Contrary to popular belief, this is not expensive dog food. I pay less than a dollar a pound for this, and a 40 pound bag of this lasts my Lab mix dog almost two months. She's very healthy, energetic, and gets no table scraps or supplements--just an occasional dog biscuit. I'd estimate I pay about 50 cents/day for her food. Some people pay more than that for cutesy canned food at the grocery store, so don't overlook this food because it looks expensive at $29-$35/bag for 40 pounds (depending on whether you get it at a pet store, Atwood's, or a vet, etc.).

I feed the original dry to get the added benefit of the physical scraping of the food against the teeth to prevent as much tartar buildup as possible. Dogs fed canned food get tartar buildup faster, since there is no hard crunchy stuff to scrape at the teeth. I'm not into brushing my dog's teeth, so I'd rather be proactive and prevent what I can without messing with a toothbrush--I do the chew bones, dry food, dry treat thing instead.

My absolute favorite thing about this food, besides the fact that it seems to be the best out there (and I tried about everything else out there when I was a starving college student, but nothing made my dogs as shiny and energetic and healthy as this food), is that it makes the poop piles a LOT smaller. The dogs must be getting more out of this food or something, because there is a LOT less poop than with any grocery store food I ever used (Kibbles n Bits, etc.). When I had a Corgi mix, I didn't even notice the poop in the yard, and I mowed every week! If it wasn't 'fresh', it dried up in no time to a very small, unnoticeable 'problem' (if you could call it that).

My beagle/border collie mix lived healthy on this until his death at 18 years of age a few years ago.

This food is convenient to feed and store, because the bag is made of two layers--a paper outer layer over a waxy, waterproof inner layer. Unopened, it stays fresh for the better part of a year. I keep the food in the bag in a trash can and it does fine.

You can feed this food alone or with canned food. If you feed canned food in addition to dry, you should decrease the amount of dry food fed. You won't feed much of this food because it is so well digested, so if you're switching from a grocery store brand, you might feel as if you're not feeding enough; but you are--remember the poop will be a lot smaller, letting you know that they are getting a lot out of their food. This food has 365 kilocalories per cup. Five pound dogs only need between 1/2 and 2/3 of a cup a day; 100 pound dogs need between 4.5 cups and 6.25 cups a day. Even at 6.25 cups a day (620 g), a 40 pound bag will last 29 days (about a dollar a day). A buck a day is cheap to feed a 100 pound dog!!

Characteristics of this food: antioxidants (keeps immune system healthy, slows cell damage), high-quality protein (maintains strong bones and muscles), essential fatty acids (maintains proper function of nervous and immune systems, promotes healthy skin and coat), vitamins and minerals, naturally preserved with a form of vitamin E, helps remove plaque.

Ingredients: chicken, corn meal, ground grain sorghum, ground wheat, chicken by-product meal, brewers rice, soybean meal, animal fat, chicken liver flavor, vegetable oil, dried egg product, flaxseed, minerals, rosemary extract, beta-carotene, vitamins. I like knowing that the main ingredient is chicken. All of my dogs have always eaten the canine maintenance eagerly. Some I fed free-choice, and some I fed the recommended cups/day, depending on their age and eating tendencies (nibblers versus meal eaters). None of them ever got overweight on canine maintenance either way, so I'm guessing they felt full. The ones fed free-choice didn't eat any more than I would have given them had I fed them the recommended amounts anyway.

I just really believe in Science Diet products. I see a difference in the coat quality and energy level/health between dogs on it and dogs not on it. A lot of people who aren't feeding it to their dogs say the only reason they aren't is because they think it's too expensive. But if you do the math, you'll find that it really isn't. It's the cheapest health insurance you'll ever buy; and isn't your best friend worth it?


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