Hi Mary-
Veterinary Theraputic diets are made for specific illness and disease processes. They are not intended for healthy pets. Therefore when your vet is recommending one of these diets, its to help manage those disease processes.
Veterinary nutritionists do not use an ingredient deck to evaluate the quality of a pet food as it tells you very little about the food besides what’s in it. It does not tell you the quality of the raw materials, the manufacturing process, how the raw materials are stored and handled, the companies quality control procedures or who is formulating the diet and what credentials they have. Nutritionists prefer to use this set of guidelines when choosing a pet food http://www.wsava.org/sites/default/files/Recommendations%20on%20Selecting%20Pet%20Foods.pdf
I suggest you start there when asking yourself these questions. It’s great to have discussions like this with friends or as part of a public forum, but the opinions expressed should never be misconstrued as fact.
I personally also feed a vet recommended diet and have found it works best for my pets out of the countless “better” brands I’ve tried.
