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E13

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Just out of curiosity - what are your opinions on Hills and Royal Canin food?? A lot of you advocate raw feeding, but I find vets recommend these diets, and certainly there are a lot of pets on various 'prescription' diets these days.
 
Not a guru!! just some ramblings based on a lot of trial and error and talking to lots of people and going through a lot of palaver with a dog who was pretty much allergic to everything.

A lot of vets sell both these foods from their surgeries.

A lot of people do have a good word on the Hills prescription diets, I know a few breeders who feed RC (they have a 'breeders club' for bulk orders) with no complaints.
Used to feed RC a while ago, neither is the worst feed in the world but IMO you can get as good if not better quality for a lot less money.

I think, as with a lot of food, human and animal, there's a lot of gimmicky wording and packaging, snazzy graphics and 'complete' 'balanced' 'scientifically proven' 'specially formulated' - they don't really mean much. They're buzzwords aimed at making us buy. Read the label! What's balanced about a shedload of grain and not very much meat content (this applies to most dry dog foods)

My current dog's diet varies (I am lucky that he is an absolute dustbin :p) at the moment I feed a mix of (raw) whole minced chicken in the morning and then Fishmongers kibble from Pets at Home, very high fish content for the price.

Anyhoo, I've yet to be convinced that there's anything better (generally) for dogs than raw (my mother's dogs were fed on raw green tripe) although I appreciate it is not convenient for everyone and it does not suit every dog, including my allergic one - it sent him into a complete meltdown.
 
How do you feel about the argument that "they have spent years formulating these diets specifically designed for dog's needs, so of course it's good for the dog and we recommend it"? I understand everything you are saying, and do agree it's more common sense than anything else. But for the average owner who is presented with various bags of dog food, and hasn't done any research, they won't know which brand is best to feed.

I haven't had a chance to look at the labels yet for Hills and RC - are these cereal/grain-heavy do you know? Because if they are then surely they are NOT a good food, though I would have thought they wouldn't be.
 
E13 said:
How do you feel about the argument that "they have spent years formulating these diets specifically designed for dog's needs, so of course it's good for the dog and we recommend it"? I understand everything you are saying, and do agree it's more common sense than anything else. But for the average owner who is presented with various bags of dog food, and hasn't done any research, they won't know which brand is best to feed.

I haven't had a chance to look at the labels yet for Hills and RC - are these cereal/grain-heavy do you know? Because if they are then surely they are NOT a good food, though I would have thought they wouldn't be.
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If you look at the labels for just about any brand it will say similar to the "spent years formulating" bit. I have met high ups in some big petfood companies and teh bottom line is profit, not pets.
This country's top selling food is one of the worst available but it has colourful packaging, pretty colours & lots of suger so pets eat it. Hillis one I won't feed ( apart from some of the prescription diets) Canin is not as bad but their cat is better than the dog.
A lot of manufacturers fudge the labelling - especially the meat first part by splitting the cereals.

I keep Skinners duck & rice in as a decent general feed.
 
s4sugar said:
This country's top selling food is one of the worst available but it has colourful packaging, pretty colours & lots of suger so pets eat it. Hillis one I won't feed ( apart from some of the prescription diets) Canin is not as bad but their cat is better than the dog.
A lot of manufacturers fudge the labelling - especially the meat first part by splitting the cereals.
Click to expand...

Why do you not rate Hills and Royal Canin s4sugar?
 
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