(moved this to another thread because I felt like I was taking over someone elses) Beniful

Do you have any of the large petstores near you?  There are many brands that are better than Beneful and can be found at PetCo or Petsmart.  You can also get some of the better brands at feed & supply stores.  Don't feel awful about what you've been feeding.  You didn't know and it's not too late to change.  Beneful gets more bashing, at least on this forum, than just about any other food, except Old Roy [].  People are honestly bashing or making fun of the food though and not you, so please don't take it personally.
 
I feed my one lab, Natural Balance Duck & Potato and I purchase it from PetCo.  There are other versions of Natural Balance there too and they have both the canned and dry food. 

Can someone suggest a good name for me...or at least what I should be looking for. I got the Beneful at Walmart and I know there are lots of other brand names there as well. What things should I be looking for in a good dog food?

I feed Duke & Daisy Solid Gold's Just a Wee Bit.  The kibbles are really, really small and small dogs have no problem eating it.  I usually wet it with some warm water and mix in either their canned food, cottage cheese, yogurt, or some steamed veggies....
Do you have any sort of pet store near you?  If so you should be able to get Solid Gold. 
 
I too had a problem finding food that was really healthy and had kibble that was small enough.  I have had some foods where Duke had to take each little piece, one by one, and take it somewhere to chew it up.  Now he just eats this stuff right out of the bowl.
 
Good luck!

Unfortunately, sometimes people here don't think that what they are saying hurts or scares people.  First of all,,, Beneful is NOT horrible. ITs not one of the worst things you can feed to you dog...but its not the best.    Most people here will also tell you that there is nothing from the grocery store that you can buy that is good, but that is not true all the time either. The brand escapes me right now (because its not one that is talked about on this forum much) but a grocery chain store here in Ohio sells one of the best foods out there. 
When you look at the ingredients of Beneful,,,the first thing that is NOT good is that the first ingredient is NOT meat.   Dog food should have meat as the first ingredient and preferably maybe the first two ingredients.   I also look for ingredients that are not meat by-products.   Also,,,the meat should NOT say meat,,,because MEAT could be any meat,, and you have no idea what kind meat it is. It should say beef, chicken, lamb, duck etc etc etc.. that way you know what you are feeding your dog. Add vitamines, calcium and veggies like you mentioned is good, BUT that is Benefuls selling point,,making it sound like your feeding tons of healthy veggies. 
Do you have any large pet stores in your neighborhood?  Any Target stores or Walmarts?  I'm not sure what some of those stores sell but occasionally posters talk about a fairly decend food coming from these some of these stores.

Yes and thanks! I feel a lot better. I have a bit of Beneful left so I can at least finish the rest of the bag without feeling like I am being horrible. Thank you for telling me what to look for. I will try to find the  Solid Gold you mentioned, or at least try to find something with meat as the top ingerdiant in it. Thanks again!

ORIGINAL: cakana

Do you have any of the large petstores near you?  There are many brands that are better than Beneful and can be found at PetCo or Petsmart.  You can also get some of the better brands at feed & supply stores.  Don't feel awful about what you've been feeding.  You didn't know and it's not too late to change.  Beneful gets more bashing, at least on this forum, than just about any other food, except Old Roy [].  People are honestly bashing or making fun of the food though and not you, so please don't take it personally.

I feed my one lab, Natural Balance Duck & Potato and I purchase it from PetCo.  There are other versions of Natural Balance there too and they have both the canned and dry food. 

See?? I KNEW I'd forget some nice brands out there.
Natural Balance is good and so is Eagle Pack.
Both should be available at Petco or pet Smart.

I gave you some brands in the other thread.

And like I said, if your doggie is doing good on Beneful and eating it well, that's great and don't switch. I will not say that I'd feed my dog Beneful, but I am SURE as crap not going to tell anyone else what to feed either.[]

List of some good foods:http://www.dogaware.com/dogfeeding.html#TopDry

Ingredients to avoid:http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?page=badingredients

Identifying better products:http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?page=betterproducts

Label reading 101:http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?page=labelinfo101

Hope that helps a little. It's overwhelming when you start digging into it, but it's just a matter of finding what works and is healthy for Bailey.

I feed Sensible Choice and get it at Petco, it isn't the best, but it's pretty good and it works for us. If you are strictly limited to grocery stores you might look forhttp://www.lassie.com/naturalway/natural-way-flash.htm Some other names to look for in Petsmart or Petco might be Solid Gold, Castor & Pollux, Blue Buffalo and Royal Canin. If you find a food you're interested in, check the store locator on their site, you might find a feed store near you that you didn't even know was there.

ORIGINAL: BaileyIsMyStar

Yes and thanks! I feel a lot better. I have a bit of Beneful left so I can at least finish the rest of the bag without feeling like I am being horrible. Thank you for telling me what to look for. I will try to find the  Solid Gold you mentioned, or at least try to find something with meat as the top ingerdiant in it. Thanks again!

wait.
Before switching, if baily has a sensitive tummy, it's always good to do a gradual food switch.

I didn't know Petco sold all of those foods!
I don't think the Petco in my town does.

I had been under the impression that this is a good food because it says that is has veggies, beef,vitamins,calcium and other good things in it. I was recently told by a few folks in this forum that Beneful is one of the worst things I could feed my dog.

Hey, you know, most of us don't just come out of the box automatically knowing what the best thing is to feed our dogs - don't beat yourself up over it. I also don't think anyone here thinks anyone else is a horrible person or a horrible dog owner because of what they do or don't feed. I don't. Also, Beniful isn't the worst thing available, but there are better foods available! Good for you in taking the first steps!

Anyway, I ran through the gamut of figuring out what to feed my dogs. It wasn't until I started to understand the labels, and read the ingredients, until I could actually make sense of it all.

Here are a few links for you to help you understand about what's in commercial dog food (from the Dog Food Project):

[linkhttp://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?page=labelinfo101]Label Info 101[/link]

[linkhttp://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?page=badingredients]Inged's to Avoid[/link]

[linkhttp://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?page=betterproducts]Identify better products[/link]

Take a look! Also, if you go to Petsmart, I like Blue Buffalo the best - but keep in mind that PSMT doesn't carry a lot of the better premium foods. Some of the smaller stores do, though, and here are my personal fave's for the premiums:

Innova
California Natural
Canidae
Solid Gold
Natural Balance
Eagle Pack

Most of these have sites online with store finders - and usually where you find one of these, you'll find others!!

Good luck in your search!

edit to add: I see Kelly already posted these links. Sorry for the double duty. []

wait.
Before switching, if baily has a sensitive tummy, it's always good to do a gradual food switch

ORIGINAL: chewbecca


 
Yea, I did know to do this. Bailey is my 5th dog so I have heard about the gradual mix with a little of each in the bowl until she is ready for just the new food. I did this when she was a puppy. The funny thing was it seemed like a joke. She (for the most part) ate what ever was in her bowl. When I got her they warned that she might not eat because of a change so drastic as coming to a home and all she might have problems eating or drinking. Not Bailey LOL she always has a good appitie. Thanks for the advice though!

I was so worried about switching Ella's food when I first got her. The shelter was supposed to give me a bag of food to take home so that I could do a gradual switch. They forgot to bring a bag of it to the obedience school where we met for the introduction and the finalization of the adoption. She told me just to keep some rice and pumpkin handy and she'd be fine. I was still concerned but I tried doing a cold switch and...Ella did great! In fact, her poop looked BETTER right after switching her food.

Is that Baily in your avatar? She's cute!

And Kelly (Sooner) is the BEST at doing the research for things and providing the best links.

You'll find something great. It can be overwhelming, so just take it little by little and you'll get it.

Thanks everyone we had to go to walmart today and I got this stuff called Maxximum. It is preimum dog food and the first ingrediant lasted is Chicken.. This seems like good stuff to me. Bailey likes Beneful soft stuff on top so I might still keep using that as long as she is getting the Maxximum as well. In my Walmart there was A LOT of Old Roy and Purenia. Maxximum looked like the best thing there.

Oh yea! This is Bailey on my avator.