We have three large cats, two of them seniors. Any cat owner can tell you finding the right cat food is a challenge for one cat, let alone three cats. And to complicate things, one of our cats is not considered a senior and typically would get a different diet than the other two. Cat owners also know that trying to feed their cats different types of food is basically impossible. The challenge for us is to find a senior food that all three enjoy and works for the younger adult cat as well as the two seniors. Not an easy feat and we have had some successes and failures during our search.
When we had the opportunity to try Hill's Science Diet Ideal Balance Mature Adult Chicken and Brown Rice Dinner, I was very interested. Any animal owner knows the Hill's brands and I was curious to see how it rated against what we have tried in the past.
Although the food we were coming off was a high end premium brand and very good for the cats, it initially loosened their stools and produced some very smelly litter box messes. I know changing diets can do this, but some of those symptoms remained well into our use of the product. I was DYING to get past it!
The Ideal Balance Mature arrived and was an instant curiosity for the cats, they all lined up to try it right away so I immediately knew it had some appeal. The kibble is small and easily chewed by my senior cats (always a concern).
Changing the food again worried me and I was expecting more disruption in their digestion and kept a close eye on the litter box. To my surprise not only did the Ideal Balance Mature not cause any new disruption, it seemingly cleared up the existing symptoms from the prior diet. I can say I was utterly shocked and was not expecting such quick and dramatic positive change...from any food. I should mention the food it replaced is nearly twice the price per pound and considered ultra premium.
So far the cats have been eating the Ideal Balance Mature for about four weeks and we could not have been more pleased. I cannot say enough how quickly the Ideal Balance Mature cleaned up their digestive issues and we have yet to have loose or unusually smelly stools.
I HIGHLY recommend Hill's Science Diet Ideal Balance Mature for cats, as it has worked very well for our complex variety of cats needs. For more information on both cat and dog products by Hill's, visit www.hillspet.com.
Thank you to Hill's Pet Nutrition for providing a complimentary product sample for us to base this review upon.
