Do you have to soak this food or is it supposed to be dry. It's for pups 6 weeks+.

Soak it a first and slowly serve it dryer and dryer until you are serving it dry. Always leave water down. Jackie

Hi I'm Lydia and live in The Netherlands.
Iams.. isn't that catfood?
I thought: Iams for cats and Eukanuba for dogs (manufactered bij IAMS)
Or am I mistaken?

Lydia

They changed the name either late last year or early this year from Eukanuba to Iams although many still call it Eukanuba due to habit.

Euk got a lot of bad press so I think, could be wrong, that the name change was an attempt to make people think they were buying a different product.

hth

Pam n the boys

Really smart!
Eukanuba (now Iams) is really bad stuff. Our Labrador (then 7-10 weeks old ) got skin and coat disorders, got hyper (overactive), got diarrea, got thirsty (drank almost 2 lt a day) etc etc from this dogfood.
Vets gave our dog more medicine then I had in my hole life...Nothing worked so I changed the food
If feed my dog natural made food, called Bibi, since his 11th week. Within a few days all Eukanuba/Iams-symptoms where gone!
My doggie is 5 month old now. It's absolutly an loveable, cheerful and healty doggie!

Pam,

The Iams company manufacture both Iams and Eukanuba. (They do Iams for both Dogs and cats).

Iams

Lydia,

Its like all foods some suit some dogs and others can not tolerate some. It is case of what suits your dog. My now 9mth old lab have been on Iams since he was 12 weeks and has a lovely shinny coat and is in perfect health.

Tracy

Yes Tracy, you are absoluyly right!

Lydia

Hi Tracy

I recently bought a beagle and fed on Iams. I then discovered just how many dogs are destroyed to make our dogs eating habits good. Needless to say I will not buy Iams in the future.

Check out www.uncaged.co.uk/petfood

Maybe you will change also

regards and with respect

Jackie

Hi Pammy, no you are not wrong IAMS/Eukanuba did get a lot of very bad press and rightly so. If you care about animal welfare in general then IAM/Eukanube is a company to avoid there are many pet food companies that DO NOT experiment on animals to test their food. Such as Yarroh Organic, Berties, Oscar, Wafcol, Pascoes Organic, Hi Life, Alpha, Happidog, Dene's, Burns, Wackidog, Nutro, these are some that don't there are others.
IAMS was exposed by the Sunday Express and Uncaged who worked together to expose the gruesome tests performed on hundreds of dogs and cats during the development of IAMS and Eukanuba food.
The research uncovered 24 scientific papers that describe how IAMS funded laboratory experiments on 460 healthy animals that caused kidney failure, obesity, malnutrition, liver damage, sever allergic reactions, stomacjh inflamation, diarrhoea, severe skin disorders, lesions, skin wounds and other painful illnesses. many animals either died as a result of the tramatic procedures or were killed at the end of the experiment so they could be dimembered and their tissues analysed.
For more infor look on Uncaged website.
pat

I agree wholeheartedly. I have ceased buying Iams since learning of this. I am shocked and appalled. I was so naive to think that animal food companies could not possibly be involved with such a thing.

I have done some research and Hi-Life is a company that does not use these means to make our dogs healthy by destroying others. Makes me sick to my stomach.

regards

Jackie

Hi Sharon, NO please do not soak Iams.
Test: put a handfull of Iams in a bole of water...and see what happens. (sponge effect)
That also happens in your puppy's stomach.
The stomach has stomach jus, in the stomach jus are enzymes. These enzymes break off the food in stomach. If you add water into the dogsfood, the enzymes cannot do there work properly.
That's why the say: Do not let your pet drink for an hour, after feeding your dog.

Lydia

Lydia I have reared three healthy litters on soaked concentrated food in the manner described by Jackie. I cannnot see how water would prevent digestion or absorbtion. I have also never heard of water being withheld when feeding the food dry.

Oh sure, even recommanded in so many dogbooks and clubs. But if your dog is doing well on it, why not. I'm very happy your dogs are doing great on Iams.. Mine was not.
Yep, I've read so many articles written by holostic vets, professors and others , all about dogs digestion.
Most of us give our dogs bad food, all out of love and just because we don't know better...So did I.

PS: Is the food you are soaking, especially for soaking (with water)?

Yes it is Lydia, a concentrate made for puppies and designed to be fed wet for weening, not Iams though.
There have been several discussion about this subject on this board before, suffice to say I do not feed my dogs 'bad food' and I have read a fair few articles myself. I DO NOT feed what I do because I know no better.

I always soak my puppies food. They grow up nice and healthy. Never heard of or had any problems, sounds like a bunch of non-sense to me.

Carissa

The only thing you shouldn't do is pour boiling water on, boiled yes byt not boiling. this will kill some of the vitamins that are added to the food.

You may be right Brainless, but that is exactly what I did and my litters did not show any signs of deficiency. I would imagine by the time the water had soaked through to the centre of the pieces it would be off the boil anyway, its not as though you are boiling the pieces themselves. Also the litter would be on to dry by the time they were no longer having mothers milk so I suspect there was sufficient vitamins in their diet anyway.

I used to do the same, and as they were not exclusively on the kibble I am sure they weren't wanting. As it is they have to err on the generous side with vitamins to ensure they are still sufficient for the shelf life. It was just that I admitted that I soaked with boiling water and got told off by one of the nutritional reps! LOL :D

Maybe I will try if off the boil next time but I am not sure it will make the consistancy that I would want. Anyway what on earth are we doing still up at this time! Goodnight

Dear sharon,

You may want to go to the "general" chat section of this site and look at the thread related to Iams and Eukanuba. It may make you think twice before feeding any of your pets these brand name foods.

Hi, you want to go to one of the web sites about gastric torsion and see what it says there about soaking dry food, ie like it was said in an earlier post, the sponge effect, I lost a GSD bitch in the prime of her life due to torsion, she was fed a complete diet, I never soaked the food, but it makes sense that when u feed dry kibble, and then the dog drinks quite a bit of water, it swells inside the gut, my lot dont get any complete at all now It took the death of a much loved dog for me to see into some complete dog food, and the findings of this were frightening I would suggest that u check this out, and in the meantime, PLEASE do not soak food, if pups were born in the wild theire food would not be soaked, plenty of meat that is what they need, then there is no chance of the food swelling inside the gut

I have always soaked my puppies food and they do great on it (Eukanuba lamb and rice). My 141 pound hybrid is on Iams lamb and rice and all my dogs have water when ever they want it. I have never with held water. They eat then drink and they are all fine. I have tried other foods but my dogs got the runs real bad and never looked that healthy, they are doing just fine on this food. It depends on what your dog does good on, if it works why change it. I don't agree with testing on the animals but if you look at everything like how medicine ect. was made it was all tested on animals.
No if the pups were born in the wild the food was regurgitated (sp) by the mother they don't start on a fresh kill right away.

I DONT WITHOLD WATER either, they have access to it all day, EXCEPT when they are fed, but the diet I feed has enough moisture content in, yOUR,E RITE EVERYONE HAS THEIR OWN WAYS OF FEEDING and entitled to do that, me I have had Sheps for years and have always fed complete, but it takes a bad experience of something to make u question what u are feeding. But I have never fed Iams or Eukanuba, nor will I ever feed a complete feed again,and yes in the wild, the mother would reguritate food for them BUT the difference being it would be meat, offal, and ground down grasses etc from the kills stomach contents, not kibble

After doing a animal nutrition course and traveling the world looking at all the dog and cat food factories i would not feed Iams to any of mine, not after what i saw going into it!!

Sam

Seeing as IAMS go on about all the goodness in their dog food and of course not to mention the fact they are one of the most expensive, can you tell me what food you would recommend ? I work on the assumption that when it comes to dog food you only get what you pay for but I'm not saying I'm right. Certainly when I have read the backs of the packaging the cheaper dog foods don't seem to contain as higher dose of vitamins and minerals as the more expensive ones.

No hidden agenda, I'm just thinking if you have researched this and actually seen what goes into the various brands it would be useful to share it. If you can.

Many Thanks.

"I work on the assumption that when it comes to dog food you only get what you pay for but I'm not saying I'm right"

I pay £6.99 for a 15kg sack of Dr John Gold. I have never seen my dogs look healthier. Their coats are gleaming, they are fit and just generally in good condition. They work solidly for a period of 2 months in spring, and two months in summer and their fitness was amazing. We supplemented it with groundnut oil but other than that, they had Dr John. Next year will be the big test as they are working from February to July/August.

How much advertising does Iams do? Where does that money come from? I very rarely see Dr John being advertised and only heard of it from a small advert in Shooting Times.

Helen

Hi Helen, Could you tell me the protein content of this food please? Thanks.

Hi Philappa,

I think it is 22%. I'll double check when I get home - unless someone else has it.

Helen

hi, do you feed Dr John all year round - or do you have a different 'resting' feed for when your dogs aren't working - i'm having trouble at the mo deciding on feed for my dogs, what suited one doesn't suit another, and I'd rather buy one brand in big sacks than be feeding all different feeds. my lot were on Burns but the spaniels really lost body , even if i fed them more! I'm feeding chudleys now, but can't make up my mind, they have all put on weight, but I am experiencing the same probs I had with Skinners - they stink the house out!!!:D I'm interested in this Dr John food, haven't seen the ad before in ST I'll have a look - do they deliver direct to you then? hope you don't mind me asking helen:) julie:)

Helen I'm sure your dogs do look great, being worked they would have to be in tip top condition. Mine too are in great condition, gleaming coats, bags of energy and so on yet we feed completely different foods. What does groundnut oil do ?

Out of interest have you ever compared the ingredients, proteins, vitamins, minerals, fibre content, and so on in your food to the more expensive brands and I don't just mean IAMS. Hills is even more expensive

Does anyone actually know what the RDA is for dogs for various vitamins and minerals cos I have no idea really.

** Edited - Forget the 2nd paragraph Helen, Sara W has kindly listed the ingredients under the General forum :D

Whats the first 3 main ingredients you look for in a dog food?

Hi dollface, I look at Protein content first, then see whatever additives and colourants it has in it. If both these are satisfactory to me, then I would continue reading the description.

I always fed an expensive brand of complete too, thinking that the more expensive the better, sadly this does not appear to be the case, I typed in dog food on the net, and the stuff that it came up with was unbelievable here is one site that I foundhttp://www.husky-petlove.com/dogfood2.html, go and have a look, then make up your own mind

Janines

That website you posted about says it would be impossible for a company selling their product at a cheaper price to use quality protein and grain. It also says that not all multinational companies use poor quality ingredients. If you look at the ingredients on cheaper brands then compare to the expensive brands I think you will find that the cheaper brand has less vitamins and minerals in it but more fibre to add bulk.

With regards to what is actually in dog food. I thought the US and Canada had strict regulations in that all ingredients used had to be labelled. Who says that certain companies are definately using by-products eg. feathers, feet etc. Yes some of them mention it in their ingredients eg. Chicken by-product meal surely that means they are being honest ? And what about the companies who just say Chicken >20% and Poultry meal. Are we to assume they are being dishonest or maybe we should actually believe them in that no by-products are being used because it's not mentioned, the food is manufactured in the US and everything has to be labelled. Surely then if by-products are being used they would have to be mentioned ?

I'm just trying to get my head around this whole dog food thingy. Every now and then this subject arises about IAMS/Eukanuba. I thought they did do terrible tests on animals years ago but then held their hands up and said yep okay we need to change this and have they not done that then ? If you take a look at their website they do mention animal health research http://www.iams.co.uk I find it all mind bogling and really you never know who to believe! But I do like to ask questions and find out as much as I can rather than jumping on the band wagon.

I've noticed that the main distinguishing factor between expensive brands and cheapo brands is the quality of protein and fat sources.

Most expensive brands integrate meat protein as opposed to animal protein or vegetable and grain proteins because meat protein consists of organ or muscle meat. This is superior to all other kinds of protein in that it is the most digestable and the nutrients and minerals are easier to absorb and process by the intestines. Animal proteins are comprised of eyelashes, hooves, feathers, etc. Hence, meat protein is more expensive than both animal and vegetable or grain protein.

Fats are the most costly ingredient in dog food, primarily because they are harder to extract and preserve. Fats are extremely important because it gives your dog stable, even tempered energy, helps promote a healthy coat and healthy skin, mobilizes digestion, and stabilizes temperature by keeping your dog warm when it's cold and cool when it's warm.

The most digestable and usable fats include chicken fat, sunflower and canola oil, fish oil, and lactose free dairy products.

Cheaper brands (as janine mentioned) like to integrate alot of fibre and other ingredients that are often indigestible, requiring more bulk feeding to meet your dog's daily nutritional requirements.

In my opinion, it's misleading to omit any ingredients or substitute a different name for the ingrediet (e.g. chicken by product meal), especially if the ingredient in question is vital to the health of your dog. It's very immoral to mislead people by calling ingredients by a different name in an effort to sell the product to otherwise uneducated people who are not adept at reading labels just to make a buck. Furthermore, all preservatives should be listed as well. If the preservative is a known carcinogen, they should refrain from using it, or, at the very least, make consumers aware that the product they are purchasing contains carcinogens. Unethical companies who participate in these immoral practices should be exposed and put out of business. Either that, or authority over the decisions and practices should be transferred to a more responsible and ethical staff.

This is an extremely controversial and complicated issue and i feel that if dog food companies expect us to purchase their products, it is only fair that we should expect them to be sincere in their intentions when advertising their product. This is my opinion on the subject.

Rob

This was in our paper awhile back.

Dr. Denita Shtuka
Buying the right food for your pet

There r hundreds of different pet foods on the market today. Many vary dramatically in price and in quality. It is difficult for an owner to evaluate the quality of food by reading the label because there are no laws in Canada dictating how a pet food label must be presented and there is a lot of misinformation about what is proper nutrition for your pet.

For example, most pet foods list the ingredients by weight with the ingredient that compose the largest portion of the diet first. Many foods will list chicken or beef as their first ingr. Remember, raw chicken or beef is 70 % water. These foods often have no more real chicken meat than a food that lists chicken by- product meal as its third ingr.
To complicate matters, things like chicken by-product meal have many different levels of quality. Top quality chicken by-product meal is fit for human consumption and is basically chicken meat cooked down to remove much of the water. Lower quality chicken by-product meal will contain less meat.
If u look at a guarantee analysis of the food on the side of the bag, u can also be mislead. For example, the % of protien a diet contains is measured only by a chemical test for nitrogen in the food. This tells u nothing about the quality of protien in the diet. Chicken has alot of protien and is very digestible; feathers and shoe leather are also protien, but r not very digestible.
The Canadian Veterianry Medival Association has a pet food certification program. This program checks all foods marketed in Canada and places a "seal of approval" on all foods tested that meet basic nutritional requirements to keep ur pet healthy. It does not imply one food is better than another, only that the food is nutritionally complete. For the best advice on what to feed ur pet, talk to ur vet.

Now from that are we really getting what we really think we r paying for. Just curious, sorry so long but tried to write it word 4 word.

Hi to be honest, I do not feed completes anymore because I really like to know what I am feeding to my dogs, and if that means feeding meat and preparing vegtables then, thats what I will do, I wasnt, telling everyone that dog food is no good, what I am saying is dont believe everything that they say, if u search around on the internet there is a lot of web sites that have been written by people more qualified than me,, for instance on web site that I visited states that citric acid, and fat listed in the first four ingredients, in any dog foods are thought now to be linked to torsion, before everyone starts the rights and wrongs of torsion I know only to well that there are many causes and some we will never understand, BUT I am not prepared to risk torsion a second time, everyone is entitled to feed their dog, with what they want, it is a free country and what works for one will not work with another, all I am saying is that a lot of dog food companies, make u think that you are feeding whole meat, but the reality is that you aren,t

I just found this interesting and thought I would post it.