My old vet sent me this article

[jenn D]

I don't agree with it but a lot of vets seem to. Why?
http://iheartdogs.com/the-secret-no-one-wants-you-to-know-about-gra...

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Because there is no nutrition curriculum in vet school, what vets do learn about nutrition comes in the form of seminars presented by Hills Science Diet and Purina, and because in many vet practices, the sale of pet food packed full of grain (mostly corn and rice fragments) accounts for a large portion of their profits. :)

[Debb, Lucy & Oscar]

Good point! I think its also interesting to note that there are far more people 'sensitive' to gluten than actually allergic to it, and I would imagine that translates to more dogs sensitive to gluten as well.

[Ricki and Tara (doodle)]

I agree, I don't agree either! :(

[Amy and Annabelle]

My vet sells the Hills, Purina Pro Plan and Royal Canin dog foods. At least they don't try to push it on me, I guess. I do wonder how they can they in good conscious, read the label on the Pro Plan and sell that garbage? However, if you want to feed your dog foods with grain, at least go with a quality food.

Here is the first few ingredients of the Pro plan Focus: Chicken, brewers rice, whole grain wheat, corn gluten meal, whole grain corn, poultry by-product meal (natural source of glucosamine), animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of vitamin E), barley, corn germ meal,fish meal (natural source of glucosamine), animal digest.

Here is the first few ingredients of Acana Heritage: Fresh chicken meat, chicken meal, turkey meal, red lentils, whole green peas, field beans, fresh chicken giblets (liver, heart, kidney), herring meal, fresh whole eggs, fresh whole flounder, herring oil, chicken fat

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

And out of the few ingredients you posted, eight of those in the Pro Plan are listed on the Dog Food Project's Ingredients to Avoid. If we had the whole list, there'd be more.

None of the ones in the Acana are on the list. :)

[DonMarie and Picco]

It's not so much the grain-free than all the other crap they put in those foods and the quality of ingredients!  I do feed grain-free but I also give natural treats or make my own which are mostly grains, so he still gets some but not too many.

Vets aren't any better than MDs which don't know squat about nutrition. I'm one of those that believe they like to keep us sick so we'll keep them employed!

[Ginny Nightingale]

Read the comments under the article to see how controversial this is--people are just plain nasty! (Not like us here on DK :))

And that is true about the profits from the food they sell--absolutely! They do learn about nutrition, but not what they SHOULD learn! Vet Daughter (or vet son-in-law) and I can not discuss this without an argument....

[Lori, Daphne, Lucy & Pippa]

All I know is that my Lucy was very itchy all the time until we started the grain free food. Since then she lives a mostly itch-free life.

[Marybeth & Yankee]

My vet told me on my last puppy visit that expensive foods are no better than cheaper foods because all the grains, rice come from same supplier which made sense. I asked because my dogs stools weren't as firm as I wanted, I had kept him on the Diamond Naturals large breed puppy food the breeder recommended when we brought him home and switched him over to ProPac after talking to my vet. ProPac large puppy formula Is my food of choice.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Marybeth, your vet is mistaken. There are hundreds of suppliers of grain and rice in the world. The companies that make the cheapest foods also purchase their ingredients from third party food brokers who import the ingredients from China. The better companies do their buying in house, and only use North American sources. This has been researched and can easily be verified. And of course, the most expensive foods don't contain grain or rice at all. 

Here is a great resource for information on sourcing of ingredients in pet foods. It's available in paperback and probably also at your local library.  http://www.foodpolitics.com/pet-food-politics-the-chihuahua-in-the-...

[Marybeth & Yankee]

Expensive is not always best, exactly what my VET implied! And I do believe that all those buying in NORTH AMERICA, get from the same source.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

If the grain in one food comes from a company in North America, and the grain in another food comes from a company in China, they are not coming from the same source, lol. The "source" is where the product comes from. There is not just one rice company in the world. There is not just one company that sells grain in the world. That's just common sense. Just like all the beef in the world doesn't come from just one cattle ranch.  

No, expensive is not always "best"; however, when it comes to food, you do generally get what you pay for. 100% fruit juice costs more than those fruit drinks that contain 10% juice. Meat costs more than cereal. And you usually feed less of the foods with the higher price tags, because they are more nutrient dense and don't contain lots of fillers or garbage, like many of the lower priced foods. If you go through three bags of the lower priced food in the same period of time as you would go through two bags of higher priced food, then the "higher priced" one might be the better bargain.