Nutra

dukslayer888 · Post by **dukslayer888** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 2:38 pm

What does everyone think about Nutra (Natural Choice) brand dog food? Any good?

Im feeding my golden the large breed lamb and rice formula, and he has been really gassy lately.

Ryan · Post by **Ryan** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 7:21 pm

W sell it in our Pet food store. IMO a good food for the adverage pet owner but gives some dogs gas. An even better food for cheaper is Nutram or Acana. Use the Nutram Preformance or the Acana Premium Deluxe. Both have a higher protien and fat percentage for hunting and high energy dogs.

Casper · Post by **Casper** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 8:10 pm

I feed it only because my GSP is suspect to an alergy toward chicken and they dont include chicken in the lamb and rice. I dont have the gas problem you speak of that could be part of something else he is eating or possibly worms. I do have a hard time getting him to eat enough to keep weight on him. If I worked him harder than I would have to suplement his diet but for a weekend hunter it is a decent kibble.

Ryan · Post by **Ryan** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 8:12 pm

Capser that acana stuff is 100% lamb and rice with no chicken. You should give it a look.

QCBirddogs · Post by **QCBirddogs** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 10:59 pm

Casper,

How did the Vet. decide your dog was illergic to just Chicken? Just curious.

Phil
REO

Casper · Post by **Casper** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 11:19 pm

we spent over a couple months doing trial and error, tests and home remedies for the symptoms he was showing. The last home remedy was to go and buy a bag of dog food that was most unlike what I was feeding. Nutro was the one that was most unlike every one else out there (no chicken). Most of the symptoms faded away in a couple days. The only one that is still there is constant shedding. I am not sure if this is normal hair loss or excessive so I have let it slide for now. That is why I said it is assumed it is an alergy. No alergin tests were done. I dont want to spend the money for one

An interesting fact that I did find out when shoping for a new dog food was that the ingredient labels on most dog foods are pretty much the same. The only difference is the order they are printed and how much of each product is in each brand. This was compared with the cheap kibble to the expensive kibble and all inbetween.

Post by **ezzy333** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 7:54 am

Casper,

That is exactly true. Most dogfood is alike in the fact they use the same ingredients but marketing techniques are different.

Ezzy

Ryan · Post by **Ryan** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 11:39 am

ezzy333 wrote:Casper,

That is exactly true. Most dogfood is alike in the fact they use the same ingredients but marketing techniques are different.

Ezzy

Ezzy I agree with you but what is different is the quality of the protien source.

Post by **ezzy333** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 12:30 pm

Ryan, Tell me about the protien sources? Are you talking about different sources or just different quality? What are the protien sources?

Ezzy

Ryan · Post by **Ryan** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 12:36 pm

Different quality. Such as with wellness they use deboned chicken. Innova uses a chicken meal. Both use human grade ingredietns but the deboned chicken will hold more protien than the innova.

Now with say Ol Roy where they fill their dog kibble with corn gluten and other grains.

I will admit that all foods have this but they are farther down on the ingredients list.

Northern_Hunting_Mom · Post by **Northern_Hunting_Mom** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 2:14 am

I'm sorry Ryan but you are incorrect about the protein levels. A meat meal will have more protein than deboned chicken. That's because plain meat is weighed when its wet and the meal is weighed when its dry. Once your dogfood is processed and dried, the protein levels change. The heaviest thing that was the deboned chicken is now much lower on the ingredient list.

The biggest differences in ingredient lists is the order the ingredients come in. They are listed by the heaviest first and so on. So the best foods have a specific meat meal first and/or second then the grain sources. If there's corn, is better say finely ground. Corn gluten meal is an excellent additive if your dog is not allergic to it. It is a very digestible high source of protein that has lots of Omega 3s. Glucosamine hydrochloride is a good additive that makes the food more expensive but worth it. Flax is a great grain because it is high in Omega 6s and it helps balance out the 6/3 ratios. There are also different types of vitamins and minerals depending on how digestible they are. Unfortunately, the more digestible the vitamins, the quicker they degrade in the bag. Eagle Pack got around this by coated the vitamins in kelp to sequester them from the minerals and oils in the food. So they can use more digestible vitamins and minerals so more is used by your dog.

The meat meals should be listed as speficially as possible. It should say chicken meal and not poultry meal. They can change the amounts of whatever kind of poultry they can get the cheapest. Diarrhea can become common. It also shows a lack of quality control. Beef is bad. More dogs are allergic to beef than anything else and it is a poorly digestible low source of protein. Fish meals are good but most companies use disease-ridden rejects from fish farms overloaded with antibiotics.

I fedd my two Eagle Pack Power 30/20 year round. It is a little more expensive but I also feed a 50 lb growing GSP only 2.5 cups per day. No health problems and great energy and stamina. Its not for everybody and not all dogs will do well on it.
http://www.eaglepack.com

Northern_Hunting_Mom · Post by **Northern_Hunting_Mom** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 2:14 am

BTW, I think Ol Roy sucks too.