what is a good cat and dog food ,besides iams?

Question

i have been feeding both my cat and dog iams dry food and they love it but ever since this scare with the canned food i dont trust to given them the dry food anymore because the next ya know it will be the dry food thats poisoned to hey ya never know with this kind of stuff so i will not feed them iams but i need some suggestions on what else would be good thanks morgana

Answer 1

I have answered some questions like this before and everyone keeps putting my answers down...but I have fed my pets, both dog and cats, Purina for years..they are healthy and pass every vet exam ....however I do feed them a mix of rice and lean chicken about once a week for a variety.

Answer 2

I can tell you right off the bat that Iams is a terrible food, for several reasons. It's great that you want to change!

I feed my dog Natural Balance and my cat Evo. Both are ultra premium foods - that means that they use no fillers, are all human grade, and use top quality 'supplements' in them. Other examples are Blue Buffalo, Wellness, Felidae/Canidae, Solid Gold, Wysong, and Merrick.

Purina and most of the grocery store bought brands are bad quality as well.


Contrary to the TERRIBLE advice given by ninetail, DO NOT COOK FOR YOUR CATS! Cats need specific nutrients and most people just don't know how to provide them. They mean well, but I get the feeling that after this scare, the people that decided to cook for their pets will start running into issues with malnutrition with their pets.

Hope this helps! : )

Answer 3

Feed absolutely nothing that is available at the grocery store. All of these foods use very subpar ingredients. This means no iams, purina, old roy, etc. Also, if you are going to go to a pet store Eukanuba and Science Diet aren't that great. They are expensive and really only slightly better ingredient wise than the foods at the grocery store. There are several very good brands to look for wellness, precise, nutro, solid gold, royal canine, innova, and premium edge. Premium edge is usually the least expensive of the above and some of these can get expensive. However, you will also notice when switching to a better quality food you will notice that your cat will eat less and poop less--also probably less smelly due to reduction in grains.

Answer 4

Royal Cannin, formally Waltham. Stay away from Hills for your cat. I know many believe it is one of the best pet foods and for dogs I won't say it isn't. But for a felines, Hills has been linked to diabetes. Cats are "strick" carnivores and all this rice, vege's, etc.s do not digest in their intestinal tracks. I speak from personal experience with my cat whom I had to put to sleep a few years ago. He was terrible obese, 26 pounds, and the vet could not figure out what his problem was. He started vomitting uncontrolable and the Xrays showed no foriegn matter, as such that would cause a blockage. Another vet, whot is into the Eastern Vet. medicine is the one who warned me about Science Diet and any other cat foods that has a lot of vegetable by-products.

Answer 5

Whatever you do, don't buy iams..I did and we have changed our dogs food...it has nothing to do with rat poison but have a look at this video..It is actual footage from the iams lab where they make the pet food..It is very disturbing...Those poor animals... http://youtube.com/watch?v=zaiN-SL89d8
PLEASE EVERYONE HAVE A LOOK
Yes some of the animals are dead in this video, having their body parts torn out, etc. One test was to starve a couple dogs till you could see their bones, in order to see how fast they would gain weight when eating iams. Very cruel...

Answer 6

When you think about it, what does your dog need from its food in order to be healthy?

Today our pets have a wide variety to meet their tastes and needs and we have our choice of what kind of food we can choose to feed them. Despite the variety, pet foods usually fall into three major categories. These categories are: Grocery store foods, these types of dog and pet foods are usually found in grocery stores and mass marketed retailers and can contain lower quality, less expensive ingredients. The second category is "premium dog foods," which can also be found in grocery's stores but are also found in pet stores and through your local veterinarian's office. These types of foods are usually made from some higher quality ingredients and are usually made evident by the expense of the food. Some of these pet foods though can contain lower quality ingredients that you aren't aware of. The third and final category is homemade dog food.More and more people are beginning to make their dog's food at home rather than buying commercial formulas. Homemade dog food doesn't contain any substances that could possibly be harmful to your dog's health such as artificial coloring and artificial flavors.

Another reason to make homemade dog food is the preservatives added to the commercial dog food. Homemade dog food has the benefit of optimum freshness without preservatives.

There are dogs that would greatly benefit from a homemade diet. Some dogs who suffer from allergies that cause severe itching may find relief once switched from commercial dog food to a homemade diet.

Processed dog food is a relatively new product and scientists don't fully understand the differences between commercial food and a diet of fresh food. There may be problems occurring in a dog's health because he is being given food that has had the nutrients cooked out of it and then sprayed back on.


Would you like to prolong the quality and length of your dog's life by 135%?You should keep your dog healthy by homemade dog food.

Answer 7

I use Timberwolf Organics dog food. This food is designed to replicate the food wolves would eat in the wild. It is all natural, and there is 10 pounds of meat per 20 pounds of food. That is 50% meat in every bag! In Iams and other big name brands, it is usually only 25% meat. Timberwolf also makes a food especially designed for cats. You can find Timberwolf and other all-natural brands on http://www.onlynaturalpet.com/ or on http://www.petfooddirect.com/store/.

Answer 8

I do not have any cats but for dogs, Royal Canin and Canidae get my vote. They are a little more expensive but worth it in my opinion.
When you start changing their food, gradually mix some of the new food with the old food, a little more every couple of days, until you are giving them nothing but the new food.

Answer 9

We use "Chicken Soup For the Dog Lovers Soul" dog food it also comes in cat food. It has a lot of meat and not all that by-product stuff.

Answer 10

Pretty much, if you can buy it at Wal Mart, or Costco or the grocery store, it is garbage. Not because of the food recall but because they start with inferior ingredients and go downhill.

Beneful is really garbage. Check the ingredients, it starts with corn. Do you see a lot of dogs grazing in the corn patch? then it uses "chicken by products meal". What is that? Beaks and feet and feathers rendered down to a paste and then cooked into meal. Yummy!

Then see how much sugar Beneful, or several other brands have. Sugar, Sucrose, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, etc are all names for sugar. Well, your dog doesn't need THAT in his food.