Violet, Thanks for writing! You are not alone, having had great results with Hills. I had such a great life spending 34 years in vet clinics every day and seeing how Hills diets helped manage horrible diseases and save so many lives. For an animal lover, no better job! The recall was devastating to me. How could such a thing happen? because lawyers got involved so quickly it was hard to get valid info. But basically, Hills had a supplier in TX that provided premixed vitamin/ mineral supplements that Hills used. This supplier had been trusted for 15 years and had rose to a level of trust, I forget the term, but like a certified supplier. Well, they screwed up a batch they sold us, which could have been sold to anyone. I believe, because of their status, hills was trusting them to test and certify the finished product rather than testing it themselves. like other suppliers. That seems to be accurate because the batch was not tested by Hills. My heart breaks for anyone who lost their pet due to the food that was contaminated but it is strange that I as a rep had 110 hospitals and had no deaths. In fact, most dog owners said they saw no effect on their pets, including many Hills employees and others had diarrhea or vomiting short term. I of course, also talked with other reps throughout the country who had similar stories, so the claim of hundreds or thousands of dogs dying seems inaccurate to me. It was just canine cans, no dry, no feline product at all. the next morning talking with one of my vets, sick over the news, he suggested I think about the decades of good Hils has done in saving thousands and thousands of pets. Human error happens. the people that go after Hills will totally ignore all the animals Hills saved and the literal millions of dollars spend on canine and feline nutrition research, clearly more than any other food company, and will focus on that one event. and since that recall, Hills nutritionists and chemists have launched more diets with the most innovative research in GI microbiome, cancer management, dermatitis, etc. yet the people attacking Hills ignore that and get sucked into playing that ingredient game of what's the first ingredient or My Dog is A Wolf BS! sorry for the rant butyes, its a touchy subject with me! 💔

I’m learning from the best!

If the pet food corporations were honest about the ingredients and nutrients in the food, there would not be conspiracy theories and you and Glen would not have to do these videos. How many foods have you reviewed that you say are not good? "All life stages," ingredient splitting, holistic food, ancient grains, extra protein. Hiding the nutrient levels. As Yul Brynner said in "The King and I," etcetera, etcetera, etcetera!

I guess there's always been snake oi salesmen (now women too) but reading the comments of caring pet parents watching all those misleading videos was too much for me! So when I found Dr Rea I thought I should add my voice too! I realize Im just small potatoes on KZfaq but at least I'm doing something!@@edschulhof6303

MARS makes Royal canin. The same company that makes all those poisonous and disgusting junk food for humans. Huge huge multi billion dollar corporations have never had anyone’s best interest and especially not health in mind.

So you admit that it’s a marketing gimmick to sell food that is breed specific….but still stand by the company whole heartedly???

Glad it was helpful!

Iris, I’m glad you found me and especially Dr Rea. She’s awesome. She was actually my first subscriber!

Thanks so much!

I appreciate the kind words! We all love those crazy furry creatures!

Of course you have to have a big dog needing expensive food. I did a 3 part video on allergies and options you’ll find in my video list.

That is awesome! Great!

That makes total sense to me. with that breed, watching their weight is critical. Thanks for the compliment!

Glad it helped

Kelly, Hills does not make any organic foods and they don't promote using non GMO. if they did, I would probably buy it. I realize there is no hard evidence that organic is better for us but it just seems right. GMO's scare me to death. I love science but are we going too far and being naive about unforeseen consequences? but if I try and stay with what we do know, excess protein, minerals, etc are harmful to our pets as they age and definitely increase the risk of clinical disease. So for that reason I stick with Hills.

LOL! Yes, finally did RC! working on a feline Hairball Diet comparison and using RC again! But spoiler alert....they won't be happy! i actually spoke with the folks at Farmina about a year ago and checked out a few of their diets. Though their protein levels were a bit high for my taste , their mineral levels were excellent. I really need to do a comparison on them. As far a DCM, I don't really feel qualified. there are many more questions then answers. There seems to be a connection but doesn't seem to be causal in nature. We had the same issue with cats back in the 80s and solved it by supplementing taurine in every cat food brand but still never answered many questions about why there were deficiencies when there was enough taurine in the diet. To me, it proves all nutrients/ingredients act on each other and formulating a diet is much more complicated than people realize. when the industry is run by marketers choosing ingredients based on marketing and not science, bad things can happen. Personally I wont feed a grain free food, but mainly because I refuse to buy into and encourage the dishonest marketing of it!

Hey Dan, there’s really no need for specific size diets after the animal reaches adult size and weight. Any of the Adult diets would be fine. If your dog turns out to be very energetic and can’t maintain weight, the ProPlan Sport is a good option. If finicky, which I doubt with those breeds, the Hills Sensitive Stomach and Skjn is a winner. I fed it for years. My kids dogs all do fine on Adult, Large Breed Adult, and Adult Small Bites, all casually the same nutritional value.

Eggs are a great addition, just remember no more than 10% should be other foods from the diet. Canned is pretty expensive compared to dry. I put some boiling water in with the dry and let it sit for a few minutes and my girls think thats a treat! there are some other flavors of Hills Adult diets too! you can try them and just take back to the store for a refund if they arent happy with it.

Oh sorry! No, Hills cans don’t have boa, according to a few sources.

@@PetFoodPuzzleGuy thank you, seriously I owe you a Christmas present or something for all the valuable information you share all the time!! I actually called Hills this morning. They gave me great service!! They also confirmed their cans are bpa free. Thanks for the tip about boiling water added to kibble to make it a treat because yes the canned is very expensive. I did buy some this morning, but I'll try your advice too. My dog is sooooo picky (his breeder fed him raw, and I just continued on until I found your channel....another reason to not feed raw is it makes them not want to eat anything else). I forgot to mention, you have lovely grandchildren, so brave to have them all at your house though lol! I have two teenagers, my dog, and two cats are my therapy lol!!

Hope you feel better. question . do i need to call the companies to get the nutrients? 23:12 mineral and phosh what about meat coated stella & chewys.

@@christineperry4700 yeah, it’s a pain but most companies don’t put the info on their websites. Mostly flowery propaganda!

to be honest, I don't think I could survive all of them all the time at once! Four are in MN and four around the corner that we help raise since my son is a single dad, all adopted from foster care! Life comes with surprises, doesn't it!

@@PetFoodPuzzleGuy Life swerves, indeed!

I bet she is beautiful! The main concern of giant puppies is not feeding for maximum growth too fast. We raised 4 Berners and a Lab on that diet and they did great. Large Breed Puppy foods will work fine for her. I did a video on Large Breed Puppy foods. That might help your anxiety. Puppies are all different as far as which puppy foods they do well on. Personally if she doesn’t do well on Hills I’d try ProPlan Large Breed Puppy. Don’t worry if she doesn’t eat the amt on the bag. Just judge her size and weight as she grows. No supplements as a puppy. The food is balancing all that. Best of luck! And no, I’ve been off the payroll for 19 months now! But they should pay me! lol!

Thank you so much for your reply! She is a HUGE handful but worth every minute! 😊 I appreciate your input and will be transitioning to Hills soon!

My daughter has two pit bull mix that are rescues. They eat mostly dry food. They also get table scraps. My daughter is a trained chef. The dogs also get some freeze dried food added to the kibble. You could start by asking your veterinarian. He/she knows your dog.

Kelli, just remember everything you feed delivers nutrients. If you’re feeding a good balanced diet you don’t need to add more nutrients. Having said that, the general rule from nutritionists is 10% additional food is fine. I’d use egg, fresh verges, even good table scraps, rather than an expensive prepared diet. I never added table scraps but now that my girls and I are getting older, I enjoy spoiling them a little. But if I overdo it they throw up or get diarrhea ! So a little extra is fine but not necessary. Keeping them lean does more for longevity!

@@PetFoodPuzzleGuy GREAT answer! Thank you!

Great information, Glenn.

You won’t find any real info on the bag. You need to try website but I usually have to call them.

You've got a good vet! he's barely making any profit on that. Good for him! and you!

Claire, I trust the main brands with their lower calcium and fat to reduce rapid growth rate. There’s really not a big need for large breed adult diets.

Can’t enlighten you much! It’s a great question! That’s why I am not a big fan of Purina and Mars. They both do great research and make some great diets. Then they turn around and make very unhealthy diets! They know better! Perhaps they’re so huge that profit becomes too tempting? It shows it’s a challenge for the big three to decide between profit and nutritional value. But I suppose even small companies have to decide the same thing! I continue to watch Hills, hoping they never compromise quality. So far so good! And they still don’t make any bad foods.

@@PetFoodPuzzleGuy Thank you for your input! By the way, I just happened to browse around the Hill's Canada website and there seems to be one of the SD formula which is grain free: "Hill's® Science Diet® Adult Sensitive Stomach & Skin Grain Free dog food" with chicken, yellow peas and potatoes as the first three ingredients. As to the Calcium and Phosphorus levels they are at : 1.08% (C) and .75% (P). I know your numbers are in mg but Dr Rea's numbers are in % and according to her reference chart, C should be at 1% max and P at 0.8% max. It seems like the levels are still pretty good for this grain free recipe but what do you make of the first 3 ingredients and the grain free formula? Isn't that a first for SD?

Rodrigo, it’s getting like everything else. There’s too much money in it these days.

Yes! I’m impressed! What food is that?

Royal canin golden retriever adult dry

@@StephanieStoudt-uv8nv good to note!

Dunbar, I agree the breed specific is a bit much but most RC formulas are good. Your instincts are correct. Easier to rule out brands first.

@@PetFoodPuzzleGuy Our second bag is Purina Beta, which is sort of the equivalent of Purina One. Over here Purina has Pro Plan, which is the same. But then it goes down to Beta and then at the supermarkets they have Bakers. I think Bakers is the marketing equivalent of Dog Chow. They also have a brand called Winalot in the supermarkets and I don't know where that fits in. There's a wet food that's been around for ages called Butcher's. It's grain free but they don't use legumes to bulk it out. It's really just mostly meat. I mix that with the Purina kibble because I just don't feel good putting a small amount of kibble in the bowl. (He's a small dog!) I think this is just my human emotions. We often think of food = love and I enjoy doing a bit of easy prep, it's like I'm satisfying my own desire to nurture. But I have been pureing some mixed frozen veg (broccoli, cauliflower and carrots) and using that to bulk it out without adding too many calories and I think I could leave out the wet food entirely and just use the veggies, thereby relying on the Purina formula for my dog's macros and micro nutrients. What do you think about that? He's an active dog and a healthy weight and doesn't seem very picky about food, so I'm lucky.

@@dumbartonyankee I’m not a fan of toppers for that very reason of throwing off the balance of the diet. The verges would be much better idea. Sounds like your pup is lucky to have you!

@@PetFoodPuzzleGuy I'm the lucky one!

What are u feeding now

I am trying Rachel Ray's Chicken and Rice. So far so good.

@@luciking1745 I have a few videos on cat food comparisons. I like Science Diet and Purina ONE Urinary Care. And Iams as a budget food.

Hey Warren, had to make a few calls on your question. Turned out lamb as an ingredient will drive calcium higher than chicken. The minerals are a bit higher in the m lamb version across the board. This is a great example of choosing ingredients based on preference or variety, but ignoring every ingredient delivers certain nutrients. The Lamb diets are within healthy parameters so that’s fine but as you noticed, the antioxidant package is much higher. Again, that’s based on all the ingredients. As someone who didn’t look at Science Diet much since my main focus was Prescription, this is all news to me! Great question!

Thanks Glen. I now also follow the Nutrience levels. New to me. Opened my eyes on food. I think I will assume with adult sensitive skin adult science diet. Gis snacks on science diet dental. Need to start photo gallery all for all you followers to add they healthy pets. Have great weekend.

Glenn. I am now a " show me Your Nutrients ". Learned a lot from you. Lots of " so call experts who do not know much of nutrition" Question Gus is 50 lbs in great shape. I fed him science diet adult chicken. Then give him Science diet dental as treats. I feel Glucosamine is important. But only the large breed science diet has it. Can I feed my Gus the large breed. What is the difference.

@@warrenhorowitz-vp6ul you absolutely can, or you can buy Cosequin at Costco. I just started One of mine on that.

Just ordered it at Costco. Thanks