Science Diet... Help/ Opinions

[Diana Faye]

So, I feel like I keep swinging misses with this whole nutrition thing, and some of my kittens eating/ bathroom habits have changed so I thought I'd lay it all out here and maybe gain some insight.

I started with feeding Kitten Chow for dry food and Friskies for wet. I mix in Fancy Feast into the rotation when I can, although it seems the Friskies is still the favorite. I wanted to try to upgrade quality at least a little without breaking the bank, and try to get them some variety with the wet food.

I somewhat recently bought Science Diet dry food, which I am mixing with the Kitten Chow. I also bought large cans of American Journey (on sale on Chewy) thinking it seemed like better quality than what I was giving and I wanted to have a little stock of food in the house as it's been difficult to drive an hour to Petsmart, and I don't do too much online shopping.

During this time, one kitten has just finished treatment for worms, and the other was given Doxycycline for eye irritation (he's missing one). I noticed the first kitten's stool was a little soft after the treatment, but he was clear of worms, and I had just started the Science Diet mixed with the Chow. He was prescribed Metronindazole (sp*) to help with his soft stool and a probiotic powder. I then witnessed the other kitten having really soft stool, so assuming it was the Doxy and the other kitten appeared to be fine, I started giving him the Metro and giving them both the probiotics.

I haven't increased the SD food, so it's still mixed with the food. One kitten does not like the American Journey wet food, and the other tolerates it. I've tried adding some broth stuff for pets to make it more appealing. When I noticed the other kitten having soft stool, I also saw that they weren't finishing the dry food. I give them about a cup a day to graze on, and this kitten *does not miss a meal*. My other kitten can be a little picky at times but usually not too bad. Tonight I gave the picky eater the Fancy Feast (with added water, the way he likes it) and the other got American Journey with stew topping. Both ate half and walked away, so now I'm a little concerned as I felt they normally would've finished their meals. They also only ate about half of the dry food today, instead of finishing it.

I saw in another thread that someone thought the SD was making their cat's stool soft, and was suggested that I look up reviews on it. *Great*. I don't know what to do now- I feel like I have too many variables as to why there might be soft stool and no clue why they're eating less. They really liked the SD when I first got it, so I don't know if they changed their minds or if one/ both isn't feeling well. I also have a bunch of food now that I don't know what to do with if they won't eat it. I'm starting to feel really frustrated and thinking about just going back to the Friskies and Kitten Chow, because at least they ate that and didn't seem to have any problems.

 

[kittyluv387]

Kittens seem to have very sensitive stomachs. I looked at the ingredient list for Purina kitten chow and its extremely low quality. Just a smidgen above meow mix. That being said the kittens may need a slower transition. The SD kitten formula js higher quality but beware their adult formulas are very poor quality (for future reference). And american journey is a newer company so we don't know that much about the quality of their products. Why don't you try switching them back to friskies wet and try a slow transition from kitten chow to SD? Once they're good on that you can try out different canned foods. Or vice versa. Wet food is more important anyways.

 

[Diana Faye]

Kittens seem to have very sensitive stomachs. I looked at the ingredient list for Purina kitten chow and its extremely low quality. Just a smidgen above meow mix. That being said the kittens may need a slower transition. The SD kitten formula js higher quality but beware their adult formulas are very poor quality (for future reference). And american journey is a newer company so we don't know that much about the quality of their products. Why don't you try switching them back to friskies wet and try a slow transition from kitten chow to SD? Once they're good on that you can try out different canned foods. Or vice versa. Wet food is more important anyways.

I'm still mixing Chow and SD, not even 50/50 but maybe I'll do less. I can stick to just the Friskies for now until they get settled and maybe slowly use the other stuff, or give it away if they really hate it. I was hoping to get something a little decent in their diet somewhere but maybe I'll just have to stick to what I know.

One kitten is about 7-8 months, the other 5-6 months. When the eldest reaches 1 yr, can he eat kitten food for a little longer or should they both be on something for all life stages? And do you have any suggestions for budget friendly dry food for adult cats?

 

[Diana Faye]

Sorry for all the questions- I'm trying to read up on here about nutrition but I feel like I might as well be studying quantum physics.

 

[kittyluv387]

Why don't you try 10% at a time and increase to 25% after a few days? Starting off with nearly 50% is pretty aggressive actually. We get kitten diarrhea posts here all the time so it's pretty clear they have sensitive tummies.

For budget kitten food like SD, it's probably fine if your adult cat stays on that a little longer. Kitten food is more rich but for budget dry food it wont be that rich. And the life stages isn't that important. It's more important that you know how to read the ingredient label and choose according to that.

Note I don't feed dry at all. But for budget dry foods I think you should still look for the first ingredient being real meat and not meat meals. 2nd ingredient can be a meat meal.

Purina Beyond Simply White Meat Chicken & Whole Oat Meal Recipe Adult Dry Cat Food - 13 lb. Bag
Something a littkr better but affordable in my opinion.
Merrick Purrfect Bistro Grain Free Real Chicken Adult Dry Cat Food, 12 lbs.
Keep in mind you can feed less in volume if you feed a higher quality diet.

 

[kittyluv387]

It's no problem. We've all been there. Basically cats thrive off of protein, moisture and fat. Just think about it. Would you see ferals eating dry cooked crackers? No they would be eating a nice, raw and juicy mouse or bird.

Check out catinfo.org. It has a ton of good info.

 

[maggiedemi]

I feed Friskies pate and it works well for my cats. These are the flavors I feed:
Friskies Pate:
Liver & Chicken Dinner
Turkey & Giblets Dinner
Poultry Platter
Mixed Grill
Country Style Dinner

Dry food is confusing and I haven't made up my mind about it yet. Science Diet doesn't seem much better than the Cat Chow Complete that I feed, except SD has no artificial coloring. It's 3 times the price though and it still has corn, soy, wheat, etc.

 

[kittyluv387]

I feed Friskies pate and it works well for my cats. These are the flavors I feed:
Friskies Pate:
Liver & Chicken Dinner
Turkey & Giblets Dinner
Poultry Platter
Mixed Grill
Country Style Dinner

Dry food is confusing and I haven't made up my mind about it yet. Science Diet doesn't seem much better than the Cat Chow Complete that I feed, except SD has no artificial coloring. It's 3 times the price though and it still has corn, soy, wheat, etc.

That's what I dislike about SD. They are expensive for what they are.

 

[kmoulus]

My cat is thriving on SD dry, she eats their Adult 11+ Indoor Age Defying formula (which you would never feed a kitten, of course). She requires a lower sodium diet and there are few dry foods that make the cut. The cardiologist is quite surprised that Speedy is still alive and stable and told me I should not change anything.

Sometimes something just works for your cat.

Speedy eats wet food too but not SD. She is not a fan.

 

[Lranders29]

Hi everyone,
My two kittens got off to a rough start. The shelter had them on Chicken Soup food, and I have transitioned them to a mix of wet and dry Science Diet kitten. Now I’m seeing that might not be worth the cost.
My kittens have had some bad upper respiratory infections/ pneumonia and I want to heal their lungs and guts. What’s the best way to find a good food? Every website and vet seems to have different suggestions.

 

[Moonlight_wolf]

Leanders, I seem to remember that chicken soup was actually a pretty okay brand ingredient wise. It’s got chicken, then chicken meal and then turkey meal from what I just looked up. So that would probably be better than most science diet foods which usually contain soy, corn and a whole bunch of ingredients you don’t want for your cat. So if I were you I would switch back to the chicken soup, is there a reason you changed from that to science diet? Because from what you said it sounds like the science diet was more expensive.

Diana, I agree with kittyluv, if you’re looking for an alright budget food Purina beyond is pretty okay. But keep in mind that wet food will almost always be better than dry. But that’s also why it’s more expensive. And it does usually help to do the 25% new food with 75% old food before you go the whole 50/50 ratio.

Pet food can be a confusing and complicated subject at time. I guess I’m helped by the fact that I actually worked at a pet store that specialized in pet nutrition for a while. But it’s really nice that everyone can benefit from the knowledge of others via this forum

 

[Lranders29]

Leanders, I seem to remember that chicken soup was actually a pretty okay brand ingredient wise. It’s got chicken, then chicken meal and then turkey meal from what I just looked up. So that would probably be better than most science diet foods which usually contain soy, corn and a whole bunch of ingredients you don’t want for your cat. So if I were you I would switch back to the chicken soup, is there a reason you changed from that to science diet? Because from what you said it sounds like the science diet was more expensive.

Diana, I agree with kittyluv, if you’re looking for an alright budget food Purina beyond is pretty okay. But keep in mind that wet food will almost always be better than dry. But that’s also why it’s more expensive. And it does usually help to do the 25% new food with 75% old food before you go the whole 50/50 ratio.

Pet food can be a confusing and complicated subject at time. I guess I’m helped by the fact that I actually worked at a pet store that specialized in pet nutrition for a while. But it’s really nice that everyone can benefit from the knowledge of others via this forum

hi! Almost immediately after bringing home my kittens from the shelter they got sick. Vet suggested Purina Pro Plan, science diet, or royal Canin. I switched to Science Diet. I was at a pet store to get more and was reading ingredients which made me think more about what really is best. I found Instinct and Blue Wilderness seemed good but I think it threw me off to see the negatives about SD since my whole life I was told it was top tier.
I’m more than willing to go back to chicken soup! They seemed to like it better than SD, actually. Guess I thought more expensive was always better.

 

[Moonlight_wolf]

Science diet has a very good marketing campaign. So they’ve got a lot of people thinking they’re really good. Which leads other people to think they’re good because they hair their friends and such telling them that science diet is good. Also if I remember correctly I think I read somewhere that it used to be better, but once they got popular they lowered the quality of their ingredients so it would be cheaper to produce. So basically- don’t feel bad, I too thought it was good at one point.

Instinct and blue buffalo are also good brands! They’re just gonna be more expensive than chicken soup and I wasn’t sure what your budget was.

 

[Lranders29]

Science diet has a very good marketing campaign. So they’ve got a lot of people thinking they’re really good. Which leads other people to think they’re good because they hair their friends and such telling them that science diet is good. Also if I remember correctly I think I read somewhere that it used to be better, but once they got popular they lowered the quality of their ingredients so it would be cheaper to produce. So basically- don’t feel bad, I too thought it was good at one point.

Instinct and blue buffalo are also good brands! They’re just gonna be more expensive than chicken soup and I wasn’t sure what your budget was.

I am not sure about mixing brands, but they’d been doing well with wet Instinct and dry Chicken Soup. I will keep price checking and see. I did like the price of Chicken Soup. My boy has had diarrhea and is on antibiotics for another 2 weeks for pneumonia so whatever I get needs to be easy on the tummy.

 

[Azazel]

How can it not be good if it has the word "science" in it? Science never lies!