My Great Pyr. surgeon recommended science diet j/d. I can see a change in my big boy already. I have to mix the dry with canned to get him to eat it, but other than that this food is working for him.
He was diagnosed with Arthritis and Osteochondritis Dissecans at the very young age of 2 1/2. I wish I had always fed my baby this food.
Thanks,
Mary of Alabama

I wonder why the Science Diet is rated so low by so many people, then I came to read the reviews and found that most of the people gave it a bad reviews based on the ingradients on the bags. Well, here is what I think. I've been feeding my dog many different brands but he's always been weak on the stomach. I even tried what the pet store recommanded, and he never had good reaction to it either. He was "fine" with the cheap supermarket Pedigree, so that's what I've been given him for years. Until he was diagnosed with Addison's disease. After surviving it, although needing to be on medication for the rest of his life, he lost so much weight, and lost a lot of hair. He was extremely boney, and going bald! Finally, out of curiousity, I picked up a bag of Science Diet for Senior dog, supposedly a newly developed formula. It was the biggest miracle ever to see him becoming his normal self again, now with full hair and gaining his healthy weight back, but not over-weight. Ever since that, I know I'm sticking with this one, and sticking to this particular formula.

Edit: I would first trust what the "real" experts have to say. "Real" experts do not include those who have done researches on internet, nor do they include those who try to impose their own liking or disliking of dog food ingredient on their dogs. Second, I trust my own experience. My experience does not include what I have read on the internet, especially not what I have read from the people who think they are experts on RIA. Now, for those who disagree with SD and want to feed their dogs with what they call the more superior brands, feel free to do so and stop harrassing others who do like SD and will continue to feed their dogs such food. It's an opinion network, not a brain washing network. Read all posts at your own discretion.

Finally reviews that confirm I am not mad. My dog Oliver has had bladderstone problems for 2 out of his 5 years now. Last year he was operated on and given a diet (albeit not Hills Science) but gradually the problems returned until a month ago he was rushed to hospital because his bladder was completely blocked. After an emergency operation which included re-engineering his water works and castrating him we were told he would be fine and advised to put him on Hills Science U/D. Since then he is always hungry and suffers from near constant diarrhea. I mentioned some of the facts I had read on this website and didn't get much sense from the vet either. I too have now taken him off the diet and am now looking for alternatives (suggestions are welcome). In the meantime Oliver is eating meat and rice and seems to be a happy dog again.

This food is low quality.  The people who are arguing just seem to want to be argumentative about the product.  They're hurting their dog so they can be "right".  Please don't listen to them.  If you have any common sense in your body, take a look at how many negative reviews there are.  Go to the first page of reviews and pick a brand from there.  You won't find pages and pages of negatives there, what does that tell you?

We started our puppies on Science Diet for the same reason  many others do ... reccomendations from vets (after all, it must be good, it has SCIENCE right there in the name!).   Our pups (5 month old Lab mix and 7 month old Boxer/Beagle) developed nasty cases of diarrhea for weeks on end.  We could not figure out what was causing it, and after eliminating every other possibility, determined it must be the food.  We decided to switch to Purina Pro Plan (Large Breed Puppy), and in a matter of DAYS, their stools firmed up, and they seemed moreactive and playful.  I will never again waste my money on Science Diet, and would warn others to staty away as well.

read the ingredients than you will see all by-products, yellow corn, soybeans and sorghum all great cattle food and chicken waste. Its crap and some low end vets who are only after profit suggest it and why? They get great kickbacks from so called "science diet" for medical equipment etc and their profit margin is to die for, I know, i worked for vets for years. Buy something better and love your animal, PLEASE.

Kristy, a veterinarian with a Ph.D. in veterinary NUTRITION told me that Science Diet has the very bests NUTRIENT PROFILE of any pet food today.  I would believe him before I would believe self-appointed internet know-it-alls who have no technical background in nutrition.  Don't change foods!

It's hard to read these reviews with an open mind...the negative criticism does seem a tad misinformed. Take the debate about corn in the food, for instance. Something tells me that the reviewers refusing to provide this brand of food to their dogs haven't eliminated corn out of their own diets. If they had, that would mean they weren't eating food starches, corn meal, sucrose, vanilla, corn-anything...this means no soda pop, no fruit juice, most breakfast cereals (containing malt), anything preceded with the word "vegetable," toothpaste and mouthwash (containing sorbitol), the list goes on...

I think a good way to evaluate the integrity of your dog's food brand is to first determine whether you believe in the brand's values (does it care about a holistic approach, for instance), then look at how the company is supporting those values (through research? philanthropy?)? You could honestly go nutty if you attempted to make an informed decision just based on reviews...how does one determine what's real and not, what's truthful and not?

Happy food hunting.

Read the ingredient list....one of the main ingredients is CORN, a cheap filler.  Most dogs don't handle corn well at all.  I had my dogs on this food under the direction of my former vet, and they were itching and scratching so bad I had to take them back for a shot.  I wised up, got them off Science Diet, and changed vets.

I have been feeding my dog (Boston Terrier) Science Diet for 10 months. We started off on the Science Diet small bites puppy dry food. I got nervous after researching the internet and finding so many negative reviews that I tried to switch our dog to Nutro around Christmas. She got very sick off of Nutro and threw up every day she was on it. I introduced it to her over a week period and she still got sick. I switched her back to SD 2 weeks later and she has been fine ever since. We now have her on Adult SD small bites and she loves it. Gobbles it right up. I did check the ingredients on the adult food and the first one is chicken followed by ground whole grain corn. I do know that with the SD puppy food, chicken is not the first ingredient. In fact, I do believe it is grain but I really don't remember. Her black coat is nice and shiny and we have had several compliments on it. However, due to all of the negative reviews I have been thinking about switching. The reason why I haven't is because she loves SD. As of now, we have had no problems with it.

my pups don't like the taste, and refuse to eat it

My dog had been eatting SD all her life. She never gets into the trash and I make sure she takes all her supplements. Well, I was very surprised to hear from my vet that she had developed pancreas disease. I sometimes wonder if her dog food is at falt. I did notice a bit of a spoiled smell when I openend a can of W/D one time. I have since stop giving her Science Diet but I feel the damage is done.

I have two puppies one 4 months old and the onther 2 months old and the only thing that they eat is hill science diet. they seem to learn faster than the other dogs in my household. they are the only dogs that i have ever feed this to and having 5 dogs i would know good dog food.

Crap ingredients.  Read the label.  Even worse than some grocery brands.

Science diet makes me laugh. They really rely on using science as part of the name to make it sound advanced or something lol wow. Anything can be made 'scientifically' but that doesnt make it good. I can scientifically make a dog food out of rat poison if you like. SOme of the older generation people are easily fooled by imagery and advertisements like this. I think as time goes on people are going to catch on a little bit more and realise what's behind all the false imagery. ANd for the record so many vets recomend this food because they make profits for selling it and in vet school science diet sponsors alot of money to the schools and try to get their money hungry hands in there to get to the vets and make them think its the best food out there. The truth is almost vets don't learn about animal nutrition in vet school and may know just about as much about dog food as you. IF the vets do learn anything about nutrition it's usually a program made by science diet and sponsored by them, very very good for their buisiness you see.

science diet was prescribed by my vet for intestinal disorder he is a 10 year old chihuahua mix he hates it so much he would rather starve he got diarea and vomited and had abdominal pain , cook your dog a good home cooked meal, hills is crap, my cat would not eat it either he starved for a week and we gave up and gave him his old food

The ingredient has always been bad, after I look at the "Nature's Best" ingredient list, I think this food is absolutly garbage, a waste of money.... pork fat....this is not recommanded for human, and they put it in the dog food... terrible.

Worst value in dog food not only is it bad for your dog its costly. People who buy at Supermarkets and Farm Supply stores probably actually think they are getting some decent food by paying extra. Some have corn meal as the #1 ingredient. Bad choice ZERO stars

My vet really pushed this food on me, so I switched. My dogs were on it about 5 months and it made their fecies yellow and runny and they just didn't seem as healthy and energetic as they were. After taking a look at the ingredients I am very disappointed in this food, especially for as much as it costs.

Don't feed this to your pet. Their quality control is terrible. They formulated a prescription product with poisinous wheat gluten that was recalled (hills m/d dry feline). It killed one of my cats and caused permanent kidney damage to the other. The melamine and cyanuric acid were visible per the FDA and their quality control missed it. I'm an analytical chemist that has material quality experience and they obviously didn't do their job, not to mention that this product was recalled a full 2 weeks after everything else. For as high a pedestal as they put themselves on, they shouldn't have missed it. My cats are now on Orijen by Champion foods and are doing so much better. If I could give this brand zero stars I would.

I was a skeptic from the beginning and recently moved into the states from Toronto Canada. Our vet in Toronto never mentioned the food and never pushed it on us, but would always have a few products in the office that she supported, not one was science diet. Also the local pet food supplier never carried any of hills products. Now the local pet food supplier here in South Carolina says not to feed my dog SD, but the new vet does and the office is filled with SD and Hills products. We were unable to get the same dog food we used in Canada so we Tried SD (Im embarrassed to say) my dogs coat changed, gained wait, lost energy and would not eat until late evening till the poor guy realized that was it. That was for 6 months.6 months to dam long..Try looking @ Wellness, they are an old mother hubbard company wich makes all natural treats and food. They have a new line wich is called Core its Protein focused and grain free. Its based on the raw food philosophy providing nutrient-rich, high quality meat to a dogs diet. Now you would have to see it to believe it, but he will eat his food before touching a bone that is filled with a little peanut butter. It's nice to see him enjoying eating and become that little puppy all over again.

If you bought it in the Philippines, it s crap anyways. In the US this is the best dog food. My dog got sick eating Nutro and Purina. Science Diet has never given me any problems and my dog is healthy and has a beautiful coat. Every dog owner I know uses Science Diet.

I used this for about a month as my vet had told me it was a good food, then the puppy started to throw up. So I looked up every ingredient and was shocked by corn being the first ingredient in the food. So I swiched foods and he is doing great now on a much better food.

I have been buying the Hills Science Diet Puppy Small Bites for my chihuahua since I've had him. I got him when he was 6 months old; he is now 9 months old. He has been normal as can be, and I feed him Hills Science Diet every day. I love him so much and try my very best to take very good care of him. I would never buy a dog food, or anything for him, for that matter, that would harm him. My vet did not recommend this food to me. I looked up dog foods online myself and decided to get Hills Science Diet. I believed what I read on the Hills Science Diet official website, as follows:

Product Development
We analyze each ingredient profile for over 100 nutrients to ensure your pet gets the stringent, precise formulation it needs.
Ingredient Supply
We inspect every ingredient via microbiological, sensory, physical, chemical and foreign matter testing to give you peace of mind when you feed your pet.
We diligently source meat and poultry ingredients from USDA-inspected facilities.
Product Manufacturing
We conduct annual Quality Systems audits for all manufacturing facilities to ensure we meet the high standards your pet deserves.
We demand compliance with Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) and American Institute of Baking (AIB) standards, so your pet's food is produced and distributed under clean and sanitary conditions.
Finished Product
We conduct final daily safety checks on every Hill's® Science Diet® and Hill's® Prescription Diet® product to help ensure the safety of your pet's food.

...It seemed like a good food for my puppy. I don't know anything about dog nutrition so it's obviously possible I made a misinformed decision. But how am I supposed to know which ingredients are good and which ones are bad? When I took my puppy in for his shot appointments, the nurse asked what food he was on. When I told him Hills Science Diet, he didn't say anything negative about it. In fact, he didn't say anything at all about it except for 'ok.' If I can't trust what Hills Science Diet says, and I can't trust my vet, then who should I trust? A bunch of people that I don't know? Do any of you have any actual proof that this food is bad for dogs? Just why would anyone make a dog food that would harm a dog? I want to give my puppy the best nutrition possible and now after reading all these reviews I am so very lost. I don't know what food I should give my dog now. I don't know if I should call my vet and ask about it, or if I should call Hills Science Diet.

I just did some research online and found that BHA, BHT, and Ethoxyquin are not in the Hills Science Diet Puppy Small Bites that I feed my puppy. I read through all the ingredients on the bag. I also found that corn/grains do not harm dogs; they are just a little harder for a dog to digest. My puppy seems perfectly fine and healthy; he just got neutered last Friday and has already fully recovered. There have been no signs of his food harming him in any way. I guess I'll keep feeding him the Hills Science Diet food and at my other dog's shot appointment I will talk to our vet about different types of dog foods and what is best to feed my dogs. Again, if this brand really was harmful and killing dogs, I don't believe it would be on the shelf.

My vet reccomended Prescription Diet J/D for my American Bulldog. Since it is suppose to be good for the joints, I also put my German Shepherd on it. After about a month of being on the food (3 bags at $60/bag), my American Bulldog has no improvements and my German Shepherd developed EPI (involves severe weight loss, soft serve stool, and hair loss). There is too much fat in this food for the stomach of a German Shepherd to digest and the food goes straight through as diarhea. I am not saying that it might not be good for other breeds but German Shepherds are prone to EPI and this food aggravates their digestive process.

EPI seems to be hard to diagnose and we, like many others I have seen online, spent a lot of money before knowing what the problem was. The medicine for EPI that the dog is suppose to be on for life is $150 (approx every 3 months).

Please, please people understand ~ just because your vet tells you to use it, research!  Bottom line ~ doesn't your pharmacist know more about your pills than your doctor?  Vets are given VERY LITTLE education on nutrition.  They also get paid to push the product!  If you listen to Science Diet spokespeople, they first will tell you that corn is GOOD for your dog.  If it is soooo good, why are they now taking it OUT of their new products.  Common sense!  The food is once of the WORST foods out there ~ especially for the price.  Ground corn is their #1 ingredient ~ what does corn do to a dog?  Well, what does it do to you???  LOTS of stool with this product, too many fillers which, in turn, for the company, means you will buy more.  YUCK!!!!!!!!!!!

This brand is a piece of crap! My 4 year old American Eskimo used to have perfect healthy skin coat until I started to feed him science diet.

My dog hates this food.  Hates it.  I was always under the asumption that SD was the best you could buy.  After reading the ingredient list it's rather crappy for all the hype it gets.  It's not a terrible food but there are others out there that would probably do your dog better.

ok so heres the reason most of you probably feed your dog or cat science diet, because your vet recommends it right, well just because your vet recommends it doesnt mean its good, i used to work in a veterinary hospital and the truth is the reason that vets recomend it is because they gain commision off of it, truth be told this is actually a horrible food, if you want to feed your dog or cat a good healthy food i would try canidae or if your dog has a strong stomach wellness only because it is a very rich food

All I can say is..... I have tried EVERY dog/puppy food out on the market from Nutro to the organics to Blue.... I stayed away from Hills/perscriptive science diet because of all the negative press and sites regarding the supposed "crap" that is in the food. Unfortunately, after numerous $$$$ spent trying to figure out why my 14 week old doberman puppy had major diarrhea every day 4-5x a day (kept us up every 1.5 hours needing to go outside to have the runs) all tests came back negative. The ONLY food that does not give her ANY diarrhea is Hills. If anyone out there can recommend another "easily digestible" food that is less than Hills.... I would be more than happy to give it a try. For now..... Hills it is because it is keeping her happy and letting me have a decent nights sleep.

I've been feeding this crap to my dog since we first got him. and because I heard from my puppy class that the fillers in science diet are wood shavings and so on. so then I did some research and it told me even more fillers that can give your pet antigestion problems. and I had noticed that my dog kept throwing up and wasn't as I hiper. then I started to notice that he wouldn't eat his food and then I noticed that he preferred to eat the grass and twigs in the back yard. I finally gathered enough information to decide to not buy it any more

I am new to feeding my puppy commercial dog food as I have not tried many brands. Like most of you, I was introduced to this brand by my vet. I was happy thinking I had got the "vet-recommended" food; it must have been damn good... until I did more research into dog nutrition and into other dog food brands.

I know and agree that this brand is more crap than good, but for my pup it's actually not that bad. When I switched to Canidae Chicken & Rice, unfortunately he wouldn't eat, had vomitting and diarrhea, and his itching and paw-chewing problems got really bad. (I'm sorry, I know how highly you all regard Canidae, and I don't dispute that, but it's not for my pup.) So now we have to switch back to SD Lamb & Rice and he seems to be okay.

Of course, now that I understand what I'm feeding my pup, I'll make a switch soon. Maybe then I'll be able to say something awful about SD. ;)

My vet insists he has to stay on Science Diet FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE, because he needs a medicated cat food that will maintain the proper ph level in his urine. But my cat now has has diarrea. The only other alternative is Eukenuba. This food is making him sick, and there is nothing I can do about it. I feel suckered into supporting these vile companies of greed and death. HELP!

i can't believe i actually feed this crap to my cat until i actual read the nutrition label on the bag! mainly fillers and by-product meat. yuck! it was recommended by my vet so i felt he would honestly suggest a good quality food and didn't check into it until i started hearing negative stuff about the product. i switched him over to Innova Evo cat food. actually meat!! none of that by product crap.

***Update, Please read my comment for this. I didn't have enough room to place what I found here, but is is VERY interesting.

For all those who said that Hill's Science Diet/Prescription Diet is a good food, please read this. I am the owner of a pet health food store and have been researching the veterinarian/Hill's scandal for many years. Veterinarians belong to the Veterinarian Association (a Union for Vets), in belonging to said union, the vet must promote Hill's Science Diet/Prescription Diet and/or Eukanuba. This is, in part, because the Veterinary Association owns stock in both Hill's and Eukanuba (aka Colgate and Proctor and Gamble) For those of you who don't know, the Hill's Company was bought by Colgate and Eukanuba/Iams was bought by Proctor and Gamble. The other reason why Veterinarians support Hill's is because if our pets are healthy, they don't make money. Thirty years ago, dogs were living to be 20 and 25, now 15 is considered old. This is because of the many poor ingredients used in Hill's Science Diet/Prescription Diet. Corn is one of the most allergenic substances to dogs, it is also a cheap source of protein. When reading a lable, it only state CRUDE protein, this is the total amount of protein in the food, not neccessarily from the meat. By-products are another poor meat product that includes everything on the animal specified other than the meat. Ever looked at one of Hill's Science Diet cans? The first ingredient is WATER. So, essentially you are paying for flavored water. One of the worst attributes to Hill's Prescription Diet, and the leading contribtor to the inreasing mortality rate in dogs, is that they preserve their food with Ethoxyquin. For those of you who do not know what this is, it is a preservative that is a known carcinogen. In laymens terms...it causes cancer, particularly in the Kidneys! Ethoxyquin (hereby referd to as "E") is only allowed in amounts of 5ppm to .5ppm in human foods. It is highly frowned upon and is only used in products such a peprika and other spices. In dog and cat food, it is allowed in quantities of 150ppm. In a dogs life, they are eventually consuming 300 times more "E" than any human. It is no wonder that dogs are dying at 15 from cancer. The veterinarians prescribe it to them. Now remember, this chemical is not found in Hill's Science Diet, it is only found in Hill's Prescription Diet. Although, the ingredients are just as bad in both. I believe I am running out of space, if anyone has any questions/concers/critisims, or would like to know some healthy alternatives to this product, please e-mail me at puppyloverkb@cox.net or comment on my review I will be happy to answer any questions. Kate 

Sad that someone makes a living selling this.

I would give it a zero if I could. By Products and corn is all this is.

Our dog loves it. His coat is shiney and healthy.

I have never had a problem with science diet. My dogs seem to really like it and they have not had any problems with it. We didn't get any recommendations from our vet for it since we buy the regular light adult formula over the counter. I am sure there are alot of dog foods out there that have one thing or more wrong with them. I haven't had any problems with this one.

My vet recommended that I put my Chihuahua on S.D. Sensitive Stomach because she had chronic diarrhea and vomiting. I had her on a Purina brand prior to this. After many months of continuing to have chronic episodes of this on the S.D. formula, I decided to research alternative brands because my dog had no energy, was shedding terribly, she lacked luster in her hair and she was losing weight (she weighed 3-1/2 pounds) and would have terrible stomach pains and you could hear her gut from several feet away. I felt terrible but I thought I was doing everything the Vet told me to do. When I decided to research alternative foods and I learned about the ingredients in S.D. (corn, byproducts, etc) I was horrified to know that this was probably why she was sick. I changed her to Blue Buffalo, a natural dog food that had NO CORN, NO WHEAT, NO SOY, NO By-PRODUCTS, and within two weeks on the new diet, she no longer had diahrrea, no stomach pains, and no gut rumbling. Her hair is now shinning, she has energy and she jumps with no pain, plays and is a joy to have. I will never again use Science Diet.

This food has no nutritional value.  I had to put my dog on this for a medical reason because he had struvite bladder stones, it was a low proten food which helped break up the stones.  Before I had him on Solid Gold food.  He lost 2 lbs. in one month.  Now that his stones are gone the vet is telling me to keep him on this just a different variety, I refuse!

The prescription variety of the food is good and serves specific needs, and some dogs can't live without the prescription food.  However the store variety has too many by-products to be a quality food.  I was pressured by my vet to switch foods, and I regret it.  Do the research and find the best food for your dogs.

When I adopted my dog 3 years ago I tried with no avail to change him to Science Diet since our other 2 dogs (at the time) were eating Science Diet. As soon as I got him to 100% science diet he refused to eat for days on end, he once went almost 14 days without eating. I had to change him back to the food he was eating at his foster home so that he would eat on a regular basis. It's not to say that Science Diet is a bad food becuase our other 3 dogs (the 2 original dogs from 3 years ago and a recent addition that ate the Science Diet Puppy small bites untill her 1st birthday last week) all liked Science Diet except for mine, but I did go through 4 different brands of dog food prior to change him back to his foster home food.

  (Thanks Dr Science and Duck's breath mystery theater)

I feed my dog only Science Diet but I'm wondering if feeding him from some of the other disciplines might make him more well rounded?

This food has too much corn used as a filler! The more filler a food has the more the dog has to consume in order to get all nutrients needed. More food eaten means more money and more poo.

This stuff should have skull and crossbones on the package!

Feeding this "food" to your dog is cruel and inhumane punishment. Vets should be ashamed of themselves for taking profits over the care and well being of thier pets and concerned owners. Most of these posts are accurate, so please be warned. There are many excellent foods out there. Iams, Eukanuba, ProPlan, Nutro, are all poor foods and Hills Science is the worst of the bunch. For a list and review of some excellent foods please check out this web site... dogfoodanalysis.com It is a great site for honest reviews of dry and can food. Some good 5 and 6 star foods are Nature's Variety, Wellness, Canadea, Merrick, Blue Buffalo, California Natural, Solid Gold, TimberWolf, Innova, and many more. Many of these are the same or lower price than Hills. Please go to this site and see, and for the health of dogs all over, please spread the word. Check out my profile for a pic of my 2 dogs that I care for very much. By the way I feed my dogs California Natural (it has only 5 main ingredients, Lamb and brown rice the first two) it is fantastic if your dog has allergies. It sells for about $36 for a 36lb bag. I mix this bag with Wellness Super 5 mix (this food has Lamb and Whitefish meal as the first two ingred's) it costs a little more, about $40 for a 30 lb bag. What is good about these foods is that they pack a lot more calories per cup of food. About 450 qualitiy calories per cup vs about 350 empty low nutritional cals per cup of the Hills. So you can feed less food, thus working out to the same price as some of the cheaper foods. I feed these two foods because my 2 dogs do better on Lamb foods than chicken. They get One cup of dry in the morning and One cup of dry mixed with 1/2 a can of Merrick canned food each nite. Merrick canned foods are rated 5 stars and there foods look human grade (especially there Wilderness "Buffalo" and Venison blends) If your dogs do well on Chicken based diets, an Excellent chicken based food is Canadae. (And best of all.. a 40lb bag goes for about $32.00) Your dogs will thank you if you make a switch to one of the above listed alternative foods. Don't forget, check out the website above and spread the word for all dog kind :)~

Corn, by-products and other low-quality grains should be in such an expensive food! especially if they are using BHA/BHT/ethoxyquin for preservatives! they are banned for use in human food, so why is it OK for our dogs? Not mine! Why are those ingredients illegal in human food? Simple. Carcinogens. In other words---they cause cancer. That's a damned good reason to not feed this food. Aside from the fact that my dog means more to me than anything and he gets the best dog nutrition has to offer. And it sure isnt this garbage.

Keeps my dog very healthy and helps with her weak stomach.