pedigree dog food

Question
Why do you say Pedigree is on the top five foods not to feed your dog at the vet's?
What are the top five foods?

Answer
I don't recall ever saying that about there being 5 top foods. You might have read that elsewhere.
I would never feed Pedigree or any of the store bought foods because of a number of reasons. Here they are in no special order:

1. The first one is ingredients. Pedigree, Purina, Old Roy, Kibbles and Bits, you name it, all buy the cheapest food at the slaughterhouse, the docks, where ever they find it. They don't have a fixed-formulation, so it doesn't matter how low of quality the food is. What is fixed-formulation? Without fixed-formulations, pet food manufacturers never stick to a game plan. So every batch of food made is inconsistent and can cause some major health issues for dogs especially, whose systems are geared to eat the same thing day after day.
Just remember, you can whip up the same list of nutrients on the back of a bag of dog food with old leather shoes, a few cans of oil and some old vegetables. IS that what you want to feed your dog?


2. Reputation. The food I feed and recommend is Hills Science Diet. Why? Hills has over 50 yrs of veterinary research behind it. It was founded by a veterinarian and is still run today by veterinarians. Most of the research and development staff are veterinarians that were in private practice at one time and changed their focus.

3. Quality. With a fixed-formula, one of the few companies left that use one, I know that every time I buy my dog food it is with the SAME high-quality ingredients, the same nutrients and the same vitamins and minerals as the last bag. That way, my dog doesn't get sick as if she is eating a new food each time she eats from a new bag. Yet I have people write to me all the time about that with Iams and Nutro.

4. Time-tested feeding trials. What are feeding trials? Feeding trials are expensive, so only top quality manufacturers perform and maintain them. Most of the bags of food you find in a Petco, a pet store or your grocery store will have a label on the side, called the AAFCO statement, which states that the food has been either FORMULATED or TRIAL FED to meet the AAFCO requirements to maintain a dog at the life-stage indicated by the bag.

5. Life-stage foods. Many food companies jumped on the wellness and life stage food bandwagon long after Hills came out with their very first life stage foods back in the 80s. A true life stage food will have been formulated and tested with feeding trials to show without a doubt, that that food will support health, wellness and the correct nutrient formulation in the life-stage that it was made for.

When you buy a food that says it is for 'all life stages', then you are getting a food that by law, has to be formulated to meet the requirements of a puppy. So what does this mean? For a puppy that is fine. But for any dog over a year old, there will be way too many nutrients such as protein, calcium, fat and others to maintain a healthy body for long.
Hill's makes their food true life stage foods and were the first to do so.

6. Cost. Yes Hill's costs more to buy a bag of food. But if you feed that bag of food correctly, according to the package directions, which means measuring it out with an 8 oz cup, then that bag of food will last longer than any other brand and will cost you less than a cup of coffee to feed per day. It generally costs about .41 cents to feed an adult cat and .69 cents to feed a dog, per feeding, per day. My cats eat a small amount (about a 1/2 cup) of food a day and that is for two cats. When I fed Farmers cat food, in the early 80s, I went through a 20 lb bag about every three weeks. Now I go through a 20 lb bag of Senior cat food about every 4 months. I am not kidding. They get so much nutrition from such a small amount of food that it lasts and lasts. My dog gets 3 cups of W/D dog food, a prescription Hills food, once a day. A 30 lb bag lasts me about 4 months or more. Can you say that for a bag of Purina dog chow? No. And,my dog is healthy, fit and trim and she is 11 yrs old. She weighs one pound more than she did at one year old.

So I guess the long answer to your question is what would I feed and not what would I not feed. It's a simple process of elimination. I won't feed anything except Science Diet. Since I stopped using cheap foods 28 years ago, my animals have had almost no visits to see the vet (my ex-boss) except for routine vaccinations, have lived longer than their normal life span and have done so in perfect health up to the age of 16, 19 and more.

So why would I feed or recommend anything else? I want your pets to do just as well. So buy the best that there is.