how does Science Diet compare to Nutro

Out of those three I personally would go with Wellness. I won't touch Science Diet with a 10 foot pole. Believe me, I work for a vet and can get a discount and still won't feed it. Nutro drys ingredients also don't sit well with me as it is very grain heavy.
The first 5 ingredients in nutro max indoor chicken flavor are these: Chicken Meal, Ground Rice, Wheat Flour, Corn Gluten Meal, Rice Flour. The first 5 ingredients are the main ingredients in the food and so Chicken meal is good, but the next four are not. I look for brown rice if I do feed grains as it is more nutrious although white is more digestible depending on the animal. I don't like wheat or corn gluten in my pets food and rice flour is just upping the grain content.
The Science Diet Hairball Control's first five ingredients are as follows:Chicken By-Product Meal, Brewers Rice, Corn Gluten Meal, Whole Grain Corn, Animal Fat. So Chicken by product meal is the first ingredient. I don't mind by products as some of the organ meat is very nutritious, but I don't want it as the first ingredient. Brewers rice is the by product of milling and all the nutritious parts of the rice are removed. Again corn gluten meal to pump up the protein content, whole corn which I believe shouldn't be in a carnivores food and animal fat which is a low quality ingredient.
Wellness Indoor I have fed to my cats in rotation and is the only one of the three that I would feed to my cats. The first 5 ingredients in that are: De-boned Chicken, Chicken Meal, Rice, Ground Barley, Ground Rice. De-boned chicken is followed up by chicken meal which means there is a good amount of protein in the food. Rice I am not too fond of, but is better than brewers rice or corn. Barley is a nutritious grain if you are feeding grain in your food and then again ground rice. Kinda heavy on the grains but much better than the other two. I believe the sixth ingredient is also a fish meal which bumps up protein even more.
I have fed various wellness lines to my cats with no problems. I have not fed the other two, but will not based on my education in pet nutriton.

Wouldn't touch the first two with a ten foot pole.

In most people opinion I would assume they would say Blue Buffalo. I however have found that tha TOTW is better for my cats. Here are links for each of the foods in question. TOTW http://www.tasteofthewildpetfood.com/ and Blue Buffalo http://bluebuffalo.com/?gclid=CLrK5YOa5akCFeVx5QodoFbvb . Now you decide which you feel is better .

Just remember the best nutrtion is no good if your cat will not eat it or it upsets your cats stomach. Just my .

I feed Blue Wildnerness chicken, the blue bag/can, its by Blue Buffalo, you can get it at Petsmart or Petco. It is grain free, by product free, soy free, and gluten free, and most importantly, low in salt, too many forget about that one.

My cats are healthy, bright, alert, and run thru the house like crazy boys, at warp speed, and their fur is soft and shiney.

Here is the site for Blue Wilderness.

http://www.bluebuffalo.com/cat-food/wilderness-chicken

I have no experience with Taste of the Wild.

Here are some good sites to read, they both explain, why, grains, glutens, and by products, are bad for kitties, and can cause a plethera of health
issues, which Hills Science Diet and Nutro are full of.

http://catinfo.org/

http://www.ibdkitties.net/index.html

Best of luck.

I like both TOTW and Blue Wilderness. They are also both in my rotation of dry foods, and my cats do well on both. I use the Chicken formula on the Blue Wilderness, as one of my cats gets itchy on Duck and they don't seem to care for the salmon formula for some reason. I think TOTW is a very good grain free for the price but some are leary of it as it is made by Diamond foods which has had recalls and some questionable practices in the past. Blue Wilderness is easily found as it is in the big box stores as well as mom and pop shops. TOTW is harder to find as not all stores carry it.
Also I know for a fact that Customer service is very good at Blue as they respond to emails very quickly and answer any questions you may have.

My cat doesn't like the regular Blue, only the 'gourmet' kind, and he quite enjoys TOTW because of its chunks.
From what I remember however, Blue is better than TOTW.

What? No votes for Science Diet? (Note the sarcasm) I always find it funny that few people like SD here but at the clinic where I work, they balk atbthe idea that it is crap. They just blindly accept that since it's by Hills who makes rx foods, it's good. Yet a vet cannot explain why there's corn in a hills maintenance cat food. Rx foods have a purpose but for maintenance, you can do better. Anyway sorry for thr tangent. Just found it funny no one voted for SD.

Funny as that is the same as my vet. I even went to a seminar held by hills and they couldn't even answer some of the questions I had as to why they put the ingredients they do in that food. They say corn is actually very digestable Anyways, looking at some of the rx foods such as r/d, w/d I would reduce the amount of the regular food before putting them on that stuff. I cringe each time I sell a 40 pound bag of sawdust. No nutrition what so ever.
The j/d for joint therapy is rediculous. It claims all the benefits to help a dog regain mobility but for 70 dollars for a 40 pound bag, I'd get a good brand of dogfood with glucosamine and Chondroitin and add supplements if needed. That is what I do with my own 11 yo dog. He is on Acana Pacifica with an added glucosamine chondroitin msm supplement, plus vit e, ester c, and salmon oil. Still cheaper than jd and my dog's coat is great, and he goes on 2-3 mile hikes everyday. I try to find alternatives to the Hills stuff as much as possible and my boss still doesn't see why I hate it so much but is also amazed at how great my 11 yo husky shepherd mix looks. Most people can't believe he is 11.

I get the same thing with my 13 yo Pit/Lab.

He used to get Nutro before TOTW was available in my area.
I've been supplementing him with Glucosamine, Chondroitin, and salmon oil, plus raw soup bones, chicken wings and necks.

His hips are sound, his teeth are beautiful and his coat is shiny.

And my 17 yo CRF cat also improved drastically once I got the fillers out of her diet (at least the grain heavy ones), she's putting weight back on, something the Hill's rx foods plus nutrical couldn't do for her.

SD is garbage, yet most animals will gobble the stuff up. The breeder I got my Sphynx from said its "kitty crack"

My boys like TOTW in moderation, they love anything by Blue and I have recently added Felidae to the mix.

Yeah it is amazing what good food can do. The difference in my dog has been drastic and he went from premium to premium lol. I had him on Innova for years, which he did ok on. Better than most as he has allergies. When the whole P&G thing came about I started looking for a new food I decided on Merricks and he did ok then got worse. His coat looked terrible and he gained weight. He had so much dandruff that when I brushed him it looked like it snowed on his back. (He is a black dog). I then decided to go grain free and put him on Acana Pacifica. Within 2 months, his coat cleared up. No itchy flaky coat. He got his shine back and has become more muscular and trim. He has tons more energy and we can hike the hills of Tacoma like nothing everyday. He is doing better on this food than even Innova. Simply amazing what feeding a good food can do.