[Ellie May]

I'd give the food at least 3 weeks to evaluate it (unless pet becomes relaly sick right away). If after that there is still gas and such, then I would immediately discontinue it.

Most sales clerks know next to nothing about nutrition. They can get ideas from managers or the internet about what ingredients are best, but simply saying chicken meal is better than by-product, etc., etc. is not nutritional science. It's opinion.

I don't like that animals have to be tested on just as much as the next person (in fact, I hate animal cruelty and that is why I became a vegetarian). However, my dogs aren't going to be tested on (this is why I try to stay away from new drugs for them too). Also, the same does go for drugs. They are tried on research animals before your dogs. So you would really rather new drugs be tried on your dogs before tested on animals in a lab setting? If a food is so safe, then it should not pose risk in a clinical trial. And no kennels aren't always fun, but some companies do seem to be trying hard to treat their animals right. One company (forget which one) even has an agility course for their pups (which is much more than my dogs have). No, I'm not in favor of hurting animals by testing, but yes, I think most people on YT would admit that they would rather it be a dog bred for research instead of their own. Some do in-house testing with employees' dogs, but a lot of that is limited to palatability. And some (RC being one) do a lot with breeders that may be more extensive. I'd just hope some kind of trial is being done to show me that a food is digestible enough and isn't going to make my dog's bloodwork crazy if eating it for a few months. That's far better than just hoping the company knows what they are doing because a lot of them simply don't.