Purina, Beneful?

[npmather]

Hi,

We have two Boxers, one brindle [male, Ned] and one pure white [female, Rubina], both about a year old now. Well Rubina was the runt of the litter, but she is VERY strong, never been sick and she has grown up well. Ned was always on the skinny side [ribs and backbone slightly showing] I wouldn't say it was bad, looked like a lean athlete, but it did bother me.

Anyway, we've always fed them "natural choice" which we heard was good. Well one day while shopping we picked up a bag of Purina Beneful, and basically within a week, Ned filled out tremendously. You could not see his ribs and barely see any backbone. So we've been feeding them that same food for a few months now, and they are both doing great.

However I jsut read that it's probably not the best quality dog food, so I wanted to see if other boxers owners were using it...if not, what should I look to buy for them?

 

[Net45582]

Beneful is low quality kibble full of fillers etc. Visit www.dogfoodanalysis.com for great info and reviews .

 

[gmacleod]

Mmmm. No, Beneful is never going to get a rating as a high quality dog food, that's for sure. It's filled with cheap grains, grain fragments (floor sweepings) and animal by-products (condemned meat).

I have no idea what you were feeding them before the Beneful, and whether it was a better or worse food. Was that Nutro's Natural Choice? There are several with that name... but irrespective, weight gain alone isn't an indicator of good quality diet (and can sometimes mean the opposite).

For what to look for in a good quality dog food, I'd suggest taking a look at our feeding page here www.boxerworld.com/feeding No food can magically be any better than the ingredients used to make it, and that page tells you what to look for, what to avoid, and why. With that information, you should be able to make a reasonable assessment of any food you look at (including seeing what's so bad about Beneful).

For suggestions on what to feed instead, I'd recommend www.dogfoodanalysis.com That site gives you information on the ingredients used in well over 500 different dog foods, along with quality ratings and reviews, based on similar criteria to that explained above. It is searchable - so you'd find an opinion on Beneful there also

PS: Please take the time now to introduce yourself to the community in the introductions forum. Per the site rules, that should be the first post you make on Boxerworld, and before participating to the rest of the forums.

 

[npmather]

I'm glad I decided to check.

Thanks for the help.

And I am sorry I didn't realise this was my first post! [look at our sign up date, June 05, we are real "lurkers" ] I will go and do an introduction.

Yeah it was really weird, I wonder if he just went through a huge growth spurt that week. Because it really was night and day, and the only thing that changed was the food.

This is the food we were feeding them: http://www.nutroproducts.com/naturalchoicedog.asp all I remember is it was in a green bad.

 

[Jackson2005]

Canidae and Merrick canned (a third of a can at dinner). It may seem more expensive but I am feeding less food and it is a lot better quality. Rudy absolutely loves his dinners.