[nvnvgirl]

Originally Posted by Ellie May

Please don't feel bad. Ellie was on Science Diet before I knew better because we thought it was best.

Most vets have a way of getting us to accept Hills. After I took Ellie off of regular Science Diet kibble we started homecooking. Ellie needed a special diet for her liver. The vet said we could try L/D. I said I wouldn't use Science Diet and then she tells me she doesn't use it much either. See, some vets recommend it because they don't know what else to do. They do have all the disease formulas. Most vets think it is the best thing since sliced bread though.

I can't say why her hubby doesn't like it but I can tell you why I don't. They use horrible ingredients, they give good discounts to vet students and try to get them into their food early and they do seminars at vet school along with a few other companies and this is some of the only "nutrition" training that vet schools get. It is biased.

Ingredients in W/D:
Canned:
Water, Egg Product, Ground Whole Grain Corn, Chicken, Cracked Pearled Barley, Pork Liver, Powdered Cellulose, Chicken Liver Flavor, Soybean Oil, Potassium Chloride, Calcium Sulfate, Choline Chloride, Calcium Carbonate, Iodized Salt, Vitamin E Supplement, Taurine, L-Tryptophan, Ascorbic Acid (source of vitamin C), L-Carnitine, Zinc Oxide, Ferrous Sulfate, Thiamine Mononitrate, Beta-Carotene, Niacin, Manganous Oxide, Copper Sulfate, Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Biotin, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Riboflavin, Calcium Iodate, Folic Acid, Sodium Selenite.

There are worse food than this one. Corn is a major cause of allergies and isn't too much more than a filler. I wouldn't want to feed liver everyday (vitamin a toxicity) but it is lower on the list so it might be okay. I still wouldn't feed this unless absolutely necessary and I don't think it is because there are lots of food low in protein and fat.

Dry:
Ground Whole Grain Corn, Powdered Cellulose 18% (source of fiber), Corn Gluten Meal, Chicken by-product Meal, Chicken Liver Flavor, Soybean Mill Run, Chicken, Soybean Oil, Dried Beet Pulp, Calcium Sulfate, Iron Oxide, Potassium Chloride, L-Lysine, Choline Chloride, Vitamin E Supplement, Sodium Tripolyphosphate, vitamins (L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin A Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin, Folic Acid, Vitamin D3 Supplement), minerals (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Copper Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Calcium Iodate, Sodium Selenite), preserved with BHT, BHA and Ethoxyquin, L-Tryptophan, Taurine, DL-Methionine, Calcium Carbonate, L-Carnitine, Beta-Carotene.

This is a terrible food. The corn would be the least of my worries in this one. By-Products can be things like kidney and heart which are good for dogs but they can also be other things like blood. I'm not sure about soybean mill run is a filler with little nutritional value. It is sometimes referred to as floor sweepings. BHA, BHT and ethoxyquin are chemicals that shouldn't go into anyone's body. Ethoxyquin is labeled "POISON" and is used very rarely in spices. It is banned for human use in a lot of places and banned totally in Japan.

Wow! You really know your dog food! I am really appreciative b/c this is all really new to me even though I've had Max almost 3 yrs....I was so well versed in parrot nutrition and it's hard when you're feeding something that's made commercially! It seems like parrot nutrition is so much simpler....fruit, veggies, seeds, and whatever else they'll eat, LOL! Of course, they never had any health issues either, so they could eat just about anything that wasn't toxic for them. I would like to say that I'm ambitious enough to home cook for Max, but I'm really not. I find it difficult enough just keeping fresh foods on hand for my husband and myself without running to the store every day (which I usually do). I would not like to be short on food when it's time to feed Max, and I could see something like that happening. And human nutrition is a snap for me...
Is there anywhere that you can find how many calories/fat/protein/sodium/ carbohydrates a Yorkie should get a day or the other nutrients they should like the RDA's? It seems so simple to figure all that out for people but where is that same info on dogs? I think I might be more inclined to home cook if I knew how much he's supposed to get per day and what nutrients are needed or harmful. I hope I don't need to go to vet school to find this out, LOL...I'm too old to do that! But it would really help in choosing even commercially made foods out if I knew where to find the proper information! Thank you all so much for your input; eventually, I'll get him off the Hills!

ETA: I remember reading somewhere at one point when I very first got Max that corn isn't good for them; and I remember it very well, b/c my parrots LOVED corn on the cob and they'd of course, throw half of it on the floor and I'd always be scrambling to pick it up before Max got to it.....of course, their favorite foods were corn and grapes.....I looked like a hockey forward a lot of the time racing to grab one or the other out of Max's jaws, LOL. Anyhow, that's one reason I'm kind of confused about what they're putting into the dog foods if they put corn in it.