[jenncarrera]

I am switching Mizu from Natures Nutro to Beneful. Does anyone feed their beagle this brand? I've heard good and bad reviews on this brand.

 

[threedognight]

Jenny, All three of my beags have been healthy and happy on Beneful (healthy weight) for over three years now. Their vet gave it the thumbs up I've never seen any bad press about the food itself. The only issue I have is that tartar buildup on their teeth, as many of the "kibbles" in Beneful are soft.

 

[jassy]

My friend had her Australian Shepherds on Beneful for about a year. They seemed to do Ok but after we read the ingredients she changed foods. Beneful has corn and chicken by products as the first two ingredients. It also has sugar listed as an ingredient. There is a lot of information available on pet foods on the internet, and a lot of good foods. I think you have to base your choice on what is good for your dog.I have found that Maggie gains weight as soon as I feed her anything high in corn or wheat. I have had the best luck with Nature's Variety and Orijen. My friend noticed a change for the better in the coats of her dogs after switching foods. Her older dog also had an increase in energy. Both dogs do agility and there was a noticeable difference in the performance of the older dog about two months after switching food. She doesn't know if it is coincidence or the food change. I have seen several people here who say they use and like Beneful so I guess its a matter of what works for you.

 

[BeagleBabe]

Read the back of the bag, that is your best source for what is ACTUALLY in the food. The ingredients are listed by what is most in the food to what is least...so if one of the first ingredients is a meal of some kind or ground something or other you know the food is crap. Sad to say MOST of the dog foods you by in stores ARE crap...

 

[Drewmangroup]

We use Chicken Soup for the Puppy Lover's Soul. Its a mouthful and a little embarrassing to say when someone asks. Its good food, we had to go to the feed store to get it. It has chicken and turkey as the first 2 ingredients. We were using Science Diet but it had Corn as the first ingredient.

 

[BeagleBabe]

I checked out Chicken Soup also...it was one of the better foods I found :thumbup:

 

[Drewmangroup]

And it really wasn't any more expensive than the Science Diet.

 

[Spencer's Mum]

I feed Fromm 4 Star to my two, just switched them from Orijen 6 fish. I am sorry but I just can't suggest that you use Beneful, it is really a poor quality food.

There is really no meat in this food at all, it's all just fillers. Chicken By-product does not count as meat, it's the garbage that's left off of the meat that humans can't eat. ukey:


INGREDIENTS
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,

 

[HoundMusic]

Beneful is the Purina equivalent of Kibbles N Bits ... its a horrible food with a great advertising pitch /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/mad.gif Dogs love it because of the added sugar (which is what gives moist food that texture & is why the teeth get so bad on it) however, it offers nothing in the way of nutrition.

The ingredient list for Beneful Original is:

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.

The first ingredient is ground yellow corn. Second is chicken by products. Third is corn gluten meal which is also used as an organic lawn fertilizer & artificially raises the protein level of the food. You THINK it contains 25% protein, but its just not useable protein to the dog, and is pooped out. Whole wheat flour is next - RED FLAG, MAJOR food allergen for most dogs. Rice flour is ok. Next is beef, ok, but also an allergen for some dogs and not beef meal, so it actually is cooked down and only a small fraction of actual meat in the food. Not a signifigant ingredient. After that you have soy flour. It should not be in dog food. Period. Another artificial protein increaser, this food is probably only about 15-18% bioavailable protein. Soy is NOT a health food for humans, even worse for dogs. Next is sugar - then sorbitol, which is actually an artificial sweetener. Neither have any place in a dog's diet. We wouldn't add a teaspoon of sugar to a dog's food, so why are we feeding foods w/ pure sugar? Ok, the next few ingredients are cheap vitamins - calcium carbonate is usually from ground up eggshell or oyster shell and is quite difficult for the dog to digest. Should not be the only source of calcium in a food, but it is in this one. A few ingredients down we have salt & animal digest. Further down is a slew of artificial dyes (yellow #5, etc).

This has to be the most processed, nutritionally void, waste of $ I have ever seen in a dog food, but Purina already has a reputattion for makeing some of the worst foods in existance (Mighty Dog, Beneful, Mainstay, Alpo).

Beneful Original sells for approximately $25 for a 35# bag. I just can't see spending my hard earned money on sugar, by products & corn /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/frown.gif There are some great foods out there that are designed to be "no frills" to fit tight budgets and have very nutrient dense ingredient lists, bioavailable ingredients.

Pro Pac is about $23 for 33lbs, which is the same cost per lb. as Beneful. The quality cannot even be compared. Chicken meal is #1 ingredient. No by products, artificial colors, preservatives or any other junk. www.propacpetfood.com

When I feed kibble, I use mainly Evolve. Its moderately priced @ $31 for the 30lb bag and the best food I've ever used.

HealthWise is made by Natura (the company that makes Innova) but is a budget priced food, as is Fromm (Gold formulas), Sensible Choice, Blackwood, even Diamond Naturals is better. I know I can get obsessive with diet, but with so many health problems for Beagles being based on obesity and inappropriate diet ... maybe you can understand why I get so uptight about food /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif

 

[BookerMoose]

Others have given you excellent advice on this and I can't even start to be as informed as they are.

We have ended up using Beneful a few times when we run out of the hounds usual Prescription Diet R/D (weight loss formula) which we have to get from the vet - which closes at 6 pm therefore leading to the odd time when we've found ourselves at dinnertime without any dog food and had to go to the grocery store for something, anything, to feed our starving (in their minds) hounds. I've usually picked it up because it is more expensive than most of the other grocery store brands - I stupidly decided it must be better quality as a result.

The hounds do appear to love the taste - not surprising given what I have just read about what is in it coupled with the fact that really the hounds like the taste of everything and have never to my knowledge turned up their noses at anything. They have usually ended up with runny poop afterwards... this is about the only time ANY food has had this effect on them, and they are veteran scavengers and have eaten pretty much anything and everything they have ever found without digestive upset.

So I'm definitely rethinking Beneful as a backup... Thanks everyone for all the information.

 

[threedognight]

WOW!! Am I glad this topic was brought up. No wonder my beags gobble it up and have nasty teeth! When you crunch the numbers, a 30lb bag of the good food is actually cheaper than the Beneful I WAS buying. Will a 30lb bag of the good food go bad, as it will take 3-4 weeks for mine to go through it??? Thanks for the info., I never thought Beneful was not a good food.

 

[jenncarrera]

Thank You All!! I really wish I posted this before I purchased such a large bag. I think Petco will take back an open bag. I will just tell them that Mizu would not eat it. Sad to say but Mizu ate all his food in his bowl in seconds. But after reading horrible reviews on it I think I will not continue him on Beneful.

Thanks!
Jenny

 

[threedognight]

Jenny, You and I are in the same boat, except that I've been using Beneful for YEARS!! I just checked their website, and Petco does carry the Diamond brand "Natural" food, which is less expensive than my $15.00/bag Beneful. You can pull up each food and look at the ingredients, which is very helpful!

 

[HoundMusic]

Quote:Originally posted by threedognight:
WOW!! Am I glad this topic was brought up. No wonder my beags gobble it up and have nasty teeth! When you crunch the numbers, a 30lb bag of the good food is actually cheaper than the Beneful I WAS buying. Will a 30lb bag of the good food go bad, as it will take 3-4 weeks for mine to go through it??? Thanks for the info., I never thought Beneful was not a good food.

I checked the numbers, and the Beneful Original contains 360 kcals per cup. In plain English (lol) the kcals, or "kilocalories", will determine how much of the food the dog will eat. So, the less kcals per cup, the more food the dog has to consume not only to maintain weight, but to consume enough nutrients it needs in the course of a day. The more kcals, the better, so the dogs eats less, and the more nutrient dense a food is. Most decent brands will be 400+ kcals per cup, so they should eat less on a better food than they did on the Beneful.
I'm so glad this topic was brought up, as well /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif Beneful and similar brands use very deceptive advertising, so people think they're buying this healthy food with "real beef" and veggies, when in reality its sugar in a sack with beef and dehydrated peas WAAAAY down on the ingredient list :angryfire:
On better food, you definitely spend less! I can get raw meat for the dogs as low as .69 per lb. and the Evolve I use is not very pricy either. I use so little of of that with 10 dogs (9 Beags and 1 Shepherd mix) the 40# bag lasts me 2-3 weeks :hapfac01:

 

[Spencer's Mum]

Well, Diamond is definitely better than Beneful but I don't think I would feed that one to my dogs either. It is a very grainy food with only 1 meat source in the first 5 ingredients.

Even the food that I am feeding my dogs only has 2 meat sources (salmon & Salmon meal) because I am trying to find a lower protein food with no wheat in it.

Dog food is very interesting. You have to remember that dogs might have normal poop and look healthy on the cheap foods but that is because they put stool hardeners in the foodwhich will actually mask any problems that they might have.

What options do you have at the pet stores near you?

 

[threedognight]

There is a mom-and-pop pet store about 9 miles away that sells Propac, so we're going to go with it. I would have to order Evolve and have it shipped in... not an option at this point. Knowing my beags they will gobble up the Propac just as they did Beneful!

 

[Murphys Dad]

Quote: I am trying to find a lower protein food with no wheat in it

Have you tried Canidae all life stages? No wheat but the protein... 24%...

I had it for Chloe and it was very good. Stupid me, decided to try other foods to see if there is anything that is better for her and for me.... at the moment Merrick is good, but I am not very satisfied of her poop (too soft and pale, too much!!!)... I might try Innova next, and then decide between that and Canidae....

 

[threedognight]

Well, The mom and pop store had no idea about Propac, even though Propac lists them on their website. Sooooo.... across town I go to the pet supply store where I found the Propac, Innova, Blackwood, etc. I left with the Chicken Soup/Senior formula that costs two dollars a bag more than Beneful. The clerk advised me to mix it with their remaining Beneful as not to upset their stomachs. I fed them each about a tablespoon each, and of course they gobbled it up!

 

[Spencer's Mum]

Oh I forgot to mention, Spencer is also allergic to chicken based kibbles so he can not have that one (although it does look pretty good). I looked at the lamb one but there are a lot more grains in it.

I have never really fed that Innova before but all I know is Spencer didn't do well on the high protein diet at all.

 

[Genie]

Well, I'm jumping into this discussion late, but still putting in my two cents' worth: I've had Shiloh on Beneful Healthy Weight for 2 or 3 years now, and we've had no problems. Of course she still would rather have people food, and usually only goes to her food bowl as a last resort, when she's convinced I'm not gonna give her last night's leftovers! /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/laugh.gif But she does seem to like it more than other brands we've tried. And her stools are in good shape--firm, not soft.
But I will say this: A month or so ago I picked up a free sample pack of a kibble called Wellness. She loved that!! Gobbled it up right away! And I was impressed with the ingredient list. It is way out of my price range, though, so we'll be sticking with Beneful. But if I could afford the "high-priced spread", that's what I'd get for her.