science diet -small and toy breed puppy food?

[Tardis yorkie13]

ok so, looking around at all the stores in my area , this was they only thing i could find for small breeds let alone puppies of small breeds,

well there was Iams, but i want my dog to live so yeah that's out.

science diet small & toy breed food _puppy

anyone have any experiences with this brand? good? bad? yes? no? never?

i have a small selection with limited pet stores in town, and anything at Walmart basically looked like poison to me - and shipping can be almost more expensive than the food it'self!

so yeah, and if no to this one- a list of better brands would be incredibly helpful- as well as maybe mentioning where i could purchase it?

[chickensmith]

Honestly....I have fed our animals Iams their whole lives. Our 13 yr old tiny chihuahua mix lived to be 13 years old. Our husky is about to be 12. And still very healthy. Winnie is on Natures variety because she had major tummy issues when she first came home...she was on Blue buffalo. The high protien content created a problem for her.
So this is just my opinion....but if you look at the ingredients and science diet and iams were your only choices....I would choose iams.
The first three ingredients in science diet small and toy breed puppy:

Whole Grain Corn, Chicken By-Product Meal, Pork Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid),

The first three ingredients in iams proactive health small breed puppy:

Chicken, Corn Meal, Chicken By-Product Meal

What stores do you have in your area? Maybe we can help you find something....food is a very broad subject and really you will get so many different opinions! What are your main things you are looking at? Ingredients, cost, etc. I know what you mean about accessability because I also like to be able to walk into the store and purchase the food.

[Brianna]

Eh, Louie didn't do well on Science Diet. He was scratching a lot more than he does now, he pooped a lot, and the poops he pooped were hard and bumpy.

I've noticed that most pet stores sell Nutro products. They're not too expensive, and they're of far better quality than Science Diet is. I feed Solid Gold Wee Bit (which I get for $12/4 lb bag), and Louie has done extremely well on it, minus some scratching which I'm pretty sure is due to a chicken allergy (we were giving him chicken treats, oops >_>).

Some other brands you should be able to find locally that I'd recommend are: Fromm, Wellness, Merrick, Acana, and Orijen. Ordered by least expensive (about $14/4 lbs) to most expensive (about $22/4 lbs).

For whatever reason, some people don't like Merrick, but I personally know a lot of people who feed Merrick with great results. I'd like to switch Louie to Acana, which we may do once his bag of Solid Gold runs out.

[ColesMommy01]

I've never fed my pets iams or science diet so I can't give you any personal reviews. I have fed Royal Canin(bulldog and yorkie formulas) to my pets. They did well on both but I eventually exchanged the yorkie formula for Fromm because although my yorkie was eating the majority of his food he wasn't eating as much as I wanted him to. With the Fromm he eats every last bit! I advise you to research the brands first then decide on a formula. What may work for my yorkie may and probably won't work for the next person's. Also, online where are you looking to order from? We order all our pet food from Amazon and it comes with free shipping. I'm not sure if the free shipping is across the board or only with Prime.

[Tardis yorkie13]

in my area i basically have - pet co, petland (horrible, puppy mill puppies and animal cruelty by employees so only ever in an absolute emergency do i even step in that store! ) mounds - which is really over priced and lacking in my opinion for a store designed to only sell pet needs, and Walmart and woodman's (grocery stores that also sell some pet basics but wouldn't have any high end brands like blue buffalo, mostly like imams and Purina .

i can order on amazon but the shipping usually costs an arm and a leg unless you have prime. which i don't currently have.

im mostly just looking for something that won't make the puppy sick or have to constantly be worried about recalls for that would actually be worth the money.

i read about about all these 'safe' brands that you pay alot of money for only to find out months later that they are just as bad for the puppy as the 'cheap stuff' - so i usually try to go by the experiences and advice of others rather than their marketing ploy- why would you lie to me about the safety of my dog?

so yeah, suggestions of anything with a safe ingredients list and preferably around or under $30 a bag would be great if that info helps.

[ladyjane]

I feed my healthy pups Hill's Science Diet - Ideal Balance. It comes in puppy food.
They all love it and are all doing very well on it.
Hope this helps!

[Brianna]

Well, Petco carries Solid Gold. They've only had one recall, in 2012. It was for salmonella, but nobody ever reported problems.

Also, they're releasing new formulas soon.

[MissSunni]

Originally Posted by ladyjane

I feed my healthy pups Hill's Science Diet - Ideal Balance. It comes in puppy food.
They all love it and are all doing very well on it.
Hope this helps!

My vet recommended Science diet for my puppy too, but the only place to get it was at her office, lol. I'm lucky, Sunni has a good appetite and isn't at all fussy. I've still got some of the food from the Vets office left, so I'm interested in hearing other opinions myself.

[Brianna]

Originally Posted by MissSunni

My vet recommended Science diet for my puppy too, but the only place to get it was at her office, lol. I'm lucky, Sunni has a good appetite and isn't at all fussy. I've still got some of the food from the Vets office left, so I'm interested in hearing other opinions myself.

If you're going to stick with Science Diet, you should definitely go with Ideal Balance. The ingredient list is so much better than the other Science Diet varieties. Just make sure the protein/fat levels are over 23% protein/over 13% fat (unless your dog has a health issue of some sort where the low levels would be beneficial). Personally, I go for 26%-32% protein/15%-18% fat for my dog. Edit: Just checking it out now, the protein levels are way lower than I thought they were. Hm.

If you're willing to make a switch, check the pet stores in your area to see what brands are available, and you can ask us questions about 'em.

[ColesMommy01]

Originally Posted by Tardis yorkie13

in my area i basically have - pet co, petland (horrible, puppy mill puppies and animal cruelty by employees so only ever in an absolute emergency do i even step in that store! ) mounds - which is really over priced and lacking in my opinion for a store designed to only sell pet needs, and Walmart and woodman's (grocery stores that also sell some pet basics but wouldn't have any high end brands like blue buffalo, mostly like imams and Purina .

i can order on amazon but the shipping usually costs an arm and a leg unless you have prime. which i don't currently have.

im mostly just looking for something that won't make the puppy sick or have to constantly be worried about recalls for that would actually be worth the money.

i read about about all these 'safe' brands that you pay alot of money for only to find out months later that they are just as bad for the puppy as the 'cheap stuff' - so i usually try to go by the experiences and advice of others rather than their marketing ploy- why would you lie to me about the safety of my dog?

so yeah, suggestions of anything with a safe ingredients list and preferably around or under $30 a bag would be great if that info helps.

I just did a quick search on Amazon (I'm always on there!). Alot of the dog foods do qualify for Prime but if you filter for Free Shipping and 4* and up rating several brands will come up. You don't have to have Prime but you do have to have an order of $35 or more to get free shipping. So say if you ordered a 5# bag of Wellness for $20 and 2/3 toys(alot of dog toys are actually cheaper on Amazon) you'll be at $35(+) get your free shipping and more than likely not have to pay taxes on your items without signing up for Prime membership!

[babnaw]

I feed my dogs Acana Grasslands and buy it online because I don't have a store in my area that carries it. Usually I wait until there is a sale or promo to help cut down on costs and occasionally I go into a big city near me so I can pick up more when I am there as well. Since both my dogs are little dogs a big bag will last me a few months. I'm pretty sure Petco carries Wellness Core which has been recommended to me by several people as being a quality food that their dogs do well on. I'm not a fan of Science Diet, Iams, or Eukanuba as the ingredients are often not any better than Pedigree or other cheaper foods. My previous dog was on Pedigree for several years but once I read up more on dog foods I decided to switch him. At that time I actually switched him to Costco's brand of dog food. He was very sensitive to different foods and he did well on Costco's food and if you look at the ingredients they are actually quite good even though the food is very low-cost! My dogs do well on on Acana though and I'm really happy with the quality of the ingredients and where they are sourced from (Canadian, free-range raised animals).

[ladyjane]

I have learned to look at the company first. Many of the companies who touted great ingredients ended up with recalls.

Ingredients are not my primary thing...I want a company that is less likely to have a recall that could potentially kill one of my pups.

[babnaw]

Originally Posted by ladyjane

I have learned to look at the company first. Many of the companies who touted great ingredients ended up with recalls.

Ingredients are not my primary thing...I want a company that is less likely to have a recall that could potentially kill one of my pups.

That's part of why I'm going with Acana now too, no recalls on top of being Canadian-sourced and using high-quality ingredients (including free-range animals).

[rave264]

I just got my little girl, from a foster home, on sunday. She was fed blue wilderness, but I wanted to transition her to science diet for small breeds. I've followed the direction of mixing the old food with the new food, but today, she picked through and just ate the science diet. She must like it, and I noticed that her poop is firmer as well. So, we are sticking with Science diet until something changes.

[pinkfairie]

It gave Kenzie an allergy. She had runny poo, she kept scratching... it's awful.
We switched to RC and she got a shot and she's been fine since we stopped feeding her Hills Science Diet. Never again.