Are grains and byproducts in dog food just fillers? Is Hill's premium?

Question

Is Hills science diet a premium brand - if so why? I was taught to believe wheat, corn and soy were fillers and should be avoided at all costs. what nutrients do these foods contain? Isn't rice, oats and potatoes better sources of nutrition? Is Natural Balance L.I.D. a premium brand? Also when a food says byproducts what does that mean? Is this a bad ingredient? Please explain. Pet's info: Dog | Cavalier King Charles Spaniel | Female | spayed | 5 years and 6 months old | 17 lbs

Jeffrey Milner · Accepted Answer

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!

Are grains and byproducts in dog food just fillers? Is Hill's premium?

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