Willow is my best friend, my spirit animal if you will. She has always given me her 100%, so I always want to give her the best care possible. Willow has been spoiled since the day she got into the car with us to go home. She has always had the best of the best; a lavish bed, crazy amounts of toys but most importantly she has always been fed the right kind of food. Willow is now going on 3 years and is in amazing health and we are complimented consistently on her soft, shiny coat. Whenever people (vets included) ask, "How did you get her coat to look this good, you must groom her a lot?" My answer is always the same, I believe its 100,000% due to her diet.
Rewinding a bit back to when Willow was a puppy and Shane and I were trying to decide what food was going to be best for her....A lot of close family members and friends warned us to not feed Willow the generic dog food that you can buy at say a Petco or Walmart because of all of the additives and grain that
When I took to Google and looked into the dog food industry, I was shocked to say the least. Now keep in mind before going further that you have to dig deep for this kind of information. Huge companies such as, Science Diet/Hills Dog Food/, have so much money and control that they make it nearly impossible for credible publications to come out to the masses. Hence why a lot of my research came from forums and review sites such as:
http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/forums/topic/science-diet-killed-my-dogs/
http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/forums/topic/science-diet-killed-my-dogs/
http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/forums/topic/science-diet-killed-my-dogs/
http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-reviews/purina-dog-chow/
And the list goes on!
On those forums/review pages, you can read many horribly tragic stories of different issues, some potentially fatal, that Science Diet in has said to have caused. I encourage you to read the comments of real people's experiences with these foods. There are plenty of other HUGE dog food companies out there that have almost the same reviews (IAMS, Purina, etc.). I am not here to write out all of the brands to NOT feed your fur baby...but what I will do is provide you with the top 10 dog food brands in my opinion!
Top Ten (Dry) Dog Foods:
1. Orijen
2. Acana
3. Fromm
4. Pinnacle
5. Merrick
6. Pure Vita
7. Natural Planet
8. Taste of the Wild
9. Nature's Variety
10. Blue Buffalo
Once Shane and I finally made the decision to put Willow on Nature's Variety Instinct we had a few more speed bumps to face...
We received a lot of concerning looks from our Veterinarians (we had a few due to us moving!) after they discovered that we were feeding her an 'All Life Stage Formula' and they would always try to push, more commonly then not, Science Diet on us as the best food to be feeding our babes.
The first time this occurred, I was concerned, I thought, "how could my 30 minute Google search be right and this Vet who went to school for this specific category of medicine be wrong?" So yet again I was off to another Google searching party...and after hours of reading different forums, reviews and actually talking one on one with some, my mind was made up...somehow that trained professional was wrong.
After diving deeper into information and research on this category, I came across a retired Veterinarian who informed me that big name companies such as, Science Diet, Iams, Purina, etc. offer to pay veterinarian students school bills (his included), as long as that student will promote the brand once they are an established Veterinarian. Once I heard this fun little fact, it all became crystal clear as to why all of those damn vets were pushing these bad foods on not only us, but every customer who walked into their practice.
One night, after coming home from a Vet visit with a complimentary bag of Science Diet to "just try," insisted by the vet... Shane and I couldn't help butcompare the Acana dog food (what Willow is on currently) with the Science Diet, we went down the list of ingredients side by side and this is what we found...
Ingredients found in Science Diet:
Chicken, Brewers Rice, Whole Grain Wheat, Cracked Pearled Barley, Whole Grain Sorghum, Whole Grain Corn, Corn Gluten Meal, Chicken Meal, Animal Fat (preserved with Mixed Tocopherols and Citric Acid), Chicken Liver Flavor, Soybean Oil, Dried Beet Pulp, Wheat Gluten, Lactic Acid, Potassium Chloride, Flaxseed, Iodized Salt, Choline Chloride,
Supplements
(Vitamin E Supplement, L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (source of Vitamin C), Niacin Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin A Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin Supplement, Folic Acid, Vitamin D3 Supplement), minerals (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Copper Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Calcium Iodate, Sodium Selenite), Taurine, Dicalcium Phosphate, Oat Fiber, Mixed Tocopherols added to retain freshness, Citric Acid added to retain freshness, Phosphoric Acid, Beta-Carotene, Rosemary Extract, Dried Apples, Dried Broccoli, Dried Carrots, Dried Cranberries, Dried Peas
Ingridiants found in Acana:
Deboned chicken, chicken meal, green peas, turkey meal, chicken liver oil, field beans, red lentils, deboned turkey, whole egg, deboned walleye, sun-cured alfalfa, pea fibre, chicken liver, herring oil, apples, pears, pumpkin, butternut squash, parsnips, carrots, spinach greens, cranberries, blueberries, kelp, chicory root, juniper berries, angelica root, marigold flowers, sweet fennel, peppermint leaf, lavender, rosemary.
Supplements
Vitamin A supplement, vitamin D3 supplement, vitamin E supplement, zinc proteinate, copper proteinate, dried Enterococcus faecium fermentation product.
Here is a link that will let you compare some of the most popular "bad dog foods with Blue Buffalo-----> http://bluebuffalo.com/true-blue-test
Highlighted in Yellow: I have highlighted the things that you should STAY AWAY from when looking for a dog food...and hey I didn't even have to add any in...Science Diet covered all the bases by putting in a plethora of things dogs shouldn't be eating!! The most uncommonly known fact is that dogs are not suppose to have grain (note that there are MULTIPLE kinds of grains in the Science Diet ingredients list)
What I really wanted to do was highlight all of SD's ingredients however, dogs do like chicken ;]
Another thing to note is that if you look under the supplements area on SD, you can see they put a lot of dried vegetables versus Acana who use fresh vegetables in order to get the full nutritional benefit out of each one!!
Here is a link to read more about dogs and grain--->
In closing, I would like to just mention that I do realize that the better foods are more expensive however, you get what you pay for. Science Diet and others are the McDonalds of the dog food world.... and we all watched 'Super Size Me', ain't nobody should be eating McD's everyday! :D
Thanks for reading... I would love to hear my reader's personal accounts and opinions on this matter...they more conversation the more progress we will have!
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***Although the top 10 foods are listed as best 'dog' foods...all of those brands make cat food as well...and the same arguments can be made as to why you should switch your little meow over to a food that will help them live a longer happier life! :D
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