Fellow dog owners - what food do you feed?

[satomi325]

Or maybe she's just Brandi is disguise.

[SaintTawny]

If you can choose any food, why doesn't your hospital buy and sell healthier food? There are tons of better options out there for the same or better price.
SD is not healthy at all.

The hospital where I work is not in the business of selling pet food for healthy, normal animals. We sell SD because they have prescription diets that are proven to work for specific conditions. We don't even carry their OTC formulas, partly because our markup on food sales barely covers the cost of shipping and labor, so there would be no point. For example here, in September we diagnosed the cat-that-live(d)-in-my-house (long story) as a diabetic with renal failure. He was in rough shape, and we put him on Science Diet's prescription K/D (kidney) formula. In November, we rechecked his bloodwork and found that his kidney numbers had improved, as in we had reversed some of the damage to his kidneys done by the uncontrolled diabetes. That doesn't happen spontaneously. It wasn't a huge difference, but he got 3 healthy months on the K/D that he wouldn't have had on regular cat food. If your dog is having diarrhea, SD I/D formula actually is very helpful in settling his stomach. You can't just pick that up at the pet store, you need a prescription. That said, I would never feed my dogs an OTC SD formula, because the only one worth a damn is priced at about 2-3x as much as equivalent competitor brand foods.

[satomi325]

Non-prescription SD Adult Cat:
Chicken, Whole Grain Wheat, Corn Gluten Meal, Pork Fat, Brewers Rice , Wheat Gluten,

Non-prescription SD Sensitive Adult Cat:
Brewers Rice, Corn Gluten Meal, Pork Fat, Pork Meal, Dried Egg Product, Whole Grain Corn,

Non-prescription SD Grain Free:
Chicken, Potatoes, Yellow Peas, Pea Protein Concentrate, Chicken Fat, Potato Starch

Whoa!!! Look at that. Ingredients that cause Diabetes in cats!! And in the first 6 ingredients as well. Tsk Tsk. Wow. Meat isn't even the first 2 ingredients for one of those diets. Cats are obligate carnivores and do not digest, absorb, or benefit from any fruits, vegetables, sugars, or carbohydrate plant matter in general. Any type carbohydrate is broken down into more sugars. It puts the pancreas into overdrive to produce an over abundance of insulin. This causes diabetes and hypoglycemia. Cats are just not meant to have any of that nasty stuff in their systems. Why do you think Feline Diabetes is so high in this country? It's from people feeding biologically inappropriate diets. And it's not just Science Diet. A ton of cat foods are just as low quality. (Also, peas have been linked to the formation of bladder stones)


And when that said diabetic cat goes to the vet it gets put on more SD!

It's a loop. SD causes the diabetes and SD is used to treat it. Big hulking surprise! Ingenious marketing strategy on SD's part though. It's a 'great' way to permanently get pet owners to keep feeding their food.

[SlitherinSisters]

Non-prescription SD Adult Cat:
Chicken, Whole Grain Wheat, Corn Gluten Meal, Pork Fat, Brewers Rice , Wheat Gluten,

Non-prescription SD Sensitive Adult Cat:
Brewers Rice, Corn Gluten Meal, Pork Fat, Pork Meal, Dried Egg Product, Whole Grain Corn,

Non-prescription SD Grain Free:
Chicken, Potatoes, Yellow Peas, Pea Protein Concentrate, Chicken Fat, Potato Starch

Whoa!!! Look at that. Ingredients that cause Diabetes in cats!! And in the first 6 ingredients as well. Tsk Tsk. Wow. Meat isn't even the first 2 ingredients for one of those diets. Cats are obligate carnivores and do not digest, absorb, or benefit from any fruits, vegetables, sugars, or carbohydrate plant matter in general. Any type carbohydrate is broken down into more sugars. It puts the pancreas into overdrive to produce an over abundance of insulin. This causes diabetes and hypoglycemia. Cats are just not meant to have any of that nasty stuff in their systems. Why do you think Feline Diabetes is so high in this country? It's from people feeding biologically inappropriate diets. And it's not just Science Diet. A ton of cat foods are just as low quality. (Also, peas have been linked to the formation of bladder stones)


And when that said diabetic cat goes to the vet it gets put on more SD!

It's a loop. SD causes the diabetes and SD is used to treat it. Big hulking surprise! Ingenious marketing strategy on SD's part though. It's a 'great' way to permanently get pet owners to keep feeding their food.

What's even more fun is if you compare the ingredients in SD to Purina. Purina is pretty much the "store brand" SD.

[SlitherinSisters]

First 5 ingredients, the most important thing to look at if you don't want to research the food.

Purina:
Whole grain corn, meat and bone meal, corn gluten meal, animal fat preserved with mixed tocopherols, soybean meal

Purina Pro: (no corn?!)
Salmon, brewers rice, canola meal, oat meal, animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of vitamin E)

Purina One: (no corn?!)
Chicken, brewers rice, whole barley, canola meal, chicken meal (natural source of glucosamine)


Science Diet Dry Dog Food
Chicken, whole grain wheat, brewers rice, whole grain sorghum, corn gluten meal,

Science Diet Healthy Advantage (because is sounds healthier)
Whole grain corn, chicken by-product meal, corn gluten meal, liver flavor, dried beet pulp


If you want to feed Science Diet, by all means do it, but read the ingredients, look at the price, and then make your decision. I've never had a vet disagree with me when I say I won't feed my dog overpriced Purina One.


I'm telling you, this site is awesome http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-reviews/brand/


My dog food made the list and it's only $36 for 40 pounds, SD didn't even make the list.... http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/best-d...dry-dog-foods/

[Jumbie]

I have 2 bullmastiffs and they are on a raw diet. I keep Orjen 6 fish on hand if for whatever reason I need to feed dry food.

[swolek]

All this talk about Science Diet makes me sad. I'm sorry, but none of the conditions "cured" by certain SD foods couldn't be solved with a proper raw diet . Of course, I'm biased, because I have a dog with allergies who can't eat ANY of the SD foods. But to be honest, no one could even pay me to feed them to my cat.

[GeekAndDestroy]

I find it interesting that people would go to their vet for food recommendations. I've found that a reputable independent pet shop owner will be far more knowledgeable and less biased about foods than a vet.

i tried feeding my boys raw, but Foster, my ACD, went from 45lbs to 37lbs. I would have had to double or triple his intake to keep his weight up, which would have been ridiculously expensive. I now have him on Taste of the Wild boar formula. After many trials and tribulations, I found he was allergic to both grains and poultry. He needed a high protein diet to keep the weight up and keep up with his high energy demands. Luckily, his little brother does well on anything, so I didn't have to find different food types.

[Expensive hobby]

I find it interesting that people would go to their vet for food recommendations. I've found that a reputable independent pet shop owner will be far more knowledgeable and less biased about foods than a vet.

i tried feeding my boys raw, but Foster, my ACD, went from 45lbs to 37lbs. I would have had to double or triple his intake to keep his weight up, which would have been ridiculously expensive. I now have him on Taste of the Wild boar formula. After many trials and tribulations, I found he was allergic to both grains and poultry. He needed a high protein diet to keep the weight up and keep up with his high energy demands. Luckily, his little brother does well on anything, so I didn't have to find different food types.

That's the only TOTW that I haven't tried. I've had good luck with Sierra Mountain, Wetlands, and Pacific formulas.

Maybe I'll try boar next.


I like my Dubstep to go Wop Wop Wop Wop

[KMG]

I feed my bulldog Royal Canin Bulldog mix with a good balance of cigars and beer to keep her running like a bulldog should, but she still backfires.