Nutro Natural Choice?

[selzer]

Originally Posted by WDC

So in general are most of you guys against omnivorous diets? I've seen many healthy dogs raised on omnivorous diets, so I don't really but into the "dogs are carnivores and should only eat meat" thing.

No. I feed my dogs a diet that has rice in it. Some people like to go grain free as dogs would not eat grains naturally and they have little nutritional value for dogs, and they are often charged with causing food allergies.

Personally, I think it is no more natural for a dog to eat potato or peas, than it is for them to eat rice or corn or barley. But I understand that feeding only meat could break the bank, and since time began, dogs ate whatever they could scrounge off of humans.

Still, many of the grain-based foods are grain-based because it is cheaper. And, they are not buying top quality grains to shove in dog food. They are getting the bottom of the barrel so to speak, the stuff the FDA would not approve for human consumption. These foods are generally filled with additives and preservatives, some of which are also not approved for human consumption because they are carcinogens. And, well, you might care if the dog food looks like it has different colored pieces but the dog could care less.

If the food has molasses in it, chances are it's in their to encourage the dog to eat food that is one or more of the following: grain-based, has rancid fat, has very little nutritional value to dogs so the dog needs to eat tons of it to stay in condition. 4 cups of food a day is really a lot for a GSD, and some of these foods require much more for a dog our size. What they do is bulk it up with unnecessary and low quality crap, so that you have to put a bag and a half into your dog a month, where otherwise it would be a bag or less. Then, you buy more. Your dog eats more and poops more.

Eating more garbage, low quality ingredients, gives your dog that much more of a chance to succumb to the carcinogens and lack of good ingredients. Poor coat condition, immune system issues, cancer, skin problems, lack of energy, longevity can be affected by what we put into our dogs.

Stay away from corn. Not because corn is bad for dogs, but because products with corn in it are generally the lowest in quality, they are using the cheapest fillers for a reason.

[WDC]

He has been on it a day, and seems to be more active. His stool is definitely more consistent as well. I'll keep an eye out for problems, but he loves the new food. Really likes the taste.

[Nigel]

Originally Posted by WDC

His stool is definitely more consistent as well. I'll keep an eye out for problems, but he loves the new food. Really likes the taste.

Tomorrow and the next few days will be more telling.

[WDC]

I'll be sure to tell you guys my experience.

Also, I was thinking about cooking him a steak in rice once a week. My dad did it for his pit bull and he turned out to be a really big and healthy dog. What do you guys think?

[selzer]

Nutro Natural Choice Large Breed Adult Dog food. $50 for a 30# bag.

Ingredients:
Chicken, Chicken Meal (source of Glucosamine and Chondroitin Sulfate), Whole Brown Rice, Brewers Rice, Rice Bran, Whole Grain Oatmeal, Chicken Fat (preserved with mixed Tocopherols), Pea Protein, Natural Flavor, Dried Plain Beet Pulp, Sunflower Oil (preserved with mixed Tocopherols), Soybean Oil (preserved with mixed Tocopherols), Potassium Chloride, Salt, Choline Chloride, DL-Methionine, Vitamin E Supplement, Zinc Sulfate, Niacin Supplement, L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (source of Vitamin C), Calcium Pantothenate, Riboflavin Supplement (Vitamin B2), Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B6), Vitamin B12 Supplement, Copper Proteinate, Iron Proteinate, Selenium Yeast, Biotin, Manganese Proteinate, Vitamin A Supplement, Potassium Iodide, Thiamine Mononitrate (Vitamin B1), Vitamin D3 Supplement, Folic Acid, Rosemary Extract, Decaffeinated Green Tea Extract, Spearmint Extract

Ingredients up to salt:
Chicken, Chicken Meal (source of Glucosamine and Chondroitin Sulfate), Whole Brown Rice, Brewers Rice, Rice Bran, Whole Grain Oatmeal, Chicken Fat (preserved with mixed Tocopherols), Pea Protein, Natural Flavor, Dried Plain Beet Pulp, Sunflower Oil (preserved with mixed Tocopherols), Soybean Oil (preserved with mixed Tocopherols), Potassium Chloride, Salt,

Chicken, good.
Chicken meal--even better, no problems here.
Whole brown rice -- fine.
Brewers rice -- cheap filler, used to separate the rice components so that rice does not need to be #1 on the list.
Rice Bran -- why, why is this necessary save for the above?
Whole grain Oatmeal -- nothing wrong with this, but when you add it to all that rice you can see that there is a whole lot of grains going on here under the meat ingredients, chances are if you add up the grains, there is significantly less meat than grain.
Chicken Fat -- good.
Pea protein -- this I do not like. why is this needed to boost the protein levels if there is all that chicken in there? Canines should have animal based protein, not vegetable based protein. Count on it that the pea protein is significant in the 24% that this food has. This ingredient, in my opinion slaps this food below the food that Diamond makes for $30 for a 40 pound bag.
Natural Flavor -- fine, but why if this is a chicken based food? I wonder why we have to add all this flavor. Dogs like chicken. If the food has good chicken and good chicken fat, why do we have to boost the flavor?

It is not terrible food, middle of the road food really, they are just charging a terrible amount for it.

Nutro -- 342 kcal/cup. The diamond food I listed is 368 kcal/cup

The thing is you're paying $20 more for 10# less for food that has less protein, less fat, less animal-based protein, and less calories, so you have to feed more of it.

[selzer]

Originally Posted by WDC

I'll be sure to tell you guys my experience.

Also, I was thinking about cooking him a steak in rice once a week. My dad did it for his pit bull and he turned out to be a really big and healthy dog. What do you guys think?

Your dog does not need any more rice. Some dogs do not do as well with beef, not sure why, but that depends on the dog. I think that giving the dog a raw chicken leg quarter, bones and all, once or twice a week in lieu of 1/2 the dog's daily intake would be better than cooked steak and rice.

The reason is that when we process the meat, essential nutrients are processed out.

Another thing that you might consider is to give your dog a hard-boiled egg or raw egg once a day -- excellent source of animal protein, highly digestible, excellent for the coat.

Send me the steak. I will take that off your hands.

[WDC]

Hmm, an egg a day could get pricey, but I will think it over. Raw chicken may be feasible.

[selzer]

An egg a day is pricey, but steak and rice is not? Well, I guess if you live on a working cattle ranch that is true. Here we can get 18 eggs for about $1.50, That is an egg a day for about 8 cents a day. I don't know how you can get much better than that. I don't know how much steak you can give your dog in a two-week period for $1.50.

Chicken leg quarters you should be able to get for 60 cents to a dollar a pound. This is ok, because you skip a meal of that super-expensive food. And you won't be out much.

[WDC]

I fed him a raw egg today, and he loved it. Think i might make it a habit.

[pyratemom]

I fed Nutro Ultra to both my dogs for years until Raina developed grain allergies. They both did very well on it until then. Now she is on grain free Innova Prime Herring and Salmon formula. She can't have rice and most chicken flavored dog food has rice unfortunately. I do cook chicken and liver for her though.