Well we were over at our neighbors house who are new friends of ours that have a 15 week old choc lab and they are feeding Beneful, here are the ingredients:

INGREDIENTS
Ground yellow corn, chicken by-product meal, corn gluten meal, whole wheat flour, animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E), chicken, rice flour, milk, soy flour, sugar, sorbitol, tricalcium phosphate, water, animal digest, salt, phosphoric acid, potassium chloride, dicalcium phosphate, sorbic acid (a preservative), L-Lysine monohydrochloride, added color (Yellow 5, Red 40, Yellow 6, Blue 2), calcium carbonate, dried peas, dried carrots, calcium propionate (a preservative), choline chloride, DL-Methionine, Vitamin E supplement, zinc sulfate, ferrous sulfate, Vitamin A supplement, manganese sulfate, niacin, Vitamin B-12 supplement, calcium pantothenate, riboflavin supplement, copper sulfate, brewers dried yeast, biotin, garlic oil, thiamine hydrochloride, pyridoxine hydrochloride, thiamine mononitrate, folic acid, Vitamin D-3 supplement, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity), calcium iodate, sodium selenite.

They of course love their puppy but i dont think they have done an ounce of research and know nothing about the food, (neither did i till i read her bag of food last night) and she totally looked at me funny too... another issue is they were feeding Kirkland which i think is a good food, but now are feeding Beneful, and they dont transition food they just switch abruptly... they seem to be trying and give the little guy lots of love but he is not house broken either (pooped and peed like 8 times while we were over).....


My question is what would be a good way to nicely educate her about dog food??? Or should i stay out of it and say nothing????

Any advice would help??

Oh lawd. Heather, my best friend, feeds Charlie (Who is Aeris' playmate) Beneful. And I told her, it's not that great for him. I got out the ingredients and showed her, and she said "Well, it's been working okay for us for now so..."

and naturally, I wanted to say "If that's all you've fed him, how would you know?" But, it is her dog, and I can't say anything. Charlie doesn't seem to be in pain or dying :P Now if she was feeding Nutro, it'd be a different story (haha!)

I'd just mention in passing that the main ingredient, corn, is just a filler, and you'd end up spending more on food because they weren't getting good nutrition than if they were feeding good food.

Sometimes people just think food is all the same :O! But don't push it on them.... it is their dog :)

Good luck!!

Yeah, Beneful is mostly filler and chemicals... Not a good food at all. I feel that feeding a higher quality food is better for my dog's overall health, but I have seen plenty of dogs live long, happy, and healthy lives eating nothing but the el-cheapo bargin brand foods their entire lives.

If I were your friend I would want you to tell me! She may not know any better. I admit I was dumb as dirt when I first got my lab! I am so greatful for all the info I have gotten from all the people here and my Chance is much happier! My poor dog was missing out on peanut butter!!! Thanks to you guys I gave him alittle and he loves it!!!! You just have to tell her in a nice way!

I personally think you should not say anything. As you can see from this forum, everyone has a very different opinion on which dog food they should feed. They all work, just in a much different way and with different fillers, ingredients, etc.

If someone said to me that the dog food that I was feeding is not a good dog food and I should switch to something else, I would tell them to go fly a kite.

I think the better approach would be to direct them to this forum and tell them that you have gotten many good answers to questions regarding all aspects of raising your Lab, including food, health, vets, etc. By doing that, you are directing them to a very good source of information, without being pushy.....and it would let them see for themselves that Beneful is not a great food (according to you).....Just do not tell them your username so they will not see this post....

I guess this all comes down to- how good of friends are you with them, and how irritable do they seem? ;)

You can print this out and give it to them. It's from the store that I buy our natural food from:

http://www.wagnwash.com/petsake.pdf

ZMAN - I deffinitly understand everyone has there own opinion and if i need to add that Beneful IN MY OPINION is not a good option, there you go! My main concern is i just dont think she knows any better, i am sure the pup will be fine on whatever she feeds him, i was more concerned cause i think she wants to make a good decision but doesnt know how or what to look for... and mostly becasue of this board and a lot of other research i feel i was able to learn A TON about dog food.....

I like the idea of just casually bringing up information, I was thinking about bringing her with me to this Holistic dog store as more a shoping trip, but i know the owner will get chatting about dog food, she is very knowledgable and then it isnt me saying anything it would just be a conversation... what do you think?

I think taking her to a Holistic dog store is a perfect plan!

Why not buy them a bag of whatever you are feeding your dog along with a flier/print out about the benefits of that type of food vs. what they are feeding. * If she sees that you are that concerned to buy her a bag of dog food, she might take it seriously and do some investigating on her own.

You could always invite her to join the board ....

I tried to talk to a friend once about feeding Beneful to her two Maltese. She told me "You know, I have two kids, both my husband and I work horrible hours, and I cannot run all over town just to get a bag of dog food. I buy whatever is at the grocery store and they will just have to live with it." I never brought it up again. Her dogs are happy and healthy, too.

I of course feed a high quality food, but Here's the funny thing.

The other day I was at a park with my fur children. I ran into a lady with a 14 year old yellow lab. I of course, asked her what she fed. She looked at me and said "She's 14, she eats whatever she wants" My follow up response..."what have you been feeding her?"
Her response: You know, like Kibble and bits.

I have two labs with tons of medical issues. The last thing I'm going to do is try to talk to someone who was able to get their dog to a ripe old age of 14 and harp on the food thing.

I hear of lab after lab eating beneful and other garbage and living a LONG time.
I'd just let it go! :)

You could always invite her to join the board ....



My thinking as well. You could say this a fun website that has all kinds of useful information. That's about as far as I would go with it though.

I of course feed a high quality food, but Here's the funny thing.

The other day I was at a park with my fur children. I ran into a lady with a 14 year old yellow lab. I of course, asked her what she fed. She looked at me and said "She's 14, she eats whatever she wants" My follow up response..."what have you been feeding her?"
Her response: You know, like Kibble and bits.

I have two labs with tons of medical issues. The last thing I'm going to do is try to talk to someone who was able to get their dog to a ripe old age of 14 and harp on the food thing.

I hear of lab after lab eating beneful and other garbage and living a LONG time.
I'd just let it go! :)

I very much agree with this.

I feed Ziwi Peak to Bailey and a friend of mine with her 12 year old lab thinks I'm crazy. She's been feeding grocery brand food since the beginning with no health problems for her lab...

it boils down to how good a friend are you? and will she take kindly to you telling her the food is not great?

Inviting her to join the board and/or going to the holistic store is your best bet.

I feel for you. I always want to educate people on dog food but not everyone will listen.

Good luck and whatever you decide I hope you are successful.