A drop in the bucket...

[kclime]

So here it goes, I'm going to speak out and advocate for Science Diet, even though I KNOW it's not what you're going to want to hear...

I must start by saying that I do not work for Science Diet in any capacity, nor do I feed it to my dog. Personally, I think SciDi gets a bad rap from websites like this and other "dog food ratings" websites. Science Diet, at first glance, does seem to have some low-quality ingredients, but sometimes you can't just take a word for what it is. If you had your choice between the chicken McDonald's puts in their nuggets or a Purdue boneless, skinless chicken breast, which would you choose? Now, if you had to list the ingredients for that it would just say "chicken". But does that say ANYTHING about the quality of the meat you chose? Nope. Science Diet purchase their "chicken by-products" from Purdue. And AAFCO (association of american feed control officials) certifies chicken by-product meal to be "ground, rendered, clean parts of the carcass of slaughtered chicken, such as necks, feet, undeveloped eggs and intestines, exclusive of feathers, except in such amounts as might occur unavoidable in good processing practice." This being said, a company doesn't HAVE to use all of these parts of the chicken to classify it as chicken by-product meal. It comes down to how much you trust a company to use quality ingredients. As far as using organ meat is concerned, if your dog took down a deer in the wild, do you know what the first parts it would consume would be? Not the muscles - it'd be the organs, which contain many essential nutrients.

As far as meat not being the first ingredient, the meat that is used is in "meal" form, which means it is powdered, dehydrated, concentrated protein that weighs the same before and after cooking. In many "premium" brand dog foods, the first meat ingredient is in fresh form, containing up to 80% water before processing. This means that after the kibble is cooked, that ingredient slides far down the list as far as weight and percent make-up is concerned. If the meat-first foods list a meal as their first meat ingredient, they are likely above the 20-30% recommended protein content as stated in the key nutritional factors section of Small Animal Clinical Nutrition (note this protein percentage range is based on dry matter basis - take the moisture percentage out of the food, and divide the protein percent by what's left, that's your dmb so for a 35% protein food with 10% moisture, the dmb for protein would be 35/90 = .388 so 38.8% is the dmb for protein - well above the recommended 20-30%. And yes, exceeding these recommended protein levels CAN cause kidney disease and WILL further the disease's progression if occurs. The kidneys have to work much harder to filter out the extra protein, potentially causing or exacerbating a disease that as it is is only detectable by blood test, and even then, usually not until 2/3 of the kidneys have stopped functioning. I'm not saying high-protein diets are wrong, but I do recommend annual blood tests for kidney failure if that's the route you choose to go.

To attest to the quality of Science Diet's by-product meals, they list the ash content of the food right on the label. Canidae (not to bash, just an example, most foods don't list the ash content) may not use by-products, but they don't tell you the ash content of their food. Any idea where ash comes from? Bone. Well, not just bone, but it is the left-over product of any food that is completely incinerated in the cooking process, meaning it is often over-loaded with trace elements and minerals

On to the corn and fillers. The idea that corn is cheap is completely absurd. With the recent trend toward ethanol-based fuels, corn is at a premium in this country. Science diet pays a pretty penny to use corn in their foods. Corn, when processed properly is 98% digestible. Yes, if a dog eats a whole kernel of corn, it's going to poop out a whole kernel of corn. But if the corn is properly processed and ground, the dog can actually digest almost the entire thing, exclusive of the outer-most layer of the kernel that is cellulose - a great source of fiber to keep things moving in the digestive system. Corn listed as "corn gluten meal" is a FANTASTIC source of protein for dogs (which I must add are NOT carnivores, but rather omnivores - cats are true carnivores). To those out there who say "my dog is allergic to corn" - I'd like to see the results of the $1000 skin-prick test that is necessary to truly determine this, and then I'd like to let you know that you are among the minority. Corn contributes to about 5% of all documented dog allergies. 70% of all dog food allergies come from dairy, beef, or wheat. The other 25% come from chicken, eggs, lamb, and soy. Corn is a great source of carbohydrates for your dog, as well. Any human athlete out there knows that energy comes from carbs, not protein - in fact, remember when Atkins was the rage weight-loss method and led to tons of health problems. Animals NEED carbohydrates to survive. Corn is also rich in linoleic acid and provides many essential amino acids for dogs.

Also, in meat-first foods, check further down the ingredient list. For instance, in Canidae's All-Life-Stages diet - after the first three meat meal ingredients, the next three are brown rice, white rice, and rice bran. How many different ways can you say "rice"? By splitting up filler ingredients into different "names" it makes the food look like it has more meat in it, because if you combined the weight of the brown, white, and bran forms of rice, chances are, it would outweigh some of the meat. (yes I realize this doesn't apply to grain-free)

Basically, Science Diet IS more science based than most foods, formulating their food based on nutrients, not ingredients. While feeding your dog a food that has blueberries in it may make you feel warm and fuzzy, your dog's digestive system doesn't care if the antioxidants in its food come from blueberries or a vitamin E supplement (which is what SciDi uses).

Ultimately, you'll feed what you will and what makes you feel good and works for your dog, but I feel like a lot of the Science Diet-bashing comes from a severe lack of understanding regarding proper canine nutrition. I also think everyone who is concerned with giving their dog the best nutrition should take a look at Small Animal Clinical Nutrition easily accessible at most university libraries or for purchase on sites like Amazon. Remember, nutrients not ingredients....

Okay, let the uproar begin.

[Eurobox]

And I should assume that the 'ground peanut hulls' are only premium ground peanut hulls right?

Why are you defending them? Why would anyone that does not work for the company or is somehow connected to/getting paid by the company defend them?

I don't really care, as I will never feed this food to my dogs.

[RawFedDogs]

This guy must be claybuster's brother. I'm not even going to try to teach him anything. He has already been irretrievably brain washed by the Hill's marketing department. I wish I had read this post before I answered his other post earlier. I wouldn't have bothered.

I will point out one thing ... he mentions the great ingredients in SD products ... some of the products has an ingredient called "powdered cellulose". Thats a marketing department word that means "sawdust".

[ruckusluvr]

thank you the the nightly entertainment.
would had been better with happy hour.

[RawFedDogs]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!

I just went back and checked other posts by kclime. It seems his first post on this board was in the thread "top 5 dog food brands" ... Here is his list:
Orijen
Taste of the wild
Wellness
Chicken soup
Merrick

Not one mention of SD!!!

Some of these are pretty high protein foods also.

[ann g]

Why advocate what you dont feed to your own dog???

[CorgiPaws]

Thank you, after a long day, this thread made me laugh.
So silly.

[luvMyBRT]

I stoped reading after the first sentence!

[CorgiPaws]

I stoped reading after the first sentence!

Could that be because the remainder of the text simply did not matter? I love it when people prove in the very first sentence that they have NO idea what they're talking about.

[luvMyBRT]

Could that be because the remainder of the text simply did not matter?

Yup! How did you know???