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Chicken, a complete protein source, is a key ingredient in IAMS™ dog foods, including IAMS™ ProActive Health™ Adult MiniChunks. As an animal-based protein, chicken can help maintain your dog’s muscle structure and naturally provides all the amino acids essential to carnivorous animals such as dogs. Plus, chicken adds great flavor.
Learn more about chicken’s role in your dog’s complete, well-balanced diet.
Common chicken ingredients in dog food include chicken, chicken meal, chicken byproduct meal and chicken fat:
Another common chicken-based ingredient is natural chicken flavor, also called chicken digest. Natural chicken flavor adds palatability and nutrients. It is high-quality protein and fat material that has been reduced to amino and fatty acids to improve flavor through an enzymatic process.
Internal organs are rich sources of protein, fats and minerals, such as iron, that are essential to dog health and add to the palatability of the pet food. Including some ground bone provides a good source of minerals, such as calcium. Some pet-food manufacturers formulate their products without such ingredients to appeal to dog owners, rather than to help dogs achieve optimal health. However, the nutritional needs of dogs are not the same as the nutritional needs of humans.
Dried chicken-protein sources in our chicken-based dog foods undergo an extra refining process. Refined chicken meal and chicken byproduct meal are excellent and complete sources of protein because they naturally contain each of the amino acids that are essential to dogs.
The energy requirements of a puppy can be nearly twice those of an adult dog. This means that a puppy might not have the stomach capacity to eat enough food to meet his needs unless the food is specially formulated.
When choosing a puppy food, select one that provides a highly digestible, nutrient-dense, 100% complete premium formula for growth. Such high-quality formulas contain the vitamins, minerals, protein, fat and carbohydrates your dog needs for sound and healthy development. With a premium formula, your puppy may have:
Puppies grow fastest during the first six months of life, and because growth rates differ among breed sizes, you need a formula designed to address the needs of your puppy’s breed or size.
No two dogs are alike. So when choosing your pet's food, you'll want to take into consideration the dog's breed, size, age, weight, and lifestyle. Full growth will happen at around 1 to 2 years, with the exact age determined by your dog's breed—small-breed dogs mature faster than large-breed dogs. “Grown dogs, especially ones who are more athletic, will start to eat more quantities in one feeding,” says Madan Khare, DVM. “You want to limit his feeding to one or two times a day, depending on his activity level.” Exact quantities should be determined by consulting your vet or by reading the package labels (just remember to split a daily serving in half if you choose to feed the dog twice a day).
When transitioning your dog from puppy food to premium adult food you want to do it gradually. “Never change a dog's diet abruptly,” Khare says. Here's a schedule for transitioning your pet from puppy food to an adult dog food:
Daily exercise and a diet packed with high-quality protein from chicken, lamb, or fish and essential nutrients will keep him happy and healthy throughout his lifetime. Premium dry pet food has all of the daily nutrition your pet needs. It helps promote healthy teeth and gums, too.
“When it comes to feeding your dog human food, I have three words,” Khare says. “No. No. No.” Interfering with your pet's food regimen by frequent change in diet or nutritionally inadequate human food can disturb the animal's digestive system.
Always remember to pick premium, tailor-made dog food based on the life stage and unique needs of your pet.
