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I would definitely recommend looking for something better than Iams dry. I just looked at the ingredients on the adult formula (chicken) on their website and here are some comments:
Main ingredients:
1. Chicken - Chicken as first ingredient would be excellent on a canned food and it adds quality to dry foods. However, it can be a bit misleading. Chicken (or any other meat) contains a lot of moisture that is removed during extrusion for dry food, so the overall amount of dry weight contributed by chicken is probably much less than having it as top ingredient would suggest. The amount of chicken in the formula is probably 25% (minimum required by AAFCO for a "chicken formula" and probably what they use as this is the most expensive ingredient) and at most 50% (maximum the extruder can handle). Taking out the water (up to 70%) we are left with about 7.5-15% chicken based on dry weight after processing. The remaining 85-92.5% are made up by the other ingredients.
2. Chicken By-Product Meal - This is basically chicken slaughterhouse waste (e.g. heads, feet, etc.) processed by rendering to produce meal. It's a far inferior source of protein than chicken because there's less meat in it and the rendering destroys some of the nutrients, but it's likely the first ingredient based on dry weight in this food (see my comment on water in chicken above). A food with "chicken meal" instead of by-product meal would be preferable.
3. Corn Grits / 4. Corn Meal - This is called "ingredient splitting" and is used to make certain sources (in this case corn) appear lower on the list. However, the combined corn contents of the food might actually be higher than ingredients listed above and to me the splitting indicates that corn would likely be the "real" first ingredient if it wasn't split this way. Corn is a poor choice of ingredient for cat foods as it contains lots of carbohydrates, and whatever protein it has is poorly digestible. In addition, both these ingredients have been processed, e.g. corn meal is what is leftover after pressing the oil out of the kernels for vegetable oils. A food without corn or at least with ground whole corn instead of several processed parts would be preferable.
Looking at the ash value on the guaranteed analysis, it's "not more than 7%". If this food was based on chicken or chicken meal as the sole protein source, it should have up to 15% ash (even more for by-product meal due to more bones etc). The low ash value in this case indicates at least half of the protein is plant-derived rather than animal-derived.
In summary, I would conclude from this list that the bulk of the dry matter of this food is likely composed of the main ingredients:
1. corn (processed parts) - combined around 50% or more?
2. chicken by-product meal - around 42.5%?
3. chicken (what is left after drying) - around 7.5%?
Additives, flavor enhancers etc.:
5. Chicken Fat (preserved with Mixed Tocopherols, a source of Vitamin E, and Citric Acid) - This is a standard fat sprayed on dry foods to increase palatability and a good choice for this purpose. Mixed tocopherols are excellent natural preservatives, but the citric acid might be too acidic for a cat's digestive tract. But likely there's not much in there anyway as it is just an additive.
6. Fish Meal (source of fish oil) - Not likely! As far as I understand rendering and meal production, the oil/fat is removed before processing into dry meal. (Real fish oil would be an excellent source for beneficial fatty acids.) What is left are just traces and the rendering process destroys much of the nutritional value. I suspect this is in here just to add fish flavor.
7. Dried Beet Pulp (sugar removed) - A waste product of the sugar industry added for vegetable fiber.
8. Natural Chicken Flavor - Whatever that is... probably some type of stock or digest.
9. Dried Egg Product - Any "product" indicates a processed part instead of wholesome ingredients. Whole eggs would be preferable.
The rest is mostly minerals, vitamins and other additives. Taurine is 0.15% which is within the AAFCO requirements for dry foods (0.1%). However, other dry foods such as Evo or Core have up to twice as much taurine.
In summary, it's not the worst I've seen, but not the best either. Looking at the guaranteed analysis, I calculated it has at least 35% protein and up to 30% carbohydrates per dry matter. Some grocery store brands go down to 30% protein and up to 45% carbohydrates. So it's better than that. For comparison, premium high protein dry foods such as Evo, Core and Instinct have at least 55% protein and around 15% carbohydrates. A typical mouse would have about 55% protein and 10% carbohydrates per dry weight. Of course it would also provide about 70% moisture instead of just 10%, but that's an issue all dry foods have...
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FAQ
If you're feeding Whiskas pouches, have you tried the Purrfectly Fish varieties? I think they're the best of the Whiskas foods (e.g. no by-products for a change) and my cats think they're getting a super-special treat and almost lick the bowls clean whenever I give it to them. I only give it to them as the occasional treat though as an all-fish diet is not good in the long run.