Purina has too much corn, but Iams doesn't? Like I said before in another comment, its one thing that Iams did the research, its a total other thing if they actually put that research to use. You said that you woul trust that they followed their research and put a lot of animal protien in the food, if you would read the bag of iams, you will see that that is not the case. By-products are not good sources of animal protien. Yet they have no problem putting corn in the product as a second ingredient! (it is really the first once you take the water out of the chicken). You said that you've done the research, well compare your research to that of the bag of Iams...for that matter, compare Purina (which has too much corn) to a bag of Iams. You will see that there is really not much difference. Good Luck

In order to say that Iams has too much corn to chicken ratio you would have to know the actual measurements...and we don't know that. This comes from their site. Common chicken ingredients include chicken, chicken meal, chicken by-product meal and chicken fat. Chicken is flesh and skin without internal organs or feathers. Chicken meal includes flesh, skin and bone that have been cleaned, dried, cooked and ground. Chicken by-product meal is flesh, skin and internal organs (including intestines and bone) that have been cleaned, dried, cooked and ground. Chicken fat, a high-quality energy source, provides essential fatty acids such as linoleic acid that can help support skin and coat health So it all comes to trust. You don't trust them and at this point I do. Using Chicken as opposed to chicken mixed with bone and processed to death may be better. And if you look at the ingredients between Purina Dog Chow and Iams...there seems to be a real difference. Corn Gluten IS a protein source in Purina. Corn meal is a carbonhydrate source. So a brand using corn glutin DOES NOT use a meat source as the main protein source. Purina:Ingredients Ground yellow corn, poultry by-product meal, animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E), corn gluten meal, brewers rice, soybean meal, animal digest, calcium carbonate, calcium phosphate, salt, potassium chloride, L-Lysine monohydrochloride, choline chloride, zinc sulfate, Vitamin E supplement, zinc proteinate, ferrous sulfate, added color (Red 40, Yellow 5, Blue 2, Yellow 6), manganese sulfate, manganese proteinate, niacin, Vitamin A supplement, copper sulfate, calcium pantothenate, copper proteinate, garlic oil, pyridoxine hydrochloride, Vitamin B-12 supplement, thiamine mononitrate, Vitamin D-3 supplement, riboflavin supplement, calcium iodate, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity), folic acid, biotin, sodium selenite. P-4101 Iams:Ingredients Chicken, Corn Meal, Ground Whole Grain Sorghum, Chicken By-Product Meal (Natural source of Glucosamine), Ground Whole Grain Barley, Fish Meal, Dried Beet Pulp (Sugar Removed), Chicken Fat (Preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of Vitamin E), Natural Chicken Flavor, Dried Egg Product, Potassium Chloride, Brewers Dried Yeast, Calcium Carbonate, Salt, Flax Meal, Sodium Hexametaphosphate, Choline Chloride, Minerals (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Manganese Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Potassium Iodide, Cobalt Carbonate), Dried Chicken Cartilage (Natural source of Glucosamine), DL-Methionine, Vitamins (Vitamin E Supplement, Ascorbic Acid, Vitamin A Acetate, Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Thiamine Mononitrate (Source of Vitamin B1), Vitamin B12 Supplement, Niacin, Riboflavin Supplement (Source of Vitamin B2), Inositol, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Source of Vitamin B6), Vitamin D3 Supplement, Folic Acid), Fish Oil (Preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of Vitamin E), L-Tryptophan, Rosemary Extract

Guess you can't format when you reply to a review. Didn't mean to make something totally tedious to read.

Gosh, let me shorten my unformatted ravings to my point. Purina uses corn glutin as a protein source. Iams does not. WE can't say whether Chicken is proportionately less then the corn in the Iams unless we know the actual measurements. Chicken is not processed, and rendered and is not mixed with bone like chicken meal is...so it is a higher quality protein source.

AAFCO definition for "chicken meal": The dry rendered product from a combination of clean flesh and skin with or without accompanying bone, derived from the parts of whole carcasses of chicken, exclusive of feathers, heads, feet, or entrails. AAFCO definition for Chicken: The Clean combination of flesh and skin with or without the accompanying bone, derived from the parts or whole carcasses of chicken or a combination thereof, exclusive of feathers, heads, feet, and entrails......You will notice that the only difference between the two is that chicken meal is dried and chicken is not. Therefor, we remember from basic biology that animals are made up of 70% water. So, once you take out that 70% from the chicken, you will place it much farther down the list. Yes, Iams uses corn as a carb, but also as a protien source. All corn contains protien, you cannot take it out of the product unless you make it into an oil (i.e corn oil). Therefore, with corn as a first ingredients it is a 100% fact that they are using it as a protien! Chicken by-products as defined by AAFCO: Consists of the dry, ground, rendered, clean parts of the carcass of slaughtered chicken, such as necks, feet, undeveloped eggs, and intestines -- exclusive of feathers except in such amounts as might occur unavoidably in good processing practices. Iams is lying with there definition of chicken by-products so that consumers like yourself will not actually look up the real definitions of the ingredients. Please do not take what iams says as the "truth" of ingredients, do the research yourself, you will see that everything is not as it seems on their site.

Corn, wheat, rice, barley have protein componants but its only the rice glutin and corn gluten that can serve as a usable protein source. It is highly concentrated..separated from the starch. Corn by itself is much to diluted. So when you see a dog food with corn gluten, then you know that part of the protein is not based on a meat source. Iams must be using enough chicken to cover its protein requirements. It might be that they have to put ALOT of wet chicken in there...but they've got it covered.

You must understand pet food labels. It is in order of weight. Water is extremely heavy, therefor, when you see chicken, all the weight is coming from the water, take that out and it is the seventh or eight ingredient. The ingredient after chicken is corn meal (inclusive of water) this means that they have a lot of corn in the food. Corn has protien and if it is the number one ingredient in the food, you can guarantee that most, if not all of their protien is coming from corn, not meat.

I do know what you are saying...I just think there is a sustained disagreement between us. I DO understand that water is included in the weight. If you look at Science Diet, you will see that they have chicken as the first ingredient also. BUT they also have soy, corn glutin and I think even wheat glutin. So they aren't addng enough chicken to sustain the required protein. Even though they list it first. Iams uses MORE chicken then Science Diet. Water or not...its enough. Corn has too much volume of starch to be usable....A whole grain (except for soy) cannot be used that way. A good site to look at is the ingredient comparison area of Natura (Innova's company) site. They are pretty upfront regarding the ingredients in my opinion.