[Mischief]

Hey, All-

Could someone please tell me why Science Diet isn't a good food?

The only foods I've found that are specifically talked about are Iams and Purina.

Facts and links would be great! Thanks!

 

[opokki]

Here is some info. for you -

Regarding plant proteins:
"Animal proteins generally have a more balanced amino acid profile, with a greater proportion of essential amino acids, and better digestibility than plant proteins."
- BSAVA Manual of Companion Animal Nutrition & Feeding

"This protein source (corn gluten meal) is not as digestible as high quality animal protein ingredients, but its protein is often more available than some of the poorer quality animal proteins."
-Canine and Feline Nutrition,Case,Carey, Hirakawa

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/quer ... s=12224854


" Like most legumes, soybeans contain several complex carbohydrates and simple sugars that cannot be digested by enzymes of the small intestine. These carbohydrates pass undigested into the large intestine, where bacterial fermentation results in the production of intestinal gas and flatulence."
-Canine and Feline Nutrition,Case,Carey, Hirakawa

Regarding chicken/poultry by-products:
"Poultry by-product refers to the clean parts of carcasses of slaughtered poultry, which may contain bone, heads, feet and viscera. Because of the inclusion of heads and feet, poultry by-product meal may be lower in nutritional value than fresh poultry meal."
- Canine and Feline Nutrition,Case,Carey, Hirakawa

Here are some links:
http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.php?a ... w&item=004
http://cats.about.com/cs/catfood/a/tipsforchoosing.htm
http://www.maxshouse.com/feline_nutrition.htm
http://www.mihog.org/diet/foodingred.phtml

 

[drjean]

Oppoki, thanks for citing us first!

Oddly enough, Dan Carey (a co-author of the book you cited) is a long-time employee of Iams!

Science Diet and Iams/Eukanuba are both owned by giant, multinational companies that test on animals (Colgate-Palmolive and Procter & Gamble, respectively) and use very similar ingredients, primarily grains and by-products in the dry foods, and meat by-products in the canned. They both have *massive* advertising budgets which suck up a lot of the money that *could* be going into making a decent food. I don't recommend either for all those reasons. Purina is in the same league, if not quite the same ballpark.

Cheers,
Dr. Jean

 

[Mandarinparade]

What cat food do you recommend?

This is my first visit here, so please bear with me. What cat food do you recommend, since it seems you disapprove of IAMs, Science Diet and Purina?

 

[drjean]

Ain't no "seem" about it, I think they're inferior, overpriced foods!

If you're near a Petco, try these:
Nutro
Sensible Choice/Royal Canin
Chicken Soup (based on the "Chicken soup for the soul" books)

Health food stores and, surprisingly, feed stores will often carry the smaller, better, harder to get foods like Avoderm, Innova, Precise, Petguard, Wellness, and Felidae (in no particular order). Many also carry frozen complete raw diets and a bunch of other interesting stuff. I recommend primarily the canned versions of all of these. Even the good dry brands are still dry, with all the dangers inherent to the form.

If you read this article: http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.php?a ... w&item=004, it will give you the rundown on what ingredients are to avoid and which ones are better, and how to read through the marketing doublespeak on the package and assess the food's quality for yourself and not have to rely on other peoples' opinions.

Cheers,
Dr. Jean

 

[archimedes]

my cat rejects any other food except Science Diet, original flavor. I did not raise this cat and according to her previous owners this is all she has ever eaten. She's a healthy cat though so i just stick with it. Whenever i have given her other varieties (including IAMS and other flavors of science diet), she just pukes it up.

 

[octoberdana]

Also, if you're near a PetCo you might try Natural Balance. My cats love it! They've eaten it better than Nutro, Chicken Soup, and Sensible Choice.

 

[TAsunder]

my cat rejects any other food except Science Diet, original flavor. I did not raise this cat and according to her previous owners this is all she has ever eaten. She's a healthy cat though so i just stick with it. Whenever i have given her other varieties (including IAMS and other flavors of science diet), she just pukes it up.

When you attempted to feed your cat the new food, did you gradually introducing it? As in start off with say 10% new food and 90% old food and each day put more and more new food and less and less old food.

When I became the foster parent of my first cat, he too had been eating science diet for some time. Being the internet zealot that I am, I did a lot of reading about diet and care for cats. The thing that struck a cord for me is that, if I remember correctly, the science diet light (which I was using) had a carbohydrate listed as the primary ingredient, instead of a protein. Ignoring any sort of preference for natural foods, this alone was enough to convince me to switch. I'm now using Innova.