Nutro Natural Choice??

[katt]

I'm sure this is a question that has been asked before but, I did a search and didn't really see anything helpful after 3 pages. SO... here ya go.

We've been feeding Canidae. But, due to cost and gas prices, we're going to have to switch to another food (the only place near us that sells Canidae is 40 min. away).

DH bought a small bag of Nutro Natural Choice to try. George (the dog) loves it. Is there any big reason we shouldn't continue to feed him this or should we look for something else (if so, recommendations please?)?

Thanks so much!

In an ideal world where we had space and the finances George would get a wonderful RAW diet. But, alas, we are not in that place right now.

 

[Hillside]

Nutro is over priced for what it is. Do you have a Costco near you? Thier Kirkland signature is really good, and cheap too.

 

[AGonzalez]

I'm feeding the Nutro Herring & potato something (I'd have to look at the bag sorry) and my dogs love it. It's a little higher in price but it's more accessible than Canidae and such for me. It does have rice in it but it also had a meat main protein source listed as the first ingredient.

 

[MafiaPrincess]

I personally wouldn't feed nutro anything.. but it's just me.
The nutro herring formula is some herring and a whackload of rice.. more rice.. more rice.. few sketchy things like poultry fat.. isn't too hard to name what said poultry is.. and vitamin K. Better companies removed vitamin K from their food when people started to question it. http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?page=menadione

 

[Beanie]

I fed Nutro a long time ago, but now I wouldn't feed it again... but it's probably the best of the brands you can commonly buy at places like PetSmart or Petco. Though now i believe they carry Blue Buffalo, and that might be better... I think there are a few better options for you that you might be able to find!

There are also a few websites you can order dog food from - petfooddirect.com is one of them and they carry just about anything you could want. Maybe look into ordering from them? In the long run it will probably save you money to feed a better food, because you'll feed less of it than the Nutro, so you'll have to buy less often. PFD also frequently has sales, and you can buy treats and more from them. It might work out to a pretty good deal for you. =>

 

[Hillside]

Actually Petco carries Solid Gold and Wellness now, in addition to the Halo/Spot Stew kibble and Natural Balance.

Petsmart has Blue Buffalo and ermmmmm, not much else worth anything.

 

[ron]

DH bought a small bag of Nutro Natural Choice to try. George (the dog) loves it. Is there any big reason we shouldn't continue to feed him this or should we look for something else (if so, recommendations please?)?

I have fed my dog, Shadow, Nutro for the past almost 4 years since I got him. Except for two weeks when I fed him Innova and he had sneezing fits, 12 to 15 in a row several times a day. I put him back on Nutro and the symptoms went away.

The food is not just rice with some flavoring. That notion comes from the mistaken thinking that the ingredient list is analagous to a math formula, it is not. And the volumes listed are pre-process.

I also laugh out loud at the notion that Nutro is "overpriced." If you buy the forty pound bag of Nutro Natural Choice Lamb Meal and Rice, you are averaging 77 cents per pound. How is that overpriced?

Anyway, good luck and if the Nutro doesn't work out or causes a problem don't hesitate to switch to something else. For me, the next best bet would be Eagle Pack, if you can get it, which isn't always easy.

 

[Buddy'sParents]

Ingredient list for Natural Choice Lamb:

Lamb Meal, Ground Rice, Rice Flour, Rice Bran, Poultry Fat (preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of Vitamin E), Natural Flavors, Soybean Oil (preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of Vitamin E), Sunflower Oil (preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of Vitamin E), Whole Brown Rice, Dried Egg Product, Dried Plain Beet Pulp, Potassium Chloride, L-Lysine, Dried Kelp, Choline Chloride, Zinc Sulfate, Vitamin E Supplement, Taurine, Ferrous Sulfate, Ascorbic Acid (source of Vitamin C), Biotin, Copper Proteinate, Niacin, Manganous Oxide, Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Riboflavin Supplement (source of Vitamin B2), Vitamin A Supplement, Glucosamine Hydrochloride, Chondroitin Sulfate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (source of Vitamin B6), Thiamine Mononitrate (source of Vitamin B1), Vitamin D3 Supplement, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (source of Vitamin K activity), Calcium Iodate, Folic Acid.

No, thanks. My dog does not need all of that "rice".

 

[Dekka]

The #1 ingred in those foods is Rice. They split it up so it isn't the first ingredient... but really its mostly rice. Dogs don't need ANY rice but rice is cheap and so they market it and people buy it.

(and lets not forget the recalls)

 

[minpinluvrs]

I agree with Hillside, if you have a Costco, get the Kirkland. If you're not able to feed the "premium" food because of the price, you can at least come really, really close. If that's not an option, feed what you can, and supplement it with hamburger and such.

I don't know how many people will agree with me here on this, but even with what we feed our dogs, we do like to give them hamburger, especially when the local supermarket has the stuff that's on the last 2 days of it's "use by" date, and it's still perfectly fit for human consumption, but it's marked down to 88 cents/lb, which is actually cheaper than many dog foods. (We won't give them any meat from Wal-Mart, however, since we won't eat that meat ourselves, since it's injected with some kind of solution to make it look better.)

Other than that, if you look at the ingredients in Authority from petsmart, they're pretty much the same as Nutro...a little meat, then some rice, a little more rice, then just a bit more rice. Why pay more for the same food? Basically, look at your budget, look at what's available near you, look at the ingredients, and supplement where you feel it needs to be supplemented. Don't feel bad if you can't afford to drive to get the food you need, make do with what you can get, and make it work how you'd like it to. That may sound a little vague, but pick a dog food WITHOUT any harmful ingredients as a staple, and if it doesn't have enough meat, you definitely can fix that with items you can buy locally. Tripe is good, (but nasty smelling to humans,) discount steaks...hamburger...roasts...etc, are great.

As far as rice being "cheap," it's not very cheap anymore, since there is a worldwide rice shortage, and rice is the staple of most third world country's, (and many second world, and a few first world,) diets. I personally like rice, but it's increased in my area by 400% in the past year in price. Wheat and corn are cheap, and that's why SD, Iams, purina, and alpo use so much of it. I suspect the companies that are not corn based, (like Nutro) will follow Canidae's lead when it comes to cutting down the amount of rice in their food. If they replace it with other grains that aren't harmful, it's not a bad thing, if they replace it with corn and wheat and a few more animal "by-products," then it's a very bad thing.

 

[planet molosser]

I was a Nutro Breeder for 3 years they change the ingredients and scored way to low.
My dogs coat and pups changed.

Nutro Ultra scored high.

But I feed when on sale Wolf king, Nature Recipe, and Breeders Choice.

And I must say Certain Formulas of Pro Plan without Corn worked out well.

 

[lizzybeth727]

I feed Nutro Natural Choice, and like minpinluvrs said, I also suppliment it with protein (eggs, chicken, beef, etc.), yogurt, occasionally carrots, etc. I know that it's not the best food out there, far from it, but my dog seems to do well on it.

Authority brand food, by the way, was developed based on Nutro's formulas... it's basically almost exactly the same as Nutro Max (a step down from Natural Choice). In the long run Nutro is cheaper than Authority, as it goes on sale very often and you can easily get coupons (if you go to their site you can get a coupon for a free bag, I believe, and there's a nutro rep at Petsmart almost every weekend, s/he usually has coupons).

 

[Dekka]

Rice is a LOT LOT cheaper than meat.....

Its cheaper than quality fruits and veggies. AND its very low in nutrients.

 

[a.baker]

I used to feed my dog Nutro Max Puppy food and it worked well for her and the vet said it is a good food choice. I wish I could feed my dog more veggies and meet but yeah with the economy it is way too pricey. I recently switched because the store was a 50 minute drive form my house and they don't sell that at any store in my town. But my dog liked it and of course got sick of it just like with any dog food. But we always added to it some healthy extras and she has a beautiful coat. The shedding is hard to tell since she lost her puppy coat and than lost her winter coat. Bassets are also known shedders. But it made her dandruff go away. That was a huge problem for her before we tried the Nutro so it helped that.

 

[a.baker]

She is solid with muscle too so and her teeth look so good including her coat so she got her needed protein. Maybe the puppy food is different than the adult ingredients. I know it had lamb in it and it was great for her digestion. My new puppy gained weight from it fast too. My puppy was grossly skinny and got sick from being too skinny. The vet got him on track and we got his weight up (people we bought him from I feel abused him ; partly why we decided to take him) . I am sure he would of bulked up no matter what food he had considering his condition but the puppy food from Nutro seemed good for him. But now he is also on something different.

 

[Dekka]

*mafia princess chronic user name stealer too lazy to sign dekka out*

Nutro Max is some skeazy kibble. It's nutro's lowest quality line.. Vets are often taught by dog food companies about nutrition and recieve inadequate knowledge. A vet saying yay that kibble is good is many time a key to no it's really not. Nutro max puppy has no lamb.

Chicken Meal, Corn Gluten Meal, Wheat Flour, Rice Bran, Ground Rice, Poultry Fat (preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of Vitamin E), Dried Plain Beet Pulp, Ground Whole Wheat, Chicken, Natural Flavors, Fish Oil (source of DHA, preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of Vitamin E), Salt, Sodium Bicarbonate, Potassium Carbonate, Potassium Chloride, Yeast Culture, Lecithin, Choline Chloride, Vitamin E Supplement, Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Dried Kelp, Iron Oxide, Garlic Flavor, Ascorbic Acid (source of Vitamin C), Biotin, Copper Sulfate, Niacin, Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Riboflavin (source of Vitamin B2), Vitamin A Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (source of Vitamin B6), Vitamin D3 Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate (source of Vitamin B1), Manganous Oxide, Calcium Iodate, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (source of Vitamin K activity), Folic Acid.

There's more crap in that than there is meat. A whole lot of filler and some chicken is not a quality food.

 

[Beanie]

My sister feeds her shelties Nutro - it's $40 for the big bag and she goes through about a bag a month per dog.

Auggie gets California Natural, and I just buy the little bag. It's $10. It lasts me two months.


If you're worried about paying a lot of money in a difficult economy... that's even MORE reason to switch to a better food.

 

[Gerald]

IF at all possible, I would go with the Kirkland from Costco. It really is a great food, I have fed it for years. And a great price. Their money goes into the food, not tv commercials and ads.
Oh, the cat food is great too.
Gerald

 

[HoundedByHounds]

Nutro Max worked well here until very recently...fabulous coats and stools on it...until recently. Some of the "higher" quality foods gave my dogs hot spots so again...you should go by what works for your dog.

Right now we're doing Nature's Recipe and the itching that was present after trying Blue Buff and Drs Foster/Smith are gone and all is well.

Kirklands produced an ungodly amt of poop here. Hounds could not tolerate the beet pulp that was in the bag we got. they have typically iron clad tummies but that pulp went right out the back door at warp speed.

 

[ihartgonzo]

I highly recommend Natural Balance, for a cost effective, but high quality kibble. The best formula is probably Ultra Premium... it does contain brown rice, but it has 3 meat sources in the top 4 and everything else looks good, too. I occasionally mix in NB for their kibble meals, and they LOVE it, and do well on it. ; )

NB is about $1/lb, which is basically the exact same as Nutro.