Beneful food analysis? Suggestions for a client? - Page 2

GSDguy08, I think your origianl post could be taken as though you have tried more than once to convince or educate your friend about the food.  It also seems you may have been asking for opinions to once again try to educate them.  Thats a valient effort on your part. But some people just don't want to be educated.  You TRIED, and thats all you can do.  Like Sitasmom's and I said, just let it go before you loose a friend.  Some people can be touchy over situations like that and would part ways over a difference in opinions.  YOU TRIED BUDDY! I would have casually mentioned it to them also, but thats where I would stop. 

Sunsilver I thought that was odd too about the sugar.  I know someone else who fed either Beneful or Kibbles and bits (I think Beneful) and their Beagle was extremely overweight and became a diabetic. Had a nasty last two years of it's life and was put down for who knows what other reasons, it was just extremely pitiful.  Different client, good friend of mine, but oddly enough this woman was a nurse and she fed her dogs very unhealthy foods. I convinced her at one point to feed TOTW, but she thought it was too expensive (her husband is extremely rich so I thought that was odd) so she went back to the poor quality food.

Hutchins, I see what you mean. I'd still like to at least educate myself more on the food, if I don't even talk to her about it again.

Thought this excerpt was on point

http://jn.nutrition.org/content/128/12/2779S.short
 In contrast to popular beliefs, premium products were not fed more often to obese dogs. On the contrary, for owners of obese dogs, a low price of the dog food was more important than for owners of normal dogs. They bought dog food more often at the local supermarket (66.1% compared with 46.7% of owners of normal dogs). Ready availability of commercial products in the nearest supermarket was more important, whereas a package friendly to the environment was less important to the owners of obese dogs than to owners of normal dogs (Table 5 ). The owners of obese dogs had less interest in balanced dog nutrition than owners of normal dogs (Table 4). The veterinarian was the most important source of information on dog nutrition for both groups; owners of normal dogs, however, made significantly more use of other sources such as sales persons in pet shops or specialist books.

Also, this book online is very easy to understand and might help her:  (Didn't mention BARF diet because someone who feeds Beneful probably won't be interested in that) 

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=4ETy2iBXt38C&oi=fnd&pg=PA13&dq=dog+nutrition&ots=1twgA7haRF&sig=ZUBqrGJ3aco3uPOck7gG2SoNAOQ#v=onepage&q=dog%20nutrition&f=false

I recommend printing off the beneful analysis from this site: http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/  specifically this one:  http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-reviews/beneful-dog-food-dry/ 

The best thing you can do is print off information, and give her good alternatives. like http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-reviews/american-natural-premium-dog-food/  ANP is  not the best food out there, but compared to beneful it's amazing. and it's not expensive, especially for the quality. All of our dogs at our kennel are on this, and while I would prefer a little higher quality food for them, you can't beat the cost and value. 

Not sure on prices in your area (ANP is made in WI, not far from where I live) but here we can get a 40# bag of ANP for approx. $33.
I feed TOTW, and get a 30# bag for $42.50


Other than providing information on the negatives of Beneful and the positive alternatives of better foods, there is not much more you can do. 

Also, a good thing is to mention the benefits to a better diet. less stool, fewer vet trips and lower bills, etc.

Good luck

TOTW made by Diamond and was a suject of recall recently.  Personally do not like to buy an of the foods manufactured by Diamond due to their late action on this matter and obvious system wide problem since all the foods they make were recalled.  (finally)

h4j, 

i agree with you. i was not happy with the recall and the way it was handled. at the time of recall i was on orijen/acana which mine did great on, but no different than they did on TOTW. I tried to stay away, but taking on another dog I couldn't afford the orijen/acana the way they were eating through it. I recently ended up back on TOTW and the dogs seem to be very happy about it. 


in WI we were not affected by the recall....though i will watch the food carefully and keep all batch numbers on file just in case.

hunger4justice, I wouldn't mind switching all of mine away from Diamond seeing all of the (I feed 4Health Salmon) problems that there have been with it for others, but mine have done better on it than pretty much any other food.  Better on it than more expensive foods as well.  Shiny soft coats, good stools, good weight, good energy, they all like it and seem to do very well on it.  

my dog would die on that garbage lol I can't believe corn is the first ingred. I would feed it to my ducks. Probably really good duck or game bird winter food.

I was aware of Diamond's recall.  I do not agree with the way they handled it, but that is still not a reason for me to stop feeding TOTW when I have the best results I have seen in a LONG time.  Now if the food was not doing what I wanted, YES I would change.  JMO