Purina Beneful?????????????????

[JenBKR]

I'll agree with the Nutro suggestion, it's a much healthier food. Arguments can be made for cheaper foods with lots of fillers, but the truth is that they just do not give as much nutrition, and in the end a better food will give you a healthier dog...not to mention a cheap food may lead to many more health problems when your dog gets older. The others mentioned such as Solid Gold, Canidae, etc. are awesome foods too of course

[MajesticCollies]

I can't put this any blunter. Without sounding rude......If you buy it from the grocery store it isn't worth feeding. Alls it does is put substance in your dogs belly. Not the proper nutrients he needs. I feed Solid Gold. You will be surprised the little private kennels and breeders close to you that are retailing the holistic and quality foods.

[LilacDragon]

Ok - here is the skinny.

You should avoid foods with lots of fillers, ie: corn, soy, brewer's rice, and other things along this line. You should also avoid foods with meat-by-products. If you must shop at your local grocery for foods then you are going to have to do your research and read labels.

If you live in the sticks, then chances are there is a feed store near you somewhere. Most feed stores carry some of the better foods. Also, if you live in the sticks, chances are you are going to "the city" every once in a while. While you are there - get dog food.

[Vela]

Honestly, Beneful is one of the absolute worst foods on the market. I am certainly not trying to tell you this to be rude, honestly, but it's horrid. I'd honestly feed dog chow first. I would check out all of those threads someone posted to the websites for the better food. Trust me, with a Boxer you don't need extra gas LOL, and that's what you get from those crappy dog foods, LOTS of it. You can often find good foods at local feed stores, small mom and pop operations, boarding and breeding kennels, etc. At least try looking at those sites to see if any of those are anywhere near you. You can also have food delivered by mail and, depending on the place, get free shipping or reduced shipping, etc.

[Tralee]

I can't put this any blunter. Without sounding rude......If you buy it from the grocery store it isn't worth feeding. Alls it does is put substance in your dogs belly. Not the proper nutrients he needs. I feed Solid Gold. You will be surprised the little private kennels and breeders close to you that are retailing the holistic and quality foods.

I beleived that, untill I was looking at the health food section in Hannaford and discovered they were selling Wysong dog and cat food, and a few other brands of natural dog food. Most of the brands did contain corn, but they are still much healthier than the foods found in the dog asile. Unfortunately the bags were quite small.

[mugsy]

I'll agree with the Nutro suggestion, it's a much healthier food.

I am going to respectfully disagree with this statement (although it IS significantly healthier than Beneful). Nutro has changed their formulation and has added soybean oil which is one of the top 3 allergens. Mike has converted 11 dogs from Nutro onto better (and in some cases, cheaper) food and the owners came in 2 weeks later falling all over themselves thanking him for saving the dog...they had runny, seepy ears and coat issues. Now, if your dog doesn't have allergies, then you probably won't see a difference. So....if you need Nutro come to Ft Wayne to the store and buy what we have left...the Nutro Max is marked down to $17.99 for a 35 pound bag so we can get it out of the store. Also, you will begin finding this at your local Wal-mart anytime, which is a sure sign they have lowered the quality of the food. Just an FYI (Mike gets this info from periodicals that he gets at the store).

I hope I didn't offend you!!!

[JenBKR]

I am going to respectfully disagree with this statement (although it IS significantly healthier than Beneful). Nutro has changed their formulation and has added soybean oil which is one of the top 3 allergens. Mike has converted 11 dogs from Nutro onto better (and in some cases, cheaper) food and the owners came in 2 weeks later falling all over themselves thanking him for saving the dog...they had runny, seepy ears and coat issues. Now, if your dog doesn't have allergies, then you probably won't see a difference. So....if you need Nutro come to Ft Wayne to the store and buy what we have left...the Nutro Max is marked down to $17.99 for a 35 pound bag so we can get it out of the store. Also, you will begin finding this at your local Wal-mart anytime, which is a sure sign they have lowered the quality of the food. Just an FYI (Mike gets this info from periodicals that he gets at the store).

I hope I didn't offend you!!!

Oh no, I'm not offended! I've been feeding Nutro for a little while now, and I'm very pleased with how Roscoe is doing on it. I don't know how to read labels extremely well, but what little I do know I researched and I'm comfortable with Nutro (although I hadn't heard that they changed the formula). I am curious though, you said that Mike converted some dogs off of Nutro and onto other brands, and some of them are cheaper. Mind me asking what brands those are? If something is healthier and cheaper, and I can find them anywhere around here, I might consider switching. Thanks!

[mugsy]

I believe that he switched them to a brand called Nutri Source (also on the top 30 list). I know it's hard to find here, but don't know about around you. I have heard (and know for the Ft Wayne store) that Gander Mountain is carrying Nutri Source now. Odd isn't it? The other probable brand that he switched them to would be Canidae.

I have learned SO much since Mike took over the store (a lot of which we get the "first run" information through vendors). For instance...I didn't know that Wellness has switched from baking their food to an extrusion (steaming) process and that is partly why the holistic vet in our area quit recommending it.

Mike put it very succinctly the other day....(and I believe that's how it got to the McDonald's scenario)...that is...if given a choice between McDonalds and spinich most people would take the McDonalds even though they know the spinich is better for them. Dogs are the same way...they're going to take the Beneful because it tastes like chips to them, but, they NEED better nutrition than that. It's funny that the secretary here at school and I got into this discussion this morning. She thinks it's ridiculous that people spend so much on their animals when 20 years ago they didn't the dogs lived just as long. I argued that they didn't. And I'm sure that there are dogs that do just fine on Purina, etc, but, on the whole the more expensive food isn't really that much more expensive because you don't need to feed them as much. Our Daisy is a 135 pound Great Dane and she gets 4 cups of food a day on the premium food, where she would have to eat about 7 cups of Purina to get the same nutrition as in, say, Canidae. I've got a chart at the store that shows the comparisons...if I can figure out how to duplicate it, I will post it.

The other thing to look for that is a sign that a company has changed their formula and "dumbed it down" is when you can find them in the grocery store or Wal-mart like stores. Usually they put more corn in it and take out the better stuff but still charge the higher prices.

[JenBKR]

Well if i find Nutro in the grocery store I will most likely change food. Until then I may just investigate. One more question, is it bad to switch pets' food often? I have already switched Roscoe's food a couple times, I don't want to mess him up.

sorry if I am hijacking this thread!

[mugsy]

Nutro is going to be (if it's not already) in Wal-mart soon supposedly....but they did change the formula, even if it's not...who knows...they change their minds like most people change their socks.

Mike just yelled in and said they have been bought out by someone.

And as far as switching foods...we change ours all the time without an issue, but, we use the high quality foods. You can't do it with Purina or Beneful or Pedigree etc without risking upset, but, the higher quality brands you can.

[signorelli21]

would a viable solution be to just give your dog the beneful and suppliment with other things? i have been reading into the raw food diets and have been experimenting with giving angel smaller portions of beneful and giving her chunks of raw meat ( steak) and raw eggs, she doesn;t like carrots too much though, lol.

also i heard someone talking about giving their dogs vitamin chews? do any of you have online stores where we can buy from?

[BC_MoM]

Well if i find Nutro in the grocery store I will most likely change food. Until then I may just investigate. One more question, is it bad to switch pets' food often? I have already switched Roscoe's food a couple times, I don't want to mess him up.

sorry if I am hijacking this thread!

We often change our dogs foods with no problem. We don't even do the gradually switching.. If they had Purina one day and we finished the bag, we may go out and buy a bag of Nutro and pour it in right away. No mixing and gradual changing. We've never had a problem.

[mugsy]

You can find the top 30 in Whole Dog Journal. It's published by Tufts University in Boston...