I hope you don't mind me chiming in, I think its great you got your dog to eat. And your right IAMS is a slight improvement from Pedigree, but I really think you should read this article about Dog Food. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post a link with info from another forum, but I'll copy and paste the article here, I apologize mods if thats not allowed. I just think this would really help you pick a good dog food and really learn more about how much you can actually save from buying a higher quality dog food. I've had to be on a budget in the past too so I do understand and I'm not trying to make you feel bad or anything about the food you picked, but I saw what you picked and thought this article might help 
This is really long, but really helpful. I removed the name of the other forum just incase, I should really read the rules about that lol
So You Are Confused By Dog Food- Author Sedona and Gunner PAWS
INTRODUCTION
You’re probably reading this because you’ve just learned the dog
food you are feeding your dog is garbage or maybe you’re just reading
this to get some more info. Maybe you’ve been looking for a new food but
you just don’t know how to get started. What ever the case may be this
is a guide to help you pick out a good healthy food for your dog.
First, dogs are carnivores. See those sharp teeth they have? Those
are for crunching bones and tearing flesh. If dogs were meant to eat
lots of grains, fruits, and veggies they’d have flat molars like humans
and bears. Remember learning about the Brontosaurus and the
Tyrannosaurus Rex? The main differences between the two dinosaurs were
their teeth and diet. The Brontosaurus had flat teeth for eating and
grinding plants, and the T-Rex had sharp teeth for eating meat. Dogs
have the same kind of teeth as the T-Rex did. They are carnivores, not
herbivores or omnivores. Carnivores need MEAT, not a bunch of plants.
Okay, now we have that out of the way.
HOW TO PICK A MEATY KIBBLE
The first step in picking out a wholesome kibble is to make sure
there is plenty of meat in the food. For example, if chicken is listed
as the first ingredient and there is no other meat listed, there isn’t
enough meat in the food. Here’s why; all animals are made up of mostly
water, and water is heavy. The ingredients on all bags of dog food are
listed by weight. Once the chicken is cooked and all that water is taken
out, the chicken weighs a whole lot less. So in reality, there is much
less chicken meat in the food than there is of the other first 5 (or so)
ingredients.
If chicken meal is listed as the first ingredient there is a
probably good amount of meat in the food. Chicken meal is regular ole
chicken meat that’s already been cooked and its water has been taken
out. You can think of chicken meal as a cousin to chicken jerky. Since
it’s already been cooked the weight of the chicken meal won’t change
during processing.
If you don’t quite catch the meaning of that, here’s an analogy to
help out a little. Imagine the difference between one balloon filled
with water that weighs 3 pounds, and 3 pounds worth of empty balloons.
You have to have a lot of empty balloons to make three pounds right?
Well that’s how it is with chicken and chicken meal. Chicken is full of
water just like the water balloon. Once they cook the 3 pounds worth
chicken to make kibble the chicken shrinks because all the water is out
of it. It’s like if you were to empty the water balloon. The amount of
meat is hardly anything compared to already cooked 3 pounds of chicken
meal, and the size of the empty water balloon is nothing compared to the
3 pounds of the empties.
Ideally you want a food that has both a whole meat and a meat meal.
Although a meat meal (like chicken meal, beef meal, lamb meal, salmon
meal, etc) is a good thing to find on your ingredient list, that stuff
is overly cooked. Since it has spent so much time in the oven at really
high temperatures, it has a lot of the nutrition cooked out of it. A
regular meat source (like chicken, beef, lamb, salmon, etc) would have a
more vitamins and minerals compared to the meal form, but a meal
provides a whole lot of meat based protein. That’s why it’s good to
have both.
BY-PRODUCTS AND UGLY STUFF
Now, you might scratching you head and wondering why the label on
the back of the bag of your dog food doesn’t actually say chicken or
chicken meal but says chicken by-product meal. Well, as it turns out you
haven’t been feeding your dog much meat.
SPECIFIED MEAT BY-PRODUCTS
The organization who is in charge of dog food, the AAFCO, thinks it
is okay for your dog to eat by-products. Well, they are half right.
Specified meat by-products are the dry, ground, rendered, parts of
slaughtered animals. Depending on the animal (chicken, beef, pork,
salmon, etc) these by-products include heads, necks, feet, intestines,
bones, undeveloped eggs, connective tissues, and a whole slew of other
stuff left over from human processing. If your dog was feral and had to
hunt for herself this is all stuff she’d eat anyway, so no biggie right?
Not really. By-products don’t include one important thing; MEAT! For
all intents and purposes by-products are meat-less. Remember this,
chicken heads and feet are fine for a dog to eat, but the majority of
their diet should come from meat. Dogs need meat to be their
healthiest. So if the kibble doesn’t list a meat (like chicken or beef)
or a meat meal (like salmon meal or lamb meal) and only has meat
by-products, you aren’t giving your pet carnivore much meat.
UNSPECIFICED MEAT PRODUCTS
Okay, now some of you are going “Hey, my bag of food doesn’t even
mention a specific animal. What gives?” If your bag of food has
ingredients like poultry meal, fish meal, meat meal, liver meal, meat
and bone meal, etc it’s best to just throw that food away right now.
There is no telling what kind of animals are in that food. There could
raccoon road kill or even cats and dogs in that food. That’s right!
There are no laws preventing companion animals being made into pet food.
As sick as that is, it’s the truth.
CARBOHYDRATES
Okay so you’ve found a food that has a good amount of meat without
any uglies in it. Now what do you do? You need to take a second to look
over the carbohydrate sources in the food. There are many different
sources of carbohydrates used in kibble. You want a food that uses WHOLE
forms of carbohydrates. Whole forms of carbs have more nutritional
value than fragments. The main reason dog food makers use fragments is
to beef up the protein levels in the food. There isn’t enough protein
in the food because there isn’t any meat.
Here’s some examples of whole vs. fragment:
White Rice is whole, Brewers Rice is a fragment.
Potato is whole, Potato Product is a fragment.
Oatmeal is whole, Oat Hulls are fragments.
Do you see where I’m going with this? If there are extra words
attached to the name of the carb more often than not, it’s a fragment.
Besides, would you eat something called Potato Product? I think not.
If there are multiple carbohydrate sources in the food keep in mind
that all those different carbs add up. If there are only one or two meat
sources listed and five carbohydrate sources, there is a possibility
that there are more carbs than meat in the food.
FILLERS
Fillers are just junky stuff no one uses so dog food makers throw it
in food. It has no real nutritional value except as a source of fiber.
Fiber is a good thing, but you can get fiber from other sources like the
white rice and oatmeal I wrote about above. Avoid ingredients like Corn
Bran, Oat Hulls, Rice Hulls, Wheat Middlings, and Cellulose. Those are
floor sweepings, seriously. There are other fillers that aren’t so bad. A
little doesn’t hurt but if there are more than a couple fillers in the
food it’s probably best to avoid it. Some of the better fillers are
Tomato Pomace, Apple Pomace, Citrus Pulp, and Dried Beet Pulp. Just make
sure there isn’t a ton of that stuff in there. Remember that the
ingredients on the bag are listed by weight so if a filler comes before a
good ingredient, there is more filler than the good stuff.
FAT
Fat is probably the second most important ingredient besides meat.
Good healthy fats are essential to your dog’s health. Okay, remember
reading about the unspecified meat sources in the food. Well, there can
be unspecified fat sources in the food too. If your ingredient list says
poultry fat, it’s an unspecified fat source. Yuck. If they aren’t
honest enough to list what kind of animal is in the food, then that
company isn’t going to get my business. If it says chicken fat then YAY!
Chicken is chicken; we all know what that is. This goes for all types
of fats not just chicken. If it says animal fat, that’s no good. If it
says pork fat then it’s good. Get it? Knowing what species your dog is
eating is important.
OIL AS FAT
Some companies use oils as their fat source. That’s fine. I prefer
oils made from animals (like Salmon Oil) as opposed to plant sources
(like Flaxseed Oil or Canola Oil) because my dog is a carnivore. If your
dog doesn’t have a problem with plants oils (like allergies and such)
then you’re probably all right. Just make sure it doesn’t say Vegetable
Oil because that’s unspecified and could have some scary stuff in there.
FLAVOR ENHANCERS
Ha, it’s pretty funny when you think about. These low quality dog
foods are so terrible they actually have to add flavor and smell to the
kibble to make dogs want to eat it.
Tallow and Lard are two very bad forms of fat. These fats are
nutritionally shallow. They aren’t a good source of linoleic acid which
is important to a dog’s health, and are just there because they smell
and taste appealing to canines.
You also want to look out for anything called digest. Digest is like
a big stew of just about everything except the kitchen sink. Then they
take that soupy mess and add it into the kibble or spray it on after the
kibble is made. It has zero nutritional value and its presence on an
ingredient list is proof that the food is crap.
Sugar, Sorbitol, Cane Molasses, Fructose, and Corn Syrup are all
sweeteners. As yummy as candy and sweet stuff is, dogs don’t need that
junk. Sweeteners can lead to obesity, Diabetes, and tooth decay. It’s
not fun to be obese, sick, and toothless.
CHEMICALS
Dog food is chalk full of chemicals and dogs have to eat these
chemical ridden foods everyday. Chemicals can build up in their bodies
and cause sickness.
You want to avoid artificial colors and dyes like Blue 2, Red 40,
Yellow 5, Yellow 6 and stuff like that. Dogs don’t care what color
their food is. Dog food manufactures put that stuff in there so we see
the different colors and think the food is better or more appealing.
It’s not. That junk is known to cause tumors and other health problems.
There are also some nasty preservatives you don’t want your dog to
be eating. BHA, BHT, Ethoxyquin, and Propyl Gallate are all really bad
stuff. BHA and BHT have been banned by a lot of countries because it’s a
known human cancer causing agent. It’s still legal in the US though.
Don’t risk it. Humans would only eat BHA/BHT once in awhile, but if it’s
your pet’s food they’d have to eat it everyday. Bad bad bad. Ethoxyquin
is a stabilizer for rubber! It’s been banned for human consumption!
It’s been known to cause all kinds of health problems! Steer clear of
that stuff PLEASE! Propyl Gallate (aka Gallic Acid or Propyl Ester) is
suspected to cause liver disease and cancer. You know, there are other
options to preserve foods. Vitamin E, Vitamin C, and Rosemary do just as
good of a job as those chemicals! They just happen to be more expensive
but they are much safer than that other stuff.
There’s one more thing you should avoid. It’s located near the end
of the ingredient list on that bag of food. It goes by the names
Menadione Dimethyl-Pyrimidinol Bisulfate, Menadione Dimethyl-Pyrimidinol
Bisulfite, Menadione Sodium Bisulfate Complex, Menadione Sodium
Bisulfite, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex, and Vitamin K3. It’s
synthetic vitamin K. This is another ugly thing that you should really
avoid. It’s been linked to a whole bunch of health problems. There are
other whole food and natural ways to get vitamin K in kibble.
Manufactures use K3 because it’s cheap.
WHY YOU SHOULD SWITCH
Have you noticed any of the following problems with your dog, lack
of energy, itchy runny eyes, eye boogers, itchy skin, ears that smell
bad, overall doggy odor, dull coat, excessive shedding, large smelly and
loose stools? None of those problems are normal for a healthy dog and
most can be helped by switching to a better quality food.
A lot of dogs have food allergies or sensitivities that can cause
all those above symptoms. The best way to make sure you’re not feeding
things to your dog that their body can’t handle is to have an allergy
test done by your Vet. If you’re not too keen on running out and getting
your dog tested there are a few things you can do right now to help.
First, you should find a food that doesn’t have any of the poor
quality ingredients I wrote about above. Sometimes that stuff just isn’t
giving your dog enough nutrition to be their healthiest. Next you
should check to see if there is soy, wheat, or corn in your food. Those
are highly allergenic ingredients. A lot of dogs just can’t tolerate
those at all. If there is none of that stuff in your food, check out the
protein source. If you’ve been feeding the same brand of food or the
same kind of protein for awhile your dog could have developed allergies
to that kind of meat.
So if the food you’ve been feeding has an ingredient list that reads
like; Chicken, Chicken Meal, White Rice, Brown Rice, Barley etc you
want to try a different food that looks nothing like the one you are
currently eating. The new food could have an ingredient list like
Salmon, Salmon Meal, Oatmeal, Sweet Potato etc. See how different that
is? There’s no guarantee that it’s going to cure your dog but I bet it
will help your dog.
SO WHAT IN THE HECK ARE YOU SUPPOSED TO FEED?
Well, there are lots of good foods out there. Since every dog is
different it’s hard for me to say one food is better than another. What
one dog does terribly on another dog could do wonderfully on. If you’re
looking for a truly awesome and healthy food you’re not going to find it
at your local grocery store or Wal-Mart. More than likely you’re going
to have to go to a pet specialty store.
THE PRICE OF PREMIUM
Premium foods are more expensive. From what I’ve seen, the really
good foods average out at about $1.75 a pound whereas the food at the
grocery store is about $.75 a pound. Huge difference isn’t it? Not
really. The premium foods often have way more calories. So that 20lb bag
of premium food that costs $35 it going to outlast the 20lb bag of food
that costs $15. You probably think I’m full of it don’t you?
Okay, let’s break it down:
Purina Beneful Original has 1674 calories per pound of food. The cost of a 17.6 pound bag on PetFoodDirect.com is $19.49.
1674 * 17.6 = 29462.4 calories
So it costs $19.49 for 29463 calories (I rounded up).
Canidae All Life Stages has 1875 calories per pound of food. The cost of a 20 pound bag on PetFoodDirect.com is 25.79.
1875 * 20 = 37500 calories
So it costs $25.79 for 37500 calories.
That’s almost another 5 pounds worth of food! Sure the price per
pound of Canidae is higher, but you’re getting a heck of a lot more food
for that price. You’d have to feed a lot less Canidae than you would
Beneful, plus the ingredients in Canidae are way better.
INGREDIENTS COMPARISON
Since I’ve already used Canidae All Life Stages and Beneful as
examples I’m going to go ahead and continue using them. I don’t mean to
pick on Beneful. It’s just that it was the only lower quality food that I
could find the calories per pound so I used it. The reason I chose
Canidae ALS as an example is because I know it’s a great good food at a
really reasonable price and it is pretty easy to find. There are many
other great foods out there. Don’t think that Canidae is the end all be
all of kibble.
Now let’s compare the ingredients of these two foods. I’m sure
you’ve been paying attention so you should be able to pick out all the
nasty ingredients right?
Beneful- Ground yellow corn, chicken by-product meal, corn gluten
meal, whole wheat flour, animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols
(form of Vitamin E), rice flour, beef, soy flour, sugar, sorbitol,
tricalcium phosphate, water, salt, phosphoric acid, animal digest,
potassium chloride, dicalcium phosphate, sorbic acid (a preservative),
L-Lysine monohydrochloride, dried peas, dried carrots, calcium
carbonate, calcium propionate (a preservative), choline chloride, added
color (Yellow 5, Red 40, Yellow 6, Blue 2), DL-Methionine, Vitamin E
supplement, zinc sulfate, ferrous sulfate, Vitamin A supplement,
manganese sulfate, niacin, Vitamin B-12 supplement, calcium
pantothenate, riboflavin supplement, copper sulfate, biotin, garlic oil,
thiamine hydrochloride, pyridoxine hydrochloride, thiamine mononitrate,
folic acid, Vitamin D-3 supplement, menadione sodium bisulfite complex
(source of Vitamin K activity), calcium iodate, sodium selenite.
Canidae ALS- Chicken Meal, Turkey Meal, Brown Rice, White Rice, Lamb
Meal, Chicken Fat (preserved with Mixed Tocopherols), Herring Meal,
Flax Seed, Sun Cured Alfalfa Meal, Sunflower Oil, Chicken, Lecithin,
Monocalcium Phosphate, Potassium Chloride, Choline Chloride, Linoleic
Acid, Rosemary Extract, Sage Extract, Dried Enterococcus Faecium, Dried
Lactobacillus Acidophilus Fermentation Product, Dried Aspergillus Oryzae
Fermentation Extract, Dried Bacillus Subtilis Fermentation Extract,
Inulin (from Chicory root), Saccharomyces Cerevisiae Fermentation
Solubles, Yucca Schidigera Extract, Mixed Tocopherols (source of Vitamin
E), Zinc Amino Acid Chelate, Manganese Amino Acid Chelate, Iron Amino
Acid Chelate, Copper Amino Acid Chelate, Cobalt Amino Acid Chelate,
Vitamin A Supplement, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Ascorbic Acid (source of
Vitamin C), Niacin, Thiamine Mononitrate (Vitamin B1), Riboflavin
(source of B2), Beta Carotene, Calcium Pantothenate, Pyridoxine
Hydrochloride (Vitamin B6), Calcium Iodate, Folic Acid, D-Biotin, Sodium
Selenite, Papaya, Vitamin B12 Supplement.
Do I actually need to explain this to you? Nearly every one of the
bad ingredients I told you about before is in Beneful. There are two
kinds of sugar in the first 10 ingredients. There are unspecified
animals sources. There are dyes and nasty chemicals. What gives?
Do you see any of that junk in Canidae?
Now don’t you feel ripped off? Where’s the meat and all the fresh
foods that are supposed to be in there? If you are like me, you
probably thought you were doing good for your dog buying a name brand
food. That stuff is supposed to be good right? On the Beneful
commercial it shows meat, rice, corn, and vegetables right? Well, where
in the heck is that stuff? All I see are corn and chemicals!
CORN AND LOW QUALITY FOODS
A good indicator that you have a low quality food is the presence of
corn. If you are feeding a food you got at a grocery store, chances
are you’re feeding your dog mostly corn. Check the ingredients of the
food you have or plan on feeding. Is there corn in there? Is it the
first ingredient? Why would a dog need corn and meat-less by-products
in their food instead of meat? If you ran out of dog food what would
you feed your dog? An ear of corn? I hope not. If you have any sense,
you’d most likely feed your dog a piece of meat.
Why do the big companies like Mars (Nutro, Pedigree, Royal Canin).
Procter and Gamble (Iams, Eukanuba), and Nestle (Purina, Alpo) think
that dogs don’t need any meat? What are candy and toilet paper making
companies doing producing dog food anyway?
A few of you who are reading this are saying to yourself, “I had a
dog live 18 years eating food like that and he was just fine.” Most of
you that have a story like that have probably already stopped reading
this. That’s okay. This is for the few of you that are still with me.
A man named Buster Martin has been a beer drinker and smoker nearly his
entire life. He’s 101 years old and he just competed in the London
Marathon. If you had a dog live for 18 years eating mostly corn that
dog is a genetic marvel just like Buster Martin. Most of us aren’t as
lucky as Mr. Martin, and most of our dogs won’t be that lucky either.
Dogs have very short life spans and providing them with the nutrition
they need is an important way to keep them healthy for as long as
possible.
A QUICK WORD ABOUT CANNED FOOD
Canned foods are less processed than kibble. They also provide your
pet with much needed moisture. How do you know you’re getting a good
kind of canned food though? You can use the same method as choosing a
kibble. If the ingredient label on the canned food lists stuff like
by-products, chemicals, lots of carbohydrate fragments, corn, soy, and
other junk don’t get it. Simple as that. You should be able to recognize
most of the ingredients in the food as food.
An example of a good food is: Chicken, Chicken Liver, Chicken Broth,
Brown Rice, Eggs, Peas, Carrots, Flaxseed, Spinach, Menhaden Fish Oil,
Vitamins (Choline Chloride, L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate, Vitamin E
Supplement, Niacin Supplement, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Vitamin A
Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate, Biotin, Riboflavin Supplement,
d-Calcium Pantothenate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Vitamin D3 Supplement,
Folic Acid), Dried Kelp, Salt, Taurine, Potassium Chloride, Minerals
(Zinc Proteinate, Iron Proteinate, Manganese Proteinate, Copper
Proteinate, Sodium Selenite, Ethylenediamine Dihydriodide), Artichokes,
Cranberries, Pumpkin, Tomato, Blueberries, Broccoli, Cabbage, Kale,
Parsley.
And an example of a bad food is: Chicken, sufficient water for
processing, poultry by-products, brewers rice, carob bean gum, sodium
tripolyphosphate, carrageenan, minerals (potassium chloride, zinc
sulfate, copper sulfate, potassium iodide), vegetable oil(source of
linoleic acid), dried yam, guar gum, natural flavor blend, bay leaves,
vitamins (vitamin e, a & d3 supplements, d-calcium pantothenate,
thiamine mononitrate {vitamin b1}, biotin.
PUPPY, ADULT, AND SENIOR FOOD
There are four main types of dog foods on the market; Puppy, Adult
Maintenance, Senior, and All Life Stages. The first three are pretty
self explanatory. Puppy food is designed for growing puppies, adult
maintenance is designed to maintain the health of an adult, senior
formulas are designed for older, less active dogs and they are typically
lower calorie versions of the adult. Senior formulas are also
notorious for being full of fillers, so make sure to read those
ingredient labels. All Life Stages (ALS) foods are designed to be used
by every dog no matter the age. It’s really up to you what kind of food
you want to buy.
LARGE BREED PUPPIES NEED DIFFERENT FOODS
Every dog is an individual, and therefore has unique needs. Large
and giant breed puppies for example, should eat foods with a moderate
protein percentage, as well as a calcium level of 1.5% or less. Also,
it’s important to keep them lean to avoid extra pressure on the joints.
These criteria ensure a proper growth rate, and help prevent joint
issues in adulthood. Puppy foods, for the most part, should be avoided
because they often promote a faster growth rate than is recommended.
WHAT FOOD ****** DON’T RECOMMEND
While ****** try not to ostracize anyone because of the food they
feed, there are certain foods that are not recommended by the majority
of members. Some of these companies listed make prescription foods. If
you have a very sick dog that needs special foods, then you might have
to feed your dog a food with pretty grody ingredients. Sometimes you
just gotta do it. If your dog is very sick, please talk to your vet.
Take a look at the ingredients of the following foods and try to
apply what you’ve learned to see why they aren’t considered that great.
Alpo
Beneful
Dad’s
Dog Chow
Iams
Nutro
Pedigree
Purina One
Pro Plan
Science Diet
Royal Canin
WHAT FOODS ******* DO RECOMMEND
This is a list of most of the foods frequently recommended (and fed
by) ******. Check out their ingredients lists and you’ll see why. All
of these recommendations are for healthy dogs. There are other foods
not on this list that are good too. This will at least give you a good
starting out point.
Blue Buffalo
By Nature
Canidae
Natural Balance
Eagle Pack Holstic Select
Evanger’s
Fromm
Merrick
Timberwolf
Natura Products
Wellness
Nature’s Logic
Nature’s Variety
Orijen
Solid Gold
Taste of the Wild
Ziwi Peak
Okay, that is a basic rundown of dog foods. There are SO many
products out there and it can get overwhelming very quickly. If you’re
looking to switch foods just take it slow. You’ll find the perfect food
you’re looking for. I promise!
Here’s a couple of places that can help you with your food search.
The Dog Food Project
Dog Food Analysis
Thanks to everyone who contributed and helped put this thing together! You all rock!
Sedona and Gunner PAWS