Opinions On Hill's Science Diet

[Guest Labradork]

Hey everyone,

I'm concerned! I'm currently feeding my 2 Labs Hill's Science Diet Large Breed, and up until recently I thought that was a really healthy choice. It's not cheap either, so I guess that has added to the perception (spending more = better food?). Not to mention it sits in many Vets' waiting rooms and is actively recommended by them.

However, I've recently read both on here, and through brief conversations in the dog park, that Hill's Science Diet (and all of its' equivalents i.e. Euk, ProPlan, Advance, Royal Canin etc.) just isn't what it's cracked up to be! I've been warned that there are potentially all sorts of things in these foods that you would never knowingly feed to your dog! One lady told me that a certain brand had car tyres in the mix?!?! I just couldn't believe that, but even if these diets are full of rubbish offcuts and fillers, I'm still not thoroughly impressed.

Honestly, I just want to feed my boys the healthiest and most nutritious diet that I can, in an attempt to give them the longest and best quality of life! Time/money/effort is not an issue. For reference, we find they do the best on chicken-based food.

Can anyone help to clarify what actually is in Hill's etc. for me?

Also, can anyone recommend a good alternative?

(Sorry if I'm covering old ground - please feel free to link me to a previous post of yours/someone elses if you feel this answers my question!)

Many thanks in advance!!!

[Dogsfevr]

I would never feed hills but that is my choice due to the high wheat & corn & that being a known breed issue

Diet very much comes down to what people want to feed,what works well for there breed,growth issues & the dogs in question.

What works for one may be awful for another.

There is no perfect diet but there are plenty of diets that work well for many dogs without any issues at all

Have you followed the diet sheet the breeder recommended for both dogs ??

[Fordogs]

I kept 2 puppies from the same litter and fed Science Diet as recommended by my vet and during my time working as a vet nurse I had of course attended lectures and info night arranged by the distributing company, so it had to be good didn't it? Both of these puppies both grew way over sized (may be 3cms ) and I could no longer show them. These were the only over sized dogs my female ever produced and the only 2 that I have ever fed Science Diet .

That may or may not have any relevance but I would never recommend this food.

I also realize that we as vet nurses are coerced to sell the food that our practice sells even offer us bonuses if we sell enough.

[rubiton]

The best food for your dog is what it does well on. If you hunt through the threads there is one that compares what was fed and how long lived and healthy dogs were had been and really it showed it makes no difference as long as you feed your dog on what you think makes them feel and look well.

I fed our dog on a couple of supermarket dry food brands and she looked great coat nice and shiny then we tried another (came with a huge plastic food barrel) and just that one barrel of the other food left her coat flaky and dull. Back to the old food and she was all good again and the local dove pigeon things were nice and fat and shiny too.

And also if you go searching online make sure that you are checking AUSTRALIAN sites in reference to waht is in the foods (or contact the companies directly with any concerns or queries) - Australian standards are a lot different from US standards and a lot of stuff that you can read on the internet is US based and not actually rlevant to Australia.

Personally I wouldnt bother with the mega expensive food if the dog was healthy and did well on the cheaper brands but then there are others on here that swear by different types of feeding. Guess the key is as I said above finding something the dog does well on.

Edited February 25, 2011 by rubiton

[poodlefan]

1. Don't believe everything you hear at the dog park. Car tyres? Riiiight.

2. Hills Science Diet doesn't rate too well with most DOLers because its got a high grain content for its price.

My guess is that these are probably the most popular premiun foods:

Artemis

Canidae

Royal Canin

Nutro

Pro Plan

Eagle Pack

I feed Advance and a lot of folk swear by Black Hawk, It depends on what your dog finds palatable and how they do on it.

Edited February 25, 2011 by poodlefan

[Staranais]

Hill's science diet is OK. I don't feed it - I think it's pretty expensive for what you get (high in grains), but many dogs do well on it. It's certainly better than most of the stuff you can buy at the supermarket.

If you want to know what's in Hills, read the label, it's all listed on there. With all dog foods, ingredients are listed in order of amount (closer to the beginning = there's more of it in the food). However, remember to beware of ingredient splitting, and remember that ingredients are listed by weight when added.

Ingredient splitting is where manufacturers use several types of carbohydrate, e.g. they'll list "corn gluten" "corn meal" and "corn grits" separately on the label instead of just saying "corn". This means that meat appears to be the #1 ingredient, although there is more corn in the food than meat.

The fact that food is listed by weight when added means that if the list says "beef, chicken, soy protein, rice", there will actually be a hell of a lot more soy & rice than meat in the final product, as beef/chicken are added fresh, and soy/rice are added dry (then they blow up to 5 x the size during processing, just like when you cook rice at home).

Hope that makes sense.

The prescription diets are pretty useful for many dogs with medical issues, they tend to have a lot of science behind them, more like a drug than a food.

[matilda1]

I used to feed Hills to my Blue heeler when she was a pup.

Had lots of gastric upsets and soft poos. It got to the stage where I was worried about her health and digestive system.

She was passing about 5-6 poos a day and drinking excessively to boot.

I switched diets to Advance and the problem was solved within 12 hours.

But every dog is different.

Like mentioned above the best diet is the one that suits your dog.

[whippets]

I use to use Artemis but I did find it very hard to keep the condition on my adult dogs (Osopure Power) and using 3x the recommended amount. I use Black Hawk now and have done so for quite a few months. My dogs do great on it. I use the adult formula for pups as well.

As someone else already said.....you will need to test which is the best food for your dog.

[Remarkabull]

I would never feed it to my dogs. In my personal opinion it is overpriced rubbish, but then again I think that many of the 'premium' foods are. Many of them have ingredients that are no better than what you can buy in the supermarket. I will never again pay a fortune for packaged dog food. currently I feed raw only and it doesn't cost any more than buying a 'premium' dog food (in fact so far it is costing less and I have 5 dogs).

I'm not against packaged food and I will introduce it again (when I can get one up here that I'm happy with) because it makes it easier if the dogs have to go into a boarding kennel and also if I forget to get mince out of the freezer for them I just hate that people are paying a small fortune for something that is not worth it.

[fuzzy82]

Overpriced and full of grains, IMO. Wouldn't buy it. Currently feeding Canidae and Felidae, which works out cheaper than Nutro and RC that they were on before. And no grains.

[fuzzy82]

I would never feed it to my dogs. In my personal opinion it is overpriced rubbish, but then again I think that many of the 'premium' foods are. Many of them have ingredients that are no better than what you can buy in the supermarket. I will never again pay a fortune for packaged dog food. currently I feed raw only and it doesn't cost any more than buying a 'premium' dog food (in fact so far it is costing less and I have 5 dogs).

I'm not against packaged food and I will introduce it again (when I can get one up here that I'm happy with) because it makes it easier if the dogs have to go into a boarding kennel and also if I forget to get mince out of the freezer for them I just hate that people are paying a small fortune for something that is not worth it.

Agreed, I have been checking every brand of dog food whenever I go to a pet store for months, trying to find something I would be happy to feed my dogs (and cats), but have rejected all of them, based on grain content, lack of meat and/or protein, beet pulp and a whole bunch of ingredients you have no idea what is.

[karly101]

I think the most important question is... how are your dogs doing on it? Nice coats? Good stools? A food can be fantastic but if your dog doesn't handle it well then whats the point.

My exs' shepherd does very very well on the Hills Active, anything else he was dropping weight requiring 6 cups a day and it was all just coming out the other end! I'm currently looking after my sisters dog who is on the Hills T/d and he is doing well on it too and has saved us a dental for a few years (he won't eat eat bones and am working on him allowing me to brush his teeth). BUT I also get Hills for cost working in the industry so it also works out to be very decently priced for me.

As for the 'prescription' diets from my experience they work very well, particularly the liver and kidney diets. The J/d is also very popular.

[BMAK]

i fed it to my dogs once they never stopped shitting

[Dju]

The general consensus with everyone I know in the "dog world" is that it's "not horrible food but overpriced for what it is". We feed Nutro and Hugo is very shiny, does rather modest poops, and is altogether a healthy boy, so Nutro is what we're going to stick with

[Danois]

I would not feed it - there is a perception it is a good food as vets stock it. In saying that, I would never refer to a vet for advice on diet.

I have recently switched to Canidae due to the issues getting EP and I find I need to feed less - 4 -5 cups a day is now sufficient (for a 63kg dog).

[minxy]

The most important thing is finding a food that your dogs do well on. Everyone is going to have a different opinion on foods. What others think is the top kibble might be horrible for your dogs. If your happy with their condition, is there any real need to change??

[koalathebear]

Elbie thrived on the DOL-reviled Hills. His coat was shiny and beautiful, his poos were firm. He was healthy. Despite its DOL reputation for being Not Good, we had no problems with it. The only thing was that when we got Hoover, he didn't like it and rather than feeding separate kibbles, we decided to switch both to Royal Canin which both liked. The funny thing was that by the time we made the full switch, Hoover had come to LOVE Hills - but we'd already bought bags of RC and that was that!

You'll never get consensus on this sort of thing. Which kibble? Dry vs raw? Bones (good for teeth and an evil choking hazard), kongs (good for some, dangerous for others), inside/outside dogs etc etc. As everyone else has mentioned, if your dog likes it and is healthy on it - then it doesn't matter what other people say. Someone remarked that Hills was more expensive for what you pay but I've never compared the prices on the various dog foods so don't know about that.

[Remarkabull]

I just wanted to add that my opinion on dog foods is based on ingredients and cost. For the main ingredients in SD you could get yourself something from the supermarket at less than half the cost that is very similar in grain content and it would probably keep your dog looking and feeling just as good as it does on SD and save yourself a small fortune in the process.

I just can not feed something that has so much grain (and plenty of other unnecessary crap) and so little meat to a dog and pay a fortune for the privilege.

This does not just apply to SD, I feel this way about many/most of the 'premium' foods out there.

[OSoSwift]

I personally would feed Optimum (available from the supermarket) before I fed Hill's I believe you are paying a high price for supermarket quality food.

I have been feeding Black Hawk for a month or so and I have one who did okay on what he was being fed but did a fair amount of poo. Now he has small firm poo's like the other dogs, their condition is great and there are no bikkies left at the of dinner time.

[~Archie~]

My Mum's piggy Labrador won't eat it!

I found it to be very unpalatable.

I feed my dog (and cat) Royal Canin and have thrived on it.