dry dogfood

[JenBKR]

Haha yeah it's a PETA website -- one of their dozens...

If you scroll to the bottom of the page it has their logo. Not only that, but when I first found it, it was a link on their main website.

Oh geez, I completely missed that. Ok, never mind about the website, we all know PETA can't be trusted. Thanks for pointing that out!

[Jessika]

Well personally I dislike IAMs not because of the PETA rumors but the food quality and ingredients aren't exactly what I would want to be feeding to my dogs, you know?? But to each his own -- feed what you can afford! There is no "bad" dog food, the only "bad" dog food is not feeding anything at all! Sure some are "better" than others and I really wish to feed my dogs hte absolute best quality within my price range (hence why I'm not feeding Innova!) but any food keeps them alive

[dab_20]

well my dogs do very well on iams. so what could be sooo bad about it??

[Jessika]

well my dogs do very well on iams. so what could be sooo bad about it??

..the ingredients include by-products and lots of fillers, that's really the only "bad" thing about the food. Don't be offended, some people are set in their ways but as I said any food is a "good" food because its keeping them alive, right?

[dab_20]

yep your right. what are by-products and fillers?

[Jessika]

by-products are any parts left over from animals that aren't fit for human consumption. This can include feathers, bones, feet, blood, and sawdust from the floor.

Fillers are ingredients added to a food that have little to NO nutritional value but serve as a cheap ingredient to add and make your pets "feel" like they are full. Fillers usually are not digested and come out as nice little packages on your front lawn. The MOST commonly used filler is any form of corn!

Here are the ingredients for IAMS Lamb Meal & Rice formula. "bad" or "questional" ingredients (from my view point) I have bolded:

Lamb Meal, Brewers Rice, Corn Meal, Ground Whole Grain Sorghum, Ground Whole Grain Barley, Chicken Fat (preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of vitamin E, and Citric Acid), Fish Meal (source of fish oil), Chicken By-Product Meal, Corn Grits, Dried Beet Pulp (sugar removed), Natural Chicken Flavor, Potassium Chloride, Dried Egg Product, Brewers Dried Yeast, Salt, Monosodium Phosphate, Sodium Hexametaphosphate, Vitamins (Vitamin E Supplement, Ascorbic Acid, Vitamin A Acetate, Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Thiamine Mononitrate (source of vitamin B1), Vitamin B12 Supplement, Niacin, Riboflavin Supplement (source of vitamin B2), Inositol, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (source of vitamin B6), Vitamin D3 Supplement, Folic Acid), Choline Chloride, Minerals (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Manganese Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Potassium Iodide, Cobalt Carbonate), DL-Methionine, Rosemary Extract

When reading an ingredient list, ingredients are listed from the highest weight to the lowest. So the first ingredient makes up the majority of the food whereas the last ingredient makes up the very smallest percentage. Make sense??

If you want more information on reading lables, google the term or here are a few sites that I have found helpful and have helped teach me!
http://www.asuperiorgsd.com/feeding.html
http://www.asuperiorgsd.com/dog.food.html
http://home.att.net/~wdcusick/011.html

[k9krazee]

We feed Iams and have been since Shadow was little. It was a lot better 8 years ago, we had Shadow on some crappy food and my Aunt recommended we get Iams. I know now that is has just gone downhill and isn't very good quality, but tell my mom that she refuses to switch their food. Her "excuse" is that another one of my Aunts has a 16 year old Lab and it has lived off of Spartan brand dog food its whole life and Iams is a ton better than that stuff. As soon as I can take my Micki and Jack I will feed them raw...(even though those two are mine she won't allow me to feed them raw under her roof or even switch their food)

She said the other day that she wanted to switch their food but to something less expensive than Iams...I really would like to get the Hoodlums on Nutro but its still more expensive than she would like...we'll see.