puppy food?

Question

we have a 8 week old puppy feeding her science diet was thinking of switching to iams(cheaper) any input on which is better. if i do switch how do i do it

Answer 1

Unfortunately, with most pet foods, you get what you pay for.

Science Diet and Iams can both cause problems, because of their ingredients. Wheat, Corn, and Soy are three big "no-no's" in pet food, and cause skin problems, food intolerances, sometimes even cancer.

A good, healthy dog food for someone on a budget is Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover's Soul. They have a Puppy formulation that is high protein, has a lot of Omega Fatty Acids (good for skin & coat), and none of the bad ingredients. Go to http://www.chickensoupforthepetloverssoul.com to see who sells it in your area. Ask them for a sample bag, and try it out for yourself.

Good luck!

p.s. - Iams is being attacked by PeTA because of their cruel animal testing. If this means anything to you, you may want to stay away from Iams, and their sister company, Eukaneuba.

p.p.s. - Stay away from Nutro. They put soy in their food (a no-no ingredient), which will give your puppy bad gas. Nutro isn't cheap either.

Answer 2

both foods are of high quality, as long as you're using the "puppy" version. Whichever one is least expensive is the one that I would use. The way you go about switching is each day add a little more of the new food to the one that your puppy has been eating. Another words, the first day you may want to mix the food 75% of the old & 25% of the new-for about 2-3 days. Then mix half & half-for the same amount of time. Then go to 25% old food & 75% of new. The reason you want to do it gradually is that puppies tummies can be sensitive & easily upset. If all you're feeding to puppy is the puppy food, you should be fine. If for some reason the puppy vomits the food back up,I would discontinue the mix and try again in a couple of months. Hope this helps & good luck. Puppies are so much fun and can be a life-long buddy and companion.

Answer 3

do not support iams and make them richer than they already are. They are cruel to animals and buying their food does support their crueity. Science diet is crap. Just because it is expensive does not mean it is a good food. The vets promote this food as they get a 40 percent profit on every bag they sell. You get what you pay for with the grocery store brands, CRAP. You never know, your dog could be eating someone elses fido. Alot of dog food companies use euthanized dogs and cats and diseased livestock in their foods.
Innova, canidae, solid gold, wellness, california natural are all very good nutritional foods. They may be a bit more expensive, but your dog will eat and poop less, plus you will be feeding a very nutritional food.

Answer 4

Neither one is a great dog food.
Both have corn and by products in them.
Any time you switch dog foods start out with 1/4 new food to 3/4 old food feed for about three days then go to half and half and feed for a few days then go to 3/4 new food 1/4 old food and feed for a few days then go to all new food. Should take about two weeks to switch over and your pet should do ok with the switch.

Answer 5

Iams and Science diet are both good, just stay away from store brands (like ol'roy). If you are going to switch, when you have about 1/4 of the science diet left, buy the new kind and start mixing half/half, gradually wean out the science diet til all she is geting is iams, that should stop her from getting an upset stomach from sudden change in diet.

Answer 6

Whatever you choose, the first ingredient on the label should be meat.
Science Diet is not considered a good food by most breeders that I know. Vets recommend Science Diet because they sell Science Diet.
Change the food slowly. I ususally try 90% old food with 10% new food. Over the course of a week, decrease amount of old food while increasing the new food.

Answer 7

No! Science Diet is far better. It's worth the extra money. Also Iams keep their animals in terrible conditions. They are caged, and have nasty things done to them, to see if IAMS is any good. Have a look at this website, it may help you make your decision.

http://www.uncaged.co.uk/iams.htm

Answer 8

First of all, Science Diet is a premium brand dog food, thus the slight price increase. Iams is considered a grocery brand. Regardless of the brand of food you choose to go with, the size of your dog is going to be a large deciding factor on which formula

There is a huge difference between premium and grocery brand dog foods. Premium brands, while more expensive, are typically more bang for the buck, so to speak. A good premium food will have much more nutrients per ounce and less filler (yellow ground corn and others) than a grocery brand. Because of this, your dog has to eat less of the premium brand for his daily dose of nutrients than he would a grocery brand. For example, a puppy that is about 10 weeks old and weighs approximately 10 pounds will need to eat 3/4-1 1/4 cup a day of Nutro. On the flip side, that same puppy would need to eat 1 1/4-2 cups of food per day of Kibbles and Bits.

Here's an added bonus: when your dog takes less in, he sends less out! A good premium brand food means less poop to scoop!

Examples of premium brand foods: Nutro, Blue Buffalo, Wellness, Eukanuba, Science Diet, ProPlan, Royal Canin, Authority--Premium brands are found at specialty stores only.

Examples of grocery brand foods: Purina One, Beneful, Dog/Puppy Chow (not good!), Ol'Roy (even worse!), Pedigree, Iams, Kibbles n Bits and anything else you can purchase at a grocery store.

If you have a puppy that is going to be over 50 pounds when fully grown, you want a Large Breed formula. The reason you want a Large breed formula is because of the amount of glucosamine and chondroitin they contain. These are the two main nutrients that help strengthen your dog's joints and growth plates. The larger the dog, the stronger you want his joints to be!

Nutro has a large breed puppy formula that contains 325 mg/kg glucosamine and 250 mg/kg condroitin. It is also a very natural and holistic dog food with absolutely no artificial flavors, dyes, additives, or by-products. It's good to know that the cuts of meat they use in their products are the same that we would eat--breasts, thighs, and other good pieces. The number one ingredient in this formula is chicken meal!

You say you're considering Iams but you should take a look at their ingredients. In their "Smart Puppy" formula (the basic formula for any puppy), the top three ingredients listed are chicken, corn meal, and chicken-by-product. It's good that chicken is the primary ingredient, but corn is a huge filler with not a lot of nutritional value that also causes more waste material (ie: poop). Ingredient three, by-products, are the beaks, feets, and insides of the critters, not something very pleasant to eat and not very healthy!

Consider the ingredients on all the foods you examine for your pup. Most brand websites will list them so you can do some investigating at home before heading out to the store.

Hopefully this helps you out some. Congrats on your new pup.


BELATED EDIT: To counter the comment regarding Nutro and the soy it contains, here's the scoop. Nutro contains Soybean OIL for the Omega-3 and Omega-6 acids it contains for the benefit of a shiny, healthy coat. It's the soy PROTEIN that you need to look out for which can be found in soybean meal. Soybean oil is extracted in a completely different process than the protein is, so it remains a viable and safe product for your pups.

I have been recommending Nutro as a fabulous product for many years and the only issue I've ever run across is that it was a bit too rich for certain dogs that had been on a poor quality food for most of their lives. In those cases, their digestive systems couldn't handle the switch.

Answer 9

wow people fight for me YAY! do NOT switch to iams, they are a target of peta who kills animals, they adopt animals and test on them, go to petakillsanimals.com. Its NOT worth it so dont switch EVER to iams. NEVER! Trust me its better, plus you would be in some sense supporting animal cruelty. how would you like that?! =( poor animals! NO DO NOT SWITCH TO IAMS. NOT NOW. NOT EVER!

Answer 10

i work at a animal no kill shelter. i have an answer to your question. or at least i think so. iams is a whole lot better. it has something that science diet doesn't have. wish i could tell you but i can't remember. however, if want to switch i recommend that u should go and visit your local pet smart. or call the vet cause they should know more than me. hoped this help. if not sorry