Mohr <[log in to unmask]> Tasha wrote: " I'm very disappointed in a company I had tentatively come to trust." I am not sure if you were saying you had come to trust Iams or P&G. If you were speaking of Iam's you should know that Iam's as we knew it, no longer exists...at all. When P&G bought the line of food, just as with most "buy outs", the ethics and standards of the buyer enveloped the newly purchased company. The quality, integrity, and all the former advertising and product information published by Iam's is not applicable to the "Iam's product" on the shelves today. The only thing that we can be assured is the same are the four letters that make up the name on the bags. P&G is obviously attempting to profit from Iam's excellent reputation, banking on the "lack of awareness" of consumers that the manufacturer has changed. This is a typical "strategic maneuver" in the corporate world. What you are seeing on grocery store shelves, and even in petstores labeled "Iam's"...is NOT the Iam's we had come to know and love before P&G's buy out. As many ferret owners have already discovered, the "enhancements" as they are calling them, are adversely affecting ferrets. I strongly suspect that dog and cat owners will soon discover the same with their pets. Grocery store shelves are full of garbage pet foods labeled as "newer", "better", tastier", "nutritionally complete" or whatever buzz-words are pulling in the most bucks these days, and the fact that P&G has placed their products on the same shelves, speaks for itself. "Enhanced" or even those claims that a food is "nutritionally complete" does NOT mean that the animals will receive a nutritionally complete/balanced diet from the food. Remember, a lot depends upon how the animal's body processes, uses and absorbs the nutrients. In a lab, tests may show that corn is made up of the certain proteins that animals need, but if the animal cannot extract and use these proteins..what good are they? There are countless ferret foods on the market loaded with corn, but ferrets can't process corn to extract the proteins from it. But manufacturers don't have to mention that, and I suspect many don't even know it because they've not done any extensive research on ferrets. As a rule, it is wise to beware of any company that makes multiple petfoods (for different types of animals). Having spent years "associated with" the pet industry, I know that once a company has a foothold in a market, it's easy to just add more lines of products and then expect consumers to assume all of their products are thoroughly researched and tested when rarely is that the case. The truth is they have simply found a way to expand their market (and make more money) since they already buy the same ingredients for their other foods, they have the machinery already to produce the food, and they have the ability to package it similarly to their other products, and they have buyers in place ready to accept their products, so they figure why not. Why do you think that suddenly you are seeing Iam's in grocery stores... because P&G already has a big foothold in the "grocery store market" with tons of other products they sell there already. One other point to ponder is why Iam's and other premium petfood manufacturers have not marketed their products through grocery stores in the past. The reason is simple, premium foods are bought by knowledgeable pet owners who understand something about nutrition and have some level of knowledge about reading ingredient labels. It costs more to produce the better foods but this group of consumers is willing to spend the money to provide the best for their animals. As a rule, and I don't mean to insult anyone reading this, most people who buy petfoods off grocery store shelves select these foods for one of three reasons 1) low price 2) convenience 3) lack of understanding of the importance of nutrition and lack of understanding that there is a vast difference between "cheap foods" and "higher priced foods found only in petstores". What this means is, quality foods don't stand much of a chance in grocery stores because people are not shopping for quality in their petfood (even if some believe they are buying quality when they read the buzz words on the bag). Grocery stores do not staff knowledgeable employees to educate consumers on petfoods as some petstores do, so the consumer has no way to know why one food is better than another unless they educate themselves. So the more expensive and better quality foods rarely move off grocery store shelves. Over time I am sure we will not only see a steady decline in the ingredients used in Iam's foods, but also a decline in the price until soon it will be comparable to every other cheap food sold in the grocery store. Trish Director, Ferrets First Rescue & Shelter [Posted in FML issue 3005]