# Food question for all the experts



## MyBentley (May 5, 2009)

Please see the responses in this other ongoing thread about the same subject:

http://www.goldenretrieverforum.com/showthread.php?t=72948


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## GoldenCamper (Dec 21, 2009)

In my researching of dog foods, I have found one common agreement - Corn as the first ingredient is not a good thing.

Taken from link below: "Unless an individual dog is sensitive or allergic to corn or wheat, they are no better and no worse than other cereal grains, as long as they are used as a source of carbohydrates and not as a main source of protein, especially in combination with excessive use of gluten as another main ingredient."

http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?page=dog_food_reviews

Another one (taken from link below) "Grains are bad when they are:

1) fractionated (not ground whole)
2) when they are not human grade or organic 
3) when they are the *basis* for commercial dog foods (grain listed first instead of meat protein based)."

http://www.greatdanelady.com/articles/grain_free_diets.htm

I am not a dog food expert, but I see other ingredients in science diet that are not good either, and honestly never heard anything good about it. Just my 2¢'s


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## Merlins mom (Jun 20, 2007)

You know you'll get responses all over the place. Personally, a good friend of mine worked for Hill's for a long time. They get beaten up all the time, but a lot of research goes into their foods. She feeds her own 4 dogs SD (for many, many years) and her 4 Aussies look great and are very healthy. I think if your dogs are doing good on Hill's, then stay with it.

She also told me that unlike most dog food companies, Hill's ingredient list is exactly what's in the bag. Dog food manufacturers can change ingredients around....say they can't get enough of one ingredient so they substitute another.....and don't have to change the ingredient list on the bag for 6 months to reflect it. 

Just saying what she told me. She has no reason to lie or to try and get me to buy Hill's. I don't currently feed SD, but I wouldn't hesitate to if that's what was needed.


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## The_Artful_Dodger (Mar 26, 2009)

I believe that science diet is a good food. Hills does a lot of research to make nutrionally balanced pet foods.


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## marieb (Mar 24, 2008)

I would maybe think about researching other options ... I'm not a big fan of the science diet products and I personally would not feed them to my dog. However, I do know a person who has to feed her dog the prescription science diet because her dog can't break down protein or something like that and the prescription food is the only food her dog can eat. 

I feel like you could look for a higher quality dog food that has more actual meat in it for around the same calories ...


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## msdogs1976 (Dec 21, 2007)

When I adopted my labx, the rescue group was feeding him SD and gave me a couple of small bags as a starter for him. I fed it to him and he looked perfectly fine and had normal poops too. But I thought it was high for what you got, so I switched to Iams. And he is doing just as well on it.


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## Noey (Feb 26, 2009)

Noah did bad on Iams - ZD was given because everything we were giving him was making him have bad poops. The large breed nugget seems to be easy for him - not sure why. 

Several of the other nuggets of various brands did not work. 

Scout is on Science because it's all I've had Noah on...and seemed to work well. Scout is perfect on weight and coat. 

Thanks for the links GoldenCamper...I will read.


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