Hellp...New Food is a total Disaster!
 

Some of you know that I struggle with my four Porky Yorkies. Yes we have determined that they are all over weight. I have tried for over four months now to get them to lose weight. I recently make the switch to Purina Beneful Healthy Diet (I did it gradually/or course). Well we have finally made it to feeding them 100% Beneful for the past 2 weeks. It has become a total Disaster!

I have been picking up soft and some times even runny poo (In the house) every day. Sometimes three times a day for the past week or so from what I can tell it is from three of the four dogs. It's like It's so soft that they can not hold it in. They have to go out twice as much as they did before and I dont dare hessitate or I am picking up the mess.... I never had this problem with the old food that I was feeding them.

Could it be the chicken and vegetables that is causing this?

I cant take it any more..... I'm thinking that I may have no chose but to switch them back! I only made the change for their benefit. Boy was I wrong...

Maybe switch them back to what works and just feed them a little less,so they will loose some the the weight slowly and adjust to eating a little less. Just a thought

To be honest, Beneful is not a good food at all. Looking at the ingredient list, the chicken that's listed is "chicken-by-product" which can be basically anything and there really are not vegetables in the food. The vegetables pictured on the packaging are for marketing reasons to get people to buy the food. People see the vegetables and automatically think it's a good food but really it isn't.

I would try a better food like wellness...and look at your treats that you give as well...maybe switch to carrots or green beans.

You can get it at pet smart.

Wellness® Complete Health® Super5Mix® Healthy Weight

Beneful is pretty much the worst of the worst, IMO. All the pretty food colorings they use make it look delicious and enticing but the ingredients are pretty awful. Jackson ate Beneful once (got into, granted, but he has gotten into other 'low quality' such as Purina, Pedigree, etc) and nothing has affected him the way Beneful did. His stomach got all bloated and he looked bigger to me. Then he began vomiting and had nasty diarrhea. Whatever is in Beneful is just nasty, lol. And Jackson's got a pretty iron stomach -- nothing usually bothers him too much.

Is there a specific reason you switched to Beneful? I could make a recommendation (a non-professional one, of course) if you can explain what your dogs need (weight loss, etc) the most.

If I recall correctly, Beneful is loaded with corn....and many dogs have issues with corn. I home cook so I'll leave the debate about which food to feed to others...

It was because of the REAL vegs. and chicken advertised. I want them around as long as possible. I want them to be healthy and trim so that they can ramain an active part of our family. I Love my babies.... I want what is best for them while not breaking the bank!

We tried that for three months, with no results! They begged and begged to be fed more. It was quit aggravating!

Real veggies and real chicken are NOT in the food. ;)

Here are the first ingredients to regular Beneful:

Ground yellow corn, chicken by-product meal, corn gluten meal, whole wheat flour, animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E), rice flour, beef, soy flour, sugar, propylene glycol, meat and bone meal

Ground yellow corn is the first ingredient... meaning most of the protein in the food is being taken from corn! By product meal - slaughterhouse waste and "unfit for human consumption". :thumbdown Corn gluten meal: Gluten is the rubbery residue remaining once corn has had most of its starchy carbohydrate (the good stuff) washed out of it. This boosts the protein content of the food. 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”

Basically just gross food. :thumbdown

Look for a food with a named meat as the first 1-3 ingredients (i.e. chicken meal, chicken or lamb, lamb meal, etc). I stay away from corn, wheat, soy and by products for one thing.

Recommendations... foods I like are Natural Balance, Acana/Orijen, Go!/Now!, Nature's Variety, and there's a few others as well. Taste of the Wild is good and is probably the best prices you will find.

Beneful is garbage. You could look into a food that has real meat and veggies in it. In general, it won't be anything at your grocery store or Wal-Mart/Target.

Wellness (available at Petsmart and Petco) has a weight control formula, if you are looking to go that route.

I would switch them to plain boiled chicken and rice immediately. Give this for a couple of days until their stomachs calm down. Then re-introduce them to dog food.

Maybe look into Natural Balance, it is available at Petco, not too expensive, pretty simple ingredients, and a quality food. I often recommend it as one of the first foods to try if people are looking to upgrade to a natural diet for their dogs. I still rotate a bag through my kids diet every now and then.

Why not try blue buffalo? They have a weight management
 

formula I believe. It is a good quality food with probiotics so their tummy isn't upset by it. Also, the higher quality/protein the food the more full they'll feel. I've found that although Blue Buffalo and Evo are more expensive upfront, they last longer. Also, Beneful advertises like that for a reason. For the most part, very few pet owners have the time to research the brands. They go based off the commercials. Try Dog Food Analysis - Reviews of kibble for reviews. :)

Ewww beneful is garbage. Please read up on better dog nutrition or homecook.

There are no REAL vegetables in that food. Please don't trust advertising, they are pulling a fast one on people. As Britster mentioned and others said - you really need to read the ingredient label and shop in either the "natural" section at a Petco or a small local holistic pet store, otherwise your dogs aren't going to be healthy at all, overweight or not.

What you can do after you find a high quality food for them (many of the good brands carry a "weight management" formula - I have my beagle on the Verus one and she does great:) You can add your own vegetables (either fresh or boiled) into their food and cut down on the amount of dog food. The vegetables will make them feel fuller without adding lots of calories and if you start using a high quality food, even though it's more expensive, the vegetables will cut down on the cost because you won't be using as much and your dogs will still get the nutrients they need.

Plus the feeding guidelines for high quality foods are alot less per pound/per day than grocery store brands, so the cost really does balance out anyway. When following the feeding guides on the bag, feed your dogs the amount per day for a dog at the weight they SHOULD be, not the weight they are, that will cut the calories sufficiantly.

Also, watch what treats you're using. Small dogs like Yorkies only need aprox. 200 calories a day so even one tiny peice of cheese for example is really putting a big dent in that.

Please stay far away from anything Purina, I know they're popular, but it's really junk. Huge companies like that are just after your $, not the health and well being of your dog.

I have seen no positive results from Beneful. And the vegetables wouldn't be too appealing if you saw them in the factory...

I would pick a high quality food that the pups do well on and feed to conditioning. You may just want to go back to whatever you were feeding. They probably will beg, but just don't give in. You can add some non-starchy vegetables to make them feel full. When they were being fed less and beging for more, were they losing weight?

I think I remember another post...you were using Pedigree before right? Don't go back to that (Crystal, who I'm quoting, will most likely agree with me:)). Don't think I'm blaming you here or anything, just providing information:), but Pedigree is just as bad as Benefull ingredient wise and full of corn, which honestly is probably the main culprit to their weight gain in the first place.

I think that you are trying to find a cheap yet quality food from what I gather.

You will be saving a ton on vet bills if you invest a few more bucks per bag in dog food. Plus, yorkies are small and dont eat like great danes to put that much of a dent on your wallet.

Just a thought.

I wouldn't feed Purina anything! I feed my dogs Nature's Variety and it has worked out very well for us. Also, the kibbles are small and easy for my small dogs to eat. Don't get caught up in the marketing hype... Purina is just cheap crap food!

I have an overweight little boy too. I have been feeding him Blue Buffalo weight control and never had a problem with his poo. I adopted a little Pom that was so thin it hurt me to look at her. While I was fattening her up my Yorkie did the same. They are both on their way to healthier weights. I give them the BB and green beans, carrots or apple as treats. They both love to take walks which also helps. Petco has the bigger bag of BB that lasts forever. It might be worth you time to try it.

I just ordered some Blue Buffalo from Amazon to give it a try. My guys have been on Iams but I decided it would be better to be on a better quality food. Hopefully they will like it.

Thank you for all of the suggestions every body.... I'll get this figures out sooner or later!

Take Care...

I have a friend who fed Beneful to her chihuahua. It gave him kidney stones!!!