Beneful Dog Food Reviews: What to Like and Not Like
Beneful Dog Food is produced by the company Purina. Upon first glance Beneful claims to provide a healthy array of foods in many different flavor and texture combinations to entice your dog. As with many other companies, they advertise their product in the best light possible, promoting wholesome ingredients and high-quality nutrition that will keep your dog healthy and at their best.
Unfortunately, upon closer inspection, if we move beyond the colorful and attractive packaging and advertising, there seem to be some cautionary reviews out there.
Ultimately, the decision of which foods to purchase for your pet is entirely up to you. It is also important to remember that there are always two sides to every story and there will always be people on both sides of the fence.
In order to give you the best chance of deciding for or against Purina Beneful for dogs, let’s take a closer look at reviews from some trusted sources in the pet world.
What Is In It?
First, let’s take a shallow dive into the nutritional aspect of Beneful Dry Dog food. DogFoodAdvisor specializes in breaking down the nutritional information that is provided by the dog food company themselves to reveal the true quality of the product.
After an in-depth breakdown and scrutiny of the ingredients contained in Beneful Dry Dog Food, DogFoodAdvisor deemed the product to be a below average product by their standard.
The first nine ingredients found in Beneful Dry Dog Food, in the order that they are listed, include:
Corn. Proven to be inexpensive and controversial. Only contains a modest nutritional value.
Chicken By-Product Meal. In short, the leftovers that come out of the slaughterhouse after the good cuts of meat have been removed. Usually contains a bit of everything – beaks, bones, feet, even undeveloped eggs. Feathers are not usually included.
Corn Gluten Meal. Is compromised of 60% protein but its biological value is less than that of meat.
Wheat Flour. Highly refined and also cheap and controversial. Like corn, it is not considered by health experts to be a preferred ingredient in dog foods.
Animal Fat. Specific animals are not specified. This could come from literally anything.
Beef. Although a quality item, it is comprised of 80% water when raw, which means after it is cooked down and the moisture is lost, what remains is a small fraction of the weight that it started at.
Rice Flour. A gluten-free option used in place of wheat flour.
Soy Flour. The by-product of soybean processing and contains high protein. Again, however, it has a less biological value than meat is expected to have.
Meat and Bone Meal. Dry, rendered tissues and bones.
The rest of the ingredients are in small enough quantities that they are unlikely to carry enough value to really affect the overall product rating. Some notable exceptions include propylene glycol, which has been banned from use in cat foods by the FDA, sugar, animal digest which provides the attractive flavor, dried peas, artificial colors, and garlic, which is also a controversial ingredient.
When it is all said and done, DogFoodAdvisor gives Beneful Dry Dog Food a 1-star rating and deems it not recommendable.
What Do Consumers Have To Say About It?
Now let’s move on to consumer reviews. It would seem that there are a lot of pet owners that are rather unhappy with the product. According to Consumer Affairs, in the last 2.5 years, there have been over 200 complains made about Beneful dog food.
According to Healthy Pet, earlier this year a class action lawsuit was brought against Purina by a pet owner in California whose pets have experience severe sickening in conjunction with the addition of Beneful dog food into their diets.
The same pet owner also has a 3rd pet that died after use of the product and it was reported that all three of the dogs were shown to have signs of poisoning.
Healthy Pet reports that Purina is referring to the 3000+ complaints as ‘baseless’, though they have been forced to admit that this is not the first, but rather the third, class action lawsuit that has been filed against them recently. The month following the California pet owner’s lawsuit was filed, the FDA was requested by two US Senators to investigate the potential toxin content of Beneful. No response from the FDA has been found to date.
Concerned and distraught owners have been reporting symptoms and severe issues that include weight loss, vomiting and diarrhea, lethargy, excessive thirst and even seizures. Some of these are reported to have happened in perfectly healthy animals with no previous issues or reactions to other foods. And these symptoms seem to set in after having consumed Beneful Dry Dog foods only a few times.
Other reports include bloat (which can be life-threatening), kidney and liver failure and in some extreme cases, death. To make matters seem even worse, the negative reports are not just coming in from pet owners but also from veterinarians. A report performed by The Examiner shows that vets have linked liver and kidney failure, high toxin levels and bacterial infections in their patients to the use of Beneful dog food.
Conclusion
Despite these worrisome reviews and reports, it would seem that Purina is not paying much attention to complaints and as of this year, there have been no recalls or warning posted on the products by the FDA.
Pet owners are encouraged to do extensive research when deciding on which foods to implement into their dog’s diet. Health experts recommend that raw and homemade foods are ideal. When dry dog foods are preferred or required, be sure to look into all ingredients and thoroughly review and research the products before allowing them into your pet’s diet.
