# What's so wrong with Iams food?



## Dee (Nov 11, 2004)

It's been a while since I was here, Chico is almost 2 years old and a real pistol. I've been feeding him Iams his whole life, he has great hair and skin condition, his teeth are good, his stools are normal and firm. I've always thought that Iams was top notch. The vet is always pleased with him at his checkups.

I'm getting a new little Chi girl so I thought I'd come back and brush up on Chi puppy care details and find all this stuff about Iams being such a low quality food. Can someone explain or lead me to where I can read up on this?


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## *Chloe* (Feb 6, 2006)

im not completely sure as i have never fed Iams but i believe a lot of big commercial dog foods have a lot of cereal fillers which arent good for chi's as they have smaller tums and easy to bloat - if anything look for a gluten free food - you will also need to feed much less of a quality food becuase it doesnt contain so many fillers

I think sometimes vets are a little bias becuase sometimes they get commision or incentives for selling certain products

Its all about finding what ur dog does well on - i would also say though that the company that produce Iams do unethical testing on animals http://www.uncaged.co.uk/petfood.htm

There is a sticky on how to score ur dog food http://www.chihuahua-people.com/showthread.php?t=21619

good luck with ur new chi


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## appleblossom (Mar 10, 2005)

My mom is feeding Iams to her German Shepard & my mom is fine with it however I have just convinced her to switch to a better food because I just found out that Iams does animal testing. It also seems to contain alot of fillers, by-products & corn which a dog cant digest. I believe that over all it is a personal choice on the food you feed so if you are happy with the Iams then you should continue feeding it. I was feeding my chis purina one knwoing it wasnt that great for them but they did well on it but I just switched to wellness & I was shocked at the difference in their coats in less than a month of being on the wellness I am sooooo happy that I switched my guys are looking great & seem happy with the food.


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## sullysmum (Mar 6, 2004)

They stopped doing testing ages ago so i heard?


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## appleblossom (Mar 10, 2005)

I think its just a cover up!! But maybe they did either way Im still not going to be buying it for my mom anymore.


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## foxywench (Feb 7, 2005)

ive heard rumors of a cover up, that there still using the animal testing but of course rumoirs are rumors...

the problem with iams is they use low grade meats (infact the use NO meat instead they use By-product whihc is primarily all the stuff that gets thrown away, bones, beak, feet, feathers the head ect...basically everything thats supposed to go in the trash. They also use alot of fillers...the more fillers the less nutritious. a little filler is good, it provideds roughage but they should be low down on the ingredients list!

Their primariy filler is corn. dogs cannot digest corn in anyway shape or form it has NO nutritional value (it would be like us eating cardboard) and corn is the #1 allergen to dogs!

Chicken pyproduct is the primary source of meat, again byproduct means that which cannot be fed to humans, since we can eat all the meat that leaves ground bone, beak, feet, feathers, and usually the head. very occasionally some of the gizzard (heart and liver are thrown in) but its no saving grace when the rest is all junk which again cant be digested properly by the dogs body.

Dried beet pulp is another filler with little to no nutritious value.

And then ontop of everything else they throw in a bunch of preservatives and chemicals! some of which have been found to be cancer causing.

The fact that your dog is healthy and eating iams is good, but its no indicator of how nutritious the food itself is. (my parents cocker eats pedigree, the food is junk, theres no real nutritional value in it at all and its all fats and flavoring but its the only thing that doesnt upset his stomach and the vets happy with him too! doesnt mean its a good food)
Eating things like iams is the equivalent of a human eating nothing but mc' donalds and sweets! yeah youll eat it, it tastes good too, but theres nothing or real GOOD in the food and your just slowly clogging your insides!

the other problem with iams is there are other foods out there of 100% much better quality for the same price...
in my opinion why settle for less when the same price will get you better...

i wouldnt be eating ramen noodles if i could get filet minon or prime rib for the same price...
so why do it with dog food!?!


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## Krista (Dec 29, 2005)

Iams is crap ... the stuff they put in that food you wouldn't believe! It's sickening. There are no laws to regulate what companies put in their pet food, so they are free to use whatever meat source they want, including roadkill, euthanized animals still wearing their flea collars (poisonous btw), expired meats with the packaging and shrink wrap still attached! And they DO use those things. Personally, I wouldn't feed anything to Yoshi that I wouldn't eat myself.

And that's the animal testing aside ... which they do still do.


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## Gypsy (Feb 13, 2006)

The animal testing alone is reason enough for me not to feed them, the footage and pictures I've seen are just horrible. But also, they don't have good ingredients.


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## *Tiffany* (Sep 27, 2005)

heres a link to info about iams animal testing on myspace (warning: graphic pics) 
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cf...&MyToken=a1eca574-744a-43a1-8a9a-a0129e60b6d3

and i have to agree with the others, iams has too many fillers and by-products etc. and for the cost of iams you can get much better foods such as: wellness. timberwolf organics, innova, chicken soup, natural balance etc.


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## canadiandawn (Jan 11, 2006)

The only thing I wonder is if Iams is doing this why is it a private site set up? What I mean is, why are there no news articles on it? I would think that if it were this bad, one of the big ones (CNN, MSNBC) would have done an investigative report to spread the word a little more.


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## *Tiffany* (Sep 27, 2005)

maybe there arent that many people that care about dog food like we do.....but that would be an interesting investigation if they did. id def like to watch it


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## Ms_P (Apr 25, 2004)

I tend not to believe stuff like that on "My Space.com"
Anyone can set up a web site and state what ever they want.

If you want to know how the ingredients compare to other dog foods go to this site http://www.mordanna.com/dogfood/

It lists all ingredients and what they are, what should and should NOT be in foods.

Judge for yourself.


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## canadiandawn (Jan 11, 2006)

Ms_P said:


> I tend not to believe stuff like that on "My Space.com"
> Anyone can set up a web site and state what ever they want.
> 
> If you want to know how the ingredients compare to other dog foods go to this site http://www.mordanna.com/dogfood/
> ...


And this is exactly what I mean. If it's true, I would think that there would be some kind of story about them on Dateline or SOMETHING. I could even go on a site and make up stuff about whomever I want.


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## Jangles021204 (Sep 20, 2006)

Ms_P said:


> If you want to know how the ingredients compare to other dog foods go to this site http://www.mordanna.com/dogfood/
> 
> It lists all ingredients and what they are, what should and should NOT be in foods.
> 
> Judge for yourself.



I just looked up this site and it has a lot of GREAT information on it. It also critiques the dog food quiz that is stickied on this forum and lists some of the pros and cons of the quiz. You can't really base your evaluation on the results of that quiz alone.


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## Vala (Jul 8, 2004)

If your dogs are healthy with whatever food you're feeding them....STICK TO IT!

I think that RESULTS are stronger than "rumors"..... JMHO.


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## Krista (Dec 29, 2005)

It hasn't been on the news or cnn because it's not illegal. Why would they do a report on something that is common practice for a lot of companies? You'd be surprised how many companies do animal testing, and it's guaranteed that you all use at least some of them (unless you know what they all are and avoid them of course). There are more than you think.


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## *Tiffany* (Sep 27, 2005)

yea there are tons, theres a wholelist on the link i put up.....and yea its just myspace but its still accurate info.


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## Krista (Dec 29, 2005)

*Tiffany* said:


> yea there are tons, theres a wholelist on the link i put up.....and yea its just myspace but its still accurate info.


Agreed ... I looked at that site before and it is accurate. Sometimes pages like that can be more accurate than a lot of things presented in more "reputable" media.


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## Dee (Nov 11, 2004)

Well, I'm not saying some of that doesn't go on, I haven't researched it yet, but as soon as I see PETA on any kind of 'reports' I change the channel. PETA has no room to scream 'illegal' anything as far as I'm concerned. As for the food test, I see it's sponsored by the company who holds the top two highest 'grades'. Not exactly impartial I'd say. But I don't want to start anything so I'll drop the whole subject now!

If the fillers and by products are as bad a ya'll say, then I need to consider a change. I'll look into it. Can ya'll list the actual names of some of these foods? For instance.... Wellness. Is that the full name of it? If I go into PetSmart and ask for Wellness will they know what I'm talking about? Know what I mean?

I buy the 20# Iams mini chunks at WalMart where I do most of my grocery shopping. I don't mind the 30 min drive to the nearest PetSmart or PetCo if that's the only place I can find a difference food.


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## chimom06 (Jun 25, 2006)

Petsmart doesn't carry Wellness but they do carry Blue Buffalo and By Nature, both are good all natural foods. 

Petco carries Natural Balance, Castor and Pollux and Solid Gold. Those are very good as well.

Walmart does have one called natural Life, it's is actually a decent food. not the best, but if walmart is more convienent, it's better then IAMS


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## Dee (Nov 11, 2004)

Thanks, Deb. Where can I find the Wellness brand? I was just looking on the PetCo site. Do you know anything about the Royal Canin food?


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## *Tiffany* (Sep 27, 2005)

i think petsupermarket sells wellness now, if that store is near you, if not then you will have to find a special dog store that carries it. royal canin is ok, but not as good the others. if you live near petco i suggest natural balance, my boys were on that but then i switched to timberwolf bc my store started carrying it. but natural balance is a really good food, and not expensive


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## *Nikki* (Jun 25, 2006)

If you think its so good I say you eat it i would not feed my dogs anything i wouldnt eat after all the research ive done


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## Dee (Nov 11, 2004)

Thanks, Tiff.....I'll look at the Natural Balance.


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## Lin (Jun 7, 2006)

We were at Petsmart yesterday and the one we were in was also carrying Royal Canin. I don't personally know anything about RC, but have heard it touted as a good dog food.

OOOOps I should have read all the posts before posting. Didn't realize royal Canin wasn't still considered good.

I feed my guys Chicken Soup for the dog lovers and I get it at Pet Supplies plus which has every brand of dog food I've ever heard mentioned here. I don't think all the PSP stores carry the brands like that tho.


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## *Tiffany* (Sep 27, 2005)

i dont think royal canin in that bad...but when you can get natural balance or solid gold etc those are MUCH better foods


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## Alisha (Mar 11, 2005)

I tried Natural Balance for my dogs & they prefer Royal Canine so that's what they get.I don't think NB is that much better that it's worth giving the dogs something they don't like.


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## Krista (Dec 29, 2005)

I gave Yoshi Royal Canin for a long time and she did very well on it. She actually did really bad on those "better" foods like Wellness and Chicken Soup ... all the richer kibbles make her really constipated  So it might not be the best per se, but it was the best for her. Until I found a really good food that worked for her anyway ^_^


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## dolly'sgrandma (Nov 8, 2005)

My little town only had Walmart, so I started on Iams and Dolly wolfed it down, did well on it, etc etc...but as I researched dog foods (I was really picky with her because I just think everything affects a tiny dog more!), I definitely wanted something besides Iams. We actually have a tiny pet store and he carries Innova, so we went with that and we're happy with it.

I had my big dogs on Benefuls (junk) because it was easy to get when I was in the store--they looked gorgeous and did well on it. BUT, I feel better knowing they are on Innova now. I mean, theoretically a dog can do well living out of a trash can, but if we can give them something good, (and it doesn't actually cost more, because they eat so much less of the good stuff), why not?


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## foxywench (Feb 7, 2005)

I feed my guys a mixture of Royal Canin Chihuahua and Royal Canin Mini Dog (because one preferes one and the other preferes the other).
while its not THE best food its one of the better ones and ive found its one of the favorites of the pickiest eaters. (aka my guys lol) they both look great, have no odor and great coats, and they have firm small stool once to twice a day (depending on treats)
I tried chicken soup and they turned their nose up, tried innova and wellness and they would eat it but got constipated.

the big thing to rember is avoid any food that has corn or byproducts ESPECIALLY in the first 3-5 ingredients. if the first ingredient is chicken byproduct and the second corn...RUN AWAY lol.

Wellness is a good food, theres also timberwolf foods. BlueBuffalo is a good food too (and cold presed which makes it even better (they dont cook all the good stuff out))

My personal preference is for the Royal Canin becaus emy dogs will eat it and have done good on it.

when looking for a food its important to get the best quality but to balance it with somehting the dog does well on.


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## Gypsy (Feb 13, 2006)

Check your ingredients like many have said.  There are alot of good foods out there, you definitely want to watch for human grade ingredients to be in them, no byproducts or corn, or alot of grain fillers as the first ingredients. Your first ingredient is usually what is the most in the food. 

I had my girls on Eukanuba, then Royal Canin and they liked both but often had soft stools and Deedlit's allergies were really bad. I switched to Innova and they did great on that, Deedlit's allergies really got better and they loved the taste.

About six months ago I switched them to Chicken Soup just because it's closer (I had to go 100 miles round trip to get the Innova :razz: ) and they've done great on that as well, they really love the taste and are healthy with wonderful coats and Deedlit's itchiness is better than ever. 

There are tons of good foods out there. Some I like are Chicken Soup, Timberwolf, Innova, Natural Balance, Solid Gold, and Wellness. But if you do your research you can find that there are even more options.


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## Prosephone (Oct 2, 2005)

I am a big fan of Nutro. Natural Choice is pretty good, and Ultra is great! I have found that Blue Buffalo is a bit too rich for most small breeds.


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## Tinksmama (May 23, 2006)

foxywench said:


> the problem with iams is they use low grade meats (infact the use NO meat instead they use By-product whihc is primarily all the stuff that gets thrown away, bones, beak, feet, feathers the head ect...basically everything thats supposed to go in the trash. They also use alot of fillers...
> Their primariy filler is corn. dogs cannot digest corn in anyway shape or form it has NO nutritional value (it would be like us eating cardboard) and corn is the #1 allergen to dogs!
> And then ontop of everything else they throw in a bunch of preservatives and chemicals! some of which have been found to be cancer causing.
> 
> ...


 I couldn't have said it better myself! Because it's wasting money- if you're going to spend more on your dog, why not make it worth it?


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