New Science Diet Natures Best formula?

    • Gold Top Dog

    New Science Diet Natures Best formula?

    Noticed a display this weekend of the "new" SD Natures Best. I remember reading the label on this brand some time ago and am pretty sure it had a meal or grain as the first ingredient. Normally I wouldnt think a recipe was entirely new but wanted to know if anyone used it. I know SD is consider pedestrian food on this board but figured I would throw it out there. Previously have fed our pup Solid Gold Wolf Cub and now he's on Avoderm.

    This is the SDNB chicken and brown rice puppy food - which has a better label to me than the Avoderm puppy does...

    Ingredients: Chicken, Brown Rice, Soybean Meal, Whole Grain Wheat, Chicken Meal, Pork Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid), Dried Egg Product, Flaxseed, Dried Beet Pulp, Natural Flavor, Cracked Pearled Barley, Whole Grain Oats, Apples, Cranberries, Fish Oil, Peas, Carrots, Soybean Oil, Dicalcium Phosphate, Iodized Salt, Broccoli, Vitamins (L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin A Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin, Folic Acid, Vitamin D3 Supplement), Choline Chloride, Vitamin E Supplement, Potassium Chloride, Minerals (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Copper Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Calcium Iodate, Sodium Selenite), DL-Methionine, L-Tryptophan, Taurine, L-Threonine, Preserved with Mixed Tocopherols and Citric Acid, Beta-Carotene, Rosemary Extract.
     
    Guaranteed Analysis:
    Crude Protein......................................Min. 25.5%
    Crude Fat............................................Min. 16.5%
    Crude Fiber.........................................Max. 5.0%
    Moisture..............................................Max. 10.0%
    Ash......................................................Max. 8.5%
    Calcium...............................................Min. 1.0%
    Phosphorus.........................................Min. 0.7%
    Vitamin E.............................................Min. 400 IU/kg
    Ascorbic acid*(Vitamin C)....................Min. 120 mg/kg
    Omega-3 Fatty Acids*..........................Min. 0.3%
    Docosahexaenoic Acid* (DHA)............Min. 0.1%
    Eicosapentaenoic Acid* (EPA).............Min. 0.15%
     
    ---------------------------------- 

     Avoderm Puppy:

    Chicken Meal, Ground Whole Brown Rice, Ground Whole Rice, Rice Bran, Chicken Fat (Preserved with Mixed Tocopherols and Ascorbic Acid), Oat Bran, Avocado Meal, Flax Seed, Dried Alfalfa Meal, Avocado Oil, Herring Meal, Lecithin,  Natural  Flavor,  Rosemary Extract, Sage Extract, Bromelain, Papain, Dried Bacillus  Subtilis Fermentation Product, Dried Aspergillus Oryzae Fermentation Product, Monosodium Phosphate, Choline Chloride, Ferrous  Sulfate, DL-Alpha Tocopherol Acetate (Source of Vitamin E), Zinc  Oxide, Sodium Selenite, Manganous Oxide, Riboflavin Supplement  (Source of Vitamin B Complex), Copper Sulfate, Zinc Methionine,  Iron Proteinate, Manganese Proteinate, Copper Proteinate, Cobalt  Proteinate, Niacin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Vitamin A Supplement,  Calcium  Pantothenate,  Biotin,  Pyridoxine  Hydrochloride  (Source of Vitamin B6), Calcium Iodate, Thiamine Mononitrate  (Source of Vitamin B1), Folic Acid, Vitamin D3 Supplement.

    • Gold Top Dog

    dcmidnight

    This is the SDNB chicken and brown rice puppy food - which has a better label to me than the Avoderm puppy does...

     

    What makes you say that? 

    The chicken meal in the Avoderm is a better first ingredient. The water inclusive chicken in the SD will cook down so it may not have as much meat as it seems. 

    • Gold Top Dog
    SD is using Soybean meal to increase the protein and fat levels. There's not enough meat in that food for it to get a guaranteed analysis of 25% protein and 16% fat without a little help.
    • Gold Top Dog

    One thing I noticed is that salt is listed bfore broccoli, and to me that means either the food is EXTREMELY saltly, or they just swished a stalk of broccoli around in the mixture and a few of the little grains fell off--so they could say it had broccoli in it. 

    Now i am not putting Science Diet down at all.  It was the only food, the r/d, that took weight off my KayCee after her times with knee surgeries 14 months apart, recovering, etc   And when my old golden Buck, got a kidney infection and had "trash" in his urine, he spent 3 months on the k/d and never had another problem--he didn't like it, but it worked for him. 

    I am quite sure most of the ones that list all those fruits and veggies--well 2 peas in 50 gallon vat could be called peas in the ingredeints and I suspect most actually have very little fruits and veggies, just a "good reading" ingredient list. Mine get their fruit and veggies in the crock pot chicken stew I make--green beans, apples, sweet potatoes and squash. 

     Many years ago my sister and I  were out shopping and stopped to eat and the menu had a bruger plate that consisted of the burger, cole slaw, fries and onion rings.  We ordered that and my sister said 'I bet we get two onion rings so they can add and S after ring.  And that is exactly what we go---a large pile of French Fries and  two onion rings.  Menu made it sound like we we really get an order of them.

    • Gold Top Dog

    Not a food that I would personally feed....don't like the ingredients list or the order of a lot of the ingredients, but I suppose it's still a better ingredient list than some foods out there.

    • Gold Top Dog
    I would never feed this food, but for someone set on feeding Science Diet I think it's a big step up because it doesn't have animal fat or BHA/BHT.
    • Gold Top Dog

     they just swished a stalk of broccoli around in the mixture and a few of the little grains fell off--so they could say it had broccoli in it.

     Oh but the broccoli MUST be important! WinkI mean, these high quality foods with blueberry, cranberry, yucca, pear, etc listed all the way down in the list - of course we pay more more per pound because those ingredients are actually there in significant form.....of course we do....

     Eh, I don't believe in any foodstuffs (note, food items, and not vitamins, which are needed in tiny mg and mcg amounts) listed further than 8 or 9 ingredients down. The concentrations of it is so low, it might as well not even be there.

    • Gold Top Dog

    Oh and before people get uppity :) yes, yes I know we pay for the higher quality protein and fat ingredients. I was "making a funny" as they call it.  But I dislike it when foods use microscopic amounts of relatively useless fruits and vegetables, which ahve been processed beyond belief already, as a selling point.

    • Gold Top Dog

    I remember something my dad said almost 50 years.  We were  eating some canned chicken noodle soup and for some reason there was no chicken, only noodles in his bowl and he said '"Ithink they ran a chicken thru the pot so they could call it Chicken Noodle Soup."

    Well, that is the impression I get of any fruits and veggies below the salt and other minerals.....in any dog food.  I am not a fan of Science Diet, KayCee didn't care for it but did eat it and she lost the weight she needed to and has never put it back on during all these years --she was 85 pounds and today is 67 pounds, perfect for her golden retriever frame.  Buck didn't like it at all, but he got rid of his kidney trouble and never had it again.  I will not knock SD because it worked both times i had to use....even with those minute fruits & veggies at the end.  But I will say it wasn't something my dogs enjoyed,

    • Gold Top Dog

    whtsthfrequency

    Oh and before people get uppity :) yes, yes I know we pay for the higher quality protein and fat ingredients. I was "making a funny" as they call it.  But I dislike it when foods use microscopic amounts of relatively useless fruits and vegetables, which ahve been processed beyond belief already, as a selling point.

     

     

    I agree 100%... I just think its funny that several people point this out about SD... but would never mention it when 75% of the super-premiums do exactly that. Why do you think SD came out with a new formula???

    • Gold Top Dog

    Why do you think SD came out with a new formula???

    Marketing ;) It is a little bit better than regular SD, that is true. There is a lot of pressure from the "organic" and "natural" market as people become more educated and the larger companies are trying meet that interest. It may not be much of an improvement, but at least it shows that they are listening to what the public wants. Hopefully, more substantial improvements will follow. Hill's is a good company, and honestly did a lot for pet nutrition "in the old days" with all of the prescription foods.....they fell victim, unfortunately willingly, to the idea of low-cost and mass-production....they are just terribly behind in the times right now and need to step it up, so to speak....

    • Gold Top Dog

    Misskiwi67

    agree 100%... I just think its funny that several people point this out about SD... but would never mention it when 75% of the super-premiums do exactly that. Why do you think SD came out with a new formula???

     

    +1, this is *exactly* what our vet said when I talked to her last night about what she thought. She originally recommended Solid Gold, Evo and Avoderm to us so she certainly is not against super premium foods. But she said that she's impressed with the new SD and that in the end its all about how your pup is going to get along with the food not about how you feel about it. She sais there is absolutely no evidence to suggest that a super-premium/expensive food extends your dog's life or that a non-super premium food shortens it. Since our pup didnt get along too well with SG we're going to get him back on the new SD since he was fostered on the original and see how that goes. As far as salt goes, she said while too much salt is not great it does stimulate thirst in dogs that are indoors all day which is a good thing.

    Anyway, I know people on this forum in particular wont agree with anything she said but such is life. I've had her for 11 years or so and frankly trust her more than I trust my own doctor. 

    • Gold Top Dog

    Unless this is a "new and improved" formula, this food isn't all that new.  I looked at it a couple years ago and rejected it as grain heavy and meat light.

    • Gold Top Dog

    glenmar

    Unless this is a "new and improved" formula, this food isn't all that new.

     

    Their website does say 'new' all over it, so I'm thinking they've done something different.

    I found this interesting:

    "...the first and only natural pet food clinically proven to provide complete, balanced nutrition..."

     

    • Gold Top Dog

    "...the first and only natural pet food clinically proven to provide complete, balanced nutrition..."

     

    I believe that's because they actually do AAFCO feeding trials, not just AAFCO certification of the "nutrients present in the food" like many brands do. Actually , feeding trials are something I wish more holistic brands would use, because they mean a lot more than "Oh the AAFCO says there is 26% protein because of our ingredients...ok well that is great...but is it bioavailable to the dog? Etc" I also wish AAFCO would tighten up on those said feeding trials, and have it encompass more besides the dog just "getting along".