Purina ONE vs. Science Diet

kmkelly127

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I recently switched foods for my two cats from Purina ONE to Science Diet for kind of an odd reason.

My 9 year old Snowshoe, Vinny, had been having problems not pooping in his litter box consistently since July (He would go on our bathroom rug. Just one, not the other bathroom rug, or anywhere else in the house). For about two months before that, he had minor problems, that were rather inconsistent, pooping on the bathroom rug or on the carpet squares in front of the litter boxes (I've since replaced them with rubber mats). After attempting to think of what could cause this (he got a clean bill of health from the vet 3 times, and I changed his litter twice, moved the litter boxes, tried Feliway spray...nothing worked well), I thought about when we he first started having "accidents." For financial reasons, I had changed his food to Purina All-Ages (regular, not ONE) from the Science Diet Hairball Formula that his former owner had given us. I thought that, maybe, there was a digestive problem going on (I had since switched again from Purina All Ages to Purina ONE Chicken and Rice per the vet's recommendation) so switched them back to Science Diet Indoor Formula. Needless to say, he's had no accidents since I began the process of switching foods last week.

Anyways, after speaking to my mother in law today, she told me that the guy at the Natural Foods store where she buys her dog food told her that Science Diet is crap. After reading the ingredients list, the first 5 ingredients for Science Diet do include: Chicken By-Product Meal, Brewers Rice, Corn Gluten Meal, Ground Whole Grain Corn, Powdered Cellulose. Meanwhile, the first 5 ingredients of the Purina ONE I was feeding them before include: Chicken, brewers rice, corn gluten meal, poultry by-product meal, wheat flour.

Although its a "more expensive" food, is Science Diet necessarily a "worse" food because it's main ingredient is by-product, whereas Purina ONE's main ingredient is real chicken?
 

sharky

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Purina has less by priducts so most of us put it ahead of SD..

But in reality the one s main ingrediants are a lesser quality rice and corn gluten meal ... see chicken is up to 66% water and fat ... on the label they list the ingrediants raw so once cooked the label should say

brewers rice, corn gluten, poultry by product meal, wheat, chicken

it is not great either ...

the SD has concetrated heads ft intestines as the main ingrediant

check into
nutro( under $30 for a 20lb of natural choice , Max is under 26 normally)
natural balence ( up to $30 for a 16lb
solid gold ( around 20 $ for a 15lb
chicken soup ( 16-30 for a 18lb )

all are far better quality without a $$$ jump
 

semiferal

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I second what Sharky said. I'd consider the foods to be pretty comparable mid-grade foods but both are very pricey relative to quality. You can switch to premium quality for pretty much the same price, with the brands Sharky recommended.
 

sillyjilly

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I hope you find a good brand at a good price that is accepted by your kitty! I know we just started looking into the ingredients again in Kitters dry food and I think we are going to change, but not sure what we are going to go to!
 

white cat lover

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I personally like ONE better because my cats have always done better on it. I had Twitch on SD for awhile, but she always looked dull & yellow-ish(she's white). I switched to ONE & she looked much better. Now she's on an even higher quality food & looks fantastic!
 

sharky

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Originally Posted by Javern

check out the Purina Naturals food
Natural s is a step above cat chow but is similiar to One.... it doesnt have by products but it does have Animal digest , corn , soy , and wheat
 
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kmkelly127

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I had tried Purina Naturals as well (I've switched their food more times than I'd mentioned earlier trying to find something they both liked), and it gave Vinny VERY stinky diarrhea...so much so, that if he'd pooped while we weren't home, we could walk in the door and know right away that he had! He also seemed to have more accidents on the bathroom rug when we fed it to him.

Since he's been good as far as not having accidents since we've been feeding him SD, would it be traumatic to his digestive system to once again start switching him either back to Purina ONE, or to one of the other foods you mentioned, once the bag of SD is almost gone?
 

silej1970

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To be honest. My cats all did much better on SD than any other type of cat food, But since money is tight I had to switch to Purnia Chat Chow indoor. If I could afford it they would all be on SD.
In the 22 yrs Ive had cats, Ive gone threw 3 different Vets and all 3 recomened different cat foods, from Dads to SD.
Mine used to all eat Dad's but since they changed their formula, they wont eat it. They seems to all love the Purnia Chat Chow indoor but If I could afford it they would all be on SD.
Just my 2 cents worth.
 

beandip

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Originally Posted by kmkelly127

Since he's been good as far as not having accidents since we've been feeding him SD, would it be traumatic to his digestive system to once again start switching him either back to Purina ONE, or to one of the other foods you mentioned, once the bag of SD is almost gone?
Generally it's recommended that you gradually mix in a new food w/the old food, increasing the proportion of new food as you go... because most cats will suffer some digestive upset from a food switch, especially w/dry food. Some worse than others...maybe a few not at all, but I think that's the exception. But since Vinny has proved that his system is sensitive, I would do the gradual mixing regardless of which food you switch to.

I wouldn't go back to the ONE if you're already pretty sure it didn't agree w/him.

I would highly recommend one of the foods Sharky listed. The other thing to consider w/cost vs quality is that Vinny should be satisfied w/less food if it's of better quality. It takes a lot of "corn heavy" cat food to fill up and satisfy their needs. My cats ate a lot less when we switched to a higher dollar food, but all their weights maintained.
 
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kmkelly127

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I've been doing the mixing thing because I didn't want to upset his stomach any more than it had been. As soon as we began mixing the SD with the Purina ONE to switch them to SD, Vinny stopped pooping on the rug. Any time we'd ever mixed any food to a gradual switch to anything, there was never a change in his accident habits, no matter how gradual the switch or to what food.

So far, we've been through SD Adult Hairball Control, Purina ONE Senior (before we got Sherman), Purina ONE Chicken & Rice, Purina All-Ages Cat Chow, Purina ONE Nautral Blends Chicken & Oat, Purina Cat Chow Naturals, and now SD Indoor Formula -- and the ONLY two that agreed with Vinny and prevented him from pooping on the rugs for a prolonged period of time were either of the SD Formulas. That's a main reason I am a little antsy about switching again...the whole "if it ain't broke don't fix it" kinda thing...
 

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My cats were on Purina ONE from birth until one of them got struvite crystals. My vet recommended Science Diet to help with this problem. He said that in all of his years of experience with cats with crystals, Science Diet works the best for helping this problem. SInce he has been on SD for the past 3 years, no crystals. I really don't think SD is crap. Just my opinion.
 

beandip

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Originally Posted by kmkelly127

So far, we've been through SD Adult Hairball Control, Purina ONE Senior (before we got Sherman), Purina ONE Chicken & Rice, Purina All-Ages Cat Chow, Purina ONE Nautral Blends Chicken & Oat, Purina Cat Chow Naturals, and now SD Indoor Formula -- and the ONLY two that agreed with Vinny and prevented him from pooping on the rugs for a prolonged period of time were either of the SD Formulas. That's a main reason I am a little antsy about switching again...the whole "if it ain't broke don't fix it" kinda thing...
That's good that you've mixed it gradually.


You've tried a number of foods...and SD has worked the best...however the common denominator in all of the other foods is purina, purina, purina.

I understand your feelings, I'm just not fond of those foods in general. I think there are better ones available. Just my opinion.

Originally Posted by sharper16

My cats were on Purina ONE from birth until one of them got struvite crystals. My vet recommended Science Diet to help with this problem. He said that in all of his years of experience with cats with crystals, Science Diet works the best for helping this problem. SInce he has been on SD for the past 3 years, no crystals. I really don't think SD is crap. Just my opinion.
Which type of Science Diet does your cat eat?

I don't think it's "crap", I just think there are better options.
 

sharper16

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Which type of Science Diet does your cat eat?

I don't think it's "crap", I just think there are better options.
[/quote]

They eat SD Light or Adult Formula. What would be a better option? Thanks.
 

beandip

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Originally Posted by sharper16

They eat SD Light or Adult Formula. What would be a better option? Thanks.
...sorry for the slight hijack, kmkelly127


Well I hadn't heard a vet rec'd any *other* SD food for crystals, other than SD C/D or X/D (prescription food), depending on the type of crystal. That's a new one on me. If you haven't had a recurrence of crystals, then...well I don't know what to say.

Sharky is qualified to answer your question on the other options. Personally, I like the ingredients that are in the other mid-priced, readily available foods that she listed earlier in this thread...over the ingredients that are in purina and SD. It just makes more sense to have more real meat and less grains in *any* cat food.

The first 5 ingredients in the SD Adult Original

Chicken By-Product Meal
Ground Whole Grain Corn
Brewers Rice
Animal Fat
Corn Gluten Meal

The first 5 ingredients in Solid Gold Katz-n-Flocken...random example from her list

Lamb
Chicken Meal
Millet
Brown Rice
Ocean Fish Meal
 

whuckleberry

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Originally Posted by kmkelly127

That's a main reason I am a little antsy about switching again...the whole "if it ain't broke don't fix it" kinda thing...
I COMPLETELY understand your way of thinking. I tried switching my Wally from a lower quality to a better dry food, and his bowels had a very difficult time with it. After months of label reading and advice from folks here, I'm trying once again VERY gradually...in fact I may keep the mix at 50/50 for a few weeks.

Have you read the labels to see if there's one ingredient common to the offending foods that isn't in the SD? Perhaps he has a sensitivity, and you could search for a premium food without that ingredient.
 
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kmkelly127

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Have you read the labels to see if there's one ingredient common to the offending foods that isn't in the SD? Perhaps he has a sensitivity, and you could search for a premium food without that ingredient.
No, I didn't read any labels to see if there was any common ingredient, although I'm sure there will be a lot of them, as a lot of things like brewers rice are in a majority of cat foods. But, like beandip pointed out to me earlier, all other foods I tried besides SD were variations of Purina, which could very well be the culprit -- that that brand, no matter what type it is, just doesn't sit well for Vinny.

When I've switched their food, I've done it over a 10 - 14 day period, depending on how much of the old food I had left. A few more weeks might be a good idea for me, too, to make sure that Vinny's accidents are completely non-existent. That, and the fact that I had an almost completely full 3.5lb bag of Purina ONE left when I bought the SD...
 

sharky

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I would suggest looking at Natural balences venison and pea ... It has no common ingrediants and is about the same price as SD
 

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I don't like SD - I used to feed Iams - now we feed Royal Cain. Sorry but most of the commercial/store brands like Purina, MeowMix, etc are junk as I'm concerned.

The better quality the food, the better your cat's health is in the long run.
 

scamperfarms

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Purina one is liked around here.Right now we have a mix of Purina One, and Natures Variety Raw Instinct (since maia doesnt lke to eat alone and everyone else was eating her bowl, lol) with as many as we have in the house, its been hard to find something everyone will like and do well on. For us Purina One was it. I think alot depends on the cats too.
 
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