Nutro-Natural Choice

[PurpleRain76]

What do you think of this brand? My puppy is eating the Nutro Choice Puppy mini right now, but I might switch him to Nutro Ultra Puppy since the ingredients seem better.

Any other thoughts? I noticed that Wellness Puppy and Doctors Foster and Smith were also good food choices.

Christy

[SPCAEmployee]

I feed my lab Nutro Natural lamb and rice. It is very healthy for them and I know a lot of people that feed their dogs that. It's a very good food in my opinion.

[Donn]

I occasionally have fed Nutro Ultra (adult). Its the "top of the line" nutro I think.

[NewfieGrl]

I use to feed Nutro until I started doing tons of research on dog foods. Here is just one of the many articles I found:

http://www.wavy.com/Global/story.asp...7&nav=23iiCT4S

[MariaD]

Natural Choice & Nutro Ultra are verry good foods.

From Nutro

Do Nutro pet foods contain the drug pentobarbital?


This issue has resulted from a report published by the Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM), a division of the Food and Drug Administration. The CVM published two lists of pet foods they claim contained very small amounts of the drug pentobarbital. The CVM tests were conducted during 1998 and early 2000. Their first list, from 1998, shows approximately 50 dog foods, including Nutro Premium, as containing minute levels of this drug. Their second list, from early 2000, shows no Nutro products as containing any pentobarbital. The CVM clearly states that at the extremely minute levels at which they claim to have detected the drug (as little as five parts per billion), there is absolutely no affect on, or health risk to, the pets that consume these foods.

You may be asked how Nutro's Premium could contain even this minute level. To answer this you should first know that pentobarbital is routinely used by veterinarians to humanly euthanize injured farm livestock, like cows with broken legs. These cows are then rendered with other cows. Since Premium is a beef-based product, it is possible that some cross-contamination in rendering plants occurred. Second, you should point out that Premium did not appear on CVM's second, more recent, list.

Another important point you should be aware of is that some people (particularly activists) will suggest that the presence of pentobarbital in pet foods implies that euthanized companion animals could be included in rendered ingredients. Your answer is simple. CVM tested the listed pet foods for dog and cat tissue, using DNA testing methods, and found none!

During 1999 Nutro began requiring its suppliers to provide affidavits assuring that no companion animals, or adverse chemicals, were included in any of our ingredients. Those agreements remain in force today.

Nutro has initiated a testing program to reconfirm that our products are free from pentobarbital. You can rest assured that we will diligently make sure that is always the case.

Any further questions on this issue should be directed to Nutro's Consumer Services Department at 1-800-833-5330.

[flash]

I fed my Schipperkee Dr. F&S for many years, she loved it, and she was extremely healthy. She died last year, at age 15, from a vet error.

Now we have a Corgi, who won't eat Nutro, only likes BillJac

[Cutepeach]

Nutro has gone to changing their formulas just like a lot of the other foods. I would be very careful. I have seen my husband switch many people off of their foods cause they are causing more allergies now than ever before due to their inconsitance of product in their bags now though. They also aren't very nice to independent retailers either and would rather be in chain stores making their food more expensive and not the best quality. Go figure.

[Poof]

So what do you feed after researching it, NewfieGrl??? Just trying to find a good food without doing all the research myself...

[SPCAEmployee]

I know this is an old post but I have some new info....

I take back the post that I wrote about how good nutro is. While being on Nutro my lab developed struvite crystals in his urine (caused by a high ph in food). Now what causes a high ph varies from dog to dog.

At the same time my golden was on the same food and she also developed crystals and as a result of the crystals she developed a bladder infection. I had to switch both dogs to a prescription diet that was very expensive ($65 for a 30 pound bag which lasts me two weeks)

I work at a vet's office and lately we have had a few cases of struvite crystals and everyone has been feeding Nutro.

Just wanted to let everyone know. Be careful!!!!

[VickiG]

After searching for several years for a food that would not upset the sensitive digestive tract of one of my dogs, I finally found Flint River Ranch!

Nothing else we tried worked and we tried a lot of different brands! I think it might be because it is one of the few brands that is still oven-baked instead of steam extruded. All of the ingredients are FDA approved for human consumption - no byproducts or grains that have been contaminated with mold.

[Jennicat]

Flint River Ranch seems to have a lot of wheat in it. It's as much of an allergen concern as corn, and I find it odd that they're using it, while at the same time pointing out how bad corn is in other foods.

[NewfieGrl]

There is so much more to making a good quality food than meets the eye. Baking vs extrusion can be more of an advertising gimmick than anything. You have to know the complete process behind it. There are so many factors that go into it. At what temp are you baking, how many screws are being used in the extrusion machine? One is not always considered better than the other depending on all the factors involved, and that is where consumers get mislead. Where did you get your chicken? Was it fresh off the truck from a good source or was it the last package sitting on the shelf in the grocery store that day that was ready to expire? Both are considered human quality. One will definately be a better quality than the other.
Are you sure it's human quality? APHIS certification for the European market will definately answer that question for you. The Europeans are VERY stringent with importing any of our food products, including pet foods. Not only do they inspect the plant where the food is manufactured, they also inspect, on site, every single source you are buying your products from. APHIS certification is very difficult to obtain.
There are just so many things to consider.
Michele
owned by 2 Newfies, a cocker spaniel and 3 cats.

[VickiG]

Originally Posted by Jennicat

Flint River Ranch seems to have a lot of wheat in it. It's as much of an allergen concern as corn, and I find it odd that they're using it, while at the same time pointing out how bad corn is in other foods.

Wheat is not a bad grain unless you have a dog who is allergic to it. Not to be gross, but consider that wild canids eat a lot of wheat when they consume the internal organs of the digestive system of their prey. The natural prey species of wild canids eat a lot of wheat! Dogs also naturally enjoy eating grass and wheat is a grass. The issue with corn is not necessarily allergies but rather that it is less easily digested than wheat and not as nutritious. Flint River Ranch does make 2 wheat-free formulas for dogs who are sensitive to wheat.

[Jennicat]

While it is true that canines in the wild would consume some plant material from the animals they kill, I doubt they would consume wheat. Wheat as we commonly know it is processed from large quantities of the grain (the seed heads), which would not make up a staple diet of grazing herbivores, since it would be largely picked off by birds, wind, small rodents, etc. Rabbits should not have wheat in their diet, for example, because it is not a staple in their natural diet. It is discouraged. I have never raised deer, however, cattle, horses, and other grazers do not eat a wheat rich diet. I cannot think of a single wild animal that would eat a diet rich in wheat grains, besides perhaps birds, which would have such a small amount in their systems if caught by wild canines that it would be negligible. I can't really think of any animal that a wild canine would eat that would consume a diet rich in any grain... most wild animals that they would eat would be grazers that would consume grasses. Wheat grasses would be a large part of their diet, but wheat in foods is not made from the grass, it's made from the seedheads. Wheat and corn are both common allergens in dog foods. They're also considered low quality fillers in the grand scheme of things.

Also, considering that wheat is native to southeast Asia originally, and was first cultivated in Turkey, I find it hard to believe that most canines would consume a lot of it in general before very recent industrialization of agriculture.

[VickiG]

One source of my information about the diet of wild animals comes from American Wildlife and Plants A Guide to Wildlife Food Habitsfirst published in 1951 by Martin, Zim & Nelson. This book is the result of one of the most extensive studies ever done to determine what North American wild animals eat.

The book documents that wheat seeds are consumed as a major part of the diet for many small mammals including rabbits, fox, squirrels, mice and birds. Although this was a book based on the study of North American Wildlife, since wheat has been cultivated for so much longer in Europe, Asia and the Middle East it would seem a logical assumption that small mammals and birds have been eating wheat there, too for a long time.

Since the ancestors of most of our dog breeds originated in Europe, Asia and the Middle East it would seem reasonable to assume that their ancestors would have consumed small mammals and birds as a large part of their diet just as coyotes and wolves do today. It is dramatic to see a TV program with a pack of wolves bringing down a large ungulate, but in reality there are lots of less dramatic meals in between that are made up of rodents and birds.