How does a mid-range brand food like Beneful compare to top shelf dog foods nutritionally speaking?

Question

Jenny, I am SO sorry! I was trying to give you a good rating on your answer. My hand slipped and I accidentally clicked bad answer. Your answer was great! It might even be the best answer. So many of them are good. Thanks guys!

Answer 1

Beneful has a lot of fillers (corn and such) that don't provide a lot of usable nutrition. They use animal byproducts (beaks, feathers, intestines) as a meat source instead of the actual meat. If you look at the formulation that advertises "real salmon" you will see that it's way down on the list of ingredients. Your dog is actually getting very, very little salmon. While Beneful meets the minimum standards of dog nutrition, there are tons of other brands that are much better for your dog.

Look for a dog food that has a named meat as the first ingredient (chicken, lamb, beef) and not generic "meat". A dog food listing "meat meal or meat byproducts" as the main ingredient could be made up of almost anything. Chicken, lamb, or beef meal is OK, it's just the meat with the water removed.

Look for whole grains such as oatmeal, brown rice, barley, and even white rice (although considered less nutritious). Stay away from brewer's yeast (it's the rice fragments left after the beer brewers are done with it and is less nutritious). Fractionated rice products (like rice bran) are also less nutritious.

Foods that are preserved with Vitamin C and Vitamin E are the way to go. Chemical preservatives can't be healthy for your dog; the main chemical preservative, BHA, has been linked to cancer and is banned from human foods.

Here's a good website with some more info: http://www.purelypets.com/articles/whatsinfood.htm

Some good, wholesome foods are Wellness, Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul, Solid Gold, Barking at the Moon, California Natural, and to a lesser extent, Nutro Natural Choice and Royal Canin.

Pet owners who swich to a premium, holistic food tend to report that their dog has less flatulence, smaller and firmer stools, eats less (since there's no fillers, the dog can get the same amount of nutrition and calories from a smaller serving), shinier coats, and more relaxed personalities. People who have dogs with chronic allergies often report a decrease in symptoms. It might be worth looking into, in any case.

However, stay away from the so called premium brands sucn as Eukanuba, Iams, and Science Diet. They charge an awful lot for foods that has the same ingredients as the much cheaper Dog Chow. Essentially, in those foods, you are really paying for the name.

Hope this helps...

Answer 2

You can check the ingredients on the back of the bag to see exactly how healthy it is for your dog. I believe Purina makes Beneful? I could be wrong, it's just off the top of my head. Corn meal, chicken or beef by-products is not something that should: A- be a key ingredient in the food (listed within the first few ingredients on the bag). And B- by-products is exactly what you might think it is... by-products can include, unfortunately, chicken leg, beak or worse. It's a processed mash of what's left over that was considered undesirable. For the most part. Granted all foods are approved by FDA and all of that, but there are better foods you can feed your dog. I have 2 cats and feed them Nutro Natural Choice, it's a high end food and more costly than a Purina brand. But a better quality food is better for your animal, period. Nutro makes a cheaper food called Nutro Max. I spoke with a representative from Nutro and I was told that it's the same quality as the Natural Choice line, just a little more affordable. They make cat and dog foods, treats, and wet foods. Depending on the age of your dog, if he is over a year old I would feed him adult food if he's a little more mature, 6 or 7 or so, I would feed him a food that is for older dogs. You should notice a difference in your dogs coat as well as a difference is the elimination of "number 2". It may be less stinky and less often. This is because the dog will be getting more out of the food and that is better for him. I would also recommend Eukanuba/Iams and Bil-Jac. There are other high quality foods out there, you can ask your local petstore for a high quality, decently priced food as well.

Answer 3

It doesn't. Beneful is not a mid-range product, but is actually one of the crappiest dog foods out there. Despite the marketing and the pretty pictures on the bag, Beneful is almost a perfect poster-child for all the things that can be wrong with a dog food.

Below is the ingredient list for Beneful Original from Beneful's own website. Note the following:
1) Ingredients are always listed in order of "most" to "least" and meat should be the first ingredient in a good dog food. It should really have meat in two of the first five ingredients. Look where meat is in Beneful. It's the SEVENTH ingredient in the list.
2) Corn is junk filler. It provides no valuable nutrition and is a common allergen. Quality foods do not use corn.
3) Beef tallow as the fifth ingredient. There is more processed, rendered, mystery fat in this food than there is actual meat. Nasty.
4) Sugar. Why on earth?
5) Animal digest. This is a chemical munge of various who-knows-what that has been processed down into I can't even imagine what. They don't even list a particular animal, which means they have no clue what's actually in it either.
6) Artificial colors. Last I checked, my dog doesn't care what color his food is. Why insert additional chemicals into his food?
7) You know those cute dancing veggies on the bag? Check it out... aside from the corn, there is more salt in this food than there are any other vegetable like the peas or carrots.

I could probably keep going, but really, this is enough for me. I can promise you that you would see a real visible difference in your dog's health, breath, coat, or other by finding a higher quality food. Good for you for looking into it.

Answer 4

When choosing a dog food, you always want to look at the ingredients. If the first few are corn, cornmeal or some type of byproduct, then it isn't a good food. These are just fillers and cause the dog to poop more while not giving the same nutrition as other brands. Some very good brands are Natural Balance, Royal Canin, Castor and Pollux, and Dr. Fosters and Smith. If you look at their ingredients, the first few are always real foods, like chicken, rice, beef, etc.

The nice thing about the higher end foods is that while they initially seem more expensive, you will save money in the long run as you can feed the dog less than you would of the lower quality stuff as there are less fillers and they'll be getting better nutrition, so you'll need to see the vet less.

Answer 5

Beneful is a low quality food. It has a lot of cheap fillers & dyes.
It doesn't come close to comparing with good quality foods such as Canidae, Innova, Solid Gold, Blue Buffalo, Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover's Soul, Premium Edge just to name a few.

Answer 6

When you buy food look for the digestibility content. Fillers don't cut it. So, meat ingredients first. corn, wheat, etc. last.
I know this sounds cheap but Ultra 26 is a good dog food. {Fleet Farm]

Answer 7

Beneful is made by purina which is a good company. As long as it has a label on the bag that said it met AAFCO standards then it should be fine. AAFCO determines standards that food companies must meet to make sure the animal food provides required nutrients for that animal at that life stage.

Answer 8

yes it is the same but the reason the top shelf is so much more money is because of the company that made it so beneful is the same as a top shelf brand

Answer 9

beniful is made by purina, but is not their top line product. it contains many fillers and by products that top line dog foods do not. you are better to spend the few extra dollars and get the top line foods for your pet. they do not need the fillers and by products. it is not healthy for them even if it meets aafco stantards. ol roy meets aafco standards and i wouldn't feed it to a starving rat.

Answer 10

mid range dog foods are fine. the important thing is consitancy. feed him the same food at the same times daily. if you buy cheap food and your dog eats his poop, then change to a different brand. other than that buy Dad's at Walmart. it's cheap and your dog will be fine