Eukanuba-Bad, Better, Or Worse?

[coco-bean]

Oh no not my intention at all! haha! I know science Diet isnt the best, but i was curious is the nutritional value of Eukanuba better or worse than Science diet!

[k9krazee]

Haha, I know I'm personally sick of dog food threads

Here's a very informative site that will help you learn about dog food.. http://www.dogfoodproject.com/

and maybe check out this thread
http://petoftheday.com/talk/showthre...ighlight=grade

And to answer your question...I'm pretty sure Eukanuba and Iams are from the same company (correct me if I'm wrong ) but coming from the link above, Iams is a tad bit better than Science Diet...but it's still not too good

Iams Lamb Meal & Rice Formula Premium / Score 73 D
Science Diet Advanced Protein Senior 7+ / Score 63 F
Science Diet for Large Breed Puppies / Score 69 F

[Giselle]

Mmm... one thing school taught me was to fine tune my critical thinking skills. So here ya go:
Eukanuba Medium-Sized Breed Adult:

Chicken, Chicken By-Product Meal, Corn Meal, Ground Whole Grain Sorghum, Ground Whole Grain Barley, Fish Meal (source of fish oil), Chicken Fat (preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of vitamin E, and Citric Acid), Brewers Rice, Natural Chicken Flavor, Dried Beet Pulp (sugar removed), Dried Egg Product, Brewers Dried Yeast, Potassium Chloride, Salt, Vitamins (Vitamin E Supplement, Ascorbic Acid, Beta-Carotene, Vitamin A Acetate, Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate (source of vitamin B1), Niacin, Riboflavin Supplement (source of vitamin B2), Inositol, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (source of vitamin B6), Vitamin D3 Supplement, Folic Acid), Flax Meal, Sodium Hexametaphosphate, Calcium Carbonate, Choline Chloride, Minerals (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Manganese Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Potassium Iodide, Cobalt Carbonate), DL-Methionine, Rosemary Extract

VS.
Science Diet Adult Original

Chicken, Ground Whole Grain Corn, Ground Whole Grain Sorghum, Ground Whole Grain Wheat, Chicken By-Product Meal, Soybean Meal, Animal Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid), Corn Gluten Meal, Brewers Rice, Chicken Liver Flavor, Soybean Oil, Dried Egg Product, Flaxseed, Potassium Chloride, Iodized Salt, Calcium Carbonate, Choline Chloride, Vitamin E Supplement, vitamins (L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin A Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin, Folic Acid, Vitamin D3 Supplement), minerals (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Copper Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Calcium Iodate, Sodium Selenite), DL-Methionine, preserved with Mixed Tocopherols and Citric Acid, Beta-Carotene, Rosemary Extract.

They look pretty similar to me, but it's all up to your own judgement. Critical thinking

[BC_MoM]

Not starting war, stating an opinion:

Iams is a tad bit better than Science Diet...but it's still not too good

I disagree. I think quality of food should be based upon dogs as individuals. I've seen dogs on top brand foods do extremely horrible, while another on a lower brand is flourishing.

[coco-bean]

thank you all for your advice!!

[My Peanuts]

A simple way to tell which food is better is to look at the first ingredients. If corn or byproducts is listed in the first few ingredients, then it's not the best food. Corn is a filler and if the first ingredient is corn then most of the food is filler.

You may know this already, but ingredients are listed with the most in it first.

[buttercup132]

Neither of the brands are good. They are all packed with fillers and dont give the dog the esential nutrients.

[GreyhoundGirl]

Meat should be one of the first indredients.

Can someone tell me, is this good?

Ingredients:
Lamb meal, Ground rice, rice flour,rice bran,soybean oil, sunflour oil,poultry fat, Natural flavours, rice glutin, dried egg product, dried beet pulp, ect. ect.

Meat is the first ingredient, but there seems to be a lot of rice. This food is nutro lamb and rice. It is supposed to be all natural, but rice isn't exactly a natural thing for a dog to eat. I'm confused, can someone clarify please?

[flaxseedoil1000]

A simple way to tell which food is better is to look at the first ingredients. If corn or byproducts is listed in the first few ingredients, then it's not the best food. Corn is a filler and if the first ingredient is corn then most of the food is filler.

With all due respect, corn is not a filler and not all byproducts are bad.

Processed corn is a source of carbs (energy) and a source of protein (a poor one) when other sources are lacking.

Byproducts are very misunderstood. Just watch animal planet and notice the first part of a kill a predator such as a wolf or lion eats is the insides, or as we call them, byproducts.

Put simply, a chicken byproduct is any part of the chicken you can't order at KFC.

Some chicken byproducts do nothing for nutrition (beaks, feet, etc.). These are filler. They don't hurt a dog but just take up space in the kibble.

Other chicken byproducts, such as the internal organs, are fantastic nutritional sources. They are amino acid rich and that's the whole purpose of eating protein.

Chicken byproducts have all 10 essential amino acids a dog requires. When I said earlier that corn was a poor protein source that is because it, being a plant, has an incomplete amino acid source for dogs.

The problem with plant based proteins for dogs is more than just them lacking certain amino acids. After protein is broken down into amino acids the liver grabs them and assembles them into the building blocks for the body. When the liver finds it can't build what it needs to out of the available amino acids because some types are missing, it throws the rest out. This is waste and must be removed by the kidney.

You often hear of dogs that have kidney problems being fed a low protein diet. Well if it is plant based protein there will still be waste for the kidney to process. They would be better off serving a high quality based protein such as chicken to reduce the protein waste.

So how do you tell if the byproducts in a bag of kibble are amino acid rich internal organs or feet filler? It's not guaranteed, but look at the feeding guidelines. You will feed less food that has less filler.

Examples: I know of a popular kibble that sells for about $40 for 40 pounds. A 50 pound dog gets 2 cups a day. Contrast that to the 40 pounds for $10 food at my local feed and seed. A 50 pound dog needs 7-8 cups a day on that food. Quite a difference.

I have over 600 pounds of dogs at my rescue right now. A 40 pound bag of high quality kibble lasts me 7 days. I have blown through 40 pounds of the cheap stuff in 3 days.

Keep in mind there is a lot of marketing hype against byproducts because they sound bad. That's because you, the human, have the money. If it was up to your dogs they would want all the internal organs they could get.

BTW, vitamin E....byproduct!

Now that I have made your heads spin I have to go feed the critters.

[Giselle]

Actually, I heard it was the other way around - high protein causing kidney problems. It was a big argument against raw feeding way back when.

Flaxseedoil1000, you raise a valid point and while GOOD by-products are certainly benefitial and essential in a dog's diet, an ingredient's list does not do a food justice, or lack thereof. You don't know whether by-product means livers and hearts or beaks and feet (btw, I know poultry feet are a popular raw food item). You don't know the quality. You also don't know the AMOUNT of a said ingredient in kibble. You get a general idea of which ingredient dominates the kibble, but you don't know exactly how much of said ingredient is in it. An ingredients list is so vague and generalized, it is difficult to judge a kibble based simply on the ingredients list so much of this is up for debate.

However, as a general rule, dogs are carnivores. Therefore, it is unnecessary to include carbohydrates into a dog's diet (both simple and complex), i.e. corn. As well, while carbohydrates are a worthy source of quick and efficient energy, lipids and proteins would do a carnivorous dog much better.

You also mentioned that plant based proteins are troublesome and do not provide a viable source of protein. Therefore, the rest is thrown out as waste. Does that not sound like filler to you? While a certain amount of carbohydrates may be acceptable and even beneficial to a dog's diet, they should NOT make up the bulk of the diet. This is why I must agree with MyPeanuts. Corn as the number 1 ingredient is something to avoid and I do believe it is considered a filler when it is used so blatantly to fill up space.

There are many variables that may affect the quality such as the cooking temperatures/times, quality of ingredients, etc. However, I truly believe that corn (and all parts of corn) and byproducts as the first ingredients is a signal that the company is trying to fill the kibble up with cheap ingredients. This is just my opinion. The Food Debate was named so for good reason