Purina Pro Hairball Formula?

I've been feeding my Maine Coon Purina Pro Indoor Focus, but I'm thinking about switching her to a hairball formula because she gets them a lot and it's hard to keep up with brushing her more than once or twice a week since some days she won't let you near her with a brush. Has anyone had good experience with the Purina Pro Hairball formula, does it actually work? Or any other suggestions in that price range would be great too, I'm not extremely attached to Purina Pro, but she eats it well and it seemed like a decent choice for a college student on a budget. (Also, she eats mostly dry food and about 1/3 - 1/2 of a can of wet per day as a treat, and she seems to drink a lot and keep hydrated well.)

I haven't tried this particular food, but I did have my cats on the hairball formula of their favourite food for a while. I found it made them throw up a lot so I switched back to the original food.

Have you had your cat checked over by a vet? If she gets a lot of hairballs it might be a sign of some other digestive problem, such as inflammatory bowel disease.

Also have you tried a grooming mitt rather than a brush? They're really good for getting loose hair out and the cat feels like she is being petted rather than groomed.

Not a fan of these hairball formula foods.   

Perhaps try these.   My cats love them and its become a treat for them.

I think its a much healthier alternative than the dry food or the paste and the price is reasonable

I have my cat on this. Meh...while it helps, it's not always effective. My cat throws up hairballs plenty on it and he's not even a long haired cat. But hairballs pull up creepily easily from the carpet.

It's full of corn, and made my cat fat and slow. There are other brands. I'm trying my cat out on Goodlife, which I think has a hairball formula, and has no corn . He doesn't like it as much, but he's losing weight, and seems healthier.

All that said, you really need to brush your cat. Even if he doesn't like it. Be da boss of your cat!!! No food can replace that.

Buy a furminator, it gets a lot of hair off the cat. Feed wet grain free if cat vomits.

Norachan said:

 
I haven't tried this particular food, but I did have my cats on the hairball formula of their favourite food for a while. I found it made them throw up a lot so I switched back to the original food.

Have you had your cat checked over by a vet? If she gets a lot of hairballs it might be a sign of some other digestive problem, such as inflammatory bowel disease.

Also have you tried a grooming mitt rather than a brush? They're really good for getting loose hair out and the cat feels like she is being petted rather than groomed.

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I agree with all three of these points! Our previous cat, Booksie, always had hairball issues but had no improvement with a diet of dry hairball foods, either Iams or Purina.

I think Norachan's second point, though, is most important: anything other than a very occasional hairball is not normal. There's a great piece on The Conscious Cat about this (here). There's also a guest post on the site, by a vet, that addresses hairballs (here). Ingrid King's cat Feebee was a lot like our Brooksie, who was fed mostly dry food, had frequent hairballs and other digestive issues that led, ultimately, to what were most likely also IBD and lymphoma. I write this not to scare you -- particularly since both Ingrid King's cat and our cat lived long lives -- but because I think it's important to try to address the hairball problem early on!

One of our cats hates being brushed but I can sometimes sneak up on her with a Zoom groom and mitt...

Finally, I agree with Bonepicker's suggestion of feeding only wet, grain-free foods! Try for low-carb if you can, too, as the vet's guest post mentioned, without potato or peas. You mentioned a student budget: Sheba, Fancy Feast Classics, or Friskes pates (which does have some rice) aren't super-expensive and, depending on where you live, there might be decent (and cheaper) store brands at the supermarket or PetSmart.

Anyway, good luck!