Hills Prescription Diet Feline t/d Cat Food – My Cats Won’t Even Try It!
Written: May 31 '04
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Got it for free with rebate form
Cons: Price, ingredients, our 2 cats refused it and walked away
The Bottom Line: I cannot recommend this cat food. Please review the review to see why.
|
|
|
| mountainhigh's Full Review: Hills Science Diet Prescription Canine t/d |
Last month my daughter and I made our dreaded annual pet shots/check-up trip with our 4 dogs and 2 cats. Dreaded because the drive is 2 hours with 4 dogs panting and jumping around and 2 cats meowing in their carrying kennels.
We have 2 kitties. One is a 12-year-old (gosh how time flies) female Calico cat named Nicolle and a 4-year-old male black cat named Spook.
What the Vet Said
Both cats were in excellent condition for their check ups and both of their weights were right on target.
Since the vet was giving us free dog food to try for our 2 overweight dogs, she suggested trying Hills Prescription Diet Feline t/d which is made for the purpose of reducing plaque, stain, and tartar on the kitties teeth. We received a 4-pound bag for free with the use of an instant rebate form.
The Product Description
The nuggets are a light golden color and are actually quite large for it to be a cat food. In all the products I have ever used, I have never seen a dry cat food nugget to be that large.
The bag says “Prescription Diet Feline t/d is scientifically formulated for the nutritional management of cats with specific health conditions and, therefore, is authorized for sale only by veterinarians. Prescription Diet Feline t/d pet is formulated with the following benefits:
Unique kibble gently scrubs the teeth clean
Reduces plaque, stain, and tartar
Helps maintain health gums
Great taste”
The Surprising Yuck Ingredients
Hills states on their bags “Veterinary Exclusive Food” and the following ingredients are taken from the bag. The four pound bag cost $7.69 without tax.
Chicken-by-product meal, brewers rice, corn gluten meat, corn meal, powdered cellulose, pork fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid), chicken liver flavor, vegetable oil, DL-methionine, taurine, preserved with BHT and BHA, minerals (calcium sulfate, potassium chloride, salt, calcium carbonate, ferrous sulfate, zinc oxide, copper sulfate, maganous oxide, calcium iodate, sodium selenite), rosemary extract, vitamins (choline chloride, vitamin A supplement, vitamin D3 supplement, niacin, vitamin E supplement, thiamine monoitrate, calcium pantothenate, riboflavin, pyridoxine hydrochloride, folic acid, biotin, vitamin B12 supplement).
Remember the ingredients are listed in the order of quantity in it. The very first ingredient is chicken-by-product meal. You do realize what this is right? It is the feet, intestines, lungs, livers, beaks, necks, heads, and whatever else is leftover from a chicken. The third and fourth main ingredients are corn gluten meat and corn meal. Most pets cannot digest this very well as you see for ourselves just how well our own bodies handle corn.
Another ingredient that really bothers me is the use of BHA and BHT as a preservative. These chemical preservatives are believed to cause liver damage, fetal abnormalities, kidney problems and metabolic disorders. There is some suspicion that they are carcinogenic.
Guaranteed Analysis: (taken off of the bag)
Crude Protein…………………..Min. 30.0%
Crude Fat……………………….Min. 14.0%
Crude Fiber…………………….Max. 10.5%
Moisture……………………… ..Max. 10.0%
Ash………………………………Max. 7.0%
Calcium……..…………………..Min. 0.65%
Phosphorus .…………………...Min. 0.45%
Magnesium……………………..Max. 0.08%
Taurine………………………….Min. 0.1%
The Test
As every pet owner knows when one changes cat food it is to be done gradually. So I mixed some of Hill’s Prescription Feline t/d food into Nicolle’s and Spook’s regular food. Every time, the cats are given a new food smell, they will both slowly stalk to their dishes like it is prey.
All it took from both of them was one whiff and a look up to me with a meow. Neither one of them ate their food. I even tried to mix it with their favorite canned food and still that was not good enough. I tried for 2 weeks different combinations of how much of this food and the only way I could get either one of them to eat was if I only put in a few nuggets and those I found were not eaten. Of course they are not hard to find since they are so large.
So suffice it to say, since my cats refuse to eat it, I have no idea how well this works on tartar and plaque control, nor do I really understand how this works from looking at the ingredients since all it says is the “Unique kibble gently scrubs the teeth clean”.
Closing Remarks
I never use to check the ingredients of my pets food until this past year. I had always checked our human consumption ingredients and then it dawned on me to start checking the dog and cat food ingredients. Most of it was not very understandable but there are plenty of web sites to help you understand what these ingredients are. Please start reading the ingredients and understanding what you are feeding your beloved pet(s).
If you are going to pay a high price for a prescription for the teeth cat food, do not buy the Hills brand I am sorry to report.
This review is part of the Pet “May”hem Write-off sponsored by Ladysmom, our Category Lead in the Pets Department. Please join us and see how many Pet reviews you can write by midnight.
Recommended:
No
|
|
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.