Science Diet

[Vicki]

Why do vets recommend Science Diet?
The ingredients are horrid.
I switched my new adopted girl to Wellness. She eats like she's never had food before! Now, she won't touch the Science Diet.

What do y'all feed your Basenjis?

[Andrew]

Blue Buffalo puppy for Lola, Blue Buffalo Wilderness for Booger

[Alex]

Innova EVO Small Bites Dog Food

[mauigirl]

Zippy gets the same as Alex's Chance and Kiya, Evo. Riley gets Innova Puppy and we'll probably transition him to Evo once he's off puppy food. There are lots of threads as well as opinions on dog food…. a search of past threads should turn up a lot.

[LiveWWSD]

My kids use the Red meat version of the EVO food, I supplliment the kibble with a raw diet a couple times a week. Seems to work great for them. Science Diet funds a large amount of vetrinary training, as such many vets are trained to believe it is a good food. Interestingly enough this is one of the things I look for in a vet. Mine reccomends either Evo or Inova. I like to know that I have a vet who actualy makes up his own mind on food. He made sure I knew when I first got Charlie that he would be quite cross with me if he found that I ever fed Science Diet. ( I think I fell in love with him at that point)

Then of course when he got all excited about me getting Zaire it just reaffirmed for me that he was the right choice. (He was so happy to have a B in his peractice again).

[Schouiffy]

I second Daniel - from what I hear from my friends in Vet school.. Science Diet gives major $$ to Universities and up and coming Vets - and you can see how they get paid back in full for it because it's everywhere! Their PR ppl do a great job pitching it as a superior, "vet recommended" food. It's really sad how much it is absorbed by the public - how ppl don't even care to read the back of their dog food labels (then again, most ppl don't read the back of their OWN food labels, so I'll stop there)

I feed my pup Real Nature, which is pretty ,much the best I have found out here in the land of Swiss. It's does have whole grain brown rice (sigh) in the first four ingredients, but the other three are all meats and no corn (yay!). I am interested to know what the other Euros feed their dogs..

Perhaps to further extend on food - for those whose dogs are not on the raw diet, do you cycle your dog food every 3 to 4 months as suggested by nutritionists?

[Vicki]

What a difference when I switched Cami from Science Diet to Wellness. She didn't have the runs or any problems adjusting to the new food. Cami doesn't have gas any more…when she ate Science Diet her stools weren't firm.

[wizard]

My breeder recommended Innova (the basic version) and I'll alternate that with Solid Gold.

There's a website that rates various brands of dog food - I have it at home and will post it this evening.

[jenwilson]

Hollie eats Innova dry dog food and loves it. Sometimes I will give her a spoon of Merricks wet as a treat.

[renaultf1]

@wizard:

My breeder recommended Innova (the basic version) and I'll alternate that with Solid Gold.

There's a website that rates various brands of dog food - I have it at home and will post it this evening.

Do you mean dogfoodanalysis.com?

[myran]

I´ve switched from Precept Plus to Orijen without a hitch their poop amount is incredibly small.I also give them salmopet oil daily ,eggyolks three times a week and marrow bones.
I wish they´d sell Innova/Innova Evo over here but no such luck.

[wizard]

Here's some websites that compare dog foods (I've found the first one particularly helpful since it's more comprehensive) …
http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/
http://www.feedmypet.com/dog-food-comparison.html
http://www.naturapet.com/tools/comparison.asp
http://www.iei.net/~ebreeden/kibble.html

[CarrieH]

I feed my little girl Merrick dry & canned. Its the only thing she'll eat.

[Kebasmom]

My adult gets Blue Buffalo Wilderness and my girl is transitioning from Innova puppy to Wilderness. I also add a small spoonful of organic yogurt with live cultures and a spoonful of Merricks wet Grammy's pot pie. My girl doesn't get the wet because she needs to watch her weight.

[Sharla]

Instead of the Merrick cans have you ever tried evangers? My kids love the thighs and "hunk-o-beef". It actually looks like pot roast. YUMM:)

[ChaseandZahrasmom]

@Alex:

Innova EVO Small Bites Dog Food

We too also do Innova EVO, we do the red meat and mix it in with the turkey

[mauigirl]

@myran:

their poop amount is incredibly small

Isn't that strange? Zippy's poo got noticeably smaller when we switched her from Innova to Evo. It's small, dryer/harder and comes out shaped like distinct marbles (around 5-6 per poo). But now I feel like I'm wasting poo bags because they're too big for her mini poo!
We also found that she will eat just the kibble without Evo canned so we haven't been adding the canned as consistently any more, it's more like a treat. And that has probably affected her poop too, the food being dryer….

[tanza]

Evo is all meat with no filler grains it is total protein… reason for the small poo..... if you were to feed raw diet and things like raw meaty bones, chicken wings, etc.. it is the same was, but white in color....

[ChaseandZahrasmom]

THat is one of the things that I like the best about Innova EVO, the poo is easy to pick up.

[Bulu]

We have 2 basenjis and have been trying to transition them to Evo Small bites. Lulu is fine on it, but Benga gets chronic diarrhea if it's not mixed with the Hills perscription w/d. It seems to be the only thing that keeps his poops firm, but we don't want to keep him on it, because of the ingredients. What else can we use to make his transition easier and no messiness?