescription Diets - veterinary formulas
  • Regular - standard maintenance foods, the most common category
  • Sensitive - formulas for sensitive stomachs or digestion
  • Sterilised - formulas for spayed or neutered cats
  • Urinary - formulas aimed at urinary tract health

Unlocking Advanced Search

If you're signed in to Catboard, you'll see a prompt at the bottom of the basic search modal inviting you to try Advanced Search.

If you're not signed in, you'll see a prompt to join Catboard in order to unlock Advanced Search.

Advanced Search

Advanced Search is a dedicated page, available only to signed-in users. You can reach it from the prompt in the basic search modal, from the menu, or from the footer.

It includes everything available in basic search, plus many additional filters such as brand, first ingredient, flavor, bag size, grain-free, hypoallergenic, AAFCO, and nutritional sliders for protein, fat, fiber, carbs, and metabolizable energy. It also offers several sorting options and a choice between grid and row view layouts.

For a full breakdown of every filter, sorting option, and tip for getting the most out of it, see our Advanced Search guide.