Why is Science Diet low in meat? Is it a healthy dog food choice?

Science Diet is an excellent brand of food! It's recommended by so many vets because they have veterinary nutritionists on staff who help formulate the food to make the dog's nutritional needs are met. A veterinary nutritionist is the person with the most in-depth knowledge about a dog's needs nutritionally, and many other brands of food do not have veterinary nutritionists on staff. In addition, Science Diet owns their own factories, so there is strict quality control as to what goes into their food. This is in sharp contrast to other brands, such as Blue Buffalo, who do not own their own factories and simply hand a recipe over to make their food. That's why Blue Buffalo has gotten into trouble a number of times for their lack of quality control. Finally, wheat corn and soy isn't bad for dogs. They provide a source of energy for dogs, and should be part of their diet unless there is a proven grain allergy. Grain allergies in dogs are actually extremely rare. Only 10% of all dog allergies are food related, and the majority of those food allergies are due to protein not grains. Grain free food is a current fad that has no scientific basis as to its efficacy. I hope this helps!

Puppies need higher amount of calcium than adult dogs, and feeding them all meat diets will result in not giving them the required calcium/phosphorus balance for appropriate bone development. This will have adverse effects on your puppy's growth in the long run, which is why you should not feed your puppy an all meat diet. In addition to these minerals, all meat diets are often imbalanced with respect to protein, fats, phosphorus, vitamin D, vitamin A, copper, zinc, manganese, DHA (an omega 3 fatty acid), and certain essential amino acids. The best way to make sure puppies (and adult dogs) are getting all the necessary nutrients in the right amounts is to feed them high quality puppy formulated foods, such as Hill's Science Diet.

These brands you mentioned are considered at least in my mind to be mid range foods, it's no McDonald's but it's not super healthy either. same foes for all the ingredients you mentioned, these are indeed fillers, some more problematic than others (such as meat byproducts for example). Dogs are considered omnivores but are truly carnivores, meaning they need mainly meat/fish in their diet, but economically and realistically it's not doable, there are too many dogs/cats and not enough meat on earth to keep with the demand.

I don't know what Science Diet formulation you are using but I would stick with that. Science Diet is an excellent company with a great reputation. All their diets are thoroughly balanced and tested. Wholehearted is grain-free and there is new evidence (scientific studies) that are showing a link between grain-free diets and heart disease in dogs. I would stay away from grain-free diets. Just my personal opinion. Best wishes.

Dogs are omnivores and require an appropriate balance of nutrients as a part of a healthy diet. Most dogs do well with twice daily feedings. Typically, I recommend commercially prepared foods, such as Science Diet, Royal Canin, and Purina ProPlan. However, many people prefer preparing their dog's food at home. Balanceit.com is a website out of UC-Davis that has a wide variety of recipes for home cooked diets with appropriate vitamin and mineral supplementation. I am not aware of any appropriately balanced vegan diets for dogs, but a vegetarian diet is certainly possible. Common fruits and vegetables that Pelu could consume include green beans, peas, carrots, beans, and apples. I don't understand your question about "dollops" of fruits and vegetables. Simply follow any home cooked recipe closely and be sure to supplement so that Pelu does not experience any mineral deficiencies.

No, meat is not a balanced diet. Even raw meat is not balanced. Balancing a home made diet is difficult and is not recommended unless you work with a veterinary nutritionist. When online, home made recipes where tested, 97% were found to be unbalanced and lacking in 1 or more essential nutrients. Unless you plan on working with a nutritionist, I recommend to feed a normal commercial diet that is AAFCO certified. I hope this helps and please feel free to post any additional questions.

Basically, there is proponent of people in the media and in the "natural" food sector that would like to make everyone believe that grains are the devil and that dogs are wolves. This is, in fact, incorrect. Wheat and soy, grains, contain valuable nutrients including proteins that dogs can readily digest and utilize appropriately. While it is true that there are dogs that get GI upset from consumption of these, the same can be said about beef, chicken, and any other meat protein. Rice, oats, and potatoes are acceptable in small quantities, but do contain starches which are complex sugars, and are a little more difficult to digest. In terms of by-products, this is usually referring to any part of the animal that is not the flesh of the beast. Usually this includes certain organs, bones, blood, etc. These products can be ground up and made into a byproduct - meal of sorts. Obviously, the actual meat is going to contain more appropriate nutrients but if a dog were left to it, they would be happy to eat any and all pieces of an animal. As for specific brands of food, Hill's is the brand that I typically recommend to all my clients and which I feed to my own dogs and cats. I consider it to be very high quality. I can't speak much about the other brand you've named unfortunately as I have little knowledge about it. Hope this helped though!