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Cat Forum / Cat Anecdotes / February 2005Wondering about Science Diet and similar
Hi all, Well it's taken only six weeks for Sesame to start turning her nose up at the Science Diet senior! The vet office and also a store called City Farmers which stock pet supplies seem only to have the senior wet food in one flavour... I think a bit of variety is what would keep her interested. I bought the adult food which she readily accepted... I'm wondering whether nutrionally there is much difference between adult and senior varieties? Similarly is it unsafe to give her the hairball control variety when she doesn't have problems with hairballs? She has the dry food in the senior version but she's never been very interested in dry food. She'll eat it only occasionally. I'd be interested to hear if anyone has ideas. Anyone else in Australia have suggestions of other stores to try perhaps? We also have a new digital camera (finally!) after the insurance paid out from when the house got broken into.. I will post some pictures on the yahoo group once I figure out how to make them smaller! Purrs Kathryn and Sesame > Hi all, > [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > Purrs > Kathryn and Sesame Well, no big advice about the food, although quite honestly, I can't believe that switching out the senior for adult now and then would be terribly detrimental. I can't wait for piccies! I'd suggest considering another premium pet food -- can you try some other brands -- I think it may be worth trying out Wellness, Innova, Precise, maybe Nutro. I used to feed Science Diet to my cat(s) for years and years and then one day started actually reading the ingredients list. I have bookmarked a lot of sites on cat nutrition and am posting them here in case they may be of help to you: http://www.sugarcats.net/sites/jmpeerson/canfood.html http://www.catnutrition.org/RecommendedResources.htm http://webpages.charter.net/katkarma/sources.htm http://webpages.charter.net/katkarma/dryfood.htm Christine > > Hi all, > > [quoted text clipped - 22 lines] > that switching out the senior for adult now and then would be terribly > detrimental. I can't wait for piccies! I don't think they have all those premium foods in Australia. When I was in Perth in July I went to quite a few pet stores and all I saw was Science Diet and Iams. -- Britta Sandpaper kisses, a cuddle and a purr. I have an alarm clock that's covered in fur! Check out pictures of Vino at: http://photos.yahoo.com/badwilson click on the Vino album > I'd suggest considering another premium pet food -- can you try some other > brands -- I think it may be worth trying out Wellness, Innova, Precise, [quoted text clipped - 44 lines] > > that switching out the senior for adult now and then would be terribly > > detrimental. I can't wait for piccies! >I'd suggest considering another premium pet food -- can you try some other >brands -- I think it may be worth trying out Wellness, Innova, Precise, >maybe Nutro. I used to feed Science Diet to my cat(s) for years and years >and then one day started actually reading the ingredients list. I have >bookmarked a lot of sites on cat nutrition and am posting them here in case Christine, does this mean that you don't think Science Diet is a good food to give the furs? The kittens came with two free bags of the stuff and they ate it at a reasonable rate... then I got them some Nutro and they scarfed it down like there was no tomorrow - they went through the whole bag inside a week (there are only two of them) and the litterbox smelt as bad as if we had a thousand cats! I thought it couldn't be very good for them, so I switched them back to Science Diet... would you recommend something else instead? ~Karen aka Kajikit Lover of fine chocolate, fun crafts, and furry felines http://www.kajikitscorner.com *remove 'nospam' to reply >>I'd suggest considering another premium pet food -- can you try some >>other [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > couldn't be very good for them, so I switched them back to Science > Diet... would you recommend something else instead? Don't ask this question on rec.pets.cats.health+behavior unless you want to start a flame war (speaking from personal experience). Personally, I've had great results with Science Diet (all my vets have recommended it and the rescue group I work with uses it). I found, like you, that it takes a lot less to fill 'em up and their litter box doesn't smell as bad as with other foods. Also, I have a 15-year-old on down to a 9-month-old and have (knock wood) NEVER had any of my babies sick with any ailment EVER - not even an upset tummy or a sniffle! They're all very frisky and have gorgeous, shiny coats and eyes. Again, this is my personal experience. But, according to some people, SD is the food from h*ll created by Satan himself. Hugs, CatNipped > ~Karen aka Kajikit > Lover of fine chocolate, fun crafts, and furry felines > http://www.kajikitscorner.com > *remove 'nospam' to reply "CatNipped" <lcrews@houston.rr.com> had some very interesting things to say about Re: Wondering about Science Diet and similar: >Don't ask this question on rec.pets.cats.health+behavior unless you want to >start a flame war (speaking from personal experience). Personally, I've had [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] >But, according to some people, SD is the food from h*ll created by Satan >himself. FWIW, Felix has been on SD for six or seven years now and he's healthy and happy [and his TED thinks his diet's just fine. I did discuss whether to switch him from Light Maintenance to Senior a few years ago, but TED didn't think it necessary at that point, and since Felix is very sedentary, I don't think he needs the extra calories].  Signature"The universe is quite robust in design and appears to be doing just fine on its own, incompetent support staff notwithstanding. :-)" - the Dennis formerly known as (evil), MCFL >Don't ask this question on rec.pets.cats.health+behavior unless you want to >start a flame war (speaking from personal experience). Personally, I've had [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > >CatNipped ROFL! Yep, stay away from h+b with diet questions or your will be flambed. All my guys are on some form of Hill's or another for their dry food, and they all seem to be doing well. Just recently, I got the Sensitive Stomach formula for Sabra, when he was having problems. He didn't like it, but Wolfie, our anorexic, picky cat tried it, and loves it, so he's on that now. Go figure. Well, he *is* a sensitive cat, so it makes sense he could have a sensitive stomach. Now Merlyn, on the other hand, is as sensitive as a brick, and she thought *she* should have the sensitive stomach. Yeah, right! Sensitive my butt! ;-) Ginger-lyn babbling today > All my guys are on some form of Hill's or another for their dry food, > and they all seem to be doing well. Just recently, I got the [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > should have the sensitive stomach. Yeah, right! Sensitive my butt! > ;-) LOL. Sounds like Sabra and Merlyn are like Frank and Nikki - Frank has a sensitive stomach, but Nikki is as sensitive as a brick. However, Nikki is the dainty eater and makes a great fuss of how, when and what she'll eat. I had a difficult time finding the right kidney-diet gooshy food for Frank, since his tummy got upset by some of them, but now I've found some that comes in pouches and that he loves. It's just that I have to go a little out of my way, to the vet school pharmacy that carries that food, or to my vet to get it. SignatureMarina, Frank and Nikki marina (dot) kurten (at) pp (dot) inet (dot) fi Pics at http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/frankiennikki/ and http://community.webshots.com/user/frankiennikki > >I'd suggest considering another premium pet food -- can you try some other > >brands -- I think it may be worth trying out Wellness, Innova, Precise, [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > http://www.kajikitscorner.com > *remove 'nospam' to reply I used to feed it to Shetra (now RB) for years and years and then one day in Petsmart I happened to talk to a Nutro rep and then read the ingredients list on the dry food bag of SD I'd been feeding. There seemed to be a lot of filler type ingredients so I quit using them. (What I have heard is that SD company was sold years ago and that the food under the original ownership was of better quality.) -- I can say though that their vet prescription canned appetite stimulant food, called A/D is really good if you have an ill animal that you're trying to entice to eat. I did move on to Nutro and Shetra loved it,(he was a long-hair and his coat improved on this switch dramatically) which was good enough for me, and I was happy with them for a long while but my other cats got tired of their canned gourmet food stuff and I heard about premium cat foods and started investigating and feeding Wellness (the flavors my cats like are the Turkey, Chicken and Herring and Beef and Chicken -- they have more flavors but mine don't like them) and Innova, Precise (Chicken and Turkey flavors) and California Natural. I think if you switched food formulations abruptly for your kitties, that could lead to the yucky litterbox stuff also -- just be careful if you try new foods to do it gradually over a period of time by mixing the new food in with the old -- it gives their little tummies time to adjust. Hope this helps, Christine > Hi all, > [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > Similarly is it unsafe to give her the hairball control variety when she > doesn't have problems with hairballs? Good question and it relates to the pH of the food. Older cats have different vulnerabilities and the Senior Science Diet is slightly different in pH, maybe lower protein as well. SD Light and Oral Care, adult 6.2-6.4 pH SD Senior Turkey 7+ canned, slightly higher pH 6.4-6.6, lower protein level slightly higher pH level is for the different crystals that might form in older cats as opposed to the crystals that might form in younger cats. Crystals are to be avoided as it's a big thing in cats, a big problem. After learning this, I do not give a younger cat Senior food as I was doing. I have checked out some of the stuff in Science Diet and although not wonderful, it's also not bad. Their livers were from pigs and not cows. I also checked out their meal designations. Not great but not as bad as what some have said on the internet. And what's more, when I call them on the phone, they actually can answer questions that the designer and expensive food people often cannot, like what is the percentage of calcium to phosphorus or the actual pH levels of the food. I am surprised by your post. From New Zealand I have bought a natural raw but blanched product Country Food Cat Food that is supposedly the best of all, frozen, but my cat won't eat it often. It looks like frozen sausage and it's only from health food stores. I thaw it out. It sounds the most healthy of all if one is interested in a "raw" premium cat food. Is there not a premium manufacturer from Australia who is like Science Diet? I thought I have read of one that does research and manufactures in Australia. It's also possible to order this stuff by the case from a distributor? Anyway, my cat thrives on Science Diet, so far, so good, mostly Light Maintenance, Dry and Wet, and the Oral Health I think is quite good for the teeth. I can find out anything about whatever they put in SD. And yes it's troublesome but then again, my cat has been very healthy so far and prefers SD. One vet told me he does not see many urinary problems with a SD fed cat. That seems a bit extreme but SD does tract the pH levels. I also like Pet Guard, Wellsong, lots of others but I keep coming back to Science Diet because they appear to have detailed information. When I call up a premium manufacturer and they are unable to give me the correct contents of their foods, I lose confidence. One for example simply did not add up the numbers correctly. I kept pointing this out that what they were putting on their label was an impossibility in regards to moisture content versus dry content. I could tell the talk went well over their heads and they could never answer the question. So then I begin to think, how do I know they really use the natural products they say they do..... Back so Science Diet for me. At least they can add up numbers. |
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