Over the Hill's? Not yet! (Hill's Science Plan for Cats)

Member Name: LadyAudley

Product:	Hill's Science Plan for Cats
Date:	27/10/09 (26 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Convenient, high meat content

Disadvantages: Very expensive

Hill's Science Plan is a special range of cat food, available only from pet shops and vets stores. They sell both dried food, in plastic bags, and wet food in cans and pouches. This is a review of the dried food only.

Alongside standard packets in chicken and fish flavours, Hill's sell specially formulated crunchies for cats of a particular age or condition. There's food for kittens and food for elderly cats. There's a special food for for neutered cats, for sensitive stomachs, for cats with hairballs, joint problems. There is also a range of prescription food for animals that need special diets. One of my cats has Feline Urinary Tract Disease and has to have special non-acidic food called c/d. This is usually available only from the vet with a prescription, but you can now also buy it from online pet stores. Since he's been consuming the food, his condition has decreased noticeably, so it seems to work.

Hill's comes in white packets containing 2kg, 5kg and 10kg of food. Inside are small, pea-sized brown crunchies. These are (surprisingly) slightly wet and rough to the touch, and smell rather more strongly than supermarket catfood of meat, though not enough to make a room smell bad (unlike wet food). My one tip when buying: do check that you are getting the cat food, not the dog food. The two are quite similar to look at, and I've taken the wrong version home before!

Both of my cats have different varieties of the food, and both seem to love it. They go a little bit mental when it's put down, and often start trying to eat it out of the packet. Their coats are lovely and glossy and they seem to be full of beans! I like it too, because the crunchies are convenient. They can be left out for them all day without going bad or smelling. The resealable packaging also saves me from having to transfer them into a container to keep them from going soft: bonus!

However, the massive downside is that Hill's is incredibly expensive at around £12 for 2kg. What is more, it contains only about 50% meat. The rest is filler. Though this compares favourably to foods like Whiskas (only about 4% meat!!), and though Hill's Science Plan also lasts longer than cheaper food, as cats need to eat less to get the same amount of calories, I do think that at the price I'd expect an even higher meat content that this. It would also be much more convenient if you could buy it in the supermarket, rather than having to make a special trip to get it!

Summary: Should be available in the supermarket