I am so confused.....?

Question

I feed all 5 of my dogs nutro max dry dog food (3 pekingese 1 shih-tzu 1 shih-tzu/pekingese mix) and i thought this was a good quality food to feed them. The vet says i should switch to science diet. I want what is best for my dogs! What is the best dog food to feed to my babies?

Answer 1

Most commercially available pet food - even those claiming to be "natural" or "scientific" - contain rendered meats, animal byproducts and slaughterhouse scraps. Read the label and you will usually see ingredients like "beef or poultry byproducts" in your pet's food. "Byproducts" of animals include everything from chicken heads, blood, feet and viscera, to brain and spinal tissue; which have no place in a companion animal's diet.

Sometimes what the label doesn't say can be educational, too. If it doesn't state, "no added growth hormones, no antibiotic-fed protein sources, no rendered meats, fats or poultry," it's probably because it can't.

Global Pet foods offers many great quality choices. Here is a list of wholesome foods they offer:
http://www.globalpetfoods.ca/products/holistic.html

One highly recommended option is "Pet Promise"
More details here:
http://www.petpromiseinc.com/
http://www.petpromiseinc.com/products_dog.htm

Good health to you and your babies :o)

Answer 2

I have 3 peke's also! I use to feed Science Diet to my dogs, but heard about the fillers they use. One of my pekingese has back problems and I heard from another peke owner that they use Canidea dog food and it had eliminated their peke's back problems. I switched to Canidea a year ago and my little lady has shown improvement in her back! Plus the ingredients are all natural no fillers.

I can not say whether Science Diet is better than Nutro Max. I have heard that Nutro Ultra or Natural Selection is better than Nutro Max.

Answer 3

Nutro is not a very good choice for food, it is mostly grains, including CORN! Science Diet is no better though, neither is Iams.

Vet school nutrition 'classes' only consists of a seminar put on by Hills Science Diet. Most Vets know little or nothing about nutrition.

Go to the feed store and study labels, read some online articles. You can do much better for the price than either of these foods. If a food lists a meat source and then several grain sources, it is mostly grain. Dogs do not digest corn and it is a cheap filler.

It is hard to find a good food, Petco only carries 2 that I would feed, petsmart carries none. Cheap usually means crappy, but expensive does not necessarily mean good. Science Diet, Iams, Eukanuba, proplan, they all need to spend less on advertising and more on the actual foods. All crappy but heavily advertised.



Jeez!!! All these posts and maybe *2* people are not clueless. READ the LABELS of the foods you feed. Nutro, SD, Euk, Iams, Proplan (and of course Ol Roy and Pedigree) = junk.

Answer 4

I feed my 2 Shih Tzu's Nutro Max mini chunks too......I used to feed them Science Diet but I read somewhere that it's not that great and that all Vets are gonna recommend you that brand cause they make a profit...and I think it's true if you go to any Vet office you will see Science Diet....
I think you should stay with the Nutro Max !!

Answer 5

If I remember correctly Science Diet has more than one type of grain in the first 5 ingredients, it is recommend only one type of grain be the first 5 main ingredients. But so does Nutro Max

I'm not a fan of Science Diet personally, the price you pay for their food is to cover how much they pay vets to endorse their food. And all the free gadgets they pass out at conventions.

Nutro Max is considered a good quality food, it's not the highest premium food. It's what I personally feed my dog, he does great on it.

The best way to tell if your dogs is on a healthy food is to look at their coat, eyes, nails, teeth and bowel movements.

Answer 6

I wouldn't advise either. Many Vets get grants from Science Diet to go to school and they sometimes get commissions off of selling Science Diet and the next thing you know you could wind up on Science Diet prescription food which is very expensive and not good. All Science Diet contains yellow corn, by products and uses peanut hulls in their light food as a fiber source. None of this is good. As far as Nutro goes, their Ultra is a good food but their food tends to be really hard kibble that doesn't digest well.
If you are changing your food I would suggest Royal Canin, Nature's Recipe, especially the Venison and Rice if any of your dogs have allergies, or Dick Van Patten's dog food, or Authority Harvest Baked dog food. I am sure there are other good premium brands out there but I definitely wouldn't recommend Science Diet. I don't want to go against a Vet per se, so bounce what I am advising off of a different Vet.
Make sure they are not suggesting whatever food any given company is promoting through them. Other dog food companies do this, getting Vets to promote their food.
I don't think the Nutro Ultra has soy in it but check the bag and see if it does. If so, don't use it either. Soy is not good for dogs.

Answer 7

We usually feed out pets IAMS and the vet didn't say anything about it. I think it probably depends on the dogs. We brought home a new puppy with kennel cough and she wouldn't eat. Instead of dry dog food for her to eat on her own, the vet suggested canned Science Diet (I don't remember which formula) so that it would boost her nutrition and be more appetizing for her so that maybe she would eat. It worked, if I hand-fed the sweetheart. Once she was feeling better, she enjoyed her dry IAMS.

Answer 8

Nutro Max is a great dog food. Also good are Iams, Purina, Pedigree and several others. Unless the dogs have serious health problems, I don't know why the vet would ask you to switch brands except he stands to make a substantial profit from it. In that case, I would be shopping for a new vet.

Answer 9

I feed Oscars dried food, which is the same quality as James Wellbeloved and Naturediet. Pero Organic is also good. Joe Inglis from 'Vets In Practice' has just brought out a food called Joe and Jacks, which is the same high quality. I'm afraid I don't know about Nutro Max, so I can't comment on that.

I don't like Iams/Eukanuba because they did some horrible tests on dogs and cats to get some of the data they have - involving pumping the animals stomachs out, and things like that. They are part of Procter and Gamble, who are also not good.

Anyway, I'd suggest any of the foods I mentioned first, as all are excellent quality for your dogs. The other thing to consider is a BARF (Bialogically Appropriate Raw Food) diet. This is all raw food - as close to their natural diet as possible. However, this might be hard for them to switch to, as they are used to dry food. It is also slightly harder for you of course.

Answer 10

Vets GET PAID to sell Science Diet... I was just in your shoes... Nutro is about the same quality and alot less!!! just DONT feed them grocery store food... that has alot of corn filler... they eat more because it just goes in and out of them.... Yukanuba, Science Diet and Nutro are about the same in quality.. they are good dog foods but dont pay for the Science Diet name....(I use the High Energy Nutro for two playful energetic boxers.. it seems to be working great...and less poop in the yard!!!