Why is Beneful Bad?

I once made the mistake of giving Giz beneful. She has always had anil gland problems but once she started on it her glands filled up almost the day I gave it to her. I took her to the vet that week and had her glads expressed, the vet told me this is the fullest they have been sence they ruptured. I usally express them every 3 weeks but it only took one week after feeding Beneful to fill her glands. I squeeze her glands on my own now and have noticed that it really depends on the food I feed her on how fast they fill up. Good food keeps them in good shape, bad food is really bad for her. If I didn't catch it early after feeding beneful they would have ruptured agean.

well i decided to buy a small bag of beneful for my pup
i have been having issues with her not eatting dog food
i gave her some last nite.....its nice small kibbles but it has sooooo much food coloring(i dont like feeding any of my animals colored dog food cause they can be allergic to food coloring)
well this morning i went to do chores and she has thrown up it all all over the porch
shes had diarreah all day and is quite lethargic
tonite now that she has gotten it all outta her system shes feeling better
so i will be feeding the rest of the bag to the chickens
so my first experience with beneful definalty was a bad one

i have to say that price alone would steer me away from it. it costs more than the food we are feeding now, and we have been happy with the food we are getting now.

another thing that i dont necessarily like in a number of foods is that they add coloring to the food. while there may not be any direct health consequences from it, what is the point? it seems to be something to intice consumers, because i can assure you that our dogs wouldnt care what color their food it. []

edit: newt beat me to the food coloring thing[]

it also containg menadione. the ill effects are talked about [linkhttp://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?page=menadione]here[/link] in plain english. (see the section "why is it bad")

When I fed Beneful, they had lack luster coats, huge BMs that were never firm and they all gained weight, Also, it was expensive compared to the EP I feed  now because I had to buy it way more often.

Here's a better question: Why is Beneful good? What are the benefits of putting Beneful in your dog's bowl (when you are her sole source of food) day after day?

Purina makes one Beneful formula (Healthy Harvest) that gets the vast majority of it's protein from SOY. It doesn't have any real meat in it (just "animal fat"). I'm sure that nobody here is going to argue that dogs need a plant based diet, with minimal animal product.

The original Beneful's ingredients include sugar, sorbitol, and added color. Would you feed sugar and food coloring to your son, twice a day, every day? Can you imagine what a hyper mess he'd be, if you did?

I honestly believe that a lot of the behavioral problems of children and dogs are caused by diets high in refined sugars and preservatives. Everything goes back to diet. You are what you eat.

I've been feeding Bogey Beneful since we got her. She loves it, but she's 8 years old and has been suffering from itchy and scratchy allergies for many years that we haven't been able to control. After reading these boards, I realized that she could be allergic to chicken and that's the first ingredient listed in Beneful products. He coat was also dry, flaky, and sort of coarse/dry and lots of hot spots. Within a week of giving her Nutro Lamb and Rice, her coat was softer, less itching and scratching and her hot spots have really lessened. The really noticeable thing is her softer coat. She really loves it and sometimes I mix a bit of canned Nutro Lamb and Rice with it - loved that, too. So, I'd say, even if your doggie likes Beneful, which mine did, think because of the fillers, fat and sugar, (who wouldn't?) try changing for the health of your baby.  Most dogs like canned if nothing else - the smell gets them ! !

Not everyone seems to remember where it is you live, even though it's in your profile. This can make the price of anything prohibitively expensive.Even though I agree that a dog food should be based on a meat or meat meal the fact of the matter is, a protein (amino acid chains) provides what it does, whether it came from an animal or plant. If the Beneful is working for your dog, you can use it for the vitamins and supplements and add some homecooking.
 
I'll give Shadow a steak or pork chop, sometimes whole, sometimes, cut up. It is the tradition of his breed and I just like spoiling him pure-D rotten. But, in my circumstance, I can afford that. You also have your budget. Now, let me hurt some more feelings because someone will come along, not realizing the tax load where you are and say that if you can't afford this or that you shouldn't own a dog. Hogwash! You do what can as best you can and your dog's life is better regardless of what he eats because he has you to take care of him.

Basically, Beneful is the equivalent of feeding a child McDonald's happy meals for EVERY meal of their entire life. Sure, it will keep them alive, but that's about it.

I'm posting the ingredient list below because that's really the only way to truly understand why a food is good or bad. You really can't go by reading the front of the bag because marketing can be incredibly misleading! But I'll summarize first in case you don't want to read the ingredient list.
 
Beneful is almost entirely made of grains, and low quality ones that have very little nutrional value. The food isn't made of grains because that's what's best for you dog, it's because they're cheap and allow the food to be very inexpensive.
 
It has artificial colors, preservatives and vitamins- nothing healthy about that, possible carcinogens. It's a little different too than a person occasionally drinking a soda or having a happy meal because the dog is consuming it for every meal.
 
Basically there's nothing about this food that's designed for a dog to truly thrive. I think at best a dog can do okay for awhile, but there's no way it won't catch up to them eventually. I would expect to eventually see a dry, brittle coat possibly premature aging, cancer or organ failure... many of the things that people blame on "old age" but that old age seems to be happening sooner and sooner over the years. There's no way that isn't related to environment and diet.
 
Anyway, here's the ingredient list.... I think being able to read an ingredient list is the only way you'll really "get" why any food is good or bad.

Ground yellow corn, chicken-by-product meal, corn gluten meal, whole wheat flour, beef tallow preserved with mixed-tocopherols (source of Vitamin E), rice flour, beef, soy flour, Minerals (tricalcium phosphate, salt, potassium chloride, dicalcium phosphate, calcium carbonate, zinc sulfate, ferrous sulfate, manganese sulfate, copper sulfate, calcium iodate, sodium selenite), sugar, sorbitol, water, animal digest, phosphoric acid, sorbic acid (a preservative), L-Lysine monohydrochloride, dried peas, dried carrots, calcium propionate (a preservative), choline chloride, Vitamins [Vitamin E, Vitamin A, niacin, Vitamin B-12, calcium pantothenate, riboflavin supplement, biotin, thiamine mononitrate, pyridoxine hydrochloride, folic acid, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity), Vitamin D-3], added color (Yellow 5, Red 40, Yellow 6, Blue 2), DL-Methionine, glyceryl monostearate, garlic oil. 

Okay, starting from the top! []  lol

- The very first ingredient is corn. Some grains can be beneficial in a dog's diet, but their food should be meat based. 

- Whole wheat flour, soy flour, and rice flour. Wheat is a very common allergen for dogs and the highly processed grains like those above have almost no nutrional value for your dog.

- Sugar and animal digest are not healthy, they're only there to entice dogs to eat this grain based food.

- Sorbic acid, calcium propionate- both artificial preservatives, chemicals.

- Menadione sodium bisulfite- artificial vitamin k that has been shown to cause health problems. Most dog food manufacturers have removed it from their foods.

- Added color (yellow 5, red 40, yellow 6, blue 2) there's nothing good about that. There's no way that eating all of those artificial ingredients EVERY MEAL, day after day, year after year is not taking a toll on that animal's body. They're all possible carcinogens and I just wouldn't take a chance.

Why is Beneful good?

 
Because it makes Purina rich.  Only reason.
 
 
If you check the labels of better brand kibble, you will find that the top ingredients are protein sources that look like humans could eat them, not by-products, etc.  The "supermarket foods" are usually heavily grain based, use artificial preservatives (substances like menadione and ethoxyquin that some nutritionists believe are harmful to dogs), and low nutrient fillers.  Google on "The Dog Food Project" and you can find out just about all you need to know about many commonly sold products.

This is the best website I've come across for a plain English explanation of dog foods:
 
[linkhttp://www.woodhavenlabs.com/dogfoods.html]http://www.woodhavenlabs.com/dogfoods.html[/link]

Why would, and how could, you understand why Beneful (or anything else) is a good or bad food without looking at the ingredients? Tell me why Hamlet is a great play - but lease, don't tell me anything about the plot or characters. 

Ive actually started this thread because Moms Golden is acting up again, her coat is really bad and I believe she may have some sort of allergy, or at most a bad reaction to Beneful. So Im trying to get people to post why this food is bad because mom is feeding it to Laika because the dog wont eat anything else.
 
Maybe I can convince her to feed regular Purina or Pedigree

My family fed our family pet, Angel, Purina for years. This included Beneful. When she was 8 1/2 years old, I bought a bag of Innova Senior for her and begged my mom to try this "ridiculously expensive food" that she swore she would never buy Angel because Purina was good too. My mom really thought Purina was the best you could give your dog and I used to think that as well. Before we gave her the Innova, Angel was overweight by about 15 lbs, she was slow, her coat was not very shiny, she was always tired and slept most of the day. The first Innova feeding and Angel scarfed it down like I've never seen her scarf down her food.
 
By the time the bag was gone, Angel had lost the 15 lbs plus 5 more and was back down to her normal, healthy weight. Her coat was shiny and very silky. She went from acting liking an old, lazy dog to acting like a puppy again. It was amazing. She was playing with my younger dog Ash and she was running and everything. Angel had acted like that in years! No one would guess that Angel is 9 years old now. She looks more like 3 or 4 and everyone tells us so. I still buy Angel's dog food and because I was so impressed with the changes I saw, I started giving her vitamins as well. It's all made an enormous difference and I'm very glad that this forum helped me decide to make that switch. So if seeing is believing, that was all it took for me to KNOW that these higher quality foods make a huge difference.

ORIGINAL: LizzieCollie

Ive actually started this thread because Moms Golden is acting up again, her coat is really bad and I believe she may have some sort of allergy, or at most a bad reaction to Beneful. So Im trying to get people to post why this food is bad because mom is feeding it to Laika because the dog wont eat anything else.

Maybe I can convince her to feed regular Purina or Pedigree

Guide her to the Canidae testimonials on their website. I believe there is a golden on there with pics that the guy shows a before and after of the dog. If you think seeing pics on the internet can convince her to at least try Canidae or a better food like it, then try that. Tell her to try the smallest bag available (or the least amount of cans) that way if her dog doesn't react well to it, then she can either give it to someone else or discard of it without having wasted THAT MUCH money.