Science Diet

[ScantyNebula]

I just decided today to switch my furkids food. I am feeding them Friskies right now, and I have been doing my research and I'm going to dish out a little more for healthier food. I bought Hill's Science Diet .. has anyone else used this? Would you recommend this food .. or any other brand?

[Uabassoon]

It's just like any other food, some people like it and some people don't. I feed my cats science diet and they both seem to be doing really well on it. They have beautiful soft fur, bright shiny eyes, they aren't overweight or underweight. And it is a much better food than friskes. And if cost is an issue, usually every few weeks I find coupons in the booklet that somes in the Sunday newspaper for $3 off. I usually stock up on those coupons which really helps cut the cost of the food down.

[Tubby & Peanut's Mom]

I know there are some people that have a problem with Science Diet but I don't remember exactly why.

All I know is that this is the only food T & P have gotten their entire lives with me, and as you know they are both a healthy 17 and almost 15 years old, so whatever is supposed to be wrong with Science Diet can't be that bad.

I started Tubby on it shortly after I got him because he had dandruff. The vet said a "premium" food has more oils in it than the "store bought" brands, and the extra oils would be good for his skin and help the dandruff. Well, since he has had dandruff his entire life, I can't say as it helped in that department, but then again, I don't know how bad the dandruff would have been with a "store" brand.

But even though it didn't stop the dandruff, I continued to buy the Adult formula for quite awhile. Then I switched to the Feline Maintenance Light for many many years to keep Tubby's tubbiness under control - and it worked because he never gained anymore weight after that. He didn't lose any (I think), but he didn't gain it either. Then, just a few years ago, I switched them to the Senior formula.

When Tubby was diagnosed with his early stages of kidney failure, the vet asked me what I fed him, and he said the Senior formula was "perfect," so that's what it's been ever since.

So, I've never done any research or anything like that, just went on the Vet's recommendations, and I have 2 healthy senior cats to show for it. :)

[Tubby & Peanut's Mom]

Originally posted by Uabassoon
And if cost is an issue, usually every few weeks I find coupons in the booklet that somes in the Sunday newspaper for $3 off. I usually stock up on those coupons which really helps cut the cost of the food down.

Yes, I do that too. And I found that with two of them, I can buy the big 20 lb bag. It cost more up front, but if you add up how much you go through in a year, you will save money over buying the smaller bags. I usually buy a new bag once every 1 1/2 months or so, and I think I figured it out once that I would save about $100.00 a year over buying the 10 lb bags. So once Lily can eat adult food, this might be something to consider also. :)

[Uabassoon]

I also buy the big bags and store it in an air tight container so the food won't go stale and so Corkscrew won't rip open the bag. His bowl can be full, but if there is a bag of food around he will rip it open and tear it apart. LOL but sometimes I can be so cheap last week I went into Petsmart with one of my coupons and saw a giant bag with a small rip and a sticker on it saying 10% off because of the rip. I ended up saving around $5 on just that one bag! Very exciting for a poor college student, I used the extra $5 to buy myself a burrito.

[ScantyNebula]

Thanks for the info ... I've been trying to find some posts about why people dislike Science Diet .. I will read into, the guy at the pet store recommended other brands as well, one which looked very good and natural, but I would have to spend $45 on food approx. every 21 days!! I'm searching for cheaper alternatives, but I want my cats to be eating high quality food.

[moosmom]

I've tried a couple of different brands on my cats. Max Nutro, Science Diet Nature's Best, Felidae. I have always gone back to Science Diet. They like it the best. They even like the SD Nature's Best.

Out of all of the brands, SD is the only one that they don't waste. I don't buy the cheap brands because my cats have a tendency to get UTI's from them. Especially my male cats.

[Former User]

We've tried a bit of everything and always ended up going back to Hill's as all the cats love it. We give Hill's dry food for the cats and once a week wet food as a treat, it's by Nutro. I've noticed that with Hill's the cats coat have changed into a smooth, soft and shiny, with something else we tried, the fur always felt as if it was dirty...

[carole]

I am wondering if you get EXCELLENCE in your country, this is a cheaper product available here in our supermarkets, but it has all the good stuff in it,and no added colours or preservative, and my cats love it, it cost around 4.75 in nz dollars for a 500kg bag.

looks rather unusual, and comes in hairball control as well, in flavours duck , poultry and herring I think and another.

I have heard good and bad about science diet on pet-talk, some swear by it, others not, so it really is up to you, but try and get the EXCELLENCE if you can, I strongly recommend it, especially if finances ares somewhat limited.:)

[ScantyNebula]

Thanks, I haven't seen that brand Excellence around .. I will double check next time I'm at the store though.

What is so bad about Science Diet anyway? I mean I'm feeding my cats Friskies now, It can't be worse than that can it?

I'm curious to know the bad things you've heard about Science Diet..

[Former User]

I once asked about Hill's food too ---->Thread about Hill's food (http://petoftheday.com/talk/showthread.php?s=&threadid=14636&highlight=Hills+Science)

[Miss Meow]

We were giving our cats Friskies for a while during the play tunnel promotion, and they started porking on the weight. This happened to a friend's cats also, which made us think that Friskies has more fat or cereal-based carbohydrates than other brands. It's only a guess as I don't have any boxes at home to compare the nutritional info.

We tried Science Diet oral care last week and the cats seemed to like it, so we'll try a bigger bag with their dried food mix (Jasmine likes the crunchy bits in Dine, Mini and Tabasco get some hairball mix, and Pickles loves the Whiska's Dental Treats - something for everybody!)

[Soledad]

I don't remember PTers having problems with Hill's SD, but with IAMS because of animal testing.

Boo and Bettie are on SD and LOVE it. I get a lot of people telling me that Boo is the softest kitty cat they've ever felt. :D

[Steffi N]

Lovable eats the Science Diet Savory Chunks chicken and seafood. He does have very soft fur. Also I recently started him on Purina ProPlan indoor cat formula. He seems to really like it.
I did have an unsatisfactory experience recently with some Nutro dry food and moist food that comes in pouches. Lovable would not eat it, so I gave it to my neighbor for the group of outdoor town cats that she feeds. They did not like it either, so she gave it to our local shelter.

[ScantyNebula]

Thanks again.

I think I am going to stick with the Science Diet, for now anyway. I will do a bit more research to see if there is any better foods for the same price at my pet store.

Either way I am going to stick to buying only premium foods and not store brand anymore. I would cringe when I looked at the price, but today when I looked at the feeding suggestions, I noticed that 1 bag would last for a month! They will eat a lot less!So I pay 33 dollars a month on the premium food. I will be spending an extra 10-15 dollars a month, but its worth it!

[krazyaboutkatz]

Although I've never fed my cats Science Diet, here are a few threads from Pet Talk of why some people don't like it: http://petoftheday.com/talk/showthread.php?s=&threadid=26838&highlight=Science+Diet, http://petoftheday.com/talk/showthread.php?s=&threadid=27800&highlight=Science+Diet.

[Killearn Kitties]

Science Plan is the only food that our cats will always eat. We buy bags of other foods from time to time to try and give them a bit of variety. Some they will eat for a little while, some they wont even taste to be polite!!

We originally tried Science Plan because it was the one recommended by our vet and our cats do seem to be healthy on it.

You're right too, they don't eat such a big bowl as with the likes of Friskies. When I bought the first bag of Science Plan, I amost had a heart attack at the amount they ate - they clearly loved it! That settled down quickly though and our pet stores often have a three bags for the price of two offer, that helps a bit.

[neko1]

My cats love science diet light! Since being on it, Cookie went from 13 pounds to 8 pounds....no longer a fatty catty!!:) And the others have maintained their weights.

[ScantyNebula]

Wow! Maybe Toby will go from 10 to 8 lbs .. hehe

I was also wondering .. what should I do about adult/kitten food? I put out Adult food for Toby .. and Kitten food for Lily, but Toby always eats Lily's food! They always eat together ..and what if Lily starts eating the adult food? i leave it out for them all day so I don't know what to do... =/

[Killearn Kitties]

Our kittens had a digestive problem probably caused by going on to adult food too early. The mother was quite happy to eat kitten food though. Toby is quite young, is he not? A lot of the food brands say you should only go on to adult food after a year, so as far as I am aware it wouldn't cause him a problem. Perhaps best to run it past your vet, just in case I'm ralking rubbish?

[ScantyNebula]

The guy at the store suggested that because Toby is over 10 months and is obviously Full grown, Adult food should be fine cause it has less animal fat, Toby is a big cat so I figured it should be fine.

I have also decided that after their SD is all gone, I might switch to Felidae or this other brand that looked equally as good. The guy at the store said although Science Diet is the best brand that they sell, it isn't what he would recommend the most.

[Denyce]

My main problem with Science Diet is Ethoxyquin. I don't like what I have read about it and it's link to intestinal cancer. Hill's still uses it as a primary preservative. The reason being is it is the cheapest and strongest preservative on the market. It has a half-life on the shelf like you wouldn't believe. The more natural preservatives break down faster and the fats in the food oxidize at a quicker rate so the pet food can't sit on the shelf for as long of a period of time...hmmmmm don't think that is a bad thing:rolleyes:

Denyce

[NoahsMommy]

Micah was on Prescription Science Diet from March to July. He REALLY liked all three he had to be on...but it was doing more harm than good. Mind you, this was ONLY in Micah's case as he has IBD. Normally, I'd imagine it'd help cats that needed the things the food was made to do.

I feed the others Royal Canin because its natural and they use human-grade products. Our cats LOVE it and they are all at a perfect wieght (except for Livvy [she came like that], who is on the Lite form of the food...). It was recommended and it works for us. :)

I think your cats would like SD....it seems to be high quality and well recommended. At my work, its the only type of food they stock and feed the animals there.

[smokey the elder]

Hill's new formula (Nature's Best) doesn't have ethoxyquin; it uses vitamin E and citric acid as antioxidants. I wish it didn't have so many colors in it. My cats love it so there's no issue with it sitting around and going bad!

[Amanda]

When I adopted my girls in March one of them was on Science Diet food already so I kept her on it (the sensitive stomach stuff)...but after doing research here and speaking with a colleague who REALLY researched this stuff I GRADUALLY (by mixing and doing all the recommended steps so it wasn't a shock to the system) switched her to a food that was "technically" more nutritional however after a little bit of time I noticed that she began spitting up (not full fledged vomitting but still she would "reject" enough of the food that I began to wonder so....I switched her back and she's not had any issues so...I think the lesson learned is that it also depends on the kitty cat. My last cat lived to be 19years and I knew less about cats when I got her so didn't think to "research nutrition"....and she lived her whole life on 9 lives!!!

[Cataholic]

I have always fed my cats SD...but, now I am wondering. I would like to hear more from you guys that use Felidae. Do they have a 'light' version? All my cats, save for thin man Tex, are pleasantly plump (like their mommy). I want what is nutrionally best for my kitties...sometimes it is hard to know what that is, though..

P.S....Hi Amanda, welcome to PT~~

[krazyaboutkatz]

Originally posted by Cataholic
I have always fed my cats SD...but, now I am wondering. I would like to hear more from you guys that use Felidae. Do they have a 'light' version? All my cats, save for thin man Tex, are pleasantly plump (like their mommy). I want what is nutrionally best for my kitties...sometimes it is hard to know what that is, though..

P.S....Hi Amanda, welcome to PT~~ Johanna, I currently feed my cats both Felidae and the weight management formula of Nutro Complete Care. The Felidae doesn't come in a lite formula because you just need to measure the amount you need according to your cats needs. It's also for all life stages from kitten through adulthood. I mix it together 1 cup of each type of cat food two times a day. I was going to stop using the Felidae but I love the ingredients it uses including cranberry meal to help urinary tract health. I also like the Nutro Complete Care so now they get both and seem to love it. :) Here's the link to the Felidae website http://www.canidae.com/index.html. Just click on Felidae. I hope this helps.

[Russian Blue]

I think all the higher end foods are similar, it just depends on what your cats like to eat. Nakita has tried Royal Canin, Innova Dry and Wellness Wet foods and loves them. I know many people who also like Felidae, etc. I really think it's up to each individual owner to research cat foods and come up with their own decisions.

Innova (http://www.naturapet.com/display.php?d=inn-home)

Wellness (http://www.oldmotherhubbard.com/cats/wellness_overview.html)

I try to choose Nakita's foods by eliminating the ones filled with meat by-products, artificial flavours, colourings, potential cancer causing preservatives (ie: ethoxyquin). I also try to make sure that meat ingredients dominate in the list of ingredients and stay away from fillers.

Still the main factors in choosing a cats food is how much money you have to spend on cat food, what is available in your area, and what foods your cat will eat. You can get the 'best' food according to your own research, but your cat my not eat it! ;)

[moosmom]

I put my cats back on SD Nature's Best and they've gone through the largest bag in a week (8 cats, mind you). I give them 3/4 of a cup a day in each bowl. So, I guess I'm all for the Nature's Best.

[Logan]

Food is so confusing!

My friend, Missy, who has Golden Retrievers, has done a lot of research on cat and dog food, just to gather information. She has cats and dogs. If you would be interested, check out her website, www.greatgoldens.com , and if your food or the one you're interested in isn't there, if you email her, she will research it for you.

My cats are eating Flint River Ranch right now, in hopes that it will help Butter's skin. I know one thing, they are both "plumping up" a little bit, which they both needed to do!

Logan

[shais_mom]

I don't know much about SD. Not 100% fond of it. BUT Kylie needs to lose weight. She is on a mixture of Royal Canin Slim and the Hair and Skin right now. So I am wondering if I would switch her to the LITE Science Diet or the Chicken soup for the Soul Lite Hairball formula if it would help her. :(
We just aren't getting anywhere with the mixture of RC and I LOVE ROYAL CANIN. I swear by it. And since I have switched her to the mixture she has been coughing up more hairballs then when she was on the RC Indoor formula. :confused: