My in-laws recently adopted a sweet cocker spaniel and they were feeding him Iams dog food. My sister-in-law was expressing how many times the poor guy was going poop. He would go outside, then a few minutes later, have an accident in the house. She was at her whit’s end!
He also was itching / licking his paws a lot and he had that horrible doggy smell. They kept giving him baths, with no change.
I did an ingredients search on Iams, and was horrified. Iams should be ashamed to actually call this garbage dog food.
Ingredients:
Chicken, Corn Meal, Chicken By-Product Meal, Ground Whole Grain Sorghum, Chicken Fat (preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of Vitamin E), Dried Beet Pulp, Chicken Meal, Chicken Flavor, Fish Oil (preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of Vitamin E), Dried Egg Product, Potassium Chloride, Brewers Dried Yeast, Salt, Caramel, Choline Chloride, Minerals (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Manganese Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Potassium Iodide, Cobalt Carbonate), 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), Calcium Carbonate, DL-Methionine, Rosemary Extract.
First off, chicken is listed. That might sound good to some people, but “chicken” contains about 70% water; the water has to be removed in processing. By the time it transforms into “dry” dog food, the actual amount of “chicken” is very little. And that is how they scam the consumer!
So, since chicken can’t be counted as a real ingredient, what’s next? hmm, corn meal. So, basically any dog that eats this food is getting corn meal as the main ingredient. Disgusting! (I won’t even mention the horrible chicken-by-parts yuck!) And that is why my inlaws dog smelled, pooped frequently, and had itchy paws. He probably had a bad reaction to the corn (as a lot of dogs do) and he wasn’t retaining any protein. He was pooping it out as soon as he ate it.
I explained this to her, and thankfully she was very open to my suggestions of changing his food. I suggested EVO and she found some at her local pet store.
I was amazed at her followup. She was transitioning her dog to the new food so he was getting half and half at first. Just by feeding him the little bit of EVO, she saw results IMMEDIATELY; he didn’t poop as much. His paw licking and dog smell also stopped. I was truly amazed!!! How exciting!
It really makes me sad (and angry) to think that there are still people out there that think they are buying a “premium” pet food when they buy Iams, Eukanuba, Science Diet, Hills, etc. Over and over, I hear and read comments that they are buying the “expensive food” at the vet’s office. blah! And the Vets are no better. Actually recommending this garbage!!
Well, at least ONE dog was saved from Iams! Read the ingredients! Go to dogfoodproject.com and learn about REAL premium food!
ps, sorghum is actually a less digestable product than corn is….despite by-products being gross sounding ,they are actually an excellent source of protein and nutrition, the only downfall to them being in food is that depending on the ratio of heads:feet:wings, the flavour in each food can differ…as for chicken, you want to look for something that has chicken meal in it, that is dehydrated chicken, stay away from lamb if possible, there is no need for a dog to be on lamb unless there is a food allergy to it, there is a shortage for most suppliers and the cost is going through the roof…in my books, iams is classified as a grocery store brand and shouldnt be in pet stores period.
Hey Nicole, I hope you don’t mind, but I copied your comment to our new web site. I am in the midst of moving all content from mindygirl.us (where you originally commented) over to this new site.
Anyway, I appreciate your input! I totally agree about the “meal” but I don’t agree about the by-products.
I didn’t know that about lamb. Our Mindy is on Lamb, unfortunately she seemed to have a problem with the dry chicken kibble from Innova/EVO. She has no problem with the canned EVO.
It always kind of made me feel horrible thinking about poor baby lambs, but it’s always lower in calories and Mindy seems to be doing well on it. I have always considered a change, so we’ll see.
Nicole, I thought about you today when I read this article about pet food and by-products:
http://www.truthaboutpetfood.com/articles/290/1/Pet-Food-Ingredients-By-Product-Meal-Meat-and-Bone-Meal-Animal-Fatwhats-in-there/Page1.html