Hill's Science Diet

I contacted a Hill's Science Diet consultant with consumer affairs about why they include corn in their food and the purpose of it (as I was curious).. and their response was interesting..

Science Diet:

Thank you for visiting HillsPet.com and contacting us with your
question. Your interest in our company and our products is greatly
appreciated.

The ground corn we use is the entire kernel that has been milled and
ground consistently to the size of ground coffee. It provides an
excellent source of protein, fat and carbohydrate. In this form it has been
shown to be very digestible. The processed corn we use is more digestible
than the fresh corn we humans normally eat. Cereal protein when mixed
with animal protein or supplemented with certain amino acids is just as
good as meat protein. Vegetable fats such as that found in ground corn
are an excellent source of unsaturated fatty acids.

Please find additional information on corn attached for your review.

We appreciate you taking the time to contact us. If you have any
further questions or comments, please do not hesitate to call our Consumer
Affairs Department toll free at 1-800-445-5777 or visit HillsPet.com.

Click to expand...

She also attached a pdf file about corn and its nutritional value and why it's not a filler as people claim. I found it pretty interesting and just wanted to share. If you're interested in the attached file just let me know and I'll email it to you.

I have read it but since PRIVATE /Third party tests always come back with corn not being digestable( think you and then think obligate carnivore )... Youll see it dont exactly add up

I suppose.. I still found it interesting though.

Originally Posted by Keeba

I contacted a Hill's Science Diet consultant with consumer affairs about why they include corn in their food and the purpose of it (as I was curious).. and their response was interesting..

Science Diet:


She also attached a pdf file about corn and its nutritional value and why it's not a filler as people claim. I found it pretty interesting and just wanted to share. If you're interested in the attached file just let me know and I'll email it to you.

Click to expand...

This is how Hill's and other pet food companies make excuses to be cheapskates. Why not also ask them why their food is so expensive when they use such a high quantity of cheap grains, especially corn with just a small amount of chicken by-product meal to give the cat only the minimal amount of animal protein she needs and ask them why we should feed their products? Their usual answer is "More vets feed Hill's products to their pets than any other pet food." Ask them why that too and why can't they answer with some sound logic that isn't a phrase they like to repeat over and over again? Why do they think their food is superior? After all their slogan is "superior nutrition for the lifelong health of your pet." On the other hand, why interrogate the poor customer service rep who is just trying to put food on her table? But these questions sit in my head unanswered. And I have been guilty of calling their number and hounding call center reps in the past with these questions and have gotten nowhere. One rep told me to ask my vet(the run around).

I don't care how much my cat's food costs, I really don't feel that the price of cat food is enough to break me, but I do care about what I'm getting for the money I'm spending and if I'm going to spend, for example $10.00 for a 4 pound bag of food(example price of what I spend on California Natural) I expect more expensive ingredients, in other words excellent cuts of meat and lots of it.

I have asked every vet I have worked for about corn in cat food and all 10 have told me that corn in the food is just fine for a cat. If you think about it, humans eat corn and we cant digest it either. The main thing is just to find a food that your cat will eat since many of them can be picky and maintain an ideal body weight for your cat. Hills actually makes many wonderful foods for pets such as T/D which is used to maintain healthy teeth. A good veterinarian will be able to suggest a food to suit your cats lifestyle. At the clinic I am at we carry small amounts of the Hills perscription diets as well as Royal Canin and IVD but just as often as we recommend those our doctors recommend ProPlan, Eukanuba, and Iams.

You should ask them why they use corn as a protein source when they can use a more expensive animal protein source to get the same nutrient profiles and then some...

I agree that Hill's is not the best especially when considering price compared to some other higher quality foods. While I do not have the same expertise with cat foods, I am very well versed in dog food and Hill's normally gets poor ratings compared to other premium foods. Also with my dogs they do not eat the Hill's very well.
Honestly for the price you can get a much better food, oh and corn is very undigestable, with my dogs if they get a little leftovers that has corn in it the corn comes out the other end the same whole yellow kernals, it's obvious they don't digest it. I can't see how if it is processed it makes much of a difference, its still corn.
Cats are not omnivores so why give them much in the way of grains anyway?
I've had NUMEROUS people who own cats and dogs and breed them as well as several people in the vet field attest that corn is not ideal for cats and dogs.

in regards to the post that says "vets will recommend it" and when vets say its fine to feed them the cheaper variety of foods.. I have done a LOT Of research on different foods and When ever I asked a vet about which food is BEST-None would answer, They would ask what I was feeding my pet and say "thats fine", And a lot of vets will recommend science diet-- Which is pretty much a food that is at EVERY vet.. Anyways I got to wondering why no vet would give me a recommendation for food, And so i looked on the internet.. Dont remember where-- But a vet herself- said the reason why vets generally dont give much of recommendation is because theres not a "nutrition" portion of vet school that they attend.. They just kinda of go over just a bit of info- and then your on your own.. There are actually pet nurition classes you can attend, And they go into MANY different kinds of foods and do extensive research on th different kinds of foods.. People are right sometimes when feeding an animal a very rich premium food your pet will be sick, Because it is SOOO Much more rich then just any food... From the research i have done- The premium pet foods that are human grade- That dont contain by products, Meat meal (from what i understand-- Chicken meal is ok becuase u know its from a chicken, But there are some that just say MEAT meal and you dont know what your getting), Brewers rice, Corn are the main things you do not want to find in your pets food especially not in the first 7-10 ingredients.. anyways, Thats what I have learned!!!

REgarding the science diet too- Some of the science diet is necessary because they do make food for different health problems that sometimes is necessary to be on.. But regarding the foods that arent perscription-- Maybe vets get a REALLY great deal on it as to why ALL of them carry it.. I havent ever had good experiance with H.S.D However thats just the experiance i have had, Others im sure have had same and different..

Back in the days before I discovered cat forums I used to feed my cats Hill's T/D, then later I was mixing it with other dry foods. My cat Spotty did not do well on T/D. He was eating constantly and throwing up a lot. Spotty throws up when he eats his dry food too fast but he did this much more on the T/D than other dry cat foods. Why? Because T/D is filled with so much filler that Spotty had to eat more just to get the nutrition he needs. He was hungry all the time, eating constantly, vomiting several times a week, and gaining weight from the carbs even though Hill's T/D is relatively low in calories compared to other dry foods. It's not even premium. Chicken by-product meal may be the first ingredient but the grains and plant based ingredients far outweigh the minimal amount of animal based protein coming only from chicken by-product meal and no other animal sources.

Ever since I've been increasing the amount of wet food and feeding only premium dry cat foods such as California Natural and Natural Balance, Spotty doesn't throw up very often, only once in a while when he has eaten too fast. The canned Science Diet is better than the dry.

Here is another thing to do. Study Science Diet kibble, Oral Care or T/D for example, look at it, break it in half and notice it's shape and color and ask yourself "Why are we advised to feed our furry carnivores basically corn puff type cereal with only the bare minimum amount of animal protein?"