I cant belive I've been feeding my dogs junk food!

That is good to switch, but do it very slowly. Add the new food a bit more each day to make the transition smooth.[]

I wouldn't worry about it.  Although you can certainly feed a better quality food than SD for the same or less money, the fact is, you could feed him SD for the rest of his life with no ill effect.
 
ETA:  Welcome to the forum.

the fact is, you could feed him SD for the rest of his life with no ill effect.

 
That is a very debatable statement. It all depends on what you call an ill effect.

ORIGINAL: maisey

the fact is, you could feed him SD for the rest of his life with no ill effect.

That is a very debatable statement. It all depends on what you call an ill effect.

 
I would be happy to engage you in that debate, if you wish.  Why don't you start by offering up some scientific evidence that concludes SD is a worse food than say, TWO.

ORIGINAL: probe1957

I would be happy to engage you in that debate, if you wish.  Why don't you start by offering up some scientific evidence that concludes SD is a worse food than say, TWO.

 
You're not going to find scientific evidence to support either argument, it's been established many times that it doesn't exist because no one is conducting any studies of the sort, so why ask someone to produce it for arguments sake?  There is also no scientific evidence that Ol Roy is any worse than other brands, so does that mean we should start recommending it to people?
 
To the OP:  good luck with Blue Buffalo, it is a good food, so I hope it works well for your dogs.

I'm sure a debate is exactly what you were looking for, and I'm not playing along. I posted so that the OP..who is new, would know that many would disagree with your statement.
 
To the original poster...welcome to the board. []

ORIGINAL: jenns
so why ask someone to produce it for arguments sake? 

 
Because I understood my point was being challenged???  [8|]
 

There is also no scientific evidence that Ol Roy is any worse than other brands, so does that mean we should start recommending it to people?

 
I won't.  You may do so, if you wish.  However, if you do, I will probably respond that IT IS MY OPINION that OR isn't a very good food.  []

To the OP's point, I do believe that BB is a better food than SD.

ORIGINAL: probe1957

 I will probably respond that IT IS MY OPINION that OR isn't a very good food.  []

 
Hmm...well I don't see the word 'opinion' in your post SD above , but I do see 'fact' !
 

the fact is, you could feed him SD for the rest of his life with no ill effect

 
And then when the other poster stated that others might disagree with your 'fact', you tried to drag them into a debate.
 
 

I know a few facts about Science diet. 
 
1.  when my golden retriever got way to heavy due to bad knees, surgeries, recovery times, etc, nothing else worked to get the weight off her except the SDr/d.  As soon as she was down, she came off it and and went back on her regular food  has not put the weight back on.  She ate it, but was not fond of it by any stretch of the imagination.
 
2.  When my 12 year old golden developed kindney  infection & 'trash" in his kidney's he was put on the SD k/d for 3 months, alone with some antibiotics for a couple of weeks.  it cleared up.  he went back to regular food.  He didn't like SD at all and often left breakfast, but by supper was hungry enough to eat.
 
3.  My vet has a bench champion English Setter, almost 8 years old, has been on SD her entire life.  She is beautiful, she is healthy.
 
4.  Science diet is not what i would give my dogs under ordinary circumstances, but would not hesitiate to give the prescription ones. 
 
And that is all the facts i know about SD that are dead right on and true, and not something someone else told me.  oh, my vet does tell me his dog is healthy, and I take his word for that part, but i see her often and she is energetic and beautiful coat, eyes, skin, teeth, ears, etc.

Contrary to popular belief, no one in the world can look at an ingredients list and tell you how your dog will do on a particular food, personally I like Science Diet and I get better results with there foods than I did with many of the so called "Super Premium" foods mentioned on this board.  It doesn't mean that every dog will do better on Science Diet, it is more trial and error to figure out what food agrees with your dog. But if your dog has nice skin, coat and eyes, a healthy immune system, good digestion, and good teeth, and if your vet says he is healthy, I would not mess with a good thing.  There is a lot of misinformation and pseudo experts on the net, I would stick with professional advice. Dr. Remillard is one of the foremost independent experts in canine nutrition in the world and she has authored numerous articles and text books used to teach animal nutrition in colleges and univesities.  For sound expert nutrition advice you can check out her site.  [linkhttp://www.petdiets.com]http://www.petdiets.com[/link] 
 




Question

If the ingredients list should not be of primary importance, then how does one go about choosing a pet food? Most of the major brands have conducted AAFCO feeding trials, and the guaranteed analysis doesn't give very much information. In fact, the guaranteed analysis looks almost the same for every food. The ingredients list doesn't give the complete story, but at least two foods can be compared to see which one uses higher-quality ingredients. Don't you agree?

Answer

Sorry. The ingredients list cannot and should not be used to assess the quality of a dog food. Please disregard the self-proclaiming pundits who say you can. It simply cannot be done. In fact AAFCO and FDA guard against it.
Yes, many but not all foods have passed AAFCO feeding trials. Yes the test is 6 months long, but I'll take that over a product that has not been tested and has some melodious sounding ingredients concocted by some marketing guru. It may interest you to know that there are foods that fail the AAFCO feeding tests.



Rebecca Remillard, Ph.D., D.V.M., DACVN

I think this gets asked every time you post that - but I guess I've missed the answer... How does she recommend choosing a food?

ORIGINAL: sooner

I think this gets asked every time you post that - but I guess I've missed the answer... How does she recommend choosing a food?

 
 My point is simply, "any product having passed an AAFCO feeding trial is worthy of being tested on your dog if you are looking for another product."
 
from her site - here is a link to the whole article [linkhttp://www.petdiets.com/faqs/display_faq.asp?ID=589]http://www.petdiets.com/faqs/display_faq.asp?ID=589[/link]

[sm=rofl.gif]

There has to be a way to differentiate between the tons of products out there. What other than the ingredient list can you start with? *I'm* not using my dogs to test products [8|]

My dog was on Science Diet for a while, as was my last dog. My dog is now on TWO and I'm much happier with how much he seems to enjoy his food, how nice his coat looks, how his dandruff has disappeared, and how he doesn't have goopy eyes anymore.

Dog food is a hot, hot topic around here, as you've seen! Don't feel bad for feeding one thing and not another, just educate yourself as much as you can, try what you think seems good, and stick with what works best for you and your dog.

Welcome to the forum