I used to feed the Science Diet exclusively. I'd pour 20# bags of it into the Deli Cat containers to preserve freshness. About 3 years ago my one cat started major league puke fest. The other one refused to eat the stuff. I was astonished to see how quickly the puke molded. I had already noticed a change in the cat's stool. There were these little bits of stuff in there (it reminded me of sawdust). That's what it reminded me of: sawdust poop held together with play-do filler. It wasn't until he started having seizures, that I took him to the vet, the vet suggesting that the food be tested, that I check the lable of the food. Because I keep the food bags around for disposal of the cat waste (I use the scoopable Pestell litter), that I discerned that the Science Diet formula had been changed, and one of the top ingredients was: ground yellow corn. And they were using BHA to preserve the fat, and ethoxyquin to preserve the food. I was horrified.
The vet notified me that the test results indicated there was nothing wrong with the cat food and that I could come back to pick up the 18# or so that I left with her. I told her she could keep it. She insisted that there was nothing wrong with the food. I think vets are in cahoots with Science Diet. That's a scam and a half with that Science Diet C/D. What kind of pet food is prescription only?
It just so happened that when I went to the pet supply place (K-9 Specialties bulk distributor) to get some food (since I took the whole bag I had to the vet), that a rep for Nutro was standing right next to all the cat food. We had a conversation about what was going on with my cat. That's when I found out about the reformulation (when I went back home I was able to compare the lables on a few different bags and seen that the Science Diet had been reformulated like three times in succession (based on the expiration date on the bag).
Anyways, she sold me on the Nutro by saying one thing: read the lable. So I did. She pointed out what animal/poultry by-products meant. I received a real nasty mental image of feeding beaks, hooves and claws (among other vile and disgusting things) to my dear animals. She said, if it doesn't sound appetising to you why force your animals to eat it? She told me that some people won't eat hotdogs because of the bad reputation they have from several decades ago. I thought about that for a second, and said to myself I don't have to worry about that because I buy all of my meat from the butcher. I walked out the store with a bag of Nutro.
All my babies (dogs) are on Nutro Natural Senior, after trying about every premium food out there, and they are doing great on it (shiny coats and pretty darn healthy overall). The only thing I needed for my oldest dog was something nontoxic and less harmful than Rymadil because he developed arthritis. The Nutro rep said no food had enough glucosamine/condroitin in it and suggested getting one of the many liquid supplements on sale. So my dog's been on Flexicose for a month now and is as spry as a puppy. So in my experience, I've found the Nutro reps to be quite knowledgeable.
We've had good luck with our Lab feeding California Naturals. It's nothing but lamb, brown rice, and sunflower oil, preserved with vitamin E. It's also got some added vitamins but no funky "byproducts".
She had pretty bad allergies to corn and preservatives as a pup, so we had to switch off of Eagle and go with a no preservative brand.
She gets a scoop of wet stuff on top of her dry so we can hide her pills in it. The canned stuff is also California Naturals, pretty much the same ingredients as the dry except it has lamb broth, guar gum, and seaweed extract in it.
She loves it, it's pretty stinky :lol:.
LQ