Hills Science Senior vs. Sundays for Dogs: What’s Better for Your Dog?
Finding the best dog food for your pup is critical, but navigating the dog food aisle can be intimidating. That’s why we made this guide.
Let’s take a closer look at Hill’s Science Diet Senior, the ingredients and processes used, and compare it to Sundays. Read on below to learn what you need to know.
Hill’s Science Diet Senior
Hill’s Science Pet Food is a popular dog food brand owned by Colgate-Palmolive. Hill’s Science offers a range of dog foods for different ages, sizes, breeds, and health concerns, such as Hill’s Science Diet Adult. But, is this diet actually beneficial for your dog?
Ingredient List
One of the best ways to determine whether a dog food is the right option is to take a look at the ingredient list.
If the list is simple, and full of ingredients you recognize and would eat yourself, you’re generally in pretty good shape. If the list is a long, complicated arrangement of ingredients you can’t pronounce and a ton of added vitamins to make up for all the nutrients lost through the manufacturing process, you may want to find a different food.
What type of ingredients does Hill’s Science Diet Senior include?
- 22 synthetic additives
- 3 anti-nutrients, including pea protein, soybean oil, and green peas
- “Natural flavors,” because when you use wholesome ingredients to flavor your food, you totally hide them behind ingredients like this
Some of the dog food options offered by Hill’s Science are also grain-free. Due to this being a grain-free food that contains legumes or potatoes, the Hill's Science Diet Adult Sensitive Stomach & Skin Chicken recipe may be implicated in the FDA's ongoing investigation into diet-related dilated cardiomyopathy (or DCM), a potentially fatal heart condition.
Meat Meals
You’ll also notice on the ingredient list that “chicken meal” is listed as the main ingredient. There are a few concerns with this.
First, chicken is one of the top dog food allergies. While some dogs aren’t allergic to chicken, others can experience mild to severe symptoms from itching to GI discomfort.
In addition, this protein is listed as a meat meal. Meat meals and soybean meal are the rendered product from any part of the animal or bean. In other words, if your dog’s food contains “chicken meal” or “turkey meal” as an ingredient, it can also contain blood, hair, hoof, horn, hide, bones, tissues, manure, stomach, and rumen.
When you see the “chicken” part of “chicken meal,” it’s easy to assume your pup is getting the high-quality protein they need, but it’s possible they’re really getting the by-products and leftovers of an animal instead of the real thing.
Processing Methods
Hill’s Science dog food is hot extruded in the processing of their kibble. This involves extreme heat and intense pressure to dry and manufacture the food.
This process is meant to kill bacteria and extend the shelf life of dog food. Unfortunately, it also kills much of the nutrient content in your dog’s food. This can also lead to an imbalance in nutrition and empty calories rather than rich nutrients and vitamins to meet your dog’s nutritional needs. Why do you think you see all those vitamins and mineral additives on the ingredients list? It’s because it’s sure not the extruded food that’s providing them.
Sundays for Dogs
Sundays for Dogs is a family-owned dog food company that was started by vets looking to do better for their pups. With love for dogs at the forefront of everything we do, we carefully formulate dog food that actually supports your dog’s health with every bite.
Ingredients
Ingredients matter. That’s why our recipe uses whole, all-natural ingredients, that are free of synthetics, artificial preservatives, and GMOs. Our ingredients are also free of the top dog food allergens like chicken and gluten.
In addition to being all-natural, our ingredients are also human grade. This means they don’t contain all those animal and milling by-products that are deemed unfit for human consumption.
We also cut out filler ingredients and empty calories, including only the ingredients that serve a specific nutritional purpose. With whole fruits, whole grain oats, flaxseed, whole vegetables like carrots and broccoli, and a variety of other real ingredients you’d eat yourself, our food helps keep your dog happy and healthy.
Real Meat, Really
Instead of using meat meals or meat by-products, we use USDA grade beef, beef heart, and beef liver to support energy and lean muscle. With quality protein your dog’s body can actually use, our locally sourced beef is an excellent source of energy for your pup’s specific aging needs and activity levels.
Whole Grains, Hold the Gluten
Many of Hill’s Science dog food options are grain-free. While this is a popular movement in the dog food world, it’s unnecessary and often causes more harm than good.
The “grain-free” fad diet aside, gluten does pose a real problem for some dogs. Gluten can be the root of gluten sensitivity or allergic reaction, which can mean GI irritation for your pup. You may notice gas, bloating, diarrhea, and vomiting as well as itching if you feed your pup a gluten-based diet.
How does Sundays solve both of these problems? We use quinoa. This superfood is a grain that’s packed with fiber, amino acids, antioxidants, as well as vitamins and minerals your dog needs to have a healthy immune system, healthy digestion, and healthy fur.
Processing Methods
Here at Sundays, we use gentle air-drying to make our food ready to eat. Extrusion uses intense heat and pressure that can kill nutrients and lower the value and quality of food.
We know how important it is to feed your dog crucial nutrients they need to thrive. That’s why we make food in small batches without using any harmful processing methods.
With a treat-like taste and gentle air-drying, our dog food is ready for your pup to enjoy!
Type of Food
Wet dog food is popular among many dogs. However, there are a few problems with wet dog food.
First, wet dog food contains more sodium and sugar than dry dog food. This is because wet dog food that’s canned needs to be preserved for longer and requires these additives.
Excessive sodium consumption can be harmful to your dog and lead to an imbalance in nutrition and serious health problems if prolonged.
In addition to excessive sodium, wet dog food also contains synthetics, preservatives, and chemicals.
Hill’s Science dog food is available in wet and dry food. However, it’s important to avoid the wet food option.
Here at Sundays, our dog food is gently air-dried. Our dog food helps support a shiny coat, healthy skin, and optimal vitality with wholesome ingredients like apples, pumpkin, and beef liver for a balanced set of minerals.
Which Is Better For Your Pup?
When considering which dog food is better for your pup overall, it’s important to take a look at ingredients, meat, processing, grains, the type of food, and even the type of company that owns the dog food in question.
Sundays for Dogs is a family-owned company with locally sourced, all-natural ingredients, human-grade standards, real meat, minimal processing, and ready-to-eat goodness.
Our proprietary blend of ingredients supports toy breed dogs, mature dogs, puppies, and large breeds alike, and is tailored to your pup’s needs.
Compared to Hill’s Science dog food which uses synthetic ingredients, heavy processing methods, meat by-products, and an absence of the nutrients usually found in whole grains, it’s clear which option is the best for your pup.
Sundays’ synergistic blend is the best way to keep your dog happy and healthy, so you can keep their tail wagging for many meals to come.
Make Every Day a Good Day With Sundays
Finding the perfect type of dog food for your pup can be overwhelming. After all, the pressure to be an awesome dog parent can feel like a lot.
That’s why we’ve done the research for you! Our blog has everything you need to know about the best ingredients for your dog, which ingredients to avoid, and much more.
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