Why do breeders feed ProPlan?

I think there are a few reasons.  From what I could tell when I was showing/breeding bichons and toy poodles, my mentors were (still are) solid Eukanuba feeders.  One fed dry plus canned and the other fed dry plus a homecooked mix of meat and oats with garlic.  Both their dogs had amazing coat, happy personalities and small poops.  Each of them has 20-40 dogs depending on litters and handling clients, so I'm sure cost is a factor.  They would buy so much and get so much free.  Plus the puppy packs are nice to give out so that a puppy buyer can either continue feeding Euk. or use it to transition to their food of choice.

Meanwhile, I tried raw and homecooked and this and that holistic kibble and I had coat issues and tearstaining issues while my mentors didn't.

Although I've settled on PetGuard now as my top fav.

 

Results speak for themselves.  I seriously doubt that the dog was ADHD on Purina and suddenly focused on the other food.  That is ridiculous!

it was a blinded experiment. None of us watching except the owner knew the dog's food had been changed approximately one month prior. The behavioral change was shocking. As was the change in the dog's appearance. And yeah, the dog looked "good" before the change, no one would have NOT said the dog was not "doing well" on the food, one would have said the dog was thriving and doing fine.

Have you heard about the Iams puppy food experiment? puppies raised on nothing but good old grain-heavy "complete and balanced" Iams puppy food were hyperactive, had learning difficulties, and were well, stupid, in comparison to their litter mates raised on the same food but supplemented with fish body oil. Sounds like ADHD to me, caused by a not-quite-appropriate diet.

You are what you eat. Of course your diet affects how your mind works. Same goes for dogs.

And anyone who thinks Proplan selects is a good food needs to read the ingredients again. See the gluten? very grain-heavy food in disguise.

The reference about gluten is a good one.  Gluten is one ingredient that will make me go, "no thanks" no matter what the brand.  Why is that?  Is it an awful ingredient?  No, not much worse than other grain fractions.  

Gluten is very, very protein dense.  In other words, you can substitute a very small amount of gluten, for a very large amount of meat.  So you can look at an ingredient list, where the items are listed in order of weight BEFORE final cooking/extrustion.  If you see meat (water inclusive, which cooks out leaving a smaller amount of meat in the final product), then some grain, then a meat meal, then any gluten, then it is the the bulk of the protein is supplied through the gluten product. 

Dogs don't do as well on plant-based proteins as on meat-based proteins.  This is a well-established fact. The other fact is that foods like some of the products that include these plant based proteins are often quite pricey.  I don't like paying for a bag of corn protein, or soy protein.  If I'm gonna pay $1.50 a pound, it had better be meat based.

Fish broth, salmon, chicken, liver, brown rice, oat meal, egg product, soybean oil, potatoes, carrots, calcium phosphate, potassium chloride, guar gum, salt, tomatoes, blueberry pomace, carrageenan, choline chloride, zinc sulfate, Vitamin E supplement, ferrous sulfate, copper sulfate, thiamine mononitrate, manganese sulfate, Vitamin A supplement, niacin, calcium pantothenate, Vitamin B-12 supplement, riboflavin supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride, potassium iodide, Vitamin D-3 supplement, folic acid, sodium selenite, biotin.
B-4384

 

That is the Selects Salmon and Brown Rice.

My dog shouldn't have glutens, as irish setters can have celiacs disease.  Where is it in this formula?  Perhaps I need to be educated for his sake.  We use this formula and this one too..... Sensitive Skin and Stomach formula-

Salmon, brewers rice, canola meal, oat meal, fish meal (natural source of glucosamine), animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E), salmon meal (natural source of glucosamine), pearled barley, brewers dried yeast, animal digest, salt, potassium chloride, Vitamin E supplement, choline chloride, zinc sulfate, ferrous sulfate, L-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (source of Vitamin C), manganese sulfate, niacin, calcium carbonate, Vitamin A supplement, calcium pantothenate, thiamine mononitrate, copper sulfate, riboflavin supplement, Vitamin B-12 supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride, garlic oil, folic acid, Vitamin D-3 supplement, calcium iodate, biotin, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity), sodium selenite.
D-4449

 

Manufactured by:  Nestlé Purina PetCare Company, St. Louis, MO 63164 USA

I would prefer no barley but he is doing marvelous on these two and adores it.   I won't change unless he shows me I have too.  He is a lean mean running machine and for now this is perfect for him.  I just don't know where the "glutens" are  in it.  Regular Pro Plan yes, but not the selects.

Well the one that starts with fish broth? That's canned. The dry food doesn't have gluten? And barley has gluten...but it sounds like you may already know that?

Let's not forget Purina points! I HAD a breeder friend who collected them by sending in the UPC and pound codes and they add up fast with 15+ dogs. You turn them in for things like agility equi., best buy and other store gift cards, as well as Applebee's and other fine dinning cards. You get free puppy packs for you buyers, every how many bags are free. So on and so forth, you get the idea. Personally you couldn't pay me to feed this food, but she seemed comfortable with it because her mentors used it. She had a horrid experience with Canidae as did lots of folks I know. And checked out of natural feeding at that point and went back to what she knew and was comfortable with.

 

I think the selects is the best of the worst so to speak. Out of grocery store brands I think it's the best. but still bad when put up against the holistic/organics/grain free's etc... IMO.   All of the hype at dog shows most defiantly plays a role for breeders I think. They are given soooo many incentives to feed and recommend the food, I believe it would be hard to pass on when you have so many dogs.

Salmon, brown rice, fish meal (natural source of glucosamine), oat meal, canola meal, animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E), pearled barley, dried egg product, brewers dried yeast, natural flavor, potassium chloride, salt, dried sweet potatoes, blueberry pomace, dried tomatoes, Vitamin E supplement, zinc proteinate, choline chloride, manganese proteinate, ferrous sulfate, L-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (source of Vitamin C), niacin, copper proteinate, calcium carbonate, Vitamin A supplement, calcium pantothenate, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin supplement, Vitamin B-12 supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride, garlic oil, folic acid, Vitamin D-3 supplement, calcium iodate, biotin, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity), sodium selenite.
B-4406

Manufactured by: Nestlé Purina PetCare Company, St. Louis, MO 63164 USA

Animal feeding tests using Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) procedures substantiate that Pro Plan Selects Natural Salmon & Brown Rice Formula Adult Dog Food provides complete and balanced nutrition for maintenance of adult dogs.

I was going to mention the points.  It just so happens that someone on a working dog forum I am on mentioned this the other day.  They said it's a huge part of their budget nowadays.  They get buy X number, get X free.  They get tons of freebies, coupons, travel and gas cards - this is huge, the breeder/kennel program.  I would say this is probably one of the main reasons it works.  And Pro Plan is very much formulated to make kennel managers happy.  If our dogs get ploppy poop one day, it's something to make us go "hmm" but not a huge deal (even me with nine dogs).  It's a disaster if you are cleaning up after fifteen, twenty five, forty dogs.  I have a friend who gets in dogs for training and the number one thing she looks for after overall health, is poop quality. 

mudpuppy

Results speak for themselves.  I seriously doubt that the dog was ADHD on Purina and suddenly focused on the other food.  That is ridiculous!

it was a blinded experiment. None of us watching except the owner knew the dog's food had been changed approximately one month prior. The behavioral change was shocking. As was the change in the dog's appearance. And yeah, the dog looked "good" before the change, no one would have NOT said the dog was not "doing well" on the food, one would have said the dog was thriving and doing fine.

Have you heard about the Iams puppy food experiment? puppies raised on nothing but good old grain-heavy "complete and balanced" Iams puppy food were hyperactive, had learning difficulties, and were well, stupid, in comparison to their litter mates raised on the same food but supplemented with fish body oil. Sounds like ADHD to me, caused by a not-quite-appropriate diet.

You are what you eat. Of course your diet affects how your mind works. Same goes for dogs.

And anyone who thinks Proplan selects is a good food needs to read the ingredients again. See the gluten? very grain-heavy food in disguise.

I highly believe this! In fact, you can do the test yourself as you as the test subject. That's if you are honest. I noticed things about myself when I eat certain kinds of foods after a certain amount of time.

 It's the fact that it's **Nestle** that bothers me.  A known unscrupulous fat cat corporate company that owns everything and has so much money because money is all they care about.... Bleurgh.  No thanks.

losinsusan

Salmon, brown rice, fish meal (natural source of glucosamine), oat meal, canola meal, animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E), pearled barley, dried egg product, brewers dried yeast, natural flavor, potassium chloride, salt, dried sweet potatoes, blueberry pomace, dried tomatoes, Vitamin E supplement, zinc proteinate, choline chloride, manganese proteinate, ferrous sulfate, L-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (source of Vitamin C), niacin, copper proteinate, calcium carbonate, Vitamin A supplement, calcium pantothenate, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin supplement, Vitamin B-12 supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride, garlic oil, folic acid, Vitamin D-3 supplement, calcium iodate, biotin, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity), sodium selenite.
B-4406

Yay for animal fat and menadione bisulfite.... those are both deal breakers for me.

Look also for generic un-species-specified fish meal. It almost always is contaminated with ethoxyquin, which causes cancer.

and canned foods go in a category of their own. Even less-than-premium canned foods are often quite acceptable in terms of ingredients.

  Has anyone noticed that some of the holistic companies don't do feeding trials for their puppy food? I did a brief check and although Natura does, Eagle Pack, Origen, and Wellness don't. Whatever you may say about companies like Purina and Science Diet, they do research to be sure their food provides the nutrients puppies need and they also do feeding trials, both of which are expensive and time consuming.  For example; I was doing some research on the required amount of selenium for dogs, and came across an article in which Hill's said the current AAFCO and NRC recommendations for selenium are too low for puppies based on feeding trials they conducted with foods containing lower and then higher amounts of selenium over a 35 day period. I personally wouldn't feed a brand of puppy food that hasn't underwent feeding trials, but that's JMO.

When the shelter I am involved with looked for a "food program" Iams, Hill's and Mars (Pedigree) almost fought over who was going to give us the best deal. We went with Mars. The director and I both were anti-Hills, Purina had the best variety but we had to pay shipping, Pedigree had a local facility within a 30 minutes drive so we could pick up (no freight cost) and the food was FREE. The only caveat was that we have to take what they have on the pallet for us, even if it is more than we need. In January it was 3,850 pounds, two or three times what we need in a month but we do programs for the financially disadvantaged in the community and provide food for the county dog warden. Wal-Mart gives us all the food we want for free but we won't feed it (Old Roy) to our shelter dogs so it goes to the county. We also get "take home" free packs for adopters but don't get a few specialty items we need. If we had gone with Purina, we could have requested specialty items. We also felt that Purina had a better line- (particularly Pro-Plan) but in the shelter world, free is free and we have a volunteer who picks the food up every month so we don't even have to pay for gas. the smaller, high end companies cannot afford corporately sponsored free programs but some regional distributors do so. The shelter in a neighboring county gets Solid Gold for free because someone in senior management at the distributor is very supportive. Nor can most of them absorb the cost of feeding trials.

jessies_mom

 I personally wouldn't feed a brand of puppy food that hasn't underwent feeding trials, but that's JMO.

 

Then that would make raw or homecooked diets off limits as well. I think the dog food companies make feeding dogs into some complicated science, breaking it down into percentages and amounts of this, that and the other.  Who eats like that?