Do you know why Iams, Science Diet, and other brands containing animal/meat by-products are bad for your dogs?

Question

As a rule of thumb, I do not feed my dogs foods containing ingredients I will not eat myself. If it's not good enough to be on my plate, it sure isn't good enough to be in my dogs' bowls.

Please share your knowledge, experience, and links with your fellow dog owners regarding why animal/meat by-products, corn, and other filler ingredients are bad news for dogs. Give them the tools to choose a healthier food for their furry friends :)

Answer 1

Corn, wheat, soy, beet pulp are no more then cheap fillers. They serve no nutritive value in a dogs diet. Dogs aren't designed to extract nutrition from grains, they are designed to gain nutrition from meat proteins.In addition these grains are high allergens and recent studies are showing a possible link between corn and soy as possible causes of unexplained seizures in dogs. Also soy is a major gas producer and is not a good thing for breeds prone to bloat. Beet Pulp adds unnecassary sugar to a dogs diet.
animal by products is an un named source. It could be any meat and is of no help when deciding on a food for a dog that may have possible allergies to various meat sources. By products in general aren't a good source of constant protein for dogs. Meat & meat meals are better sources.

People need to be very aware of whats in the foods they feed their pets. Just because a food is well advertised and in virtually every store doesn't make it a good food. The "big" name foods are made by companies such as Nestle, Proctor & Gamble, Colgate - Palmolive...they don't specialize in pet foods. It is wiser to stay with foods that are made by companies who specialize in pet nutrition. Foods such as Science Diet, IAMS/Eukanuba, Purina Dog Chow, Alpo, Pedigree are low quality poorly made foods that contain way too much cheap fillers, by products and some of them also contain chemical preservatives and dyes. It takes up to 3 x as much of these cheap quality foods for a dog to get the proper nutrition needed. These foods also tend to make more "waste" product.
The best foods for dogs is foods that contain meat in at least the first 2 ingredients and don't have corn, wheat, soy, beet pulp or by products. Ideally everyone would feed a raw or homecooked diet but that isn't feasable or realistic in the real world..with that being the case when resorting to feeding kibble a person needs to look for a food taht contains as much of a dogs natural nutrition as possible....meat.

Answer 2

For a dog with little activity look for a food that hovers around 18-20% protein analysis and 10-15% fat analysis. For a quality dog food avoid corn, what, and soy altogether, or at least in the top 5 ingredients if you can't eliminate them entirely. Ingredients are listed by weight. The first ingredient should be an identified meat meal. The second listed ingredient should also be an identified meat. No byproducts. Many dogs do just fine or even well on poor quality brands like Iams, Eukanuba, and Purina. They'll usually do noticeably better on a higher quality food, though. Many dogs have problems with the corn, wheat, and/or soy in poor quality dog foods. Mine is allergic to corn. A friend has a dog with a wheat allergy.

Answer 3

I am the same as you...I would never feed my dogs something I myself would not eat. I just cannot do it. I also would never feed my dogs an ingredient such as by-product, because it means basically that it is garbage. I could never feed my dogs corn or wheat, because it is highly-un-digestible. I would never feed a protein with "meal" in it, because I would rather see them get the best form of the meat. Poultry meal, well, what does that even mean?
I basically would never ever feed my dogs an ingredient that is considered a "filler" such as corn or ground rice.
Fresh brown rice is the best rice a dog could get.
Anything "ground" is NOT a good ingredient.
Here is my list of "never would touch them with a 10-foot pole":
Iams
Science Diet
Pedigree
Nutro, of any kind
Purina and all their brands, Beneful, ONE, etc.
store brand of any kind
Kibbles N Bits
Authority
Eukanuba
Royal Canin


My list of my own approved kibbles which WOULD be suitable for my dogs:
Natural Balance
Merrick
Solid Gold
Eagle Pack
California Naturals
AvoDerm
Nature's Recipe
Blue
Kirkland by Costco

and I am sure there are more on both sides I could list...


To clarify for Cagney...Kirkland is NOT a store brand. It is produced by Diamond pet foods and is actually very high-quality for a kibble sold in a wharehouse store. Read the ingredients and you will be impressed.
To contrast, read the ingredients in the Grocery Store brands such as Albertsons or Safeway, and you will be disappointed.
Ground yellow corn or some meat by-product I am sure is the first ingredient in most of them.

Answer 4

You cannot replace natural food with one made industrially. Naturally, companies put their profits first, not the animals' health.

Owners use manufactured "whole" pet foods for convenience and out of ignorance. Like you, I would not give my dog anything I would not eat myself. (Only I am a vegetarian, and my dogs are not.)

In the many years of my dog ownership experience I have found that people like saving money on dog food, but as the dog gets middle aged, they spend a fortune on the vet. There is no way of cutting corners.

I much rather give the money up front for good food, and save money on the vet.

Organic lamb (minus any of the fat), and fish (no coley) are the best dog food. Organic brown basmati rice, organic porridge and organic rye bread complete the basic diet, further subsidised with vitamins and minerals, as and when needed by each one of my 5 dogs.

The vets say that the average life expectancy of a dog is 13 years, I have a 16 years old one, fit as a fiddle. She would not be in the condition she is in, on Pedigree chum, Eukanuba, Chappy, or any other attractively flavoured and coloured rubbish that appeals to human vallets.

Give the dog a choice, and it would no pee on the tins!

Merry Christmas to all dogs on fresh, edible food!

Answer 5

All dog foods contain the left overs of our crops and our meats. Ie: dog food is all the **** we won't touch. My family dogs eat what I guess you would now call the revolutionary B.A.R.F diet. I call it "the way it's always been". I have grown up with dogs that have never touched "Dog food" and have lived to be 17(died due to drowning not age). My dogs get real boiled cow bones, and their teeth are sparkly white and they are healthy. Sure they do get dog food mainly as a filler to their diet, but i can never image a dog exclusivly living on our agricultural leftovers.

Answer 6

by products... typically beaks, feet, feather and snouts....bad for 2 reasons
1 they are filler of low digestability
2 they are preserved with ETHOXYQUIN a chemical pesticide that is linked to many health problems and is banned in many parts of the world (some European countries and Japan)

also as an additional information on the 2 foods you named

SCIENCE DIET - is over priced crap - they PAID for vet endorsement...it is low quality nutritionally but fools alot of people becuase of the name and how they market through vets who often receive NO or little education on foods and ingredients...

IAMS - used to be good until bought out by Proctor and Gamble and they dumbed it down.. also linked to cruelty testing on animals.. www.iamscruelty.com

corn is just a cheap filler.... ok in dogs (as long as not in top 3 ingredients) unless they have allergies.. not ok in cat food..

Answer 7

I love my dogs and there is nothing I would not do for them. I have spent a year researching dog foods and learning to read labels. Half of dog's health problems today are caused by what we feed them and the meds we give them. I feed my dogs holistic foods and also treat most of their health problems holistically. www.azmira.com is an excellent wedsite for holistic care and Life' Abundance Dog food is an excellent all natural food that contains no by products, no corn, no wheat or dairy. It has absolutely no artifical colors or flavors or chemical preservatives. If you go their website www.dog-food-zone.com they will give you a comparison of all the major commerical dog foods and their ingredients. It is an excellent website if you want see what is what and what you are actually feeding your dog.
Also I would strongly urge all pet owners to consider the vaccines they give their dogs. After my Lab came down with severe allergies and I could not stand the meds I spent months researching the topic. Right now he is onmeds by Azmira which are all natural herbs which have replaced all typical meds by vets and for once he is not itching and he is happy. But in the course of the research I learned that the righ rates of allergies and cancer in dogs is being caused by the annual vaccines. All researchers agree that all puppies should be vaccinated in the puppy years but they should not receive vaccines after. We are overloading and destroying thei immune systems. Think about as kids we receive our shots but we do not get them every year after. It is not necessary. The breakdown of the immune system is causing the higher rates of disease. Of course rabies is necessary because of law but the others are. My Lab actually had his first allergy breakout right after his first round of booster shots. I researched it and talked to several breeders who agreed and do not yearly vaccinate their dogs.

Answer 8

Well, I feed my dog table scraps, but dogs have different needs in nutrition than humans, and it's bad for them to be vegetarians, too, because, after all, they ARE carnivores. That is how God made them. And as for the animal/meat by-products, how can it be meat, if not by an animal?

Anyway, like I said, I feed my dog all the table scraps, but I feed her dog food, too. And she eats it, so it can't be all that bad for her. And some people DO eat dog food. If you had nothing else, I'm sure you would, too. Anyway, I don't feed my dog Iams, Science Diet, etc.

Well, Good Luck on your campaign to making dog food better for dogs. If that's what you're doing. I don't exactly understand what you're doing, but I answered to the best of my understanding of what your question was.

Answer 9

well my dogs will eat rabbits, snakes and squirrels, not that that is healthy for them, but they catch them and eat them until i take them away. i'm telling you i won't eat those things, so as long as the dog food they are eating is balanced and they are healthy we're doing fine. but thanks for your input anyway.


is kirkland not a store brand? it's an off brand produced by costco, much like sam's club.

Answer 10

Iams, science diet and eukanuba are some of the best dry kibble to feed. Most of the cheaper foods have a not of filler which causes more stool and gas. Stick with a name brand