Aimee you are absolutely correct about not just looking at the ingredients, but all the other things like quality control and who designed the diets, etc.
It takes me forever to decide on new foods because of the labeling. They often have minimums listed and usually I need to the max. For instance I have a large breed puppy. I don’t need to know the min calcium nearly as much as the max.
I also want to know where the ingredients are sourced, do they use co-packers…none of these are on the bags. Most of the time they are even on the website.
This leads me to email companies directly with a list of about 15 questions and I ask whatever they have left out.
Most companies have been very forthcoming.
As for vets recommendations…ugh. I’ve been having that same problem w/ my vet. I’ve been going to them for 20+ yrs. The owner is now on the board for Science Diet. They have been pushing it a lot lately. Not only are the ingredients just fillers, but they now have a new head honcho at Hill’s that thinks chicken feathers are fine to feed and is using crap ingredients because it’s cheap.
I don’t know if OP realizes that Hills and Royal Canin are the same company now.
Just remember that what works for 1 dog doesn’t always work for another. I have 3 dogs and they have 3 different diets.
