PSA For Dog Owners: Dog Food

[MissMusic]

(XP)

This story is legit!
I also have a friend who has in the dog food business, and she says the Beneful food is terrible to begin with. Please check your dog food and make sure your pup is safe!


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[heatherj9603]

Benefull is an awful food! Such crappy ingredients and so much corn and by products. Most dogs are allergic to corn and by products are not even real meat!

Ingredients in beneful. 

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, chicken, soy flour, water, propylene glycol, sugar, tricalcium phosphate, salt, phosphoric acid, animal digest, calcium phosphate, potassium chloride, sorbic acid (a preservative), dried carrots, dried tomatoes, avocado, calcium propionate (a preservative), choline chloride, L-Lysine monohydrochloride, added color (Yellow 5, Red, 40, Blue 2, Yellow 6), Vitamin E supplement, zinc sulfate, ferrous sulfate, manganese sulfate, niacin, Vitamin A supplement, calcium carbonate, copper sulfate, Vitamin B-12 supplement, calcium pantothenate, thiamine mononitrate, garlic oil, pyridoxine hydrochloride, riboflavin supplement, Vitamin D-3 supplement, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity), calcium iodate, folic acid, biotin, sodium selenite.


eta: compare that to the mid-grade dog food I feed my pittmix. This is simply nourish large breed formula. 

Ingredients:
Chicken, Chicken Meal (Source of Glucosamine and Chondroitin), Brown Rice, Oatmeal, Brown Rice Flour, Tomato Pomace, Natural Flavor, Flaxseed, Canola Oil (Preserved with Mixed Tocopherols), Dried Chicory Root, Dried Carrots, Dried Spinach, Dried Sweet Potatoes, Dried Pumpkin, Dried Blueberries, Potassium Chloride, Vitamin E Supplement, L-Ascorbyl-Polyphosphate, Niacin, D-Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin A Supplement, Riboflavin, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Thiamine Mononitrate, Calcium Iodate, Folic Acid, Biotin, Vitamin D Supplement, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Zinc Sulfate, Ferrous Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, Manganese Sulfate, Calcium Carbonate, Sodium Selenite, Dried Chicken Cartilage and Choline Chloride

[raelynn71109]

This is what we've fed our dog for the past 9 years. :-(

Anyone have recs for a good alternative? We have a 12 year old Lhasa Apso.

[Deleted]

I use Blue Buffalo. Never had any problems with it and ingredients seem healthy.

[jefa]

We feed ours Nutrisource. My general theory is if you can buy the dog food at the grocery store or Walmart, it's probably not high quality. I know that's not always the case, but I've found it to be true.

There's a website called dogfoodadvisor.com that rates foods. If anyone is looking to switch you can get a lot of info there.

Eta: one reason I like the Nutrisource is that it's a local manufacturer for me, and they've never had a recall on any of their foods that I could find.

[heatherj9603]

raelynn71109, the main rules are no corn, no soy, no by products. See my previous comment that compares beneful to my dogs food, simply nourish. Don't let the price of higher quality scare you, because you feed half or less the amont of food you do on low grade food. Better ingredients mean quality calories. My 5 lb min pin was eating 1 cup a day on beneful and was so skinny. Now she eats less than a half a cup of day and she's up to 6lbs now. Also, less food means less poop!

see dogfoodadvisor.com for food based on a 5 star rating. Beneful gets 1 star or less. 

[treble]

Feb 25, 2015 10:12:39 GMT -5 MissMusic said:

(XP)

This story is legit!
I also have a friend who has in the dog food business, and she says the Beneful food is terrible to begin with. Please check your dog food and make sure your pup is safe!


Click for article

H came home with a bag of Beneful recently and as he walked through the door I made him turn around and put it back in his car to return and get something else. I even said, "You literally just purchased garbage and brought it home."

[diamondsndaisies]

does this Merrick sell cat food as well?

[samanthasays]

If anyone wants to check their dog's food or see if there is a better option to replace what you are currently feeding this website is great! www.dogfoodadvisor.com
All of the rescues I work with recommend that site to check dog food ratings. And there are normally pretty recent comments so you can check if they changed anything recently

[Deleted]

We have a cat but have alternated between Evo and Fromm.
H's husky hated Blue. She's on a prescription diet now for urinary issues. My parents feed my beagle Merrick. I'm not sure if it's the best for him but I don't live at home anymore.

ETA: Evo and Fromm are both grain free. We also feed her Earthborn brand wet food. It has very few ingredients and she loves it.

[mainewifey]

One of my friends just lost their english bulldog last week after a bout of seizures. I don't know what they fed him, but they're going to be super upset and feel awful if the food might have been to blame.

We feed my english bulldog what I know is crappy food. I've tried switching him over the years to high quality stuff of various brands and ingredients and he doesn't tolerate anything else very well. He gets stomach upset, skin and ear infections. I've tried Blue Buffalo, Innova, and Dog lovers something something of different forumlas. It was costing me too much in vet bills, aggrivation, and a very unhappy, sick bulldog.

[♪♫choppinbroccoli♫♪]

We get Call Taste of the Wild for both our dog and our cat. They both love it, and it has all of the vet-approved ingredients without the Science Diet pricetag.

I felt so awful for the pups that I read about. Just awful!

Edit: Name correction

[MissMusic]

Feb 25, 2015 10:19:30 GMT -5 raelynn71109 said:

This is what we've fed our dog for the past 9 years. :-(

Anyone have recs for a good alternative? We have a 12 year old Lhasa Apso.

We have an 11yr old Lhasa!

We feed Nature's Recipe (3.5 stars) and mix it with Nature's Select Grain Free (5 stars).  He has arthritis and a sensitive stomach, and this is the best food we can afford that he will tolerate.  I like mixing proteins so he gets different nutrients, so we do like 1/2 Lambs (of the Recipe regular stuff) and half of the Selects (and rotate salmon, pumpkin, venison, chicken, etc).

Lamb is a good base.

FTR, we also have a 6 yr old shihpoo with a super sensitive stomach and he's great on this food.  Its on sale at PetSmart this week actually!
ETA: the "star" rating I mentioned was on the dogfoodadvisor website, which we also use.

[risscaboobs]

Thank you for sharing. Buffy eats Purina Dog Chow... is it not safe? It's not the Beneful kind.

[heatherj9603]

This is from the dog food review site about beneful.

"The fifth ingredient is animal fat. Animal fat is a generic by-product of rendering, the same high-temperature process used to make meat meals.
Since there’s no mention of a specific animal, this item could come from almost anywhere: roadkill, spoiled supermarket meat, dead, diseased or dying cattle — even euthanized pets."

When all the kidney failure Happened a few years back, it was linked to wal mart brand as the biggest culprit. The ingredient used in euthanasia was found in many of the dogs kidneys. People were slowly euthenizing their pets!

When you choose not to have your dog privately cremated  or take your pet home to be buried (the latter depends on if you're city or county) the vet may say that the pets get sent to a mass cremation. But they do NOT legally have to do that. If you let the vet keep your pet, they have the legal right to do as they please. Some vets use your pets as test subjects for training their techs. I know this because I was trained on euthanized animals. They can also SELL your pets to pet food companies. I know it sounds grouome, but it's a sad sad fact that I've been a witness of.

[mainewifey]

Feb 25, 2015 10:47:05 GMT -5 mistabinx said:

Feb 25, 2015 10:45:35 GMT -5 mainewifey said:

One of my friends just lost their english bulldog last week after a bout of seizures. I don't know what they fed him, but they're going to be super upset and feel awful if the food might have been to blame.

We feed my english bulldog what I know is crappy food. I've tried switching him over the years to high quality stuff of various brands and ingredients and he doesn't tolerate anything else very well. He gets stomach upset, skin and ear infections. I've tried Blue Buffalo, Innova, and Dog lovers something something of different forumlas. It was costing me too much in vet bills, aggrivation, and a very unhappy, sick bulldog.

Did you try slowly changing him over to the new foods? 25% new, 75% old for the first week, 50/50 the next week, etc? That can avoid the stomach upset they get if you change it over quickly.
Of course, this wouldn't help allergies, just the stomach issues.

Yes, I even tried changing over even more slowly than that. I tried for over a year to find something that worked for him. Once I got up to 50/50 his skin would bother him or he'd get an ear infection. We even can tell if someone at daycare gives him unapproved treats. He gets super farty and you can hear his stomach rumbling.  It's a disaster if he gets into the cat's food, that's just a big ol' mess.  I'm not sure why the crappy food agrees with him better. You would think it would be the other way around. I do my best to watch out for recalls, but I just can't do anymore. Raw food would be the only other thing to try, and I'm just not willing to do it honestly. He does really well with raw foods for treats.

[easilyunamused]

We give our dog Whole Paws from whole foods. It's not on that website. I wonder why? I've been thinking of changing his food recently.

[♪♫choppinbroccoli♫♪]

Feb 25, 2015 10:59:29 GMT -5 W said:

Feb 25, 2015 10:51:02 GMT -5 ♪♫choppinbroccoli♫♪ said:

We get Call Taste of the Wild for both our dog and our cat. They both love it, and it has all of the vet-approved ingredients without the Science Diet pricetag.

I felt so awful for the pups that I read about. Just awful!

DH just bought this brand for our Husky! He has only eaten it a few days but loves it so far.

Yeah, totally messed up the name, but love the food. The dog I had growing up just passed away not too long ago, but right before she did, she was a very picky eater. She loved that stuff, and it made us all happy that she could enjoy her remaining time.

[frankenboom]

Gah! I just looked at that website and discovered the food we're feeding Frank is only a 3.5. Might need to make a switch....I like the things I'm reading about Merrick and Blue Buffalo.

[squeakyduck]

Our dog gets Solid Gold brand dog food and he loves it. We rotate the flavors so he gets a variety of proteins.
We also fed him Blue for a few years, but read that it was good to switch brands every few years. So we've been doing that too. He gets diversity in his diet.

[mainewifey]

Feb 25, 2015 11:11:34 GMT -5 squeakyduck said:

Our dog gets Solid Gold brand dog food and he loves it. We rotate the flavors so he gets a variety of proteins.
We also fed him Blue for a few years, but read that it was good to switch brands every few years. So we've been doing that too. He gets diversity in his diet.

I think that sounds like a good idea. If we ever get another dog I'm going to make sure that we switch foods regularly as well. It would make things so much easier if my dog wasn't so food intolerant.

[♪♫choppinbroccoli♫♪]

Feb 25, 2015 11:05:28 GMT -5 bluebird44 said:

Feb 25, 2015 10:55:52 GMT -5 risscaboobs said:

Thank you for sharing. Buffy eats Purina Dog Chow... is it not safe? It's not the Beneful kind.

The first five ingredients are the most important to consider when looking at your dog food.  They should include identifiable meats as the first 2 ingredients.  Purina Dog Chow:  Whole grain corn, meat and bone meal, corn gluten meal, animal fat preserved with mixed tocopherols, soybean meal.  FYI, meat and bone meal is the leftovers from a slaughterhouse that are literally just ground up together.  These are not high quality sources of nutrition for your dog.  

I have a picky eater mutt with a sensitive stomach and a shih-tzu with food allergies, so we feed Zignature Duck Formula.  It is grain-free and has been very easy on tummies and a big hit with my picky eater.  First 5 ingredients: Duck, Duck Meal, Chickpeas, Pea Flour, Peas.

I used to feed Blue Buffalo, but my finicky dog would pick out the little "life source bits" and leave them in a little pile next to his bowl!

My family's pup that just passed was a Shih Tzu with TERRIBLE skin allergies. If for some reason your food that you are using goes away or stops working, keep Taste of the Wild on your radar. She loved it, and it didn't give her fits.

I feel so bad for pets with any allergies! Poor things.

[mainewifey]

Feb 25, 2015 11:05:28 GMT -5 bluebird44 said:

Feb 25, 2015 10:55:52 GMT -5 risscaboobs said:

Thank you for sharing. Buffy eats Purina Dog Chow... is it not safe? It's not the Beneful kind.

I used to feed Blue Buffalo, but my finicky dog would pick out the little "life source bits" and leave them in a little pile next to his bowl!

I switched my cat over to high quality foods after we lost my other cat to cancer. He hated it and instead of eating it he started fighting the dog for his food. We're still working on finding something he likes.

[heatherj9603]

Feb 25, 2015 11:08:28 GMT -5 frankenboom said:

Gah! I just looked at that website and discovered the food we're feeding Frank is only a 3.5. Might need to make a switch....I like the things I'm reading about Merrick and Blue Buffalo.

That's what ours is too. But we have 4 dogs, so 3.5 is the best I can afford lol. It's still a good rating compared to a lot of commercial brands. 

[piccyami]

Feb 25, 2015 11:15:42 GMT -5 mainewifey said:

Feb 25, 2015 11:05:28 GMT -5 bluebird44 said:

I used to feed Blue Buffalo, but my finicky dog would pick out the little "life source bits" and leave them in a little pile next to his bowl!

I switched my cat over to high quality foods after we lost my other cat to cancer. He hated it and instead of eating it he started fighting the dog for his food. We're still working on finding something he likes.

We've been struggling with our cats and finding something high quality that meets their standards but also doesn't have fish. The best we found that didn't cause too many food strikes was science diet. I looked at most of the more expensive brands, but so many had turkey, duck, or fish. I've just learned that there are some foods they refuse to eat. Between the food strikes and the fish allergy, we're really limited on cat foods.

[moutonrouge]

Feb 25, 2015 10:15:44 GMT -5 W said:

We buy Merrick Grain Free for our dogs, but about 1.5 years ago we got Purina and it made the dogs so sick. We immediately switched. Merrick is phenomenal. Also, they have wonderful customer service.

Another vote for Merrick Grain Free. Their canned dog food is also excellent and they do little seasonal kinds (like they'll do an Irish Stew and Easter Lamb in the spring). I am obviously a sucker and buy these seasonal items as though my dog, who eats trash off the sidewalk, really appreciates those touches. 

If anyone is looking for a new dog food, I recommend checking out Dog Food Advisor - their rating system is very detailed and I found it helpful last time we swapped foods. ETA: I see jefa beat me to it, so I second her recommendation!

[LadyNymeria]

We also feed our pup Blue Buffalo. It was recommended to us by the breeder we got him from - that's what they have fed all their dogs for years and most people that get a dog from them use Blue Buffalo too. He seems to love it and we've never had any heath problems so far.

[squeakyduck]

Feb 25, 2015 11:14:21 GMT -5 ♪♫choppinbroccoli♫♪ said:

Feb 25, 2015 11:05:28 GMT -5 bluebird44 said:

The first five ingredients are the most important to consider when looking at your dog food.  They should include identifiable meats as the first 2 ingredients.  Purina Dog Chow:  Whole grain corn, meat and bone meal, corn gluten meal, animal fat preserved with mixed tocopherols, soybean meal.  FYI, meat and bone meal is the leftovers from a slaughterhouse that are literally just ground up together.  These are not high quality sources of nutrition for your dog.  

I have a picky eater mutt with a sensitive stomach and a shih-tzu with food allergies, so we feed Zignature Duck Formula.  It is grain-free and has been very easy on tummies and a big hit with my picky eater.  First 5 ingredients: Duck, Duck Meal, Chickpeas, Pea Flour, Peas.

I used to feed Blue Buffalo, but my finicky dog would pick out the little "life source bits" and leave them in a little pile next to his bowl!

My family's pup that just passed was a Shih Tzu with TERRIBLE skin allergies. If for some reason your food that you are using goes away or stops working, keep Taste of the Wild on your radar. She loved it, and it didn't give her fits.

I feel so bad for pets with any allergies! Poor things.

My grandma's Min-Pin used to have the worst skin problems. She tried steroids, creams, pills, everything. Switching to grain-free food was the only thing that worked.

[Deleted]

Feb 25, 2015 11:31:08 GMT -5 piccyami said:

Feb 25, 2015 11:15:42 GMT -5 mainewifey said:

I switched my cat over to high quality foods after we lost my other cat to cancer. He hated it and instead of eating it he started fighting the dog for his food. We're still working on finding something he likes.

We've been struggling with our cats and finding something high quality that meets their standards but also doesn't have fish. The best we found that didn't cause too many food strikes was science diet. I looked at most of the more expensive brands, but so many had turkey, duck, or fish. I've just learned that there are some foods they refuse to eat. Between the food strikes and the fish allergy, we're really limited on cat foods.

Earthborn has chicken. If that helps.

[Sparkly]

+1 for Blue Buffalo! It's what our dog and my ILs dog have eaten for years. When mine was a puppy I fed him Wellness, which I think is also decent.