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Originally Posted by Hansel I have been researching and talking with different people I just find it amazing that the companys that produce pet food seem to have no idea about the animals they are selling to food for. If anyone knows or has heard of stuff like this I am interested in learning more about it. |
Beneful is a Purina brand. I think Beneful came out around the time Hills put out a similar "look at the cool veggie shapes" food. I can't remember it's special little name or if they still have it, but I do remember it was around 2003 because I was working for a vet at the time, and she started getting samples sent to the office.
It's very hard to find quality food for any of my animals, especially since I now live in such a small town where many people don't see animals as more than just an animal. Typically, if you can buy a brand at grocery stores or places like Walmart, it's going to be packed with fillers and other things you don't need. (Just picture Hartz's or another brands' guinea pig "blends" and imagine that quality as a dog or cat food.) Large chain stores whose purpose is to cater to pets aren't much better either. Petsmart doesn't carry amazing brands, and Petco is slightly better as far as the brands it carries in dog food. Last time I checked, they have Eagle Pack (maybe not the higher end formulas...I don't live near either store so I can't say for sure) and Natural Balance, which are certainly better than *insert random brand here*. Locally, the two best brands available here (in comparison to the other brands sold at the only two places to buy food...feed store and Walmart) are Science Diet and Pro Plan (by Purina). So you can see the options are limited, and when you compare that to brands by Natura (like Innova EVO), who offer human grade and grain-free kibbles, you really realize the number of fillers, grains, etc. in other brands.
So I end up having to order nearly everything and supplement diets since the closest places that sell what I want are hours away. If I have to pay gas money, I might as well pay the shipping to get it delivered to my home. I also get a kick out of watching the UPS guy haul a 50 lb. bag of Oxbow to my porch. That's what he gets for throwing my other packages at me. *evil laugh*
Since you said you wanted to know more about the things going into food (well, specifically dog food in this case), you can check out these two sites. I use these often, and they've been quite helpful in the past. For the most part, the brands mentioned are usually the better brands of cat food as well, although I know a lot of people who have said their cats turn their nose up at many of them. Cats...go figure.
I don't have links for piggie things, but we already know the better brands and what to avoid.
http://www.dogaware.com/dogfeeding.html http://www.mordanna.com/dogfood/ 
01-03-06, 08:43 pm
