Beneful

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

This is the Original. It isn't meat based. It contains more grain than meat. It contains by-products, which are an inconsistent ingredient with variable nutritional value and questionable origin. Beef tallow is of questionable origin. Sugar is unnecessary. Animal digest is of questionable origin. Studies have shown menadione to be toxic. Artificial colors are completely unnecessary.

ORIGINAL: sooner

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

This is the Original. It isn't meat based. It contains more grain than meat. It contains by-products, which are an inconsistent ingredient with variable nutritional value and questionable origin. Beef tallow is of questionable origin. Sugar is unnecessary. Animal digest is of questionable origin. Studies have shown menadione to be toxic. Artificial colors are completely unnecessary.

An ingredient list is listed from top to bottom in order of what there is more of in the food, so there is more of the first ingredient than anything else in the food.  Dogs are carnivors for the most part and should have more meat in their diets than grains.  Preferably the meat should not be of "questionable sources," or by-products or generic terms like "animal" or "meat."  Instead it should be more specific like "chicken" or "chicken meal," or really any type of meat like this.

Think about it this way; if every morsel you ate every day had sugar and loads of salt would you live a healthy, long life?

By the way if your sister also has beagle or any breed with long ears, they will most likely get ear infections on this food because of the high wheat content.

Dogs are carnivor's,think about this and then look at the ingredients in Beneful,or any supermarket food for that matter [&o] I doubt very much there is enough meat in this food to make a difference,so therefore they have to supply the nutrients meat contains in some other un natural way,and the absolute bare minimum they can get away with at that!
Ask your sister if she would feed a food with similar ingredients to her children for every meal,every day.The answer would hopefully be NO!

It has added  artificial colours to make the human buying it(dogs dont care what colour their food is) think it contains veggies and meat,when this couldnt be further from the truth [&:]
Beneful is a vile food and it and other foods like it should be banned! Wishful thinking,i know, and possibly OTT,but that's how strongly i feel about this.My stomach literally turns when i see foods like this in peoples shopping carts,i so badly feel for the dogs who are made to eat this crap for their entire lives []

Before I knew much about nutrition or how to read the labels I feed Beniful to Gizzy and where you see white on her body turned a bright pink color, she was a pink and black dog for about a week, looked horrable.  She also had discusting loose stool.  I quickly took her off it an made the swich.  I didn't know at the time what was in it but whatever it was made my dog have the worse food reation I've ever seen from her.  Later I find out that it was mostly due the the high amount of artifical dies in that food, not to mention the other stuff listed in other post above.

I also fed Beneful. Before I had Lizzie, my mom fed her Golden Beneful. It was the only food her girl would eat. She loved it so much and lets face it, the bag looks wonderful.

Laika's coat was dull and greasy to the touch. It was also brittle. I thought this was caused by her low immune system (she has had mange twice). Little did I know it was the food.

When I brought Lizzie home I fed her Beneful. She looked absolutely horrible. I have some pics of her recently home and I have never posted them here because she just looks horrible.

A dog shouldnt be eating corn and undefinable meats (by products). I switched to Exclusive, and it went over horribly. Then I took a step down and fed Purina One. Her coat really looked up, and actually started to grow again. Her stools are nice and firm. At the same time I switched her, I also started buying food for Laika.

Little by little Laika began improving, and she has not lost as much coat, and it i actually growing back rather quickly.

Now that Liz is on Adult Food im buying the Kirkland Kibble. They both love it and I feel better because the ingredients are wonderful, with no fillers (aka corn, wheat) and no by-products.

Edited to Add a recent Picture of Liz:

Beneful is like junk food.  If your friend wants to feed it then they need to know that their dog might not live a very health life and later (when the dog is older) could run into more health problems then if they feed a better quality of food.  I agree with everyone here.  Dogs are designed for meat, low carbs, no fillers.

I received this as an e-mail. It was not an advertisement. You might want to give it to your sister. As you can see at the bottom Beneful is a really bad food. I just hate that Purina markets this stuff as healthy and puts it in pretty bags. Sometimes it is necessary to try a few different foods to find the best for any particular dog but this is a good starting point. I personally use a home prepared diet, but if I were feeding kibble would start with Innova regular. (but beware it is higher in calories than most). I think it is very nice of you to look up information for your sister.
 
Start with a grade of 100:
1)     For every listing of "by-product", subtract 10 points
2)     For every non-specific animal source ("meat" or "poultry", meat meal or fat) reference, subtract 10 points
3)     If the food contains BHA, BHT, or ethoxyquin, subtract 10 points
4)     For every grain "mill run" or non-specific grain source, subtract 5 points
5)     If the same grain ingredient is used two or more times in the first five ingredients (i.e. "ground brown rice", "brewer's rice", "rice flour" are all the same grain), subtract 5 points
6)     If the protein sources are not meat meal and there are less than two meats in the top three ingredients, subtract 3 points
7)     If it contains any artificial colorants, subtract 3 points
      If it contains ground corn or whole grain corn, subtract 3 points
9)     If corn is listed in the top five ingredients, subtract 2 more points
10) If the food contains any animal fat other than fish oil, subtract 2 points
11) If lamb is the only animal protein source (unless your dog is allergic to other protein sources), subtract 2 points
12) If it contains soy or soybeans, subtract 2 points
13) If it contains wheat (unless you know that your dog isn't allergic to wheat), subtract 2 points
14) If it contains beef (unless you know that your dog isn't allergic to beef), subtract 1 point
15) If it contains salt, subtract 1 point
 
Extra Credit:
1) If any of the meat sources are organic, add 5 points
2) If the food is endorsed by any major breed group or nutritionist, add 5 points
3) If the food is baked not extruded, add 5 points
4) If the food contains probiotics, add 3 points
5) If the food contains fruit, add 3 points
6) If the food contains vegetables (NOT corn or other grains), add 3  points
7) If the animal sources are hormone-free and antibiotic-free, add 2 points
8 ) If the food contains barley, add 2 points
9) If the food contains flax seed oil (not just the seeds), add 2 points
10) If the food contains oats or oatmeal, add 1 point
11) If the food contains sunflower oil, add 1 point
12) For every different specific animal protein source (other than the first one, count "chicken" and "chicken meal" as only one protein source, but "chicken" and "" as 2 different sources), add 1 point
13) If it contains glucosamine and chondroitin, add 1 point
14) If the vegetables have been tested for pesticides and are  pesticide-free, add 1 point
 
94-100+ = A
86-93 = B
78-85 = C
70-77 = D
69 = F
 
Here are some foods that have already been scored.
 
Dog Food scores:
Authority Harvest Baked / Score 116 A+
Bil-Jac Select / Score 68 F
Canidae / Score 112 A+
Chicken Soup Senior / Score 115 A+
Diamond Maintenance / Score 64 F
Diamond Lamb Meal & Rice / Score 92 B
Diamond Large Breed 60+ Formula / Score 99 A
Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance Ultra Premium / Score 122 A+
Dick Van Patten's Duck and Potato / Score 106 A+
Foundations / Score 106 A+
Hund-n-Flocken Adult Dog (lamb) by Solid Gold / Score 73 D
Iams Lamb Meal & Rice Formula Premium / Score 73 D
Innova Dog / Score 114 A+
Innova Evo / Score 114 A+
Kirkland Signature Chicken, Rice, and Vegetables / Score 110 A+
Nutrisource Lamb and Rice / Score 87 B
Nutro Natural Choice Large Breed Puppy / Score 87 B
Pet Gold Adult with Lamb & Rice / Score 23 F
ProPlan Natural Turkey & Barley / Score 103 A+
Purina Beneful / Score 17 F
Purina Dog / Score 62 F
Purina Come-n-Get It / Score 16 F
Royal Canin Bulldog / Score 100 A+
Royal Canin Natural Blend Adult / Score 106 A+
Sensible Choice Chicken and Rice / Score 97 A
Science Diet Advanced Protein Senior 7+ / Score 63 F
Science Diet for Large Breed Puppies / Score 69 F
Wellness Super 5 Mix Chicken / Score 110 A+
Wolfking Adult Dog (bison) by Solid Gold / Score 97 A

Purina Beneful / Score 17 F
Purina Dog / Score 62 F
Purina Come-n-Get It / Score 16 F

 
I think it says it right there^

ORIGINAL: Xebby

Purina Beneful / Score 17 F
Purina Dog / Score 62 F
Purina Come-n-Get It / Score 16 F

I think it says it right there^

 
Agreed.  And, on the bag there is a picture of an ear of corn...lol.

I informed my sister about it and so she is planning on bringing the bag of food back and getting somthing better.
 
My sister's dog is a 9 yr old terrier mix.He don't have long,floppy ears.His ears are kind of pricked,or half pricked.
 
Thanks for the info!

" He don't have long ..."

NOT true !!!!  This dog, if fed and cared for properly can easily live another 10 yrs. By switching the dog over to a high quality nutritious food it can begin to reverse some of the damage caused by poor quality foods because the high quality foods include things like chelated minerals, natural sources of vitamins, amino acids, enzymes and antioxidants and their protein sources are from high quality MEATS and not low quality GRAINS.  These foods restore vitality and vigor and slow down the aging process and bodily deterioration that is accelerated by a poor quality diet.  Actually the dogs body will begin to repair itself and the immune system will strengthen and there will be a full gamut of noticeable improvements from better coat, skin, teeth and gums to less time at the vet, less problems with things like fleas and mites, allergies, yeasty ears, etc. But buying the best supermarket dogfood ISN'T going to do it. They are going to have to go to a food that isn't made with contaminated rendered ingredients which have been rejected by the FDA as NOT FIT FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION.  Some people seem to think it's ok to feed their dogs this garbage. There is a REASON it has been rejected for Human Consumption !!!!  ( **** as a note... Not fit for human consumption DOES NOT mean fit for our pets to eat !!!!! )  The ingredients it's made from were either RANCID, DISEASED, MOLDY, CANCEROUS, TUMOROUS, DECAYED, CONTAMINATED ( w/chemicals, pesticides, solvents, antibiotics and other drugs ), PARASITE RIDDEN, etc.   Unless a food states that it's ingredients are HUMAN QUALITY/GRADE , Fit for Human Consumption or FDA Approved... this is what you're feeding them. Disgusting , isn't it ? 

Tell her to go for a low-priced, high quality food. Canidae is a wonderful example of a great high quality food that actually costs LESS than garbage like Science Diet ,  Eukanuba etc.  It absolutely KILLS me that people will pay $30-$40+ a bag to feed those foods when for the same price or less they can have high quality fresh, nutritious food.  Actually ANY high quality petfood is going to cost LESS to feed than the lower quality grocery store foods. The pricetag on the bag means nothing. It's the cost per serving that counts and high quality foods cost less per serving than low quality junkfoods because they are nutrient dense and you feed much less.

ORIGINAL: belleandcodysmom

" He don't have long ..."

NOT true !!!! This dog, if fed and cared for properly can easily live another 10 yrs.

Um, perhaps try READING the post you are responding to. They said the dog doesn't have long EARS, not that they don't have long to live.

That's excellent news Vanilla. I happened to see some of that Beneful at the store yesterday and it's expensive too! I was shocked.

You know how I feel about that scoring?  Hubby and I once took one of those test and found out we would never stay married, we were to opposite, we couldn't do anything as we were so different.  I hunted and fished, he had never done either, I grew in a large loving family on a farm, he grew up living on one army base after another and his family was not close.  He liked night life, dancing, etc, i didn't, etc, etc.  Guess what, we have been married 41 1/2 years.  I don't pay anything attention to those "scoring tests" because if I did, i would have been divorced 40 years ago!