Dog Community

No Quality Food For Lizzie

Posted : 6/26/2006 6:39:10 PM

I just called the Drs. Foster and Smith toll free number so I could find out if they accepted money orders so I could go ahead and order their puppy food. Well it tun out that they DO accept money orders, but because I live in Puerto Rico, I have to pay the weight fee, and for a 30 lb bag its 82 dollars!!!! and that is the shipping fee alone.

So Lizzie is definately staying on Beneful until I can find something more affordable. Because the only thing I can find is Royal Canine which is wayy too expensive, and not all that good.

Then theres Eukanuba, Science Diet, Pro Plan and Iams available to me, but if they are all bad foods why pay top dollar for crappy food when I can get a just as crappy food for less??

Sorry Im ranting but im just so mad because those catalogues were Lizzie's entrance to the worl of good dog foods and if the shipping alone costs me more than double the food then theres no hope for her, because there is no way I can afford 100+ in dog food each month

jessies_mom

Posted : 6/26/2006 7:27:13 PM

Wow, $82.00 shipping ??? Yikes!!! Of all the choices you list except for Royal Canin IMO Eukanuba is the best and better than Beneful;

Eukanuba; Chicken, Chicken By-Product Meal, Corn Meal, Ground Whole Grain Sorghum, Ground Whole Grain Barley, Fish Meal (source of fish oil), Chicken Fat (preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of vitamin E, and Citric Acid), Brewers Rice, Natural Chicken Flavor, Dried Beet Pulp

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

Eukanuba has more meat and the only reason for sugar in Beneful is to give it a sweet taste so your dog will eat it. You can supplement with cooked or raw meat and pureed or cooked vegetables and that will help a lot.

Julitza

Posted : 6/26/2006 7:36:31 PM

I was thinking about switching her to Eukanuba (which is the food her breeder had her on, but pet shops are way too far away) but when I heard that Eukanuba was not as good as I thought so I kept her on Beneful. I supplement with raw eggs, and raw meat.

But then again maybe not all hope is lost because I called the Jeffers Pet company and the lady informed me that the person in charge of shipping had gone home for the day but she assured me that their shipping prices arent as outrageous, but we'll have to see

Margaret Tyler

Posted : 6/26/2006 7:47:08 PM

Beneful will eventually cause health problems with the sugar, lots of salt and artificial food colorings in the food.

At least Eukanuba doesn't have sugar or food coloring. Pro Plan is less expensive than Eukanuba and about the same quality. If you can't afford Eukanuba or Pro Plan, then feed plain of Purina Dog Chow - Beneful is worse than plain old Purina Dog Chow.

Edie

Posted : 6/26/2006 7:47:09 PM

but pet shops are way too far away

It wouldnt bother me if i had to do a ten hour round trip once a month or so to get my dogs food,if the only choice close to home was beneful! IMHO feeding a food like beneful is almost guranteed to bring on health problems,and if you have 'healthier' options further afield,then for your dogs sake make the trip.
How far away are these pet shops?

brookcove

Posted : 6/26/2006 8:27:50 PM

I would feed either the pro plan or the euk - probably proplan - and supplement with whole fresh foods. My friend with the cattle farm has been feeding this way (medium quality food supplemented with raw farm scraps) for 25 years and her dogs work well into their teens and glow with health. My pup from her latest litter (4th generation home breeding) was from a litter of 11, as was his grandmother and his sire (and his sire's siblings from another breeding). And as I've mentioned BCs are not that fertile in general! [

] I'd be tempted to believe, anecdotally, that she's doing something right. [

]

Edie

Posted : 6/26/2006 8:34:01 PM

I meant to add in my last post that i too would go for Euk or pro plan,both of which are better than beneful.Try and give as many fresh food meals as you can.

cakana

Posted : 6/26/2006 8:39:01 PM

I don't know your circumstances, and I only did this for 12 weeks while doing an elimination diet, so I'm not saying everyone should do it, but have you thought about preparing a diet yourself? I realize you're adding good quality food to the Beneful, but it might be just as easy to prepare veggies and some grains, like oatmeal, and you've got the meal minus a few supplements. Monica Segal has a couple of great booklets that are easy to understand and inexpensive. One of them is How to Supplement (or Enhance) a Commercial Diet. You might want to check out her website www.monicasegal.com.

willowchow

Posted : 6/26/2006 8:51:41 PM

Then theres Eukanuba, Science Diet, Pro Plan and Iams available to me, but if they are all bad foods why pay top dollar for crappy food when I can get a just as crappy food for less??

There's different "levels" of "bad" food. Eukanuba and ProPlan are definately a step above Beneful.

papillon806

Posted : 6/26/2006 9:13:42 PM

Even Iams is a leap above Beneful!

Luvntzus

Posted : 6/26/2006 10:59:11 PM

While Eukanuba, Pro Plan and Iams aren't great, they're waaay better than Beneful and well worth the extra money in my opinion.

tony

Posted : 6/27/2006 9:42:12 AM

Many dogs do very well on Pro Plan and Eukanuba.

shamrockmommy

Posted : 6/27/2006 5:17:00 PM

I agree. Eukanuba is WAY better than beneful and I think you'll see better results with that.