Hills Science Diet Dog Food?

[Giselle]

Not ALL vets recieve kickbacks from any of the food companies. We carry several name brands including Purina, and Royal Canin in addition to the Hills.

Verbatim:

Much of what they learn is pushed by Hill's themselves and some vets receive kickbacks for selling Hill's/Science Diet.

Of course not all vets receive kickbacks, but some certainly do.

[Catlady711]

Verbatim:


Of course not all vets receive kickbacks, but some certainly do.

It's possible some do. I have seen some vets who's lobbies reminded me more of a PetSmart than a vets office with food, toys, accessories lining the walls.

Sorry I misread your original statement. I'm so used to seeing/hearing people generalize all vets into the same catagory. My mistake, sorry.

[Amanda+12]

Thanks for the info! Our dogs don't seem to have any problem with Science Diet (I mean, they aren't throwing up or anything)... so, I shouldn't even try to switch? Is it not worth trying?

Our vets office does have a small display of Science diet stuff, like pamphlets, sample food bags, and treats. Not much else, but a few dog and cat name tags.

[Freedom]

There is a grading system which some folks use. It is a guide, a good place to start. I posted about it here:

http://petoftheday.com/talk/showthread.php?t=149509

Two varieties of Science Diet are rated (scroll down). They both came up with an "F" score. So, this means that under this system, there are better foods out there.

I used Science Diet for my cats for years. It was recommended by my vet, and I thought everything was fine. Then I found Pet Talk, and ended up doing some research on my own. I now feed Chicken Soup for the Dog / Cat Lover's Soul, and the pets are doing much better.

[Amanda+12]

I have another question... How many cups of food should an 80# Labrador and a 12# Jack Russell mix eat a day?

I keep saying the lab should only eat 2, maybe 3 cups a day. But my family says that the bag tells them to feed 5-7 , which I think is just insanely too much! What do you guys think?

[Freedom]

A high quality food needs less fed, as it contains all the nutrients, vitamins etc. needed. A low quality food, the pet will need more to get a proper balanced diet; and all the fat, preservatives, fillers etc as well. Which the pet's body may or may not be able to purge.

[Giselle]

Good quality, richer, denser food: An 80 lb sedentary lab should eat about 3-4 cups. If he's active, he should eat more. A 12 lb Jack Russell (assuming he's the fairly energetic type) should eat about 1/2-1 cup per day. Mid-poor quality food with a lot of fillers will require more food. I know some foods that recommend 6-8 cups for an 80 pound dog.

You really just have to check the KCal/cup. That pretty much dictates how much you'll have to feed. Higher quality foods tend to to have more KCals/cup (i.e. Innova has something like 500 KCal/cup) whereas lower quality foods have less (i.e. Pedigree has something like 300 KCal/cup). To meet your dog's requirement, therefore, you'll have to feed more of the low-qual stuff.