Why is Iams bad?

Also remember dogs that are fed a high quality diet don't require as much volume of food. (Quality replaces Quantity). You won't need as much food so that off sets some of the cost.

And to add to what Amstaffer said they poop less,lol

Thanks!!

Thanks so much!! We're getting low on the last of the Iams that I have left so I'm going to try them on Canidae. I'm going to look to see if PetCo carries it, they're really close to my house and have that program that the 13th bag is free.

It doesn't sound like Canidae is much more than Iams so that won't be a problem. I wouldn't have an issue spending more than what I do on Iams I just can't spend tons more.

Do you go to the Pet Supplies Plus in Aurora on Farnsworth? If yes, I think we probably live pretty close to each other, I'm on the west side of Aurora.

That food in the silver bag was imported from some country so that's why it was SO expensive, but I could see a huge difference in my dogs.

My dogs are all around 60 pounds and currently get 1 cup in the a.m. and 1 cup in the p.m. so it doesn't sound like their intake will be any different but as long as it's better for them that's all I care.

Thanks!!!!

Canidae is a GREAT choice! i'm glad you decided to change, tell us how it goes

Sensible Choice, is kind of cheap, and it is great! I mean, it is the same price as Iams, for a 20 lb. But, yes, Canidae is a great food I have heard! And it lasts longer!

Canidae isn't sold at Petco. Petco carries Solid Gold, Natural Balance, and Castor & Pollux.

I would look for a bakery, feed, or specialty store in your area to find it.

Pet Supplies Plus carries Canidae.

I wish that we had a Pet Supplies Plus down here =/ I'm so jealous!

Castor & Pollux is a very good food also but maybe a bit pricey. Very tasty to dogs.

What do you feed your dogs? Since I have large dogs with Iams I would buy the large bread food - does it matter with these other foods? Do they have something different in them if they're large bread?

Also, does anyone know if Pet Supplies Plus offers a food program? Like Petco does buy 12 get the 13th free?

Also I have an old pet food container when we used to order from a pet food company that delivered. Mine have figured out how to chew the top off. Do you have any recomendations for a dog proof dry food container? My house isn't really large enough to keep it up or store it somewhere else.

Any recemonds on the following:

How to make dogs stop digging in the yard? They will dig anywhere and even through cement. I've tried pepper and they just pick a new place to dig and/or the pepper doesn't fase them.

How to get a dog to stop eatting dog poop? Maybe that's because they're on Iams but my youngest is the only one who does it (and I did have her checked for worms and she didn't have any) but since we get fosters I don't want her to catch anything.

Last one - sorry, any way to keep them out of the cat box without putting up a gate and or shutting the cat in a room they can't get into? I'm tired of the cat litter all over the house and my son isn't willing to give up his cat

I feed Canidae to my dogs on a rotating schedule. One month is All Life Stages, next month is Lamb & Rice, next month is Chicken & Rice. That way, they get variety, as well as different supplements. First day of the month they get 75% old, 25% new. Second day, 50-50, etc. It takes four days to switch, now that they've been doing it for a while. I've been doing that with Pepe for three years, and with Flicka for one. I feed 75% dry and 25% canned. It's worked great! Canidae has things on their website that guidelines how much to feed.

My cat, Lillian, gets Felidae, also on a rotating schedule, but hers is two months Cat & Kitten, and then two months Chicken & Rice. She takes about eight days for each switch. Two days on 75% old, 25% new. Two days on 50-50%, etc. Lillian gets her wet and dry food seperately (with the dogs I mix it up). She also gets 75% dry, 25% wet, but I free feed her, so she's only fed once a day.

Yes, I do spend a lot of time preparing food. And yes, I own a lot of measuring cups.

-Rosefern

Im not too sure about this but I've heard from numerous poeple that Iams is cruel to the dogs, I think they do tests and treat the animals poorly.

I was told to go to http://www.iamscruelty.com.

I also used to feed Iams. Now I feed Technical. I was told it was better. But who knows?

The cruelty may exist (we are officially off Iams though! Woohoo!), but how valid is iamscruelty.com? I see it's hosted by PETA.

not valid at all.
propaganda no doubt

I don't have the time to try to validate these studies, but here is a list of alleged studies preformed by Iams Co with the names of the participants and the events that occured. It seems that if my memory serves correctly, there is a link somewhere that was an actual Iams document pertaining to some of these studies, but whether or not I still have that link...who knows.

Anyways....here is what I do have - this is from the author of Foods Pets Die For so I would lean towards it being valid....but again..I don't have the time right now to try and research it further.

1. Twenty-eight cats' bellies were cut to see the effect of feeding the cats fibre; then the cats were killed (University of Nebraska and the Iams Company; Bueno, A.R., et al., Nutrition Research, vol. 20, no. 9, pp. 1319-1328, 2000).

2. Twenty-four young dogs were intentionally put into kidney failure, subjected to invasive experimentation, then killed (University of Georgia and the Iams Company; White, J.V. et al., American Journal of Veterinary Research, vol. 52, no. 8, pp. 1357-1365, 1991).

3. The kidneys of 31 dogs were removed to increase the risk of kidney disease, then the dogs were killed and their kidneys dissected (University of Georgia and the Iams Company; Finco, D.R. et al., American Journal of Veterinary Research, vol. 55, no. 9, pp. 1282-1290, 1994).

4. Bones in the front and back legs of 18 dogs were cut out and stressed until they broke, to show the effect of diet (University of Wisconsin and the Iams Company; Crenshaw, T.D. et al., Proceedings of 1998 Iams Nutrition Symposium).

5. Ten dogs were killed to study the effect of fibre in diets (Mississippi State University and the Iams Company; Buddington, R.K. et al., American Journal of Veterinary Research, vol. 60, no. 3, pp. 354-358, 1999).

6. Eighteen male puppies' kidneys were chemically damaged; the puppies were fed experimental diets, tubes were inserted into their penises; then the puppies were killed (Colorado State University and the Iams Company; Grauer, G.F. et al., American Journal of Veterinary Research, vol. 57, no. 6, pp. 948-956, 1996).

7. Twenty-eight cats were surgically forced into kidney failure and either died during the experiment or were killed to study the effects of protein (University of Georgia and the Iams Company, Proceedings of the 1998 Iams Nutrition Symposium).

8. Fifteen dogs' bellies were cut open and tubes were attached to the dogs' intestines, the contents of which were pumped out every 10 minutes for two hours; then the dogs were killed (University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the Iams Company; Hallman, J.E. et al., Nutrition Research, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 303-313, 1996).

9. Sixteen dogs' bellies were cut open and parts of the dogs' intestines were taken (University of Alberta and the Iams Company, Journal of the American Society of Nutritional Sciences, 1998).

10. Healthy puppies, chicks and rats had bone and cartilage removed to study bone and joint development (Purdue University and the Iams Company, Proceedings of the 2000 Iams Nutrition Symposium).

11. Invasive procedures were used to study bacteria in 16 dogs' intestines (Texas A&M University and the Iams Company; Willard MD, et al., American Journal of Veterinary Research, vol. 55, no. 5, May 1994).

12. Twenty-four cats had their female organs and parts of their livers removed; they were made obese, then were starved (University of Kentucky and the Iams Company; Ibrahim, W.H. et al., American Journal of Veterinary Research, vol. 61, no. 5, May 2000).

13. Fifty-six dogs had their female organs removed to study beta carotene (Washington State University and the Iams Company; Weng, B.C. et al., Journal of Animal Science, vol. 78, pp. 1284-1290, 2000).

14. Sixteen dogs' bellies were repeatedly cut to take parts of the intestines (Texas A&M and the Iams Company; Willard, M.D. et al., Journal of the Veterinary Medical Association, vol. 8, pp. 1201-1206, 1994).

15. Six dogs had tubes implanted into their intestines and fluid drained repeatedly to study cereal flours (University of Illinois and the Iams Company, Murray, S.M. et al., Journal of Animal Science, vol. 77, pp. 2180-2186, 1999).

16. Thirty dogs were intentionally wounded and patches of skin containing the wounds removed to study diet and the effect of various ingredients on wound healing (Auburn University and the Iams Company; Mooney, M.A. et al., American Journal of Veterinary Research, vol. 59, no. 7, pp. 859-863, 1998).

17. Five dogs' bellies were cut open and tubes inserted into their intestines to study the effect of fibre (University of Illinois and the Iams Company, Muir, H.E. et al., Journal of Animal Science, vol. 74, pp. 1641-1648, 1996).

18. Parts of the large intestines of 28 dogs were removed to study the effects of fibre (University of Missouri and the Iams Company; Howard, M.D. et al., Journal of Animal Science, vol. 75, suppl. 1, pp. 136, 1997).

19. Parts of the intestines and immune system of 16 dogs were cut out to study the effects of fibre (University of Alberta and the Iams Company, Proceedings of the 1998 Iams Nutrition Symposium).

20. Five dogs had tissue from large and small intestines removed to study intestinal tract needs (University of Illinois and the Iams Company, Proceedings of the 1998 Iams Nutrition Symposium).

Procter & Gamble (P&G) purchased Iams in September 1999 and issued a code of ethics. Animal People, an on-line organisation devoted to the health and welfare of pets, reported in June 2001 that P&G stated its intention to phase out animal testing as quickly as alternatives could be developed and approved by regulators.

There are a few chemicals found in some commercial pet foods (like Iams) that pet owners need to be cautious of: 1- Sodium Pentobarbital 2- BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole), BHT (butylated hydroxytolulene), Ethoxyquin and Propylene Glycol 3- Lead (Lol, had to look check my spelling a few times via google, .. I think I might be still off) Anyways!

Sodium pentobarbital is the chemical that veterinarians use to put dogs and cats to 'sleep'. This toxic chemical is found in some animal food labels .. BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole), BHT (butylated hydroxytolulene), ethoxyquin and propylene glycol are commonly used as fat stabilizers in dog foods as preservatives. BHA and BHT cause liver and kidney dysfunction while ethoxyquin is a potential cancer-causing agent.
Lead, an extremely toxic heavy metal is also commonly found in pet foods. A research conducted in Massachusetts Institute of Technology published as "Lead in Animal Foods," presented one shocking discovery – A typical 9-pound cat was found to be ingesting, through commercial pet food, far more lead daily than the toxic level for children in their lifetime. Imagine that on your animal. And here is the worst part – heavy metals reside in body systems permanently. Heavy metals have known to cause nervous damage to animals when accumulated in their body systems.

Most companies will claim to have never even put this stuff into their "meats" and other ingriedients and blame it may have been contaminated before it got to their factory, while this can be true, they can easily test for this. The company doesn't even have to list this on their food package. Although some might. Anyways, Iams, as will some others, are notorious for having such chemicals in their food.