Hellobee Boards

you can definitely get much better food than science diet for the same price. wellness is a good brand and what we feed smokey, but there are so many great brands out there. you just have to figure out what your cat likes. i've tried literally 50+ brands because i had to get my cat sparky (who had cancer) to eat, and smokey the cat had a bout with anorexia (yes it is common in cats!).

go to a specialty food store and check out the ingredients on the food. the first ingredient should not be a by-product or filler like corn... it should be beef, or chicken or whatever flavor the food is. the pet shop owners are usually very helpful.

i used to feed science diet way back in the day thinking i was feeding them a great food since it's what vets sell. but you really have so many better options!

I'm a HUGE proponent of reading the ingredients on pet food and determining what you want your pet to eat. With all the recalls that occur this gets tougher and tougher, and unfortunately all of my cats are now on allergy-free food that we have to buy at the vet (Science Diet and Hills...bleh. The only thing worse than paying $50 for a bag of cat food is paying $50 for a bag of crappy cat food, and having no choice about it!).

Anyway, we were using Taste of the Wild until the factory issues. Now I've switched the dogs over to Acana (http://www.championpetfoods.com/acana/products.php). We have a great high end pet store in the area that offers 20/25/30% off coupons very regularly, so that keeps the cost manageable. If you're looking for a good middle ground, Blue Buffalo has fairly good quality and is readily available. I prefer to go with grain free choices due to the melamine contamination of a few years ago.

We feed our cat Meow Mix. It makes me feel a teensy bit bad, especially because we feed our dog that $40 Blue food. But, the cat's been getting Meow Mix for 10 years now, and I've tried buying him other stuff (granted, not pricey stuff, but mixing it up) and he just won't. He hadn't been to the vet for 3 years (I KNOW.) until a couple of weeks ago, and he's 11 and fit as a fiddle. So I don't feel TOO bad. Plus, the dog has a sensitive stomach and when we switched her from Iams to the expensive food, it settled things down. So that's why she's on the more expensive stuff.

@Mrs. Bee: Probably! I bought him some really good food once, and he just looked at it, glared at me, and stalked away. But since all his bloodwork is perfect, then we're sticking with Meow Mix!