Best dry dog food

You pick one thing out of what I said; how about a little horse sense here, would you rather eat a good diet or fillers? That was my point.

This is why diet and what is important in diets shouldn't be left to advertising and web sites.

Fillers (roughage, non-digestible ingredients, bulk) whatever you want to call it is an important part of the diet. Metamucil has made a bundle selling fillers that people don't eat in their diet.

Just sayin...

Or go to forums that are specific to your animals problem. In our case it was Epilepsy.

Our vet was who recommended Science Diet from puppyhood and then Phenobarb when the seizures started.

Thankfully, I found a few canine-epi forums (that happened to have enlightened vets on them) that recommended switching away from SD and go with better quality, non-corn-grain diets and higher quality proteins.

Within weeks, seizures dropped from 2-3 a week to 2-3 a month to 2-3 per year.

No Pheno. Found a new vet that agreed food is important.


We switched over said pups "healthy" mom too for convenience sakes. In a few months her eyes ran less, ears were much cleaner; less discharge, her coat was richer and she picked up energy.

Fromms.

Patricia B. McConnell, PhD, CAAB recommends reading Dog Food Logic: The Science of Canine Nutrition. Patricia comments on this book include:

This quote from the book
“Don’t read this book if you want someone to tell you what to feed your dog.”

and
"I looked at the Table of Contents and found (A ha!) Appendix 5—Choosing Smart: A Dog Food Choice Flow Chart."

"The next chapter I bounced to “What’s So Special About a Dog’s Nutritional Needs,” where we are reminded to pay no attention to the word “no fillers!” in advertising. It means nothing."



I've not read it but it may be worth reading.

My sister raises show dogs and is a vet tech. She feeds a raw diet of food she makes herself.

Our dogs eat "Natural Balance" and the ones with food allergies each "Nature's Choice". Both are expensive, but have cut down on our vet bills.

dturm wrote:

marc515 wrote:


I was only intending to provide a resource for folks to get some background info on dog food; not to read it as gospel. Additionally, I don't believe these types of sites are the poorest way to do preliminary research. How else is someone going to find out that some dog foods have fillers as the primary ingredients, vs good meat? ...

You've proven my point. Assuming that "fillers" are bad and good meat (no byproducts)is good is a marketing ploy (and internet "fact")used by MANY food manufacturers that is just plain false.

The best way is to selectively evaluate all the information out there, giving the most weight to those studies and individuals (animal nutritionists) that have scientific basis (studies, feeding trials, etc.) Internet opinion and web sites is so full of garbage that it's hard to weed out fact from opinion.

Talk to your vet and go to a site run by veterinary nutritionists.

You pick one thing out of what I said; how about a little horse sense here, would you rather eat a good diet or fillers? That was my point.

You also didn't make note of the other things that can be learned, like pet food recalls, etc.

You have more knowledge than me, but you appear to be only black and white, with no middle road.

How about recommending a site?

marc515 wrote:


I was only intending to provide a resource for folks to get some background info on dog food; not to read it as gospel. Additionally, I don't believe these types of sites are the poorest way to do preliminary research. How else is someone going to find out that some dog foods have fillers as the primary ingredients, vs good meat? ...

You've proven my point. Assuming that "fillers" are bad and good meat (no byproducts)is good is a marketing ploy (and internet "fact")used by MANY food manufacturers that is just plain false.

The best way is to selectively evaluate all the information out there, giving the most weight to those studies and individuals (animal nutritionists) that have scientific basis (studies, feeding trials, etc.) Internet opinion and web sites is so full of garbage that it's hard to weed out fact from opinion.

Talk to your vet and go to a site run by veterinary nutritionists.

dturm wrote:

These sites along with many others provide a decent source for information.

I would rather do some research than experiment on my dog with foods which may not be as good as others, or worse yet, foods made by a company with recalls.

Sorry, I totally disagree. The internet and the information espoused by their purported experts is one of the poorest ways to get information and do research.

As Mark points out, many are run by people who have an axe to grind, have no training in animal nutrition and just repeat unsubstantiated internet opinions.

Feeding trials (NOT EXPERIMENTATION) are the only way to really evaluate the worth of a specific diet.

In the end, what works best in each individual is the BEST FOOD for that animal.

Doug, DVM

Respectfully, Dr. Doug, you are taking this out of the context in which it was intended.

I was only intending to provide a resource for folks to get some background info on dog food; not to read it as gospel. Additionally, I don't believe these types of sites are the poorest way to do preliminary research. How else is someone going to find out that some dog foods have fillers as the primary ingredients, vs good meat? How else is someone going to find out how many recalls a dog food has had? How else is someone going to find out which foods are made by Diamond, which has has more than it's fair share of recalls? Without these web sites, folks could be experimenting with dog food that is of questionable quality.

Per Dog food advisor: "Our current team includes two dedicated research assistants, an experienced social media admin as well as one extraordinarily knowledgeable (and generous) veterinarian."

Yes, you as a Vet possess the knowledge to conduct your own research, but what about the average lay person and first time pet owner; how much experience do you think they have? They have to start somewhere and what's wrong with certain web sites that have been around a while, and obviously possess some knowledge.

I for example would not experiment on my dog with any food made in a Diamond Plant, and I learned about the recalls on Dog Food advisor and a couple of other sites.

Or they could come on forums such as this and ask which is the best dog food, and we know how many opinions that will bring.

Again, these web sites do not tout they are "Experts", and I have gained a wealth of knowledge from them. Do I take it as gospel, no, but they gave me some valuable insight into dog food.

These dog food websites set a very high standard when promoting to avoid companies that have had recalls. For those who follow this guidance with their pet food, do you also follow it for your own food?

Better stop buying:
land-o-lakes
General Mills
Del Monte
Skippy
Tyson
Mars
DOT Foods
Blue Bell
Trader Joe's
Sunkist
Kraft
SARA LEE
Whole Foods Market
the list of food companies goes on and on and on.......

You better grow ALL your own food.

These sites along with many others provide a decent source for information.

I would rather do some research than experiment on my dog with foods which may not be as good as others, or worse yet, foods made by a company with recalls.

Sorry, I totally disagree. The internet and the information espoused by their purported experts is one of the poorest ways to get information and do research.

As Mark points out, many are run by people who have an axe to grind, have no training in animal nutrition and just repeat unsubstantiated internet opinions.

Feeding trials (NOT EXPERIMENTATION) are the only way to really evaluate the worth of a specific diet.

In the end, what works best in each individual is the BEST FOOD for that animal.

Doug, DVM