Iams or Science Diet

I used to feed Science Diet, and feel that it's a good food, but over the past few years Felixia's stomach has been acting up & won't tolerate it anymore. I wonder if they've changed the ingredients? Or if it's just her age (16)? I switched her to Wellness canned food and that stopped her vomiting.

The vet said to start feeding them all the prescription food Purina NF because of their age (they're all over 8 years old). They've been on that for about a month now & seem to be doing OK. Except for Felixia, who's been losing weight on it (it's not as calorie-dense as SD, so they have to eat more to maintain their weight). I've been buying the canned version for her, and also feeding her some Wellness too, to get her weight back up. She's still not vomiting like she used to, so that's good.

My cats have had both, and disliked Iams Dry. Science Diet was okay, but the morsels were too big and hard for my smaller cat to eat. I felt sorry for her. It would take her several mins to break up the morsel and eat it. Now they are all on Royal Canin and they love it.

Mine used to eat Science Diet, but after learning about its ingredients, I'm really not comfortable with feeding it to them anymore. They've never had Iams, but same for that, I really don't like the ingredients. I don't have much advice about another brand, though, because I'm still trying to find one myself. We switched to Felidae about a week and a half ago, but unfortunately, one of my cats has had a bad reaction to that, so for now I've put her on a prescription diet for sensitive stomachs (I believe it's made by Purina), and once she's recovered I'm going to try another natural, human grade food, but I'm not sure which one yet. Possibly California Natural.

I feed SD sensitive skin formula, because my cats both had dry skin for a while, but now it's better. My only problem is that now Purple is getting bigger- but I have a new kitten that likes to chase her and eat her food so I don't think that will be a problem for long . By the way- Is it normal for a kitten to ABSOLUTELY REFUSE to eat kitten food and only eat adult food? I've been letting him because the SD has extra fat and protein.

At the pet store I picked up the smaller cans of cat food. I'm restricting my cats' intake to one small can a day that Cindy and Lucy will share and the dry Science Diet and Nutro for grazing. When Cindy jumps on my back and shoulders, she already feels lighter.

Punky is getting about 1/3 a small can of Hills a day with the dry Hills and Nutro. I stopped giving Punky the dry Nutro in her regular feeding dish, as she would make a big mess trying to find the Nutro kibbles and sending the rest of the Hills dry out of her dish, all over the floor. Now I give her the dry Nutro separately, like a treat.

It's funny how Lucy will eat any kind of wet or dry food and Cindy, plumper than Lucy, is picky by favoring Max Cat canned and the Hills dry. Punky doesn't like Max Cat canned, but will eat Hills.'

my boys are on science diet hairball lite dry and nutro canned - kingston won't eat any other dry that i have tried besides SC lite and SC hairball lite. and honestly, they didn't want to eat anything other than fancy feast (world's worst food, i know) for canned but i finally got them to switch to nutro. i have tried nuto dry but they wont eat that. maybe some of these other brands you guys have posted will work though.

I vote NEITHER. My lil boy eats Medi-Cal Preventative - Dry Formula

I switched my kitties to Solid Gold dry food and then I give them a little "California Natural" wet food at night. They like the "deep water fish" flavor. They LOVE fancy feast but I don't think it's that good for them so I've been struggling to find another wet food they'll eat. So far, they've rejected these wet foods:

Felidae
Solid Gold
Wellness
Innova
Nutro

Yeesh. They're so picky!

Neither - Natural Balance for Summer!

What a challenge to find something that they will all eat and I don't end up throwing the majority of it away:-). They have Hills w/d dry down to nibble on as they all eat on different schedules, and then they get 1 small tin divided into 5 plates in the morning and again in the evening.

Mine go in phases - they will really enjoy a certain brand for a while and then refuse to touch it. They have never been fussy for Iams at all, and only like the turkey Science Diet. They don't care for the Nutro or the Natural Choice either:-(. Lately, they have been eating ProPlan which is expensive, only comes in little little cans and does have meat by-products listed as one of the ingredients. They liked Dick Patten's food when could find it.

One of the other ones that they seem to like on and off is the Authority brand available at PetCo. It has no by-products, has rice as a filler and well down on the ingredients list, and is made in Canada. We will see how long that lasts, though:-).

Kathryn

I Have been feeding my cats Nurto's natural choice...they love it and that stuff is so freeking healthy....Although since emmets crystal narrow urethra problem we have been feeding him this perscription Science diet called S/D (stone desolver)..he seems to like it and it helps break down the stones and crystals

I use Nutro for my youngest and Wellness for my older girl. From the help of a very good friend and some great books, I settled on these to be the best. I cannot cook their meals (I can't even cook my own ), so I felt these would be healthy (non-by product) foods.

My vet is used to people not being able to afford high-quality cat food, but he'll tell you straight out that he likes Iams over Science Diet.

The shelter I volunteer at is on the Hills Shelter Program, and gets Science Diet at discount prices, in return for pushing that brand onto new owners... Not one of the volunteers there will feed Science Diet to their own cats, and some even try and convince new owners not to stick with the food, even though they aren't supposed to.

My boys hate Science Diet - they did from he moment I brought them home from the shelter. Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul is their favorite, but after talking it over with the vet, and him never having heard of Diamond Pet Foods (the producer of Chicken Soup), or the parent company of Schell & Kampeter, I decided to stop feeding it. If it really were a decent food, he would have at least heard of it before.

I'm sticking with Iams, mainly because it's the best I can afford right now. We've also been using Iams for ten years, with no problems in our last cat.

Just compare the labels between Science Diet and Iams (well, at least the light version of the foods, which is what I feed)....
Science Diet Lite's first ingrediant is Brewer's Rice
Iam's Wieght Control is Chicken by-product (but at least a protein source)

Not the best of food, I know, but the best in the middle price range, in my, and my vet's, opinion.

I'd also say neither because of all the junk in them... Plus, Iams has a bad reputation of putting cats through cruel experiments with their food testings...

My babies love thier Nutro!

I feel like a bad mommy. I have been trying to change my kitten off purina pro plan to science diet because I was always told by vets that it is good for them and is cheaper than the purina one. So am I wrong? What are the byproducts in science diet? I don't want my kitty to be eating wierd stuff.

Annabelle eats Iams Chicken and Rice. She doesn't like Authority or that other brand Iams makes. We just got Isabelle and she always wants to eat the adult Iams food. She won't touch her Iams kitten. She's only 8 weeks old, so I'm worried that she isn't getting enough calories. I think I might try that Nutro kitten brand- a lot of you folks seem to think it's good stuff and they sell it at Petsmart (which would be convenient).

Originally Posted by jgaruba

I voted neither. The by-products and corn bother me. I feed Spike Nutro Natural Choice, and he's doing really well on it.

I actually tried feeding him Felidae, which is no by-products, no corn, no BHA/BHT, and is made of human grade meats. Of course, my little furball wouldn't eat it.

I don't know which I would pick if I had to choose between SD and Iams only. Thank goodness for pet supply stores.

Click to expand...

I believe Nutro has corn gluten meal in it. I might be wrong though...

You can go to here and do a comparison on food brands.

Edit: Forgot to add my choice. Doh!

Anyway, my choice is neither. I've tried Iams (Weight & Hairball control) with Miko and it did nothing for him. He got more hairballs and gained 3 pounds! I've also tried Science Diet with Sebastian when he had his UTI and that also made things worse for him. That, and Sebastian developed an allergy for corn. If he eats anything with corn he will vomit and start foaming at the mouth. Ever since I switched to Innova the boys are doing great! I can't say enough good things about this brand.

I voted Other. We feed Purina Pro Plan adult Care chicken and rice

I give my Girl Iams!!

I have tried SD sensative stomach formula, Iams, Nutro Natural, Wellness, Purina Cat Chow regular, Purina O.N.E. Lily regurgitates or vomits up everything from the cheap grocery store brands to the high-end brands like Wellness. I finally decided that since one cat is a chronic regurgitator, and the other one is overweight, I might as well go with a moderate priced food. I am now feeding them Purina Cat Chow Indoor Formula and am going to stick with it. Lily hasn't vomited this food up any more than any other brand and so for $10 (18lb bag) every 2-3 months, both cats can eat and I won't go broke (Nothing more frustrating then watching a cat continually vomit up food that costs $27 for a 12lb bag).