Iams Dog food question

[katetsai]

I recently read about the Iams cruelty article :( and am wondering about dog foods. Most of what I can find on the web talking about Iams cruelty comes from PETA, with its' bad reputation, I've my doubts :-? .
I currently feed my princess Iams, so I'm wondering how many people feed their dog Iams/Eukanuba and what's another good popular brand dog food (something that I can get at Petco/Pet Smart) if I decided to switch? what about something like Science Diet?

[Guest Anonymous]

i was feeding my dogs pedigree and just recently swetiched to chicken soup dog food, my dogs love it!

[ferky1]

[quote name='DeafAussieLover']i was feeding my dogs pedigree and just recently swetiched to chicken soup dog food, my dogs love it![/quote]

OT - DAL, glad to hear that yours are doing well after the changever to Chicken Soup. Miles has been thriving on CSFDLS and we are very happy with the results.

[Guest Anonymous]

Although all the media information on IAMS is coming from PETA, there are numerous other animal organizations which have absolutely banned the use of IAMS in their shelters.

First and foremost, food that can be bought in any regular supermarket is probably not your best bet. The animal testing is true...the IAMS company is not even letting investigative groups to enter their factories/labs because they know they have alot to hide from the public.

I know alot of people who had to switch their dogs off of IAMS because they ended up having alot of health related problems, and as soon as they got off of it, it was like magic.. :P everything went dandy.

I don't know much about Science diet, but I know it is a holistic brand. I usually feed my dog meat and veggies, but I also feed her [b]Wellness[/b]...I'm pretty sure you guys have that brand in the states as well.. its a very high quality dog food with human grade ingredients, no hormones and additives..just smell it...you'll see what I mean :o (Look up Old Mother Hubbard on the net, they have a whole line of dog foods that includes Wellness)

Another food I recommend is [b]Essex Cottage Farms [/b]and [b]Urban Wolf[/b]... they have alot of nutritional supplements as well, and great "powder mixes" which you add to cooked meat. My dog loves it and she's doing great *crosses fingers and knocks on wood*

Hmm what else is there. The is also Eagle Pack. They have a pretty good reputation and a wide range of holistic foods. There's also [b]Solid Gold [/b]and [b]Wysong[/b] (which includes a raw or vegan diet asside from their kibble line). [b]Natural Balance [/b]is one that includes a vegetarian diet if you are interested (I think it's good to cut out meat from a dog's diet once a week).

There are alot of other brands..just look some up when you have the time..they are higher in quality and alot of them are free of hormones and preservatives...and "by products"..which include the worst part of the cow/chicken/lamb.

Anywho :) good luck.

[Taurus and Jada]

We feed both Taurus and Jada Canidae, and have great results....

We were feeding Eukanuba up until about 3 months ago, and switched them over to Canidae at that time. We noticed a huge difference in their coats, they were much shinier, and softer. Also they pooped less often, and not as much each time.

Jada suffers from very dry skin, and we noticed a great imporvement in that as well when we switched them over.

Good luck with whatever you choose,

I know there are websites that have dog food comparisons on them, Ill see if I can find one for you....

Kara

[drjeffrock]

Well, the Petco by my house doesnt really carry any top quality foods. The best brand my local Petco carries is Solid Gold, which is decent, but not as good as Innova, Canidae or Wellness. I havent set foot in a Petco for quite some time now.

[TDG]

if you are interested in learning more about quality differences in commercial pet foods, have a look at [url]http://www.mordanna.com/dogfood[/url] - it's pretty scary what goes into some products.

and yes, what you heard/read about the iams company is true, they even admitted to it themselves in a later statement. other than that, their food is of poor quality anyway, and there are better quality ones that are in some cases even cheaper.

petco carries natural balance and royal canin natural choice, which are both good foods. there are better ones, but if you are limited to what you can get at petco, natural balance is an excellent choice.

another place to look for dog food is farm and feed stores, they often carry less known brands that are also of good quality, such as for example premium edge.

[Aroura]

I feed my dogs BARF, I was going to switch to dry food recently, and it was a toss up between Innova and Eagle Pack. Both look like great food, but I couldn't get over the thought of having my dogs on a commercial diet, so have decided to keep feeding them BARF with two meals of Eagle Pack a week, its got lots of goodies in it that I can't get for the dogs otherwise so I think it'll be good to have in the diet, just not all the time :wink:

[Cairn6]

All my dogs are on California natural by Innova. Everything I read leads me back to that food. They love it too so it's all good.

[imported_Kat]

Meg is on a welsh dog food called CSJ which is designed specifically for competitive dogs and I have to say its brilliant and plans are in action to diversify the name worldwide.

[courtnek]

well, I guess I'm the one-off....

I have to feed my cat Iams because it's the only food that will stay down except canned tuna, which doesnt have all the nutrients he needs.
As much as I disapprove of Iam's testing methods, I'm not willing to let the cat suffer. everything else comes straight back up. even the prescription food the vet had me try.

as for the dogs, I feed them both Purina ONE Lamb and Rice. They love it it works great on their coats. Neither of them like Iams. (someone gave me a bag of it). the dry is mixed with a small amount of canned, or leftovers from dinner. I've been told the food is junk, but look at their coats....




[img]http://dingo.care-mail.com/pictures/37/379/904/379042130.jpg[/img]





[img]http://dingo.care-mail.com/pictures/92/923/316/923166919.jpg[/img]









it appears to work well for them....

[courtnek]

glad it's not just me then.... :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

I used to think it was just cuz Free's a mutt, but Laurel is a purebred. And her coat is doing much better since I started her on it. It used to be very dry, and she used to shed a lot. It's much better now...guess it just depends on the dogs....

:wink:

[katetsai]

thanks everyone for all the info & help.

For now, I've decided to try Wellness first, and will be switching between it and Canidae for variety every 6 month or so. The store I went doesn't have the Canidae in stock at the moment.

One questions, how important is veg in the diet? the only thing really different between Wellness & Canidae are the veg ingredient.

[Guest Anonymous]

[quote]The animal testing is true...the IAMS company is not even letting investigative groups to enter their factories/labs because they know they have alot to hide from the public.
[/quote]
Can you prove that??
How do you know its true???
I used to feed Iams. I no longer feed Iams, I wouldn't feed Iams, but it has nothing to do with PETA lies. That rumor has been around for years, another of PETA's malicious tactics. If someone chooses not to feed Iams, let their reasons be based on facts, rather than rumors started by terrorist groups like PETA.

Don't feed Iams because your dog doesn't do well on it, you don't like the price or the bag is ugly, [u]not because of PETA hype.[/u]

If a business or product is going to do well or not, let it be for valid reasons, not because of viscious rumors perpetuated by some idiots like PETA.

[b]Anytime I see PETA connected to anything, I seriously question the validity of what I'm hearing. Consider the source. They will fabricate, exaggerate anything to further their agenda, and people fall for it.[/b]The scary part about it is, every unsuspecting person they convince with slick and elaborate
publicity, is one person closer to their ideal society---one where you wouldn't be able to "own" your dogs, it would be a symbiotic relationship---you'd only admire all animals, including dogs and cats, from afar.

No, PETA is beyond "way out there sometimes." They are downright dangerous and I consider their ideals a threat to my way of life.

[TDG]

guest, if you bother to do some reading, you will find documents from the iams company itself admitting to certain issues and pledging to rectify the situation.

however, you can't tell me that there isn't something fishy going on with a company that doesn't even adopt out its retired research animals but ships them off to a kennel in alabama and doesn't even allow any media representatives whatsoever access to the facility.

i don't like PETA either and think they are a bunch of nutjobs, but they seem the only organization with enough financial backing who is able to pull off the huge campaigns to alert the public.

let's turn the tables on you for a moment, do you have [b]any[/b] proof whatsoever that the allegations [b]aren't[/b] true?

here's a fact that has to make the most ignorant person think:

take purina - probably the company with the largest market share in pet foods. they do testing too, yet they were never targeted by animal rights groups [b]and[/b] they welcome the public to visit their research facility, which even has a visitor center. interesting they don't have anything to hide, huh?

[courtnek]

this is the way I unbderstood the Iams issue. PETA went after Iams (and I know I read this, but cant find the article) because Iams refused to allow them to inspect the testing facility. There is article on the web about the Iams story. From what it says, Iams itself was not operating the testing facility, it was contracted out to a third party. They made the very bad move of not doing regular checkups on this company, it was pretty much running itself. According to the report, when PETA went after them, they then investigated into the lab, and found out that what PETA said was actually true, and admitted it up front. They nulled the contract with this lab, and promised to open their doors and allow inspections. From what they said, they were going to attempt to adopt out some of the test animals, but from what I'm reading here I dont know if it was ever done.
I wrote them and complained. Along with a lot of people here.

eventually (and it took a long time) I got this email back:

Hello,

I am writing to you because you have contacted us in the past with questions about our nutritional studies. I write today to update you on enhancements we've made to our dog and cat welfare program and policies.

You may remember that in July of 2003 we announced the establishment of our independent International Animal Care Advisory Board. This group, along with other outside experts, has helped us make further enhancements to our welfare program. They have recently completed a new round of unannounced facilities inspections. You'll find the results and recommendations on our web site at:

[url]www.iamstruth.com[/url].

In addition, we have always had an employee adoption program for dogs and cats participating in feeding studies at Iams-owned facilities. In the past year, we now have adoption programs in place to include dogs and cats participating in Iams studies at all external feeding study facilities. So, any dog or cat that participates in an Iams feeding study will have a home for life.

And we are doing even more to reduce, refine, and replace animals in research:

[katetsai]

Yah, I have my doubts about the whole truth with the report, but even just half or 10% truth makes me uneasy to continue buying Iams products. I do find other more reputable kennel/rescue org/humane society that supprots the boycott also, so there's gotta be some truth (however little) to the report.

I was looking for an excuse for upgrading my dog food anyway, so here is the perfect excuse. Yet another way to spoil my baby princess!

[Guest Anonymous]

I dont know if I've mentioned this before, but I also feed my dogs wellness and raw ingredients as well (but I cook them so they're not really 'raw' I guess)...the wellness diet in my opinion is quite a good choice. The ingredients are human grade with no hormones and additives, and I believe you were asking whether the vegetable content is important?

There are articles that argue that dogs don't even need to be eating meat in the first place. I'm not sure if I really agree with that, but I do believe its important to cut out meat at least ONCE a week, just to let the vegetables do the work and get rid of some extra toxins.

The good thing about Wellness is that they use rosemary extract instead of vegetable oil as a major preservative, so its much healthier for the dog in that sense. Also, wellness contains blueberries, which are excellent "toxin ridders" lol sorry about my choice of words for that one.

Anyways, you should try it out for about a month or two and see how it works for your dog. Like I've mentioned, if you like, you can also feed vegetables (I would put them in a blender to make them easier to digest for the dog) once a week to clean out the dog's system. Also, if your dog has tolerates any sort of food without complications, don't be afraid to add a bit of plain yogurt into the food, or boiled eggs, a teaspoon of flax seeds, parsley, and fruit (my dogs absolutely go crazy for watermelon)etc... just as long as you maintain the amount of food you give the dog and don't overfeed.

:) Good luck..I hope that helped a little.


As for GUEST....you need to do some more research on IAMS and their testing before you assume that what PETA is saying is bull....IAMS has admitted to their stupidity on numerous occassions so I think you would be quite naive and ignorant to think that they've done nothing wrong...as for PETA, even though they are extreme regarding certain animal rights, they do have excellent campaigns and educational tactics which educate alot of people who otherwise would have been left in the dark on various animal related issues.

[courtnek]

just a note on the fruit thing....NO grapes!!! in large quantities they have proven to be toxic to the dog. no raisins, either.

as far as PETA, you know how I feel about them. I admired them when they first started, for their educational campaigns and getting the word out on animal cruelty, but not anymore. Ingrid and her merry band of fanatical followers (and that's not ALL PETA members, some are probably decent and still try to live up to their original charter) have aligned themselves with terrorists. That show that was mentioned made me cry.
I have it on tape thanks to another member. They BLEW UP a research lab.
Now I know a lot of people disagree with animal research, but do you realize alot of today's medicine would not be available without it? I would be dead, if not for animal testing. So would my son. I will not align myself with a group who dont care if people die because they cant get the medication that keeps them alive.

Nor with a group who ultimately wants NO ONE to have pets. ever.

sorry, that's just my take.

[Guest Anonymous]

OH YES..true...avoid grapes....and onions as well...


I agree with you there on the PETA issue again. They are a bit too much at times. I admire them for their educational programs and the fact that they get all this information "out there" to the public. I like to keep updated on their [u]alerts[/u] and write letters to the various places that they've found to abuse and neglect animals. For example, they had all the addresses and contact information for these people in western Canada that were exploiting greyhounds and different circuses that are using bullhooks on elephants...I think its fantastic that they provide people with the contact information and a little bit of background information on the case, so that I can write a letter and include what I want to say to those people and make my own decisions.