Ok I'll be honest with you. It's probably great food to feed chickens. They love corn and grains and things. Dogs prefer meat. Corn and grains are often a source of allergies besides. The word "by product" can mean anything. Guts, digest, whatever. Beneful doesn't even identify what "poultry" byproducts they are encouraging your dog to eat. I don't know. Road killed pigeons? Do you see how high up on the list of their ingredients all those grains are? There's also sugar in this food. There's a thread in this board section about dogs becoming gravely ill on Beneful. Please seek it out.
There are some real experts on this board who will go into detail about the ingredients on the bag of this food way beyond what I am saying here. I'm just a lay person who is telling you I would never feed my dog this food no matter what cute PR commercials they show on TV. I think they should be indicted for tricking people into feeding this food. But like I said, I'm just a lay person. But let's try and experiment ok?:
Since dogs are carnivores, if you asked your dog which food he really would prefer to eat, which would he choose. Pay particular attention to the first five or six ingredients, although Beneful's questionable ingredients seem to go even beyond that.
1.
Ground yellow corn, chicken by-product meal, corn gluten meal, whole wheat flour, beef tallow preserved with mixed-tocopherols (source of Vitamin E), rice flour, beef, soy flour, sugar, sorbitol, tricalcium phosphate, water, animal digest, salt, phosphoric acid, potassium chloride, dicalcium phosphate, sorbic acid (a preservative), L-Lysine monohydrochloride, dried peas, dried carrots, calcium carbonate, calcium propionate (a preservative), choline chloride, vitamin supplements (E, A, B-12, D-3), added color (Yellow 5, Red 40, Yellow 6, Blue 2), DL-Methionine, zinc sulfate, glyceryl monostearate, ferrous sulfate, niacin, manganese sulfate, calcium pantothenate, riboflavin supplement, biotin, thiamine mononitrate, garlic oil, copper sulfate, pyridoxine hydrochloride, folic acid, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity), calcium iodate, sodium selenite.
F-4090
OR
2.
Chicken Meal, Turkey Meal, Brown Rice, White Rice, Lamb Meal, Chicken Fat, (Preserved with Mixed Tocopherols and Ascorbic Acid), Menhaden Fish Meal, Flax Seed, Sun Cured Alfalfa Meal, Sunflower Oil, Lecithin, Brewers Yeast, Natural Flavors, Monosodium Phosphate, Choline, Linoleic Acid, Rosemary Extract, Sage Extract, Ferrous Sulfate, Mixed Tocopherols (Source of Vitamin E) Zinc Oxide, Sodium Selenite, Manganous Oxide, Riboflavin Supplement (Source of B2), Yeast Culture, Dried Aspergillus Niger Fermentation Extract, Dried Aspergillus Oryzae Fermentation Extract, Dried Lactobacillus Acidophilus Fermentation Product, Dried Streptococcus Faecium Fermentation product, Zinc Amino Acid Chelate, Manganese Amino Acid Chelate, Copper Amino Acid Chelate, Cobalt Amino Acid Chelate, Iron Amino Acid Chelate, Niacin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Vitamin A Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, D- Biotin Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B6), Calcium, Iodate, Thiamine Mononitrate, Folic Acid, Papain, Bacillus Subtilis, Aspergillus Niger, Yucca Schidigera Extract.