Science Diet is made up of mostly fillers such as corn and animal byproducts. It made my cat’s coat dull and flat. The vet told us that she lost the sheen in her coat because “she was old.” She was only 10. It turns out that corn is a major allergen in cats and it’s not at all good for them. They can’t digest it, since they’re obligate carnivores. It’s very unfortunate that so many vets endorse this company, but that is because Hills funds many vet schools and clinics in return for them recommending their brand.

Here’s the first two lines of ingredients for the adult indoor formula:
Chicken By-Product Meal, Brewers Rice, Corn Gluten Meal, Ground Whole Grain Corn, Powdered Cellulose (10.5% source of fiber), Chicken Liver Flavor, Soybean Oil, Animal Fat (http://www.hillspet.com/hillspet/products/productDetails.hjsp?PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524441781151)

Chicken By-Product meal is essentially beaks, feet and other parts unfit for human consumption.. ground up and dehydrated. Corn Gluten Meal is a filler, as is Whole Grain Corn.. ANIMAL fat? Why don’t they tell you what kind of animal the fat comes from?

Really, for a company that tells you it cares about your pets, it sure throws some horrid ingredients into their food recipes.
Unless your cat has to be on prescription SD for a medical condition, I would ditch the food right away. Go back to the pet store and look for a food that:

-Contains a named meat source as the first ingredient(s)
-Does NOT contain wheat, soy, corn, gluten or animal byproducts
-Does not contain any extra added salt or sugar.

Here’s a list of foods that I recommend:

Wellness
Blue Buffalo
Solid Gold
Innova
Chicken Soup For The Cat Lovers Soul
Merrick
Felidae
Natural Balance

You can find these in PetCo. Petsmart carries Blue Buffalo but has a limited supply of quality foods. Many independent pet stores will carry these brands as well.

Best of luck to you.

Vets are taught by Science Diet, Iams, Royal Canine or Purina. They don’t get enough nutrition classes. They also get kickbacks for selling their food.

What cats need meat! So, if you’re willing to spend $27.99 for a 5 lb of Science Diet, go and get Wellness Core! It’s a high protein diet. No grains, no animal fat and no meat by-products. Same with Innova Evo.
Other great foods out there is Innova, Wellness, Serengeti, Chicken Soup for the cat lover’s soul, California Natural and much more. Just make sure that there’s no grains.

Your cat’s health will be great. You can also feed canned once in awhile. Up to you.

Good luck!

Nutrition since there are so many bad things out there is very important to your cat’s health
Contrary to what you may have heard; dry foods are not a great thing to feed a cat.
Please read the label on what you are feeding? What are the ingredients? Do you know what they mean? Is the first ingrediant a muscle meat like chicken or meal or other things?
Dry foods are the number 1 cause of diabetes in cats as well as being a huge contributing factor to kidney disease, obesity, crystals, u.t.i’s and a host of other problems. Male cats are especially prone to blockages
from dry food. Food allergies are very common when feeding dry foods. Rashes, scabs behind the tail and on the chin are all symptoms The problems associated with Dry food is that they are loaded with grains and carbohydrates which many cats (carnivores) cannot process. Also, Most of the moisture a cat needs is suppose to be in the food but in Dry, 95% of it is zapped out of dry foods in the processing. Another thing, most use horrible ingredients and don’t use a muscle meat as the primary ingredient and use vegetable based protein versus animal. Not good for an animal that has to eat meat to survive.
You want to pick a canned food w/o gravy (gravy=carbs) that uses a muscle meat as the first ingredient and doesn’t have corn at least in the first 3 ingredients if at all.
THE BEST CAT FOODS CONTAIN NO GRAINS NO BYPOODUCTS NO MEAL
Cats are meat eaters not cereal or rice eaters
Fancy feast is a middle grade food with 9lives, friskies whiskas lower grade canned and wellness and merrick upper grade human quality foods. I would rather feed a middle grade canned food then the top of the line dry food.
Also, dry food is not proven to be better for teeth. Does a hard pretzel clean your teeth or do pieces of it get stuck?

Please read about cat nutrition.

Vetinarian diets The reason your vet thinks so highly of the pet food they sell probably has more to do with money than nutrition. In vet school, the only classes offered on nutrition usually last a few weeks, and are taught by representatives from the pet food companies. Vet students may also receive free food for their own dogs and cats at home. They could get an Iams notebook, a Purina purse and some free pizza.