Is Hills as good or as bad as I've heard?

Test For Echo

I’ve fed my 2 three year old indoor cats Hills Science Plan dry food since the day I got them. They’re healthy, with nice shiny coats. I decided to do a little research on cat food and was quite shocked to see a lot of negative opinion on the quality of ingredients in Hills food.

The vet recommended Hills as a premium brand and that’s why I’ve used it. I’m now a tad suspicious as it’s the only brand they stock.

Advice on the best quality cat food would be welcome because I want to ensure the little friggers are getting the highest quality food available.

PinkTulips

I feed a mix of wet and dry as i firmly believe it's healthier.. my parents only ever fed our cats at home dry as snack food and non of them were ever ill, not once. So i do the same with my cats, wet twice a day and a snack of dry every now and again and my cats have always been the picture of health, 6 years of having cats, most of that more than one and i've never yet had an illness.

The dry foods i/they like are;
Husse (http://www.husse.ie/view-product-type.php?type=Super Premium Cat Food&Sect=Products) the exclusive one
Perfect Fit
Red Mills

The dry foods they weren't keen on were;
Orijen
the Husse krakotten

They'll eat any wet food at all (even supervalu own brand when i'm stuck without any other shop to get to! tasteless creatures) but the ones i find best are;
Smilla... looks meaty and is packed so tight in the can that when you take the lid it rises up! good ingredients and high meat content
Porta 21... would feed this 24/7 as it's great but it's bloody expensive so is a weekly treat instead... pure flaked meat... the chicken and aloe one is just chicken in a chicken broth with some aloe vere gel in it and goes down really well... lots of purring while eating this!
I bought them the bozita stuff last time i ordered from zooplus but it's not better than supermarket stuff but more expensive, was very disappointed.

i also regularly give raw meat and tinned fish as meals

reality

hills is a top quality food! i'm a vet nurse, i've spent years studying animal nutrition and both my cat and dog are on hills dry food. there's a good reason your vet only stocks hills lol, and thats because their ranges cater for every possible nutritional need! i'm not saying that the likes of royal canin etc aren't as good, i'm just saying that with hills, you get what you pay for! did you know that there is a 100% money back guarantee on all hills foods - the company have that much confidence in their products! i'd say that if you're pets are thriving on hills, and if your happy/able to pay for it then you'd be daft to go changing it! imo, a high quality dry food is the best investment you can make for your pet

roweeeeena

I'm confused about this as well! I feed my cat predominantly dry food but he gets fresh meat or half a pouch of wet food a day. Since I got my cat (he's now 10 months) I fed him Hills Science Plan Kitten, he loved it and seemed to be thriving on it. I then realised that it has an awful amount of grain in it, which is neither natural nor beneficial to cats in such an amount. Also, vet practices are often connected with Hills via sponsorship etc. etc., that's why many of them only carry that brand, and that is why I don't trust their 'expert' view on the food! I'm now trying out Orijen which ingredients wise seems superb. My cat loved Hills, likes Orijen, and would rather starve than eat Red Mills! I don't think it's that good nutritioanlly but loads of cats (except mine!) seem to love it.

The Sweeper

reality wrote: »

imo, a high quality dry food is the best investment you can make for your pet

What's your opinion on cats who are fed dry food all of their lives going into renal failure and suffering from FUS and crystals in their urine?

Test For Echo

I buy Hills because I believed it was the best food available. I didn't expect to find any negative comments about Hills products, especially given the price (I handed over EUR54 for 4kg of prescription diet last week).

I've no doubt there's a lot of lower quality brands than Hills but I think the research shall continue on this...

Test For Echo

Minesajackdaniels wrote: »

What's your opinion on cats who are fed dry food all of their lives going into renal failure and suffering from FUS and crystals in their urine?

Em, what? Elaborate, please...

cloudy day

Minesajackdaniels wrote: »

What's your opinion on cats who are fed dry food all of their lives going into renal failure and suffering from FUS and crystals in their urine?

didn't know that. can we have more info please.

PinkTulips

is reality a sales rep for hill's by any chance.... that sounded like a sales pitch!

TFE... MMAJD will come back and explain it fantastically like she always does but the simple answer is that cats are designed to obtain most of their moisture requirments from their food. dry food doesn't meet those requirments and cats aren't naturally inclined to drink much water... even if encouraged to do so with fountains, etc... and therefore the kidneys are under huge strain.

like i said though, MMAJD explains it far better.

cotton

Minesajackdaniels wrote: »

What's your opinion on cats who are fed dry food all of their lives going into renal failure and suffering from FUS and crystals in their urine?

+1
As a cat owner that used to feed only dry with a CRF cat who has only just gone 6, I'd be interested to read your opinion on this too.

Test For Echo

Must admit I'm getting a little concerned now.

I manage the cat's weight by mixing the regular Science Plan food with the prescription r/d food. The r/d is as dry as a bone and clearly has even less moisture content than Science Plan. They seem prefer the r/d to the richer Science Plan too.

*Edit*

I've spent the day researching dry vs wet feeding and so far the overwhelming opinion is that wet feeding is far better (i.e. healthier) than dry. Think I'll head to the vet tomorrow and see what they have to say...

reality

Minesajackdaniels wrote: »

What's your opinion on cats who are fed dry food all of their lives going into renal failure and suffering from FUS and crystals in their urine?

If the cat is fed on a high quality dry diet, the mineral content is controlled so that struvites (crystals) are highly unlikely to form, and the likes of hills are formulated to control the pH of the urine so that small crystals are dissolved as quickly as they might be formed. Even a cat fed on your bog standard go-cat or whiskas should not suffer any renal damage as long as you ensure they are drinking sufficient water - when comparing the dry mass of tinned vs dry food, most commercial tinned food has a higher mineral content. If a such a cat came in, we would be looking for other contributing factors. At least half the cats over 8 we blood test (e.g. pre-anaesthetic, routine health panels etc) show renal disease and most of these have been on wet food all their lives (most common reason we run blood profiles on cats over 8 is probably pre-anaesthetic tests required so that a dental can be carried out to undo the results of a lifetime of tinned food).

and no, i'm not a sales rep for hills, the op asked about hills so thats why i discussed hills - isn't that the point of a thread? i don't know of any animal health specialist or medical literature that agrees that wet food is best - and in fairness, if it was, just as much money could be made from the sale of wet foods as dry - and vets don't get any perks from stocking hills that royal canin etc wouldn't provide.

spank_inferno

Its pretty simple

Vets recommend Science hill because the Vet is paid to sell the stuff.

If some budget brand "50% ash n' entrails" pet food company paid the vets of Ireland a higher commission you bet your ass it would be the new recommended brand of choice.

The food is ok, but its not the best on the market.

We find husse a good allrounder, good quality and good value.
We currently use "Orijen", its expensive but the quality is good suits our cats circumstances better.

comongethappy

Our cats are currently on a combination of Orijen dry and Husse wet.

Our male suffers with UTI's. All the cats loved Husse dry and had shiny coats on it, but my girl cat has a very sensitive tum and would sometimes get a runny tummy while on it (the cereals maybe? The two old ladies who had kept her from when she was a kitten to 4.5 months gave her a ton of cows milk - I had never seen a kitten so round in my life! She had the runs for ages when we got her getting her system back to normal, so I think from that maybe she's overly sensitive?) The orijen has no grains in it - 75% meat, 25% fruits and veg. It also has loads of extracts like cranberry and stinging nettle which are brilliant for promoting a healthy urinary tract. When we put him on Orjien, he didn't have any UTI's in about a year. The youngest did great on Husse dry, but she wants what the others have, so it's easier just to feed them all the same thing. The wet food also ensures that my male gets a bit more water in his diet.

If your cat has no sensitivities, I would definetely recommend Husse. It's a high quality product, human grade ingredients, and a low feed rate. You can get a free sample at www.husse.ie - just remember it can take around 2 weeks for your cat's system to adjust to a new food. However, if your cat has sensitivities, then I would recommend Orijen (human grade ingredients as well and low feed rate, but no grains). They don't do free samples, but you can order a small trial bag at www.zooplus.co.uk (cheaper than the .ie site)

Blueprint

PinkTulips wrote: »

They'll eat any wet food at all (even supervalu own brand when i'm stuck without any other shop to get to! tasteless creatures) but the ones i find best are;
Smilla... looks meaty and is packed so tight in the can that when you take the lid it rises up! good ingredients and high meat content
Porta 21... would feed this 24/7 as it's great but it's bloody expensive so is a weekly treat instead... pure flaked meat... the chicken and aloe one is just chicken in a chicken broth with some aloe vere gel in it and goes down really well... lots of purring while eating this!
I bought them the bozita stuff last time i ordered from zooplus but it's not better than supermarket stuff but more expensive, was very disappointed.

i also regularly give raw meat and tinned fish as meals

I was just comparing the ingredients of Smilla to Bozita, as
the cost is similar, so I was wondering why I went with the Bozita instead (I read the ingridients of all the wet and dry food on Zooplus before making a choice!). But Smilla only says it uses "by products of meats and other animal products", whereas Bozita names all its ingredients and promises they are all qualitySwedish meat fish and eggs. Bozita does look a tad over-processed next to the Porta 21, but I was majorly put of the Porta by the fact that it is a product of Thailand (despite being a German company), as who knows what sort of animal welfare laws and by-product laws they have over there! I've also tried Cosma, but my cats didn't like it and it's made in Portugal.

My cats used to be mostly on Orijen and were doing really well on it, but my little girl started having UTI issues after being spayed, so I decided to feed more wet and they love the Bozita and do really well on that with Orijen for topping up on and she hasn't had any UTI issues in ages.

The Sweeper

reality wrote: »

as long as you ensure they are drinking sufficient water

The others have pretty much pointed posters in the direction of what searches to do to begin the long and winding road of trying to inform themselves about cat nutrition, but I just wanted to take up this one point.

And, reality, this isn't a dig at you.

It's almost impossible to ensure any animal is drinking sufficient water. There's even a saying about it, using a horse as an example. Short of syringing water into your cat every day, it's impossible to guarantee they are taking in a set amount of water.

I use all the pro-water tactics I can think of - aerated drinking fountains, filtered water, numerous bowls, dotted about the house where the cats pass by - and my lot do drink a good bit of water, but I can't guarantee they're all drinking as much as they need to be, when fed a dry diet, every day.

Cat nutrition, the short version:

Cats are obligate carnivores, meaning they have to eat meat to survive. Their dietary requirements are different to a dog, because as a pack animal and a scavenger the dog evolved to utilise more of a range of food. Domestic cats were bred from desert and tundra-dwelling small sized cats, whose moisture requirements were mostly met by their food, and whose food included insects, small reptiles, rodents, small mammals and birds.

Domestic cats have bodies that require amino acids and other nutrients that they can ONLY get from their food - they haven't the ability to make these substances inside their own bodies. A popular example is taurine (present in richest quantities in muscle meat, like thigh meat and hearts). Without taurine, cats will go blind.

Cats have a short digestive tract that is not designed to be squeezing nutrients out of species-inappropriate food - so they find it difficult to get the nutrients they need from plant-based protein, as used in commerical cat food preparations (both wet and dry). Cats cannot synthesise vitamin A properly from beta carotene (in carrots), for instance, so they need to take vitamin A in its natural form - through eating liver.

Commerically prepared cat food has to meet a minimum standard for nutrient requirements and is therefore a balanced diet for your cat. However, as kibble has become more popular over the years, problems relating to kibble-only diets are becoming more evident. So are problems relating to some of the additives in commercial cat food, and some of the 'cooking' methodologies used to prepare the foods.

On the flip side, raw meat is also not a balanced diet for your cat. Think wild diet - skin, bone, organs, meat. Just feeding raw meat strips doesn't tick the boxes against things like calcium, phosphorous, taurine, arginine, vitamin A and so on and so forth.

Saying that, there is currently no single source of information that I would point to and say "that, that's what I'm going to feed my cat, that's clinically proven to be the best for it".

I feed mine a combination of commercial non-fish-based catfood, commercial low or no-cereal kibble, (or at least kibble with no corn), and raw meat, bone and organs. I do not allow my cats 24 hour access to kibble to self-feed. They don't need it. If they're hungry, they let me know in no uncertain terms.

lorna100

Minesjackdaniels, is there a particular reason why they are fed a non-fish based commertial food?

Reason why I'm asking is that my cat has been loosing weight consistenty (vets cannot figure out why, in the process of tests atm) - I feed her bozita fish varieties (complete food) and miamor fish varieties (complimentary food) mixed in, as she won't eat the bozita (or any other food) on its own. She cant have dry kibble as she takes in v little water and gets UTI's. Trying to establish if there is a link between her poor condition and the food.
Just interested in your opinion. Thanks

The Sweeper

Google yellow fat disease, or pansteatitis.

It's a condition that can occur in cats fed a diet too rich in unsaturated fats (or too low in vitamin E). Fish based cat foods are rich in unsaturated fats, and if that's all you feed your cat, it's not good for them. (We're talking twice a day, every day here.)

It's very treatable with a change in diet.

Just to add - mention it to your vet and they'll tell you whether or not they've ruled it out. If your gut feeling is still that the food might be a problem, consult your vet before changing your cat's diet in the middle of tests - it's important that they have a yardstick where they can measure change, and so determine whether or not a change in diet is providing a solution.

lorna100

Minesajackdaniels wrote: »

Google yellow fat disease, or pansteatitis.

It's a condition that can occur in cats fed a diet too rich in unsaturated fats (or too low in vitamin E). Fish based cat foods are rich in unsaturated fats, and if that's all you feed your cat, it's not good for them. (We're talking twice a day, every day here.)

It's very treatable with a change in diet.

Just to add - mention it to your vet and they'll tell you whether or not they've ruled it out. If your gut feeling is still that the food might be a problem, consult your vet before changing your cat's diet in the middle of tests - it's important that they have a yardstick where they can measure change, and so determine whether or not a change in diet is providing a solution.

thankyou!

Test For Echo

Until now I wasn't aware of the possible health issues associated with feeding only dry food. Going to try and introduce wet food - expecting mixed results though; one of my two is a "gorb" and will eat anything :pac:, the other expresses little interest in anything other than her own dry food. Thankfully (so far) water consumption seems to be good.