Science Diet Reviews

Several years ago, Science Diet was considered one of the top pet food brands in the market. However, there was a period where their product quality declined. They managed to regain their reputation for providing high-quality food, but it appears that their standards may have slipped once more. It might be time to explore other options.

Been feeding Science Diet to my animals for almost 10 years. The recent formula change made my cat extremely sick. After many vet visits including an urgent vet and emergency vet, treating for pancreatitis could not figure out what caused it or why he wasn’t improving. Thought I was going to have to put him down to keep him from suffering any longer. Read up on the recent change and many people are reporting similar problems. Changed the food and now he is finally recovering. My dog also eats this food, she may not be completely ill at least yet, but I am switching her off it.

I feel like Hill's Science does not care about our animal. They only care about lining their pockets with your money. Their shipments is horrible. I had wait a week for my cat's food. While I was expecting it 3 days after I had ordered it as said in their site and email. Now I had to go purchase more food that she can't have according to the vet, like I have the funds to just oh willy nilly and just buy more food. This place feel like a scam. Like why should pet owner have to special order food for your pets, why isn't this food in store where it accessible pet owners who need it. Like I said this makes you feel entrapped as if you have to buy from them. Day 1 of boycotting Hill Science

At first I was buying a food called Blue Buffalo. My dog I noticed was throwing up and he scratching his ears and biting his paws from bad allergies. I purchased some Science dog food and I noticed it his coats looking nice and shiny and he's not shedding too much and he's stop scratching his ear and biting his paws. From now on every month I'm going to buy it for him. It cost $10 more but my dog's worth it. Good stuff

HI am a breeder of Golden Retrievers for over 20 years (Mochavulin Golden Retrievers) and I have always been loyal to the Brand because of the supposed excellent formula and specifically formulated for Large Breed dogs. I have used Hills for all my adult dogs (ranging from the normal food, as well as the Prescription diets). Over the years I have had issues with litters of puppies that did not have normal stools and reported this to the Hills Representative in South Africa (Marycke **) as well as our local rep. After this, a new formula for the Hills Large Breed puppy was developed (Perfect Digest) which I did use, and did not experience any issues.

I was shocked that your cost for a 15.5 pound bag at petco went up to 64.00 from 51.00. I simply can't afford it with two big dogs anymore. I bought a cookbook for dog crockpot recipes and will make my own from now on.

Hills decided to change formula on prescription dog food. However they did not feel the need to let the consumers know. The new “formula” caused gastro issues with my dog and she’s NEVER had problems with it before. Stomach gurgling, gas and constipation is what we got out of the new formula. Hills is off my list for good! They no longer care as the person I spoke with tried to gaslight me and blame my Vet!! I’ve reached out to the higher ups and yep you guessed it.., nothing! They only care about the money.

I have been using Science Diet hydrolyzed foods for my dog since he was a puppy and found out that he could not process proteins. In the last year their quality has been getting worse and worse. You never know what you are going to get till you open the can. I have no issues with the dry. The turkey either comes hard as a rock, or liquidy. And in the last two weeks my dog was getting sick with the new batch, but I did not know it was the turkey, till we spoke to our vet who saw nothing wrong in his gut, and by product of elimination. We stopped feeding him the turkey. Gave him the chicken and rice instead. And he finally stopped getting sick. I am going to be switching my brand, I cannot take the chance of poison in my dog's food.

This brand is garbage. Made my shihtzu sick. There was no gluten-free options as she was allergic, and it is overpriced. Makes our new rescue have super loose stools for one who only gets kibble. I wouldn't eat this if the world ended and it was that or death, I'd have such bad upset if I did, I'd be dead anyways.

The worst!! they changed urinary cat food...cat won't eat...threw up....just like many many other reviews!! NO....there was no notice on bag at all!!!! Our pets are our family..and HILLS...disregarded their well being!!!! I will NEVER buy HILLS again!!! Why would anyone trust this company with a pets?? I need to take a stand against this company. **** AND..is their food toxic?? And they are not responsibility or recall?

I had three cats die in two and a half years and they all ate Science Diet for 8 yrs. My pets before those ones did not eat science diet and lived to 18 yrs old. One died at 11, one died at 12 and one died at 8.

Food made cat sick multiple times. Went through the whole process to get a full refund since website says 100% guarantee and vet said they were "good about refunds." Over a month later they send me 2 $15-off coupons I can't use at the same time to "refund" me for nearly $80 in cat good. The guarantee on the website is fraud.

My cat did enjoy eating the adult chicken dry food. I purchased a new bag with new imagery and discovered the food was shaped differently. I offered it to my cat and she refuses to taste it. She won’t eat it buried or mix with the old. Something about the aroma turns her off. I had to purchase another brand of cat food. She may not be a fan of the new brand but she’s eating it. She refuses the Hill's Science Diet Adult Chicken new formula. I sent my concerns via email. They promptly responded to my concerns. However the formula change has caused me to purchase other brands.

I’m so upset with the recent quality of their dry food, particularly the adult chicken one. On two separate occasions now it has given BOTH my dogs the extreme runs, with gurgling stomach and flatulence. As we speak, I am currently making them boiled chicken and white rice and giving Proviable to tame their insane digestion issues. My oldest has been on Science Diet for 6 years, but after this terrible quality control or recipe change, I fear I am done and will search for a new dog food. What a shame.

Something in the quality across two variations of their dry food has changed. Beliving we had bad batches we toss 90lbs of food for new. This was a back in May of 25. This week we received a new bag and one of the two dogs stopped eating altogether. The second dog that has a history of eating on schedule and voraciously began to eat slower and not finishing their food. This morning I found both dogs eating grass and stepped away after one sniff. Cleaning the bowls did nothing. Both refused to eat. Upset at this I purchased a competitor's product in small supply at Tractor Supply and both dogs eat like they hadn't been feed in day. I can confirm this to be true. Something has changed at Science Diet and it is not good.

My Sophie is a year old. Very active, 67 pound, somewhat overweight, Staffordshire terrier who is the most finicky of finicky eaters. I started out cooking her food, then changed to Freshpet, then to Purina Pro Plan and I've noticed lately that her energy seems low, doesn't seem to get the zoomies as much and wasn't nearly as playful as I know her to be. So, I asked Grok the other day what is the number one, best adult dog food, for weight loss and energy restore on the market and without a hesitation Science Hill Diet came up, so I immediately ordered.

I have been a Hills customer since 1993 for both wet and dry dog food. My last two orders are hit and miss on quality and consistency. Look at the dryness of the white dish compared to the orange dish. I opened both of these out of the same case this morning. My previous order was all dry as well so I just added a bit of water, but my dogs still didn't care for it. Not a happy customer. Going to try out some other wet foods comparable to this.

Received your reply to my review…Here’s the confusion…you inform me that the dry matter on the Hills Science KD dry for cats is .54 phosphorus dry matter. Then you said I should read the bag nutrition and see the .55 phosphorus dry matter. My bag of Hills Science KD dry cat food reads .75. So that’s where the problem lies…

I've been using Science Diet Small Bites for 9 years. We started with puppy, and now on Adult. I have a Yorkipoo, 10lbs. She has never had a problem with digestion. On a fun note, she loves taking one out and playing with it, then eating it. She even takes her empty bowl and brings it to me to fill. I'm getting a puppy, so I'll be starting all over again with Science Diet Puppy Bites.

Our Shih-Tzu suffered from pancreatitis December 28th and we are uncertain if he also had IBS as well. He was on antibiotics for a week the first time, but it came back. His doctor is great and has regimented Science Diet I/D. Before the pancreatitis, he only ate Science Diet dry kibble, but now we have to mix the I/D low fat with dry kibble. I'm very much against "wet" food because of their teeth (dogs and cats). He was eating rice and chicken breast with zero skin or fat while we were fixing his belly. It was probably a 6 week period and we caught it immediately. My only concern is he's lost 4lbs in about 2 months (though he weighs 17 lbs, so he's not underweight). It's just he's always been around 20lbs. He turned 5 in January.

We have always fed our dogs this brand. But all the sudden it is has started making both our dogs sick. Don’t know what has changed but we will be changing brands. Which is unfortunate because they really like their food and this brand is slightly less expensive than the other brand our vet recommends.

Had my dog on Benefil Incredi bites & Incredi bites pate. Thinking Hill's Adult 7+ would be a healthier choice, apparently, my dog doesn't think so and ate a few bites & gave up. The consistency of it sticks together like clumpy glue. I feel bad because I have to go to work and he hasn't eaten & will have to wait until I go back to the store after work. I feel I made a bad choice buying Hill's.

Nov 2024/Phx, Az: The Science Diet dry cat food ALMOST KILLED OUR CAT!!! After being on Science Diet for 45+ days caused pancreatitis but the last bag especially was even being refused by our other cats after eating it for the past month.

Their adult small bite dog food nearly killed my dog. We couldn't figure out why my dog seemed perpetually ill, diarrhea and vomiting on a regular basis and he was losing tons of weight, he was a healthy weight so the weight loss put him under weight. The doctor chocked it up to being old but when we had continued bouts of bloody diarrhea and almost daily vomiting we turned to the food. We cha get him from Science diet to Orijen, and right away we saw improvement. Since changing his food, he has had zero instances of illness or diarrhea, it's been nearly a month. We believe we had either a tainted bag or the recipe changed and there was something he became intolerant to. We had fed him this food for years prior with minimal issue, this bag of food nearly killed him. Never again.

Don't buy it thinking they back the 100% guarantee or your money back. I bought a $200 plus tax bag of Prescription Diet. She refused to eat it. I looked at the ingredients; the first ingredient was rice and then SOY in short order. Not only will she not eat it, but I also don't want to feed her SOY. I called the vet where I purchased it and asked if they had the receipt on file because I wanted to return it and feed her something else. They flat-out refuse to return my money. They said they would happily take it back but I would not receive a refund. They said....that because she had eaten it (grudgingly) a year and a half prior Science Diet would not refund the bag. So, don't expect them to honor the refund policy. Of note - the bag is 95% full.

I came to this site to do some research on this food as I’m starting to think it’s not the right choice for our fur baby. She is a 12 year old 9 pound Yorkiepoo. This pup doesn’t miss a meal. Begs for it. Well or at least she had till we got a bad bag. We didn’t know it was bad till she started refusing it. She would shake and shiver when it was time to eat then we open the bag and smelt it. It smelled rancid so off of the pet store. We went to buy another bag well we’re still in that bag and she is still refusing to eat, she does not want that food so I came here to do some research and oddly enough.

I started feeding my dog Science Diet Sensitive Stomach and Skin. We transitioned over a week. He didn't really like it then he lost his appetite, started throwing up and had diarrhea with blood. He ended up at the emergency vet and was given fluids and meds. I would never buy this brand again for him. He does have a sensitive stomach but this made him pretty sick.

I have been feeding Hills Science Diet wet dog food for years. Recently the 1-6 adult wet food has more liquid in the can than actual food. Needless to say this is unacceptable and now I am looking into feed another wet food. I will also mention this 'problem' my veterinarian since he strongly recommended this food!!!

I been feeding my Yorkie this same brand dog food for years. My vet told me it was good. Get this new big bag. Same flavor. Tried it 3 times with my dog. It has to be bad throwing up 3 to 4 times. Other dog food brand he back to normal. Tried it several more time. Same thing. Took my dog to vet. All his blood work perfect. He told me don't feed him anymore of it. Must be contain some toxics.

It's been quite a while now, over 25 years, since I first started using Science Diet's foods. I started out using it for my cats and then when I got a dog, of course I started using it for him as well. I have had several dogs since then and my food of choice is Science Diet (of course). Needless to say, my dogs have loved it. It costs a bit more when I purchase it from the grocery store, but because my dog is a member of the family, I do her food shopping at the same time I do mine, so I purchase it at the groceries. Occasionally I save a bit of money by going to a specialized pet store, but generally I just put her food on the regular food shopping list. Thanks so much for coming up with a food that gives her "small" bites (as she ages) and the choice that ranged from when she was a pup to her more mature 13 year old fuzzy self!

I raised my present German Shepherd and all of my previous Dogs on Science Diet. In 1970 my Veterinarian recommend Science Diet and she is in excellent shape at 12 years old. My previous Dog was a Long Coat Chihuahua and lived to 14 years old.

I purchase Hill's Science Diet Sensitive Stomach and Skin. My fur baby is 8 years old and I rescued him 4 years ago. He had terrible skin issues and scratched all the time. He also was sensitive to what he was fed. I felt Science Diet was a well respected dog food and vets recommend them to their patients all the time by having the food in their clinic. He has stopped scratching, does not have to have steroid shots every 3 months! This is making me feel like a better parent to my baby, saving me money on shots and my dog is at peace without the itching! He has stopped having stomach issues where he would throw up and gag, now he eats and enjoys his food!

Really happy with this brand. My English bulldog absolutely loves it. While also he doesn't gain unnecessary weight while using it either. Keeps him happy and healthy. I have zero complaints and I couldn't be happier with their products.

I recently took my female dog who was 5 yrs old to the vet 03/21 for her one year well being checkup that included blood work and yearly shots. Was told she was overweight needed to put her on a diet was recommended to use Hills Science Diet product. With putting her on a diet we decided to feed our other pets Hills Science products. We have a 6 month old large puppy put him on large breed puppy food. Our other pet is a small breed of 10 years old we bought the small breed older food for him. Both the 5 yr old and puppy their stools were not a good form. We figured it was their system was cleaning themselves out as a cleansing. Our 10 year old stool is very hard.

We couldn't figure out where the smell was coming from. Did the dog poop in the house? I'd changed my dog's food because I thought she was putting on a bit of weight and reached for Science Diet Perfect Weight. Well, we haven't even finished the bag and I've gotten her on to some Merrick grain-free Beef and Sweet Potato. In less than a day, after shampooing the dog, washing all our bedding, airing out and de-stinking the house, things are almost back to normal. I have NEVER known a dog to stink so much. Even a little dog breath is manageable, but this smell just started building and building and it wasn't the dog farting. It was the entire dog - her breath smelled better. Perhaps she doesn't tolerate it, but in another country, I used to feed a dog what we call dog roll (it's wet meat and you cut off what you need and store it in the fridge) and then sometimes some dry food and table scraps.

Hill's Science Diet for Sensitive Stomachs seems to have been the perfect remedy for my cat that has both problems of diarrhea and constipation. I am not an expert on ingredients but my cat likes it and his stomach likes it and that is enough for me.

My cat almost died and needed urinary surgery. I was told by the vet to use the Hills Science Diet. I need a prescription to use it. My cat loves this cat food. He has not been sick since the surgery and the use of this cat food. It is expensive but it keeps my kitty healthy. I have been ordering it through Chewy.com.

Hills Science Diet has been prescribed to each of our cats. Every time our cats eat this food they have horrible diarrhea and vomiting. We switched foods to Royal Canin and have never had these problems. We recently adopted a kitten and they gave her this food and she has had horrible diarrhea and required multiple vet visits. Switching off immediately. I’m sure the company pays vets a lot to prescribe their brand. Do not buy this food!

I fed 1 dog this for yrs - she crapped all over the place. I thought she would never get potty trained. The dog I have now came to me completely potty trained - rarely an accident. He developed heart problems so I put him on Science Diet h/d (for heart issues). Came highly rated. He too suddenly developed the runs and crapped all over the place. Now I know it has nothing to do with being potty trained. DO NOT BUY THIS FOOD - there is something wrong with it Science Diet dog food. I am putting this dog back on Castor & Pollux (good food). Hindsight being 20/20 I never should of had my other dog on science diet - now I see it was the food not the dog.

As others have noticed, Hills changed the formula for this food sometime in late 2019. My 14 year old Border Collie mix has happily eaten Science Diet for his entire life. He now lets his food sit and pretty clearly doesn't like it. He won't even eat the extra kibbles that fall on the floor. He'll immediately devour any other type of food put in front of him. So I'm looking for a new food. Not sure if this is related or not, but his skin is very dry since the food change.