Comment on Dog Food?

Question

I just want to comment on the dog food question. I have been feeding my boys Science Diet since they were pups and when we go to our annual check up they ask me what I feed them and the vet office said that it is one of the top 3 that they prefer. Now I am wondering since a lot of members don't think highly of it and suggest other products, why do vets recommend it when it really isnt the best. I want to make sure that my "kids" are healthy and are eating right. Comments? Concerns? Hallucinations are all appreciated. Just a concerned pet parent.

Thank you everyone that answered my question seriously. Now I feel like such a pet parent. I take them to the vet for everything, but I have not been feeding them the "right" things. Thank you for your help.

I meant I feel like a bad pet parent... sorry. Its late on a Friday :)

Answer 1

Usually vets recommend it because they sell it OR Hills (the manufacturer of Science Diet) provides them with grants and or free food for animals staying over in the hospital.

I don't hate Science Diet, but I also would not recommend it. The Vet's at my clinic are into more holistic and organic (human grade, no fillers, no wheat gluton) type dog foods, especially considering all the recalls with pet foods.

Personally, I am VERY picky when it comes to feeing my dogs (obviously, because of my profession). I will only feed Canidae or Timberwolf Organics. Both are a high quality food. More expensive, but you certainly get what you pay for!

Good luck and hope this helps!

Answer 2

Looks like everyone covered the "why do vets recommed Science Diet" part of the question...
Abbyful gave you a great answer, and tons of information about choosing dog food. I agree with her completely. There is one more little tidbit that I wanted to add to what she said...
You do want meat to be in the top 5 ingredients...the more the better... BUT if they have meat, say "Chicken" instead of "Chicken meal" then they are misleading you. (Chicken meal is only chicken that has been baked down and dehydrated --like they do to kibble anyway). The ingredients are listed by weight, and chicken is 70% water-- so when they bake it down it will NOT be a main ingredient anymore. She gave you a great example of this already, and this is why I do not feed Chicken Soup Brand to my dogs. The "real" top 5 ingredients that your dogs are eating: ocean fish meal, cracked pearled barley, whole grain brown rice, oatmeal, and millett. These are great grains, but they are fillers.

Science diet is no good. Just look at the first 5 ingredients...
Brewers Rice, Ground Whole Grain Wheat, Chicken Meal, Corn Gluten Meal, Soybean Meal, Animal Fat...

These are in order by weight. The first two are just fillers!! Also, the corn gluten meal and soybean meal are fillers, and many dogs are allergic to soybean. This is granola, not dog food.

Chicken Meal is a good ingredient, but it should be the first. Also, this is from the Nature's Best Made with Real Beef adult dry dog food. Straight off the Science Diet website...
http://www.hillspet.com/zSkin_2/products/product_details.jsp?PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524441760411&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374302037387&bmUID=1178521828493

But why isn't beef in the first 5 ingredients? Misleading packaging?

While we are at it...Animal Fat? Which animal? Don't they know?? At least you, as a concerned pet owner should care to know.

There are many better pet foods in your price range. I feed my dogs Canidae, it is awesome. You can see any food's ingredients on their website, and I encourage you to shop around and decide what's best for your pets. Check out the links taht Abbyful gave you-- because those are the same ones that I would give you.
Try Canidae, Innova, Natural Balance, Merrick, California Natural, Newman's Own Organic, Solid Gold...
Ill give you a few more links ...

Answer 3

It's a good question. I don't know, but maybe the recommendation is based on dog foods readily available at the typical grocery or Wal-mart type store. It's probably ok, but what I've read is that the best food for your dogs is one that begins the ingredient list with a meat or chicken, and has the fewest amount of fillers, sugar, etc. Seems reasonable, especially in light of the wheat gluten problems in the current dog food recalls.

I feed mine Bil-Jac, and choose Royal Canin as a close second choice. It costs a little more, but I know it's better for them, and there's no wheat gluten to worry about.

Answer 4

You will get some arguments that Veterinarians recommend Science Diet due to promotional deals given to the Vet's office for selling a certain brand.

You will get arguments that making your dog's food, personally, is the best, healthiest option as you know what goes into it during the entire process.

In the end, it comes down to your personal choice after research, and observation of your beloved pet.

Are they healthy? Growing well? Well nourished? Do they seem to have a healthy coat, good teeth and all the positives great food gives?

If so, then you're doing the right thing, and that's more than most people do. :)

Answer 5

Science Diet is over priced and over rated. Please compare the labels on your bag of dog food to that of Purina blow chow or Ol Roy and you will see all the similarities. Vet's push it because it is made by Hill's who are the people who pay for Veterinarian Scholarships. Vet's also get a cut from the food that is sold in their offices. Vet's only have to take a few hours of nutrition classes in all their years in vet school and they simply only know what they have been taught which is not much.
Hill's also has a very aggressive sales team who push this stuff onto vets who don't know any better.
Hill's Science Diet puts on seminars for vets on nutrition so it's very biased learning.
It is crapinabag and not any better then Ol Roy and some of th others you wouldn't dream of feeding your pet.
The name alone is a good selling point.. Science Diet.... sounds good to most people but it's nothing more then a sales tactic that has generated millions of dollars as was planned by Hill's
In short... you and millions of other people are being fooled. I would say that the most expensive part of that dog food is the shiny bag it comes in. You are being robbed..

Answer 6

I've worked with/for vets for 34 almost 35 years..I love most vets and have the utmost respect for them, however when it comes ot nutrition most vets are sadly lacking. They only receive general classes in this area that take in cats to rats, dogs to hogs..they don't get species specific education on nutrition. So because of this vets tend ot recommend foods they are familiar with..Hill's Makerso f Science Diet have very convincing reps, very pushy reps and they make themselves look great..other foods that vets often recommend are those whose ads we tend to see the most..IAMS/Eukanuba, Purina, Pedigree..Vets really don't have the time ot go research all the foods out there and In defense of vets they have seen many "fad" diets and foods come and go and have heard many claims made about "new" foods.
Also to set the record straight...vets do NOT get kickbacks or any other such thing from hill's nor are theri nutrition classes in school put on by Hill's, nor do vets & staff get "free" food..Vets need to pay wholesale prices on the food just as any other pet business and sell for retail..that's how they "make" money..Hill's sponsored seminars in vet school are optional..and free food to vets & staff is a joke...if lucky we might be offered a $10 off coupon on the largest bag of a product that they sell once maybe twice a year..big deal.

Just reading the food label on a Science Diet food tells you it is not a good food...it is full of grains..cheap fillers ...and by products..very little meat protein. Compare the label from this food with that from a food like Canidae, Chicken Soup For The Dog Lover's Soul, Wellness just ot nmae a few..you will very quickly see a big difference in the quality.

Two of the vets I work with currently don't themselves use Hill's foods nor do they recommend it to clients with the exception of the prescription diets for some particular special medical need..They both use quality foods like those mentioned above.. They both say thati n an ideal world everyone would feed either a homecooked diet or a raw diet, but since that isn't practical for many people..they need to feed the best quality meat based food they can find.

A good source of info regarding quality foods would be The Whole Dog Journal.

****Earth, Chicken Soup is a high quality food and you really need ot rethink your "math"..Chicken is in the form of both chicken and chicken meal and then turkey then Ocean fish meal so therefore meat makes up the top 5 ingredients in the food.It also gets a high rating on the food grade scale and is one of the top rated foods in the Whole Dog Journal****

Answer 7

There are sooo many dog foods out there and everyone has their own opinion. If your vet is not selling you the Science Diet dog food himself, he is not pofiting by steering you in the wrong direction. Right now with the recalls, I have switched to holistic foods, but I have fed my dogs Science Diet for years with great results. I have very healthy dogs and I would trust my vet with any of their lives.

Answer 8

It's no different from folks who recommend vegetarian diets, or vegan diets or some other popular diet. People have opinions. One may be better than another, but not always.

I went with some of the recommendations made for 'holistic' (my term) cat food and my kitties all became ill. Won't experiment with them again. They get either Iams or Science Diet. On the other hand, my sister had to experiment with dog food to find one that didn't exacerbate her dog's skin condition (Sensible Choice). We were able to eliminate the need for steroids.

The longest lived domestic housecats in the world (over 30 years old) all appear to have had a similar diet. Purina cat chow and sausage. Every day. Others swear by a raw food diet, which is fine until they get a parasite or salmonella as happened to my sister's pets. So, you see...really, there is no BEST, although some may be better.

Answer 9

Some vets office do receive compensation for selling Science diet dog foods so they do recomend them to their clients.
Now that being said not all vets do this but most who have this food intheir offices do. I know mine does but they do not push it on their clients. As a matter of fact my vet also approved Canidae dog food and told me thats what she feeds her Rotties. I also asked right here on this forum about this food and got a lot of great advice. So you need to decide for your self what you want to feed your dogs.

Answer 10

A lot of vets will recommend what they sell in their office. They get profit and kick-backs from the brands they keep on their shelves, that's why they push it. Truth is, vet schools don't focus a lot on nutrition. It's not saying that a vet is a bad vet because he recommends those foods, a lot of vets just are told "this is good food", so they pass the message along without proper nutrition knowledge. Also, some dog food brands (like Hills) support vet schools, so vets have heard of it from the time they start college, which makes them think it's good as well.

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Read the ingredients on the food you buy. Go with a high quality dog food. A grain should not be in the first couple ingredients ingredient (corn and such are mainly fillers, dogs don't digest it well). Avoid foods that have a lot of "by products" listed.

Beware "premium" foods. "Premium" does not mean good nutritionally, and is not a nutritionally high quality food. It has the same types of ingredients as grocery store foods, just a bit better quality of those not-so-good ingredients. Premium foods are those like Iams, Eukanuba, Science Diet, etc..

Here are some good foods (these are just a few, there are definitely more brands out there that are quality dog food, but it will give you an idea of the ingredients to look for):

Chicken Soup Brand - http://www.chickensoupforthepetloverssoul.com/
Merrick - http://www.merrickpetcare.com/
Innova - http://www.naturapet.com/brands/innova.asp

Or check this website to find GOOD dog foods, not full of fillers and byproducts, they rate dog foods based on the ingredients, 6 being the best. I would recommend feeding only 4+ star foods. Any food 3 stars or less, I would avoid.
http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/index.php

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Here's an ingredient comparison of not-so-good food (in this case, Pedigree), to good food (in this case, Chicken Soup brand):

Pedigree:
Ground Whole Corn, Chicken By-Product Meal, Rice, Corn Gluten Meal, Animal Fat (preserved with BHA/BHT), Meat and Bone Meal, Natural Poultry Flavor, Wheat Mill Run, Potassium Chloride, Wheat Flour, Salt, Carmel Color, Vegetable Oil (Source of Linoleic Acid), Vitamins (Choline Chloride, dl-Alpha Tocopherol Acetate [Source of Vitamin E], L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate [Source of Vitamin C*], Vitamin A Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate [Vitamin B1], Biotin, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Riboflavin Supplement [Vitamin B2], Vitamin D3 Supplement, Vitamin B12 Supplement), Minerals (Zinc Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, Potassium Iodide), Added FD&C and Lake Colors (Yellow 6, Blue 2, Red 40, Yellow 5).

Chicken Soup Brand:
Chicken, turkey, chicken meal, ocean fish meal, cracked pearled barley, whole grain brown rice, oatmeal, millet, white rice, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols), potatoes, egg product, tomato pomace, duck, salmon, flaxseed, natural chicken flavor, choline chloride, dried chicory root, kelp, carrots, peas, apples, tomatoes, blueberries, spinach, dried skim milk, cranberry powder, rosemary extract, parsley flake, yucca schidigera extract, L-carnitine, Enterococcus faecieum, Lactobacillus casei, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Saccharomyces cerevesiae fermentation solubles, dried Aspergillus oryzae fermentation extract, vitamin E supplement, iron proteinate, zinc proteinate, copper proteinate, ferrous sulfate, zinc sulfate, copper sulfate, potassium iodide, thiamine mononitrate, manganese proteinate, manganous oxide, ascorbic acid, vitamin A supplement, biotin, calcium pantothenate, manganese sulfate, sodium selenite, pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), vitamin B12 supplement, riboflavin, vitamin D supplement, folic acid.

Notice how the better food has more meats, less grain, and no by-products than the other brand? That's where to start looking for what food is higher quality. Also be aware, just because it's expensive doesn't mean it's a good food.

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When switching foods, do it slowly. I do this over about a two week timespan:
25% food A, 75% food B
50% food A, 50% food B
75% food A, 25% food B
100% food A