"Naturally Complete" from Purina's Dog Chow line ...

I know that alot of people say that if something works for you dont change it (even if it is what you guys call yuck food) and Beneful is working for Lizzie

 
I'm sorry, but feeding your dog Beneful is like feeding your child on candy and soda. Of course she loves it. Of course she looks healthy-- for now. Poor nutrition only shows up LATER. After YEARS of eating a diet based on garbage, that is when the diseases and poor health show up. I can't stand it when people say "oh its working, why change"? you can't possibly know if it's slowly killing your dog or not. Only total disasters with food, like diarrhea or an allergy, will obviously NOT work.

I think before we beat a poster bloody we should look at their geographic location and understand that they do not neccessarily have available all the choices that WE do in the continental United States.  As I understand it, the poster you are so eager to berate has already switched her dog to Exclusive.

mudpuppy:
Now I dont mean to be a pain but it seems like a great deal of your posts include bashing people. I have explained my situation before, and I tried all methods of getting a top quality food (my choices being Natural Balance and Drs. Foster and Smith formulas) but I refuse to 120 dollars for a 30lb bag (35 for the bag and 82 shipping) Exclusive is the best thing I have around so that what I am switching to.
 
And yes I feed/fed Beneful (am still feeding while making the transition) but that was before i-dog. I did not know that Beneful was such a crappy food, like many ignorant dog owners, the awsome looking bag just drew me in. Before I-dog I knew Old Roy was bad (just looked crappy I didnt really know why) and I thought Eukanuba was the best food around. Now I know better.
 
Thanks guys! 

Animal Digest-
 
AAFCO: A material which results from chemical and/or enzymatic hydrolysis of clean and undecomposed animal tissue. The animal tissues used shall be exclusive of hair, horns, teeth, hooves and feathers, except in such trace amounts as might occur unavoidably in good factory practice and shall be suitable for animal feed. If it bears a name descriptive of its kind or flavor(s), it must correspond thereto.
A cooked-down broth made from unspecified parts of unspecified animals. The animals used can be obtained from any source, so there is no control over quality or contamination. Any kind of animal can be included: "4-D animals" (dead, diseased, disabled, or dying prior to slaughter), goats, pigs, horses, rats, misc. roadkill, animals euthanized at shelters, restaurant and supermarket refuse and so on.
 
 
I have to say, I don't think I'd be feeding a food containing animal digest, whether my dog was allergic to anything or not.

[sm=tex.gif]There is no such thing as a kibble tree, nor are there dry dog food supermarkets in the wild.  Feed raw!  Dogs have the same digestive systems as wolves!  Their systems are designed for raw meat, poultry, muscle and bone.  Does momma wolf go "shopping"?  No, she goes hunting. Think about it please.

A cooked-down broth made from unspecified parts of unspecified animals. The animals used can be obtained from any source, so there is no control over quality or contamination. Any kind of animal can be included: "4-D animals" (dead, diseased, disabled, or dying prior to slaughter), goats, pigs, horses, rats, misc. roadkill, animals euthanized at shelters, restaurant and supermarket [refuse and so on. /quote]
 
BritneyP; I think the part of your post I quoted is from Mordanna's board. Purina ProPlan animal digest is made from the internal organs of chicken and pork; I know 'cause I asked them. Jessie can't eat it because of her chicken allergy but I don't think it's a bad ingredient although like I said for what they charge they could use more expensive sources of protein.

And yes I feed/fed Beneful (am still feeding while making the transition) but that was before i-dog. I did not know that Beneful was such a crappy food, like many ignorant dog owners, the awsome looking bag just drew me in. Before I-dog I knew Old Roy was bad (just looked crappy I didnt really know why) and I thought Eukanuba was the best food around. Now I know better.

 
LizzieCollie; It takes more than good ingredients to make a good dog food; the right balance of nutrients is critical and companies like Purina have the knowledge to make a well balanced food with less expensive ingredients which is why dogs do well on their foods. Adding some homecooked or raw meat to a food like Beneful is a very good idea but there's no need to be ashamed of feeding foods that others don't approve of if it's from a company like Purina which has decades of research behind its products.

All dog foods that are labeled complete and balanced like Beneful, have a nutrient profile that satisfies all of the known nutrient requirements of the dog.  Could you do better, perhaps, but that is quite different from soda pop and candy which satisfy very few if any of the known nutrient requirements of man.
 
 
[linkhttp://www.fda.gov/cvm/petfood.htm]http://www.fda.gov/cvm/petfood.htm[/link]

ORIGINAL: abbysdad

All dog foods that are labeled complete and balanced like Beneful, have a nutrient profile that satisfies all of the known nutrient requirements of the dog.  Could you do better, perhaps, but that is quite different from soda pop and candy which satisfy very few if any of the known nutrient requirements of man.


[linkhttp://www.fda.gov/cvm/petfood.htm]http://www.fda.gov/cvm/petfood.htm[/link]

 
Actually, it would be more comparible to feeding your kid pizza every meal.  It technically has all of the food groups, but you would be hard pressed to find a doctor that would tell you that it was good for your kid.

Actually, it would be more comparible to feeding your kid pizza every meal. It technically has all of the food groups, but you would be hard pressed to find a doctor that would tell you that it was good for your kid.

 
  I disagree if you're saying that feeding Beneful is like feeding a kid pizza; a dog is getting a completely nutritious diet on Beneful because it has been carefully balanced. A few weeks ago I would have agreed with you; those who have seen some of my other posts on nutrition threads were probably surprised by my last post on this thread. Most of us here are not experts on a dog's nutritional needs and do not really have the credentials to say," This or that food is garbage",  especially if the food is made by a company such as Purina that has many nutritionists and veterinarians to develop its foods. I don't like the ingredients in many of Purina's foods but I also know that they have spent decades researching and making pet food. Common sense dictates that the ingredients in Beneful are not nearly as good as ingredients in a food like Innova or Canidae but the fact is that a company like Purina has the ability to process cheaper ingredients in a way that they provide a dog with complete and balanced nutrition.

ORIGINAL: jessies_mom

Actually, it would be more comparible to feeding your kid pizza every meal. It technically has all of the food groups, but you would be hard pressed to find a doctor that would tell you that it was good for your kid.

I disagree if you're saying that feeding Beneful is like feeding a kid pizza; a dog is getting a completely nutritious diet on Beneful because it has been carefully balanced. A few weeks ago I would have agreed with you; those who have seen some of my other posts on nutrition threads were probably surprised by my last post on this thread. Most of us here are not experts on a dog's nutritional needs and do not really have the credentials to say," This or that food is garbage",  especially if the food is made by a company such as Purina that has many nutritionists and veterinarians to develop its foods. I don't like the ingredients in many of Purina's foods but I also know that they have spent decades researching and making pet food. Common sense dictates that the ingredients in Beneful are not nearly as good as ingredients in a food like Innova or Canidae but the fact is that a company like Purina has the ability to process cheaper ingredients in a way that they provide a dog with complete and balanced nutrition.

 
Believe what you want, but I disagree.  Just because a dog can get by on a food does not make it sound.  There are people who eat diets that are not nutricious that get by, but their bodies are not getting what they need.  There are many Americans that do not have a balenced diet, but you wouldn't know it by looking at them, so why would we assume that dogs would be much different?  I don't care what kind of equipment they have at their disposal, it can not make corn into meat.
 
If I wouldn't want the main ingredient in  my HORSE'S diet to be ground yellow corn, why would I want it to be the main ingredient of my dog's diet?

Does momma wolf wear a collar and a lead?  See a vet on a regular basis for vaccines to keep her healthy?  Does she work for man as a police dog or a service animal, search and rescue, drug/bomb sniffing dog?  Think about THAT please.

I have this argument with people all the time about Natural Horsemanship.  Mind you, I have no problem with the training method other than the name.  Once you keep your horse in a stable, give it feed and hay instead of grass, ut a halter on him, or climb on his back there is no longer anything natural about it.

That having been said, I have nothing against raw. 

It's like the difference in canned veggies and fresh, raw veggies, for humans.

We get little to no nutrition from canned veggies. The way they've been processed makes them pretty much unabsorbable. We get a myriad of nutrients from fresh, raw veggies, and absorb them well, because we're built to.

Same with supplements. Different forms of the same vitamins and minerals can be superior. If you take Centrum, you aren't likely to absorb much of it. If you go to your local health food store, and pay $20 for a bottle of Solaray multivitamins, you're going to get a LOT more out of them.

Yes, all of the nutrients are there, on paper. Absorbable or not is the biggest question.

We get a myriad of nutrients from fresh, raw veggies, and absorb them well, because we're built to.

Actually, after the hydrochloric acid in the stomach breaks the vegetables down, the fact that they were raw mean nothing....they are not digested until they get into the small intestine, so when you eat raw vegetables, your system has to work harder to break down all the cellulose than if you were to eat cooked vegetables.