Hill's Science Puppy food , any good ?

natalie1974

Hi , As you may be aware I got a new puppy yesterday :j
She is on the Hills Science puppy food , just wondered if it is any good or is there a better food that people would recommend to wean her onto . Thanks

manda1205

I can only tell you what has happened to us, which is, we have a 21 week old Lab, who is pretty good on the whole but can get extremely over excited, especially in ned places or other dogs are about. Shes not aggresive or anything just so excited. At puppy classes it used to take her sometimes the whole hour before shed calm down enogh to get focussed, other weeks she'd be fine and calm down in 5 mins. The trainer told me it could be Hills food we were giving her, as they said its quite high energy food, so we are now swapping her over to James Welbeloved, which I know a lot of people recommend (also Burns is another one). We'r now giving it a few weeks to see if the change in food alters her excitement at all, we will see I suppose.
I've had so many mixed responses, as pets at home seem to think that Hills is brilliant and that it wouldnt effect her excitement, then others say shes just being a normal puppy. So It's hard to say, but I thought if we never changed her food we'd never know, so thats why I have.
So thats all I can say on Hills, but if your dog seems fine and has no behour issues, from what Ive been told Hills is a very high quality food, so keep her on it if shes fine.

Frugalista

Please, please do not start messing about with your puppy's food :eek:! She is 13 weeks old and has already been weaned onto the Hills puppy food by her breeder.

I presume that the breeder is reputable and trustworthy (otherwise you wouldn't have bought a puppy from her, right?) so it follows that she knows what she is doing and what is the best food to rear her pups on .

Hills is a superb food - I fed it for many, many years to all my dogs (from puppies, teenagers, adults and veterans) with excellent results. I have also recommended it to other people who have been equally as impressed with the improvement in their dogs general health and condition. Unfortunately, due to redundancy, etc, I can no longer afford to feed it to my rather large canine family (I now feed Arden Grange, which is also an excellent food) but would switch back to Hills in a heartbeat if I could afford to.

13 weeks is far too young to be switching foods (would you do it to a baby?) but if you really want to change later on I would leave it until the pup is around 6-9 month old. I know many breeders insist that their pups are fed on the recommended diet until they are 12-18 months, as they are more able to predict the expected rate of development.

But, most of all, discuss this with your breeder - she is the person who will know which foods suit.

Congratulations on the new puppy and let us know how you get on .

natalie1974

No , I wouldn't wean her onto another food until she was approx a year old anyway , but was just wondering if it was an ok food , should be for the money they charge !
you know what it's like , some people think one food is good and others think another is ok , was just asking to see what the general concensus about Hill's was .
Yeah I will let you know how we get on

natalie1974

Frugalista wrote: »

13 weeks is far too young to be switching foods (would you do it to a baby?)

Funny you should say that as yes I had to wean my son who was 3 months early at the age of 16 weeks even though his corrected age was only 3 weeks old :eek:

natalie1974

sarabe

Cute puppy

I wouldn't feed my dog on Hills if they gave it to me for free.... in fact when I have fostered for the Blue Cross who are sponsored by Hills (great marketing ploy - means all of their dogs go out with Hills and new owners continue to buy it) I have said "thanks, but no thanks" to them providing the dog's food because I have to live with the dog.

A puppy can be weaned onto the food of your choice over a 7 to 10 day period.

I feed raw so my pups and new rescue dogs go pretty much straight onto it.

walwin

sarabe wrote: »

Cute puppy

I wouldn't feed my dog on Hills if they gave it to me for free....

Why

sarabe

walwin wrote: »

Why

I think it's a very over rated dog food.

list of ingredients from the adult maintenance:

Chicken (minimum Chicken 35%, Chicken and Turkey combined 50%): Ground maize, chicken and turkey meal, animal fat, dried beet pulp, digest, vegetable oil, dried whole egg, potassium chloride, salt, disodium phosphate, taurine, vitamins and trace elements. Naturally preserved with mixed tocopherols, citric acid and rosemary extract.

Whereas my dogs tonight had 100% Chicken for their dinner. They don't need any maize, beet pulp, salt, dried egg and all that other stuff whatever it may be.

Ruby_Moon

Frugalista wrote: »

Please, please do not start messing about with your puppy's food :eek:! She is 13 weeks old and has already been weaned onto the Hills puppy food by her breeder.

I presume that the breeder is reputable and trustworthy (otherwise you wouldn't have bought a puppy from her, right?) so it follows that she knows what she is doing and what is the best food to rear her pups on .

Hills is a superb food - I fed it for many, many years to all my dogs (from puppies, teenagers, adults and veterans) with excellent results. I have also recommended it to other people who have been equally as impressed with the improvement in their dogs general health and condition. Unfortunately, due to redundancy, etc, I can no longer afford to feed it to my rather large canine family (I now feed Arden Grange, which is also an excellent food) but would switch back to Hills in a heartbeat if I could afford to.

13 weeks is far too young to be switching foods (would you do it to a baby?) but if you really want to change later on I would leave it until the pup is around 6-9 month old. I know many breeders insist that their pups are fed on the recommended diet until they are 12-18 months, as they are more able to predict the expected rate of development.

But, most of all, discuss this with your breeder - she is the person who will know which foods suit.

Congratulations on the new puppy and let us know how you get on .

With all due respect...What nonsense!
I feed a baby chicken on one day, lamb on another day and beef the day after that. How is it in any way comparable to how a baby is fed?

As for your Puppy OP, you find a food you want to give your puppy and give it him. He will get used to it. Hills is excellent for one thing and one thing only, and that is the company's bank account, just like all named brands (human food included).
A 'name' doesn't make it the best.

foreign_correspondent

Ruby_Moon wrote: »

With all due respect...What nonsense!
I feed a baby chicken on one day, lamb on another day and beef the day after that. How is it in any way comparable to how a baby is fed?.

Some dogs can eat anything and different things on a daily basis with no ill effects, however, others can get the squitters very badly as a result of any dietary changes, even relatively small additions of new food to their main diet can cause upset... whilst this pup is so young, in a new home, and trying to learn toilet training, the last thing she needs is diarrhea, not only because it makes toilet training almost impossible, but also because pups get dehydrated and very ill quite rapidly.