Ahh Science Diet..

I went to a meeting with a Science Diet rep yesterday for work.. oh boy is all I can say..

I'm not sure who feels what about Science Diet here.. but I have to say I'm not a big fan at all.. maybe the vet foods from the company are better.. but the ones we sell seem pretty poopie to me!

One thing I kind of agree with or at least can understand is that by-products are ok.. I never really understood why by-products were considered bad.. since in the wild the first thing animals eat from a kill are the innards.. maybe from the animals we farm the insides are bad because of chemicals and things? But then wouldn't the meat be just as bad? Any insight on this would be appreciated..

Somehow they try to convince us all that corn is good for dogs.. and it's the best grain you can use! This blows my mind.. and their argument was just that other companies are wrong when they tell you corn is bad..
And pretty much the whole time he was talking he was putting down other brands and companies.. We had reps from Nutro talk to us a while back and their presentation was wonderful.. they never had a bad thing to say about any other brands and companies.. just talked facts and gave info on their product..

He also wouldn't actually answer questions he was asked.. maybe he was just a little daft.. but he would just talk about a part of the question without actually answering the question..
Anyway.. it seems to me that all the ingredients in Science Diet are the same as the ingredients in grocery store brands.. their only 'difference' is that their ingredients are a higher grade.. sigh..

I think I'll stick with my Nutro

When Midas had his first vet appointment they sent him home with a bag of Science Diet, I was really annoyed when I started reading the ingredients on it and realized it had pretty much the exact same ingredients as the crappy $6/20 lb bag grocery store dogfood. It really is a rip-off, and it's basically the same with Purina, IAMS, and other high-cost foods. I wish I could find a local retailer for good dog foods that I've read about on here, like Eagle Pack, Canindae, Innova, Nutro, etc. but I have had no luck finding anything so far. I think I have more of a problem with the "corn gluten meal" and "ground yellow corn" in these foods than animal byproducts, I see corn on the first few lines of dogfood ingredients and I know it's a bad food, but unfortunately I can't find ONE type in any of the stores that doesn't have corn as one of the main ingredients.

My two were on a half-raw and half-kibble diet, they would get raw meat and bones, or sometimes cooked meat, every other day, and dry dogfood on the opposite days... I recently tried switching them to an all-raw diet, but after having meat/fish and a little bit of milk, cheese or eggs mixed in for 7 days in a row they seemed to be having more loose stools from it, so I've gone back to giving dry dogfood 2 or 3 times a week instead of meat. This seems to be working well and their stomachs seem to be handling this a lot better... oh how they love their 'meat' days, hehe!! but they still eat the dogfood like crazy on those other days... I'm sorry to say the dogfood they eat is the cheap, not so healthy kind since I can't find a high quality dogfood retailer in this area...but since this is not the majority of their diet, I guess it can't be quite so bad for them.

I find it really funny about how vets endorse the Science Diet and other high-cost dogfoods that have pretty much the same ingredients as the really cheap stuff that the vet will tell you has no nutritional value. It's just strange that for any health issues with a dog, people here and most other pet sites will tell you, "ask the vet, take them to the vet!!", (and they are right), but for something as SIMPLE as dog food, you can't trust a vet's advice, since they will likely tell you to feed Science Diet or whatever other food their particular clinic is being paid to endorse.

There's a really funny episode of King of the Hill that deals with this type of thing, the one where Hank is forced to take care of a cat for a few weeks, and he tries his darndest to get the best care for the cat, goes to a cat speciality store where they tell him all the cheap cat foods are crap and "should really be illegal", and sell him some of their most expensive stuff...then he goes to the vet, and the vet tells him the catfood he bought at the speciality store is crap, and he needs to buy the even-more-expensive "Vet's Choice" catfood

Check out this thread from not too long ago... Tells you what we all think!

http://www.chazhound.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39030&highlight=science-diet

The only way any dog of mine is going on that food is if they develop a life-threatening health problem and need a special food. We had to feed my Schnauzer, who had pancreatitis, a really low-fat Eukanuba "vet" formula. She did good on it, but the ingredients still sucked.

Sounds like we met the same science diet rep!! LOL had a ton of info but couldnt answer questions. Great at redirecting!
Sigh! They train them well eh?

Some larger Petsmarts carry Nutro, Canidae and foods like that. That's where I buy dog food at.

Heehee.. I know eh? Gotta love that..

I love how they come in with all these charts and graphs.. and thats pretty much all they have to back up their research.. "well it's in this chart so it MUST be true!" The rep that wanders about the store actually tried to tell me that dog are omnivores just like us.. and they need veggies like we do! Well clearly they need lots of veggies.. you can tell from all those wolves foraging for veggies in the wild..

Well there ya go. Apparently he wasn't able to run for office so he became a Science Diet Rep instead. He wasn't a little daft, he was avoiding the questions, just like he was taught to do.

Next time you get to talk to a Science Diet Rep, ask him for me to bring his dog out in the yard and throw an ear of corn in one direction and a raw T-Bone steak in the other and then do a chart on which one the dog ran after.


Hudson's Mom, thanks for posting the link. I was starting to feel the veins in my neck stick out again. lol.

ROFL:

Wolf 1: I'm hungry.
Wolf 2: Yeah me too
Wolf 1: What are you wishing for?
Wolf 2: Corn! I gotta get me some corn!

By-products aren't just the inards of animals. It's usually the meat we don't eat which includes the styrofoam and plastic that the food is wrapped in. Also euthanized animals and whatever happend to be on that animal at the time it was euthanized...ie, flea collars, flea topicals...by-products can also be tumors...I know for sure that I would never feed my dogs anything by-products. I'll see if I can find the article that I read about meat by-products and post that link.

http://www.pgferals.org/info/display?PageID=28

http://www.healthypetsnw.com/articles/art1.php

http://www.users.qwest.net/~carrielc/dogfoods.html

LMAO!!!! I can picture that

Heheheheehe.. ToscasMom you make me giggle..

Oh yes! I forgot to mention that the Rep told us all that there are NO dog foods out there, dry kibble that is, that has meat as the first ingredient.. NONE! Did you know that?!

What the rep meant was there is no meat as a first ingredient in any of Hill's products, cat or dog. And there is no meat as a second ingredient. Or third...or...


Hills: The best feed for your pet chicken.

Petcos carry Natural Balance if you have one of those in your town...

I was waiting for that

Even chickens wouldn't eat Hills! They like their corn *without* rancid oil.

You mean Science Diet *isn't* a good food?!?!

LOL at chasing the ear of corn. What dog wouldn't run after the corn over the steak?

You should listen more to the Hill's reps... vets recommend their food so obviously it is good.