Is Science Diet dog food healthy?
September 222009
Does anyone know if Science Diet Adult-Original is a good quality dog food? My baby was eating Pedigree but we decided to change due to digest issues.
It’s better than Pedigree but still a low quality food.
Not all pet food is made equally. A lot of it is full of corn, by-products, dyes, unhealthy preservatives, filler grains and all sorts of nasty stuff. A lot of pet food companies are perfectly happy to dump cheap leftovers in. Will it kill your dog? No, it has to be nutritionally complete and safe to even be marketed. Is it healthy? Not by a long shot.
Corn is a low quality ingredient you never want to see in your pet food. Corn and low quality grains are two of the biggest culprits when it comes to food allergies in our pets.
Thankfully, there are some excellent dog foods being made these days that include organic, human grade ingredients rather than trash not fit for human consumption.
Examples of low quality foods to avoid: Anything you can find in a grocery store will be low end, Purina, Iams, Eukanuba, Science Diet, Royal Canin, Pedigree, Kibbles n’ Bits, Beneful, Ol’Roy.
Examples of high quality foods to look for: Innova, Wellness, Solid Gold, Canidae All Life Stages, Fromm Four Star, Merrick, GO Natural, Nature’s Variety Prairie, Nature’s Logic, Artemis Fresh Mix.
Although the high quality foods are more expensive, you’re getting what you’re paying for. Less filler material means more concentrated nutrients… this means you typically need to feed far less of the high quality food than you would of the low quality one. Which also means less poop!
A great option is to go with an entirely grainless diet. Many of the high quality foods now put out grainless formulas. Some good grainless diet’s include: Innova EVO, Wellness CORE, Blue Wilderness, Nature’s Variety Instinct, Orijen, Fromm Surf & Turf, Now! and Sold Gold Barking At The Moon, Taste of the Wild.
Some pretty decent foods can even be found in common pet stores. Petsmart carries Blue Buffalo products (such as the excellent grain free diet Blue Wilderness). Petco carries Wellness, Solid Gold, Natural Balance, Eagle Pack Holistic, Blue Buffalo, Castor & Pollux Organix, Pinnacle, and Halo. If you can’t find a food, most of the high quality food brands have websites with store locators on them.
Remember that foods should be switched gradually, especially when switching to a higher quality one, so as not to upset tummies.
Another option for feeding dogs is to feed raw. This is something that should be thoroughly researched before being attempted:
http://www.barfworld.com/
http://www.rawfed.com/
http://www.rawlearning.com/
http://www.wysong.net/controversies/rawmeat.shtml
More on dog food:
http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?page=main (Learn how to determine the quality of your dog’s food.)
http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/ (Dog food reviews. Anything with five or six stars is a great food.)
September 22nd, 2009 at 12:52 pm
It is the food my vet recommends, but there are many other high quality brands out there. We feed AvoDerm
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September 22nd, 2009 at 1:33 pm
its better than pedigree i like blue buffalo and wellness the best. eagle pack is good too also innova and canadae.i like science diet for rx diets.
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September 22nd, 2009 at 1:40 pm
Science Diet is one step up from Pedigree but it is not the best quality.
Foods like Eagle Pack,Wellness and Innova are excellent (but not everyone can afford them)
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September 22nd, 2009 at 1:48 pm
yeah i feed it to my dogs so i hope it is.
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September 22nd, 2009 at 2:07 pm
it is average. there’s better quality food out there. i feed my puppy Orijen. it contains all natural, no frozen, no preservatives, no wheat or corn products. it is one of the top brand. you can try innova, artemis, canidae, chicken soup. they are a little bit more expensive, but it is much better for your dog in the long run. they will have shiny coats, less poo, and healthier.
pedigree, isam are horrible brands, they contain a lot of by-products and corn in their ingredients. if your baby is having digestive issues, check out that link. they have review and the list of ingredients in all the dog foods. hope this helps.
References :
http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/index.php
September 22nd, 2009 at 2:41 pm
Looks like Science Diet has Ground Whole Grain Wheat & Corn Gluten Meal in it, grains in general and especially gluten can be bad for the dog, many will develop allergies. Look for a "limited ingredient diet" dog food like Natural Balance or Bil-Jac (I’m sure there are others as well)
it will be better for them overall
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September 22nd, 2009 at 2:48 pm
Yuck, both are crappy foods. I feed my dog California natural and I feed my cat Felidae cat and kitten. Very affordable but good quality foods.
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September 22nd, 2009 at 2:54 pm
Science Diet is a little bit better than Pedigree, but it is still really crappy food. Please change to Wellness, Blue Buffalo, Canidae, or Innova.
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September 22nd, 2009 at 3:18 pm
its ok but not that good as you think. some of the "other" great dog food brands are canidae, evo, wellness.
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September 22nd, 2009 at 4:07 pm
Yes, Science Diet Is better if your baby are 6-10 years, baby is problem slowing down, Science Diet will keep the weight down and they do not have as much problem with sugar and kidney problems. My babies how been on Science Diet for 3 years they are both 10plus years. good luck,
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September 22nd, 2009 at 4:32 pm
No! It is NOT healthy AT ALL. But it IS healthier then Pedigree.
Here are some great quality foods :
Wellness
Wellness CORE
Eagle Pack HOLISTIC
Orijen
Innova
Innova EVO
Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover’s Soul
Merrick
Canidae
There are some more great quality foods,but, I thought I would give you a few.
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September 22nd, 2009 at 4:58 pm
Try NutriSource…there is a website if you want to check it out just do a web search.
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September 22nd, 2009 at 5:35 pm
It’s better than Pedigree but still a low quality food.
Not all pet food is made equally. A lot of it is full of corn, by-products, dyes, unhealthy preservatives, filler grains and all sorts of nasty stuff. A lot of pet food companies are perfectly happy to dump cheap leftovers in. Will it kill your dog? No, it has to be nutritionally complete and safe to even be marketed. Is it healthy? Not by a long shot.
Corn is a low quality ingredient you never want to see in your pet food. Corn and low quality grains are two of the biggest culprits when it comes to food allergies in our pets.
Thankfully, there are some excellent dog foods being made these days that include organic, human grade ingredients rather than trash not fit for human consumption.
Examples of low quality foods to avoid: Anything you can find in a grocery store will be low end, Purina, Iams, Eukanuba, Science Diet, Royal Canin, Pedigree, Kibbles n’ Bits, Beneful, Ol’Roy.
Examples of high quality foods to look for: Innova, Wellness, Solid Gold, Canidae All Life Stages, Fromm Four Star, Merrick, GO Natural, Nature’s Variety Prairie, Nature’s Logic, Artemis Fresh Mix.
Although the high quality foods are more expensive, you’re getting what you’re paying for. Less filler material means more concentrated nutrients… this means you typically need to feed far less of the high quality food than you would of the low quality one. Which also means less poop!
A great option is to go with an entirely grainless diet. Many of the high quality foods now put out grainless formulas. Some good grainless diet’s include: Innova EVO, Wellness CORE, Blue Wilderness, Nature’s Variety Instinct, Orijen, Fromm Surf & Turf, Now! and Sold Gold Barking At The Moon, Taste of the Wild.
Some pretty decent foods can even be found in common pet stores. Petsmart carries Blue Buffalo products (such as the excellent grain free diet Blue Wilderness). Petco carries Wellness, Solid Gold, Natural Balance, Eagle Pack Holistic, Blue Buffalo, Castor & Pollux Organix, Pinnacle, and Halo. If you can’t find a food, most of the high quality food brands have websites with store locators on them.
Remember that foods should be switched gradually, especially when switching to a higher quality one, so as not to upset tummies.
Another option for feeding dogs is to feed raw. This is something that should be thoroughly researched before being attempted:
http://www.barfworld.com/
http://www.rawfed.com/
http://www.rawlearning.com/
http://www.wysong.net/controversies/rawmeat.shtml
More on dog food:
http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?page=main (Learn how to determine the quality of your dog’s food.)
http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/ (Dog food reviews. Anything with five or six stars is a great food.)
References :