Dog food recommendations?

Question

Don't you hate it when posters identify themselves as Vets/Vet Techs/Vet Professionals, etc. but recommend the worst dog food (Pedigree, Purina, Iams, Eukanuba, Science Diet) and then also say that Vets don't receive some sort of kickback for recommending the brand of food they sell / carry? And "prove" their statement by stating "I should know, I am / used to be a Vet / Vet Tech"? It's not very comforting for those of us who don't have Vet training / schooling to know we are better educated on this subject just by doing our own research.

Answer 1

I agree with you, most people in the veterinary field know little to nothing about proper nutrition. Sad really.

Also anyone can go to the Hill's Science Diet page and see that vets/vet students do recieve "kickbacks" for promoting this food. In fact the very little training they do recieve is taught by major dog food companies such as Hill's.

I've had vets admit to me they recieved kickbacks, and I've had vets admit to me that they aren't the best sources for nutrition advice once I confront them on a few things.

Just to show you here are my recommendations when looking for foods:

Instead of feeding puppy food, feed an all stages food.

Explanation as to why puppy food is BAD for puppies, especially large breed pups: It contains WAY MORE protein than needed. It causes rapid growth, rapid growth then leads to future bone and joint problems. Feeding a high quality all stages food will promote a more desired slow growth, and thus lessen the chances of bone and joint problems later. Puppies should grow up slowly, not spring up like weeds.

In my opinion "puppy" foods should only be fed to pregnant and lactating dogs who actually can use all that extra protein and calcium.

Nothing you find at a grocery store is going to be a good food. High quality foods can be found at large pet store chains, or online. A couple of foods I like are Nutro Natural, Innova, Innova Evo and Cannidae.

There are other high quality dog foods. Here's how to spot them:

A high quality food will have little or no fillers such as corn, wheat or soy. These aren't very digestable for dogs, and are common food related allergens. Since you were seeing corn meal in the first few ingredients, those are not high quality foods. Foods list ingredients by content, with the ingredient it contains most of at the top.

A high quality food will not contain BHT, BHA or Ethoxyquin, these are all chemical preservatives that have been linked to cancer.

A high quality food will not contain by-products of any kind. Meat meals are ok as long as the source of the meat is listed, such as Chicken Meal.

A high quality diet should have meat as at least the first ingredient., and be made from human grade ingredients. Foods that don't use human grade ingredients often get their ingredients from less than desirable sources, such as meat from animals that were diseased, or euthanized.

There is another diet option other than dog food. Some people choose to feed a raw diet. This involves feeding the dog raw meaty bones and organ meat. However it is not as simple as throwing a couple chicken bones in a bowl everyday. If you wish to feed this type of diet, do lots and lots of research first. Switching to this diet without knowing what your doing can lead to nutritional problems for your dog. I'll give you some links as a starting point in research if you are interested in this type of diet.

http://www.willowglen.com/barf.htm.........

http://www.bestfrisbeedogs.com/diets.htm...

http://www.rawlearning.com/rawfaq.html.....

http://www.rawfed.com/myths/index.html.....

http://www.rawdogranch.com

What's Really In Pet Food
http://www.api4animals.org/facts?p=359&m...

Here is just one link to PROVE that Hill's teaches classes and gives kickbacks. http://www.hillspet.com/zSkin_2/company_info/company_info_general.jsp?FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374302051875&bmUID=1172631106237

Answer 2

Tell me about it they are full of crap... I worked at a pet store where I live, we learned about canine nutrition and not just through funding from one food company that gave us kickbacks in fact we were not funded by ANY food company, just the pet food store which taught nothing about one specific food just how to analyse quality etc in all foods.. we were all about the customers and their pets.. So many people used to come into the store with vet reccomendations to feed Iams/Eukanuba or Science Diet and these were dogs with skin problems, food allergies, sensitive stomachs etc and here are these supposedly highly educated professionals telling people to feed them foods with corn as the main ingredient as well as by-products, fillers, various harmful preservatives etc. These people came to us at the pet store and we were shocked that the vets were telling them to feed their dogs some of this crap!! We would inform them about canine nutrition and what foods were available for allergies and specifically their dogs breed, size, weight, energy level etc and they would take it home and come back time after time and tell us how much better their dogs were doing when they took our advice. Many of these people even confronted the vets about it and were given no real answer.. except the repeated claim that they were "Vets" and we at the pet store were not. Well I can honestly say that from what I had to learn in training at my job and my own research and studies that I know alot about canine nutrition.. enough to be able to tell that a food with more corn than anything else and unknown "mystery meat" sources is not a very good food.. and whats worse is that they are higher priced than MANY other higher quality foods. I find it disturbing that the people who are supposed to be responsible for my dogs health and well being are ignorant and biased of anything but the foods they are told is "the best" by the companies that fund their nutritional education and their vet practices. They dont seem to realize the corporate, money-scheming propaganda that lies behind it.. of course those food companies tell you their food is the best and create educational programs that are designed only to further establish how much better their food is... they dont bother to teach how to distinguish ingredient quality etc Its all just Science diet is the best because it was created by vets and vets are more educated about pets than an owner can ever be.. That is not true, the knowledge is there for anyone to learn about canine nutrition you dont have to pay money to go to school to learn it.. and you certainly shouldnt let a company that produces and sells dog food for money tell you what foods are the best, its no surprise they all claim their food is the best, of course they are biased they cant help it. Its a business that wouldnt exist if they funded the promotion of other foods to vets instead of their own. So in most cases listening to a vet about food is not in the best interest for your pet, its in the best interest for them and the food companies that fund them. Best thing to do is educate yourself about it otherwise you will end up paying big bucks for something like Science Diet thats little better than feeding your dog McDonalds every day, when you could be feeding a food that costa less and is like feeding your dog a health food diet.

Answer 3

I'm with you, the majority of dog foods are nothing more than chicken by products, horse....and/or corn.

We like to use Black Diamond dog food. It can usually be found at the local coop, or a feed dealer. They have all different %'s of protein, etc....and dogs seem to thrive on it.

Answer 4

It is true that vets do NOT get kickbacks from the foods they sell. They BUY at wholesale just as all other pet businesses do and sell at retail.

Vets don't get a lot of nutrition training in school.It is all general and covers everything from cats to rats, dogs to hogs.Also contrary to what people believe and what some food companies would like people to believe the nutrition classes are NOT taught by ANY food companies.The food companies do hold seminars but these are optional and many students do NOT attend.Some (but very few) do go on at some point and do species specific nutrition. While of course nutrition is important to health vets major concentration of study is medicine not nutrition. They tend to recommend foods that they are familiar with.The "popular" foods also do a ton of marketing and "in your face" sales tactics the good foods do not. It is impossible and unrealistic to expect vets to keep up on the aray of foods on the market.
The big reason vets sell Science Diet, Purina , Eukanuba...is because these are the companies that make prescription Diets for pets with special medical diet needs.


*****sorry people but Vets are NOT funded by any food companies either...It is truely sad that people continue to believe that crap which is far from being the truth.We at vet hospitals have to buy the foods just like any other business. I would really love to see all the "kickbacks", free food, funding etc that vets are suppose to get. It certainly would make running a vet hospital less expensive and we could get new equipment a lot more often without having to worry about payments. We'ld also never have to buy food for our own pets ever again we'ld be getting it all for free even if it is crap..wow that would be tremendous savings for me since I have Great Danes and Persian cats.Peopel really need to know what they are spouting before spreading it.It doesn't matter what some food company websites would lead people to believe*******

Answer 5

Honestly all those dog food companies you mention spend millions in research and I feel like they are way more qualified at formulating dog foods than most people are in critiquing them. I personally don't feed my dogs anything with soy meal in it but there are a great many dogs that do fine on soy based foods. It really is a very individual thing based on the breed of dog, acitivity level, age etc. Some dogs do great their entire lives on Purina dog chow even.

Answer 6

blah blah blah
cheap food = ill animals period