Science Diet
 

Does anyone feed their Science Diet? I was looking at the website and it looks ok but im not sure.Bruno is about out of food so I need to go get him some today. Tyign to figure out what. The link below is what I was thinking about. What do u think?

http://www.hillspet.com/hillspet/products/productDetails.hjsp?PRODUCT<>prd_id=84552444176061 7

***bump***

I've heard the Hill's Science Diet is pretty good. I'm looking for a good puppy food myself... I'm even thinking about making dog food at home... though of course I couldn't do that every single day..
Is there any way to call the vet and ask them? I always think the vet makes the best choice, though sometimes the dogs don't like the food..

hrm.... well anyhow good luck!

Science diet is not really a good food in my opinion and when you switch you want to do it gradually or your dog will get sick.
Insufficient meat content, use of low quality grains and other controversial fillers, soy, fat of unidentifiable origin.
This is a good site Dog Food Reviews - Hill's Science Diet Adult Small Bites Lamb Meal & Rice Recipe - Powered by ReviewPost

wow, thanks for the post.. I haven't seen this one yet....

Any news on the hill's "prescription diet"?
This line is only sold at the vet...
I would assume it's not much better coming from the same company....
This dog food stuff is soo confusing!

Thanks again for the link!

ps. i'm feeding my dog Nutro Puppy Bites... I'm sure it's really no good. :(
Still searching for a good dog food.....for my puppy

I would not feed Nutro at all...They have had many problems with sick dogs. Science diet isn't really great either. In the health and diet section you can find a sticky towards the top that has info on some of the better dog foods.

Some good foods are Innova,Merrick,solid gold, Wellness, Natural Balance there are many good foods out there. Lily was on Nutro for a long time because it was all she would eat and my vet said a bad food is better than her eating no food, so every situation is different you just have to do what works best for your dog.

Ah... ok... well he's almost through the bag now, so I'll look into something better and start mixing the two for a week or so to get him used to the new brand...
I live in Canada so I'm not sure what's available here and if I'll be able to buy any of those brands, but I'll start looking around..

Thanks again for the info's everyone :)

xoxMolls&Tobyxox

I tried to feed Gizmo Science Diet when he was a puppy. He did like it at all, and when he did eat it he ended up sick. I later found out he had a liver shunt. Explained why he would end up sick. Later I gave him Percription Science Diet for liver shunt puppies. It did help him not to be so sick. I also started feeding Tenci Science Diet when we got her. I had no ideal about the differences in foods. Now I feed all four of mine Merrick canned and dry. They Love It. I have not had any problems except for My Trouble (who is the largest of my babies) has loose stools since eating Merrick. In this past week I have went back to feeding him the Science Diet dry food, and he has stopped having loose stools. I dont really know if that was the right thing to do or not.

You can freeze it up ahead, so you only need to cook about once a month.:)

Good to know!

Do you know of any threads that have good recipes? I'm sure there are some in here, but I may have missed them somehow??
Or do you have any websites or recipies of your own you could share?

Thanks in advance :):D

I would recommend getting a nutritionist because the vitamins do need to be done just right. There are no books I'd recommend but some people like Dr. Pitcairns. If you get that one, just make sure to get a newer one and not an older edition. You can buy recipes from BalanceITs website but I'd buy the one where they give you the amounts of human vitamins instead of the one they give you the amount of BalanceIT alone. I don't really like the regular BalanceIT, so I wouldn't recommend it.

There are no recipes on YT (for long-term use with supplements) that I would recommend but I could've missed em'.:)

I use Science Diet which I got from my breeder. I have not had any problems using and don't know how good it is.

I worked at a vet's office for a few years when I was in high school.

We stocked all of the science diet products and fed the boarded animals it as well.

I remember that the owner/vet and the other vets all fed their dogs science diet so it must be a decent food.

It's definitely better than all the supermarket junk food some of the pet owners would give us to feed their animals while they were boarded with us.

Hills/Science Diet isn't really a very good food. Vets carry it because Hills invests heavily in vet schools, teaches seminars, provides scholarships, etc, to encourage vets to recommend it.

It contains a lot of cheap fillers, but the worst is that many of their dry prescription foods contain BHT and Ethoxyquin as preservatives.

Ethoxyquin is listed and identified as a hazardous chemical by OSHA. It has a rating of 3 on a scale of 1 to 6, with 6 being super toxic requiring less than 7 drops to cause death. When manufactured by Monsanto, the containers are marked with the word POISON. Monsanto makes no representations and will not be responsible for damages of any nature whatsoever. The Department of Agriculture lists and controls Ethoxyquin as a pesticide.


Ethoxyquin
Promoted kidney carcinogenesis.
Significantly increased incidence of stomach tumors.
Enhanced bladder carcinogenesis.

BHA
Enhanced stomach and urinary bladder carcinogenesis.
Causes squamous-cell carcinomas in stomachs.
(Cancers of this type are among the most lethal and fastest acting, the swiftest effects being seen among animals with light colored fur.)

BHT
Promoted urinary bladder carcinogenesis.
Could be a promoter of thyroid carcinogenesis.
Studies have noted that BHA and other antioxidants, particularly Propyl Gallate and ethoxyquin, showed additional effects in inducing stomach hyperplasia and cytotoxicity.

According to Dr. Wendell Belfield, DVM, practicing veterinarian for some 26 years, both BHA and BHT are known to cause liver and kidney dysfunction and are banned in some European countries. He adds that ethoxyquin is suspected of causing cancer and that propylene glycol (a pet food ingredient closely related to anti-freeze) causes destruction of red blood cells.

Toxicology of BHA

When we first got Koda his breeder had him on Science Diet. After looking at the ingredients, we soon switched him over to Innova puppy food. He also gets a half a can of wet food everyday. One site that helped us choose our dog food was: Dog Food Reviews - Main Index - Powered by ReviewPost

My Edie ate Prescription Diet T/D for several years. It was a good food for her, but I changed when we got a Westie who was (supposedly) allergic to chicken. Now they both eat Blue Buffalo Fish and Sweet Potato or Blue Buffalo Lamb and rice.

Edie gained a little too much weight when I made the switch. She is on a diet now, but it is slow going.

WOW great info:thumbup: Thanks for that. I had my dog on it for 4 months while we were ruling out food allergies. (prescription dz dry)
I was unaware of those chemicals and what affect they had...

My breeder made me promise that I would never feed science diet or any other food that has corn as an ingredient to lola. I am feeding her Innova and she loves it. This is a great site which rates different foods Dog Food Reviews - Main Index - Powered by ReviewPost

Also, make sure that you do not switch the food abruptly. You should blend his old and his new food for a few days before fully incorporating the new food alone. Best of luck!

I've heard that it's not the best food, but Tucker LOVES it and he's gotten really healthy since he started eating it. He's lost the extra weight he had packed on and he has a lot more energy.

We will probably switch him at some point in the near future, but for now we're seeing really good results with it.

I use SCIENCE DIET!

I wanted to be like everyone else and feed my babbies the best and I have the income to do it and I was told to "NOT" feed anything but SCIENCE DIET.

Bleu Boy was a patient at TEXAS A&M for Atlanto Axial Subluxation in which we spent alot of money on his surgery.

I discussed his diet with many vets there and surgeons and students ect. and they all told me to keep him on SCIENCE DIET. I was really against it but thought the vets knew best.

I DO NOT HAVE ANY PROBLEMS WITH IT I have not heard any complaints and all 3 of my dogs are on it. They have scheduled times they use the bathroom and it is like clock work. I am very pleased with SCIENCE DIET!

:thumbup::thumbup: Hills/Science Diet is something I would never feed. Unfortunately they have a lot of veterinarians brainwashed from the time they are in vet school (I know this because I'm in vet school and see it first hand ;))...just becauses a vet carries it does NOT mean it is a good food. You wouldn't go to a doctor for nutrition advise - you'd go to a nutritionist. Well, the same for our pets. Vets spend very little time learning about nutrition...I'd seek out a veterinary nutritionist. I definitely do not recommend Science Diet.

I would not feed SD under ANY circumstances to my dogs. If you educate yourself about actual ingredients and WHAT they are and what they do to the body - you will be able to make the decision on your own. Once you see what is in SD, I doubt you will want to feed it - it is chock full of allergens, fillers - not to mention carcinogens.

Also - just ask MyFairLacy, who is in vet school, about the appalling practices of Hills in vet schools and the % vets get if you buy SD from them. It's called Marketing 101. Sick, but very true.

Most vets recommend it.
I think their extensive prescription line and the fact that vets are allowed to tour the factory and the money they get for selling it makes vets happy. I would feed it before Iams or Purina but some of it even contains ethoxyquin.:(

I used to feed it to Ellie. I thought she was doing well on it until I started feeding something else. I then realized it wasn't normal for a dog to throw up every week or two for no reason and it also wasn't normal to have a rough patch of fur or a constantly dry nose.

So we had a bad experience with the regular kind.
All dogs are different but I think vets would like to see everyone feeding it.:(

Just a little bit of info...

Science Diet and Purina offer vet students at Texas A&M University bags of their food for an 80% discount and many times for FREE. Most vet students own pets and are pretty broke..so of course they love receiving majorly discounted food for their pets. We all know that once you get in the habit of using something, you'll most likely continue...well, this is what these companies hope for. Vet students use it...they become vets and promote and sell it.

Also, a Hills representative teaches the Small Animal nutrition class...they also write the textbook that the class is taught from. Biased information??? Also, the amount of time spent on small animal nutrition is only a few weeks....A FEW WEEKS OUT OF 4 YEARS! Unless vets research nutrition themselves and actively pursue an education about it, they do NOT know much about nutrition. Fortunately more and more vets are realizing that nutrition is important...but most still fall back on the biased information that they were bribed into learning in school.

Vets simply sell Science Diet because they don't know any better...it's not that it is a good food, because it is not. If vets really did their research, they'd all realize and promote the benefits of a raw diet, homecooked meals, and the premium kibbles/canned foods out there.

My brother has a Rhodesian Ridgeback that was being fed Eukanuba by the breeder. She was kept on this until she started having rashes at about 8 months old. The vet had her put on Science Diet and the rashes only got worse. So then my brother was having to take her in once a week for an allergy shot. I talked to him about what he was feeding her and gave him a bag of the food I use (Drs. Foster & Smith). She's been on it now for about 2 months and no more rashes and no more allergy shots. Also, earlier this year I was in the vet's office often due to new puppies and getting some of my other dogs their rabies shot. Seems like every time I was there, at least one person was in to get an allergy shot for their dog. Of course, the vet had them on Science Diet too as I saw quite a few buying bags of food while there. It's a vicious cycle but very good business for the vet. It's a shame because you know that the folks at Science Diet know better but won't upgrade their formula to something more healthy. It's confusing for the average pet owner to know what to feed but the easy thing to remember is what to avoid.....any food that has corn, wheat or meat by-products in them. Any food that avoids those ingredients usually doesn't have chemical preservatives and will likely have the omega acids and digestive enzymes in it. This will at least put you in the ballpark of a quality food.

:thumbup::thumbup:

You can go to the Hills website and see their involvement in vet schools.

http://www.hillsvet.com/hillsvet/stu...ms.hjsp?JSESSI

I agree with you all...Hill's does not make top quality food by any means. I just wanted to point out that only their dry foods contain ethoxyquin, but of course, they don't use the best ingredients in the canned either...

Yes, and as I said in my other post, it's only the dry prescription food that contains ethoxyquin and BHT.

The canned food contains crummy ingredients, but no ethoxyquin. When Lady was diagnosed with diabetes years ago, my vet sent me home with a case of canned W/D. I opened the first can and it was YELLOW from all the corn! It made no sense to me why you would feed a dog with a compromised immune system such poor quality food. I never even finished the first case. :(

And they use pork liver in foods that are given to liver compromised dogs which is very hard on their livers, is high in purines, and produces high amounts of ammonia...
The canned L/D does not contain it, but others like k/d, s/d, etc. do...