Science Diet or Nutro

echnsneak

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Hi,
please please please dont tell me to search, cause I have and now I am more confused!


I have been trying to find a better cat food for my kitties, I have heard science diet is good, and have always fed them that, but I also have read its got fillers in it (?)

So I started thinking about trying them on something new - if they will eat it, and I saw alot of posts on Nutro.

I have never really looked into anything regarding their food, it was recomended by a vet years ago and I stuck with it.

Is Nutro better?

thanks!
 

trixie23

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Yep... Go with Nutro Natural Choice:

http://www.nutroproducts.com/ncccdry-in-ad.shtml

The corn glueten isnt a necessity in their diet, but at least the first ingredient is Chicken meal vs Chicken Meal By-product etc... I have used Nutro before, I haven't considered Science Diet

Science Diet:

http://www.hillspet.com/zSkin_2/prod...=1182547548612

The first ingredient is Chicken by product... You never want a by product as the first ingredient. Look around the forms you will gather a ton of helpful information.
 
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echnsneak

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That does make sense. What started me thinking about their food ultimatly was Echo - one of my cats, eats all the time. And I started wondering if the science diet is lacking something that he keeps trying to satisfy, protien maybe? I dont know, it was just a thought.

I feed them the senior kind of science diet, and I bought just a small bag of the Nutro natural coice for seniors to see if they like enough to switch.

I am going to mix it in gradually and see what they think.
 

tiger1206

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I for sure think the Nutro is far better


Where in Nevada are you?
 
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echnsneak

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ok, so thats two for Nutro lol ~ I am in Henderson, how about you?
 

artgecko

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Hi,
I've been feeding nutro nat. choice to my adult cat and the kittens I've currently got. It seems to be a good food, no litter box issues and they seem to love the taste (even the large cat that's on weight management diet). Their canned food is also pretty good.

There's a thread around here somewhere called "free stuff" it has a link in it to a nutro website where you can email them for a coupon that will get you a free 6lb bag of nutro nat. choice kitten or cat food. Nutro reps also go around to the large chain stores (petco, petsmart, etc.) once in a while and will give you coupons. Nutro also has a frequent buyer's program and if you sign up for that you'll get a card (it doesn't work at the large chain stores) and a book of coupons that are ~ $2 off a bag, $3 off a bag, $1 of 10 cans, etc.

You might also want to look into chicken soup for the cat lovers soul (canned and dry food) it seems to have really good ingredients (even better than nutro) and is usually a bit cheaper. The only catch is that it is not available at the large chain stores...maybe at "petsuppliesplus" if you have one of those in your area, etc. petsmart has a food brand "authority" that is around the quality of nutro max (a slightly lower quality than nutro nat. choice) and it is a little cheaper than nutro.

HTH,
Art
 

tiger1206

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Originally Posted by echnsneak

ok, so thats two for Nutro lol ~ I am in Henderson, how about you?
Oh I am in Summerlin
Nice to "meet" you
 

tortiebaby

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I, personally, would not recommend either of those foods. They are really just as bad as all the other foods(IMO) because the contains the "icky" unneccesary stuff that cats don't need. If you would like a good-priced, good-quality cat food, then, if you can find it near you, I would recommend trying Felidae. It's really great stuff! Also, it has no by-products!

Oh yeah, if I remember correctly, Felidae is about the same price as Nutro, so your getting way better stuff at the same price!
 

tiger1206

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Las Vegas/Hendeson does have a ton of Good stores to get higher quality foods like innova, felidae, merrick, wellness
 

trixie23

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Sure we may not recommend it but she gave us a choice to pick from the two. I personally use EVO... My favorite choices are EVO, CORE, Wellness, California Natural, Innova, Natural Balance, Felidae, etc... Some are higher in magnesium (be careful if your kitties have UTI issues) and some are quite costly. These are my dry food preferences. I personally have my cats on a dry/wet combo (they are being reintroduced to it again). Best of luck. I was feeding my cats Nutro, until I found better choices. Still.... it is better than SD. Vets push SD due to contracts and because not many have alot of experience in the nutrition dept. (some are excellent, others dont have the time).
 

tortiebaby

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Oh yeah, and nutro contains wheat gluten, just so you know.

^
l
l
l
Whoops! Ignore that statement above, I was thinking about their wet food. However, they do use corn fillers in their food, ew! On the other hand, I would rather use Nutro then SD any day! It's MUCH better!
 

laureen227

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Originally Posted by artgecko

You might also want to look into chicken soup for the cat lovers soul (canned and dry food) it seems to have really good ingredients (even better than nutro) and is usually a bit cheaper. The only catch is that it is not available at the large chain stores...maybe at "petsuppliesplus" if you have one of those in your area, etc. petsmart has a food brand "authority" that is around the quality of nutro max (a slightly lower quality than nutro nat. choice) and it is a little cheaper than nutro.

HTH,
Art
i also feed the chicken soup brand, wet & dry. i have to go to a feed store to find it where i am. call around & see who stocks it - it has great quality for the price!
 
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echnsneak

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Ok, some great info, thank all of you very much. I never thought twice aout their food honestly, and when I found this site it was originally to ask about my other cat a few weeks ago I started reading the cat food posts, and wondering about Echos diet and that got me thinking.

I already opened the Nutro, but I did look up the Felidae and EVO there is such a difference in ingrediants compared to SD. I wish I had known all this earlier for them.

Thank you all I appreciate it!

Debbie - nice to "meet" you to, try to stay cool in this heat, its sickening!

 

kuntrykitty

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I don't have a very good variety of "good" food around here, really, so I don't have Felidae, EVO, Wellness, Chicken Soup, and other highly recommended brands available to me. I think it's the difference between the average American's diet, and an experienced nutritonist's diet, in humans. None of our cats have ever, ever had any sort of problems at all, none, seriously, and all we feed them is Exceed dog food! We fed the mommas and kittens Purina until Zoey and now I feed her Nutro. If your cat is healthy, active, beautiful coat, I truly don't think a more expensive, "higher-quality" food is neccessary. We want to do best for our cats, but really, I don't see the point in spending so much for what a lower quality will do for your cat. So it's your choice, don't let anybody bully you into anything.
That said (sorry, I tend to ramble), I would go with Nutro Natural Choice. It's in a very affordable range, it is widely available in chain pet supply stores, and, from my experiences, cats seems to have healthier coats and better weight control on Nutro. I feed Nutro dry, I don't really care for their wet (right now it's not the real Nutro wet recipe though, since the poison scare), I feed other stuff. But I would, out of those two choices, feed Nutro. If I had the money, and it was available, I would probably feed a different food like Wellness, EVO, or Innova, just for the heck of it, though I don't see how Zoey could be any healthier than she is now!
 

wildflower79

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I've had Gizmo on Nutro Max for the last few months and he's been doing great on it. Chicken soup is a good food and if it wasn't for the fact that it made Gizmo poop unbearably stinky, I'd still be feeding it to him. If your cat can tolerate it though I would recommend chicken soup.
 

trixie23

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EVO is a dry raw diet type food. It is high in magnesium so make sure kitties dont have UTI issues. It is a grain-free food. In the wild cats dont need wheat in their diets, so as a result most see that wheat is virtually not needed at all in domestic cats. There are many foods that are great fry foods, but I thought I would tell you the difference between what I use and some others we have listed. Before EVO I used Nutro Natural Choice and that was followe by Wellness. If I had to pick which was a fav of my kitties it would have to be EVO (you should see how piggish they are when I fill their bowl, they think its the best thing since milk) follwed by Nutro (they loved the huge kibble).
 

trixie23

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Nutrition does make a difference whether it be for the present or the long haul. There is no nutrition in by-product meals, wheat, or corn ingredients. They are fillers and simply have no benefits. Im also going to have to give you one heads up on Nutro... the weight management only. My 5 year old was on Nutro weight management for a year receiving only 1/2 a cup a day (which was less than the required amount), yeah with being active and healthy... he gained 4 pounds. He was not receiving treats or wet food of any kind. So as a good tip, Nutro is ok, just stay away from weight management formulas (for the majority of brands) i had a conversation with Sharky, and she gave me great recommendations, he was actually getting the kitten nutro and his weight dropped just a tad... which made a world of difference.

I also don't want you to feel anyone bullied you into which food you should choose, you asked a question and we gave some feedback, we support you in whatever you decide (cat food is expensive these days, I should know my EVO costs tons... I cringe everytime i get to the register, but my kitties love it) and whatever is affordable and available to you.

You can get Nutro at Pet World and other corporations like Petco.
 

catsallover

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I think you will be pleased with whichever one you choose!


My cats were on original SD, too, for years, and then I came here and found out about all these wonderful (better quality!) foods for about the same price. (I love it here!)

We switched to Felidae Chicken and Rice (as my cats can't eat fish, so no original for us-original is slightly cheaper
) and am now mixing it with Maxximum Adult formulla (from Walmart, but about the same price as my C & R and not too bad for a dry food- and they think it's great- lol
) so I could use it if I ran out and didn't have a chance to go across the county to PetSuppliesPlus
.

My cats have quit eating so much (so actually it costs less in the long run than SD
), are back down to a healthy weight, and their coats are so soft and shiny!
I never knew they could look and feel so good!


Good luck with your switch!


(btw, all my cats are now seniors- 7, 10, 10 and 14
)
 

roxie225

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I feed Roxie Nutro Natural Choice Indoor dry and also their wet... Most of the Nutro cans DO NOT contain wheat gluten... only a few of their 3 oz cans... also weight management food is actually worse than feeding regular... I think it has more carbs. or something, I can't remember... Anyway, since switching Roxie onto Nutro she has lost weight, is more active and has a much better coat. Plus the litter box isn't as stinky


I'm not telling you to choose Nutro, just giving my opinion on Nutro and clearing up a few facts from some other posts... I have had a good experience with the Nutro and I know there are others on the forum that feed it to their cats as well.

Let us know what you decide for your baby!!
 

kittylover77

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Nutro is definitely better than SD.
Though, isn't Nutro changing their formula right now?

I am not sure, but I don't remember seeing soybean oil in the ingredients before.

Hopefully someone more knowledgeable can comment on that.
 
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