Hi everyone,

My dog Copper has recently gone on a hunger strike and refuses to eat his dog food. This isn't too unusual as before he was neutered it was like pulling teeth to get him to eat, but he's been eating like a 'normal' dog since January. And then about last week he just stopped. A month ago I changed his food to Beneful and he seemed to like it just fine, the only change I noticed was that his stools were more yellow (I thought this was from the coloring in the food). He's still taking treats, and drinking just fine, in fact I think he's drinking more, and he's sleeping a bit but is still active and a royal pain in the butt when he wants to be (like now... I'm going to murder that squeaky toy). And I'm not sure if it really means anything, but his nose is dry and he also seems more 'needy' than usual (he's always had serious anxiety issues).

Anyway, I was just wondering if anyone has heard about a Beneful recall? I saw some articles from January/February saying that people were making accusations and Purina was denying it. But I can't find anything recent.

I switched foods today, but I still have to put other things in the bowl and supervise his eating otherwise he won't touch it. Besides worrying about his health, I also have a 15kg bag of Beneful to deal with. If I had the time or money I would so be raw feeding right now... grr...

I found this as of mid-April this year --

There is concern about a certain ingredient found in Beneful, propylene glycol. According to Wikipedia, '”propylene glycol is a component in newer automotive antifreezes and de-icers used at airports.” I agree this is not something I want my pets eating. The rule of thumb for buying pet food is if you can’t pronounce the ingredients don’t buy it.

Blogs - Fayobserver.com - Should Nestlé Purina's Beneful dog food be recalled?

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Originally Posted by Wondergirl

I found this as of mid-April this year --

There is concern about a certain ingredient found in Beneful, propylene glycol. According to Wikipedia, '”propylene glycol is a component in newer automotive antifreezes and de-icers used at airports.” I agree this is not something I want my pets eating. The rule of thumb for buying pet food is if you can’t pronounce the ingredients don’t buy it.

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-_- wonderful.

Any idea if there's any long term damage to worry about? Besides increased cancer risks.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Gernald

-_- wonderful.

Any idea if there's any long term damage to worry about? Besides increased cancer risks.

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If this is truly an ingredient (and I also read that a mold may develop on corn products in the food), it's poison. Cats that lick up antifreeze (has a sweet taste that cats are attracted to) stored in open containers in garages will die. In Beneful's defense, they claim numerous tests have been done and see no problem. Snopes.com says the jury is still out (http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/beneful.asp). Blogs are full of anti-Beneful comments. Search "Beneful recall" (without quotes).

Check the ingredients on the bag. I am a cat person, so I'm sure dog people here will weigh in.

***ADDED*** If this an ingredient, I betcha the sweetness factor of this additive is why dogs like the taste. Just like with feeding babies and toddlers, don't hook them on sweet flavors (cookies, ice cream, etc.) -- same for dogs and cats.

Beneful is crappy food anyway.. The "meats" in it are floor sweepings from the slaughter houses.. there is no nutritional value to Beneful no matter how you look at it. Most dogs like it because it has a high sugar content.

I have met two dogs now that have pancreatitis and were being fed Beneful.. of course the vet doesn't see the connection, but I would bet money that the Beneful caused it.

Anyway.. Is your dog losing weight? Or is he maintaining a good weight? GSDs are known to have what is called chronic pancreatits... I met a dog who was suspected to have this (Owners didn't have the money to test).. he was on again and off again with his food and was not scary thin, but thin.

Its not normal for dogs to change their flavors on food.. which is why I thought of this.

It might be worth looking into.. he may not have it.. but with a GSD and their laundry list of genetic disorders, it would be worth ruling out.

As far as foods go.. to keep it safe, anything purchased from the grocery store and/or wal-mart is poor quality. IAMS is about the only food I would recommend that can be purchased at a human grocery store. There are so many good foods to chose from that are not on a continuous recall. One dog food that I have had a lot of good luck with is Taste of the Wild. Its cheap and rates as high as the "almost" raw kibbled foods.

I found this (more info on this site cited below):

The first ingredient in this dog food is corn. Corn is an inexpensive and controversial cereal grain of only modest nutritional value to a dog.

For this reason, we do not consider corn a preferred component in any dog food.

The second item is chicken by-product meal, a dry rendered product of slaughterhouse waste. It's made from what's left of a slaughtered chicken after all the prime cuts have been removed.

In a nutshell, chicken by-products are those unsavory leftovers usually considered “unfit for human consumption”.

In addition to organs (the nourishing part), this stuff can contain almost anything — feet, beaks, undeveloped eggs — anything except quality skeletal muscle (real meat).

On the brighter side, by-product meals are meat concentrates and contain nearly 300% more protein than fresh chicken.

In any case, although this item contains all the amino acids a dog needs, we consider chicken by-products an inexpensive, lower quality ingredient.

The third item is corn gluten meal. Gluten is the rubbery residue remaining once corn has had most of its starchy carbohydrate washed out of it.

Compared to meat, glutens are inferior grain-based proteins lower in many of the essential amino acids dogs need for life.

This inexpensive plant-based ingredient can significantly boost the total protein reported on the label — a factor that must be considered when judging the actual meat content of this dog food.

The fourth ingredient is wheat. Wheat is another problematic grain subject to the same issues as corn (previously discussed).

The fifth ingredient is animal fat. Animal fat is a generic by-product of rendering, the same high-temperature process used to make meat meals.

Since there's no mention of a specific animal, this item could come from almost anywhere: roadkill, spoiled supermarket meat, dead, diseased or dying cattle — even euthanized livestock.

For this reason, we do not consider generic animal fat a quality ingredient.

The sixth item is rice flour. Rice flour is made from either white or brown rice and is considered a gluten-free substitute for wheat flour.

The seventh ingredient is beef. Although it's a quality item, raw beef contains about 80% water. After cooking, most of that moisture is lost, reducing the meat content to just a fraction of its original weight.

After processing, this item would probably account for a smaller part of the total content of the finished product.

The eighth ingredient is soy flour, a high-protein by-product of soybean processing.

Compared to meat, soy protein has a notably low biological value. Yet it is still capable of raising the protein content of this food.

The ninth ingredient is sugar, always an unwelcome addition to any dog food. Sugar has a high glycemic index which means it can unfavorably raise the blood sugar level of any animal soon after it is eaten.

This Beneful dry dog food product contains the controversial food moisturizer, propylene glycol. Propylene glycol has been banned by the FDA for use in making cat food.

Yet it can still be found in mostly lower quality dog foods.

Meat and bone meal is a dry “rendered product from mammal tissues, including bone, exclusive of blood, hair, hoof, horn, hide trimmings, manure, stomach and rumen contents”.1

Meat and bone meal has a lower digestibility than most other meat meals.

Scientists believe this decreased protein quality may be due to the ingredient's higher ash and lower essential amino acid content.2

What's worse, this particular item is anonymous. It doesn't even specify the source animal.

Even though meat and bone meals are still considered protein-rich meat concentrates, we do not consider a generic ingredient like this a quality item.

Animal digest is a chemically hydrolyzed concoction of unspecified body parts from unspecified animals. This product is usually sprayed onto the surface of a dry kibble to improve its taste.

We're always disappointed to find artificial coloring in any dog food. Coloring is used to make the product more appealing to you, not your dog. After all, do you really think your dog cares what color his kibble is?

From here, the list goes on to include a number of other items.

But to be realistic, ingredients located this far down the list (other than nutritional supplements) are not likely to affect the overall rating of this product.

With four notable exceptions…

First, garlic oil may be a controversial item. We say “may be” here because we are not certain of the oil's chemical relationship to raw garlic itself. Although the majority of experts favor the ingredient for its numerous health benefits, garlic (in rare cases) has been linked to Heinz body anemia in dogs.3

However, the limited professional literature we surveyed provided no definitive warnings regarding the use of garlic… especially in small amounts (as it is here).

Next, we find no mention of we find no mention of probiotics, friendly microorganisms applied to the surface of the kibble after processing.

Thirdly, we note the minerals here do not appear to be chelated. And that can make them more difficult to absorb. Non-chelated minerals are usually associated with lower quality dog foods.

And lastly, this Beneful dog food product contains menadione, a controversial form of vitamin K linked to liver toxicity, allergies and the abnormal break-down of red blood cells.

Beneful Dry Dog Food
The Bottom Line

Judging by its ingredients alone, Beneful Dog Food looks to be a below-average kibble.

But ingredient quality by itself cannot tell the whole story. We still need to estimate the product's meat content before determining a final rating.

The dashboard displays a dry matter protein reading of 29%, a fat level of 12% and an estimated carbohydrate content of 51%.

As a group, the brand features an average protein content of 30% and a mean fat level of 12%. Together, these figures suggest a carbohydrate content of 50% for the overall product line.

And a fat-to-protein ratio of about 40%.

Above-average protein. Below-average fat. And above-average carbohydrates as compared to a typical dry dog food.

In addition, when you consider the protein-boosting effect of the corn gluten meal, this is the profile of a kibble containing only a modest amount of meat.

Plus it's difficult to ignore the unusual abundance of so many Red Flag ingredients.

Bottom line?

Beneful Dog Food is a plant-based kibble using a modest amount of chicken by-products meal as its main source of animal protein, thus earning the brand 1 star.

Not recommended.

Beneful Dry Dog Food | Review and Rating

Just want to add this. If there were a recall, Canada would not have the food on the shelves. We're much stricter about that sort of thing than the States.

Second, My dogs eat beneful, always have. My dog Indy (lab cross) lived to the ripe old age of 16, no major health issues, all his own teeth, no major vet bills. My dog Jasper lived to 10, but he died because of an illness, not due to his diet.

Chewy and Rascal (my beagle and my border collie cross) are both on beneful, and have had no issues.

It doesn't always have to be expensive food to be okay. Even my vet said that if I choose to buy off the shelf, beneful is a good choice. She prefers Iams, but my dogs hate it.

Just my opinion, and my take on it. :)

My beef with Beneful is the fact that they are advertising some ultra good food with real veggies in it.. I doubt there is a single ACTUAL veggie in that food.

And we are strict on our dog food recalls.. but it goes by lot number and that lot number is associated with the various dog food plants in the United States.. So some states don't actually have to recall said food brands..

And vets are not nutritionists.. They do not do the research beyond what the prescription foods are made to do. I trust my vet with my pets, but not with their food.

First off thanks everyone for your wonderful answers.

To start, I live in Poland at the moment so if it's banned in North America, it's probably not here. I have no idea where the stuff is made in Europe, but it does seem to have the propylene glycol in it. Also, being in Poland my vet seems to have a 3rd grade education (they give vaccinations, that's it. No physical exams, no heart worm pills, no nothing) so asking them it kind of out.

Apparently the propylene glycol is approved as a food preservative in human foods too as well as dog foods. But isn't allowed in cat food because cats metabolize it differently. Either way, I wouldn't want to eat it, so there's no way I want my dog to eat it!

Someone asked if he has lost weight- no not yet. He ate a whole helping of white rice and hamburger meat yesterday mixed with his old dog food and he seemed to like it okay. He hasn't eaten breakfast yet (and it's 2:00) so there might be some more bribery later. I suppose there's also the possibility he's just being a 'food snob.' (not that I can really blame him, but it's kind of annoying on my end!)

For now I'm going to keep giving him his original food, and hope he gets back to normal eating. As long as he's eating something, I'm not worried as much, but if he were to stop all together I'd really be freaking out.