My vet (or breeder) told me to feed a certain food.  Don’t they know best?

Most veterinary schools do not even require nutrition courses for graduation.  If nutrition courses are offered at all, they’re usually electives.  And who teaches these courses?  Amazingly, schools allow company reps from Hill’s (Science Diet), Iams Co. (Iams/Eukanuba), and Purina, to provide the instruction.  What’s more, many of the textbooks and other material for veterinary schools are published by subsidiaries of these same pet food companies.

From the time they begin their studies, vet students are surrounded by materials and influence from these companies.  Hill’s Science Diet, as one example, provides them with massive amounts of food for their own pets, either free or at deep discounts; after they graduate they are then given kickbacks or commissions for selling food when they start their own practice.  Purina particularly targets breeders with deep discounts.

Unfortunately these companies have monopolized the nutrition training of most vet students.  It’s simply the only training they experience.  Thus you will often hear from vet students the same things these company reps would argue about their products:  “You can feed your dog anything and it will do fine.” or “Ingredients don’t matter, it’s the balance of nutrition.”  Given the expertise of veterinarians, one would hope that they would provide better nutrition advice than this, but this usually is all they are taught regarding this subject in an otherwise incredibly thorough education.

For a great analysis of this conflict of interests, from the perspective of a DVM, we recommend you read "How do vets recommend pet food?"--which is referenced on this site for your convenience.

To illustrate the flaws in the above nutrition theory, all one has to do is consider what modern medicine (both Western and alternative forms) has taught us regarding our own bodies.  Consider the above assertions in human terms:  “You can eat greasy cheeseburgers and french fries, every day, for the rest of your life, and do fine, as long as this diet is ‘complete and balanced’ with the correct amounts of vitamins and minerals.”  As for the idea of ingredients being irrelevant, imagine your doctor stating the following: 

You can eat heavily processed food consisting mostly of cheap by-products from the factories of the global human food industry.  The food can be made more palatable (because who would eat that?) by spraying on rendered fats from undisclosed sources, and your life should be long and healthy.  All you need to do is make sure this formula contains the right percentages of protein, fat, and fiber required in your daily diet.

Would you allow this doctor to determine the foods you eat?

Dr. Randy Wysong, a DVM and found/director of his own pet food company by that name (full disclosure:  we carry Wysong at Joey's), has a far different philosophy regarding pets needing specific percentages of various nutrients.