Nutro Max

She just wasn't into the Nature's Variety - i did the whole trick of leaving it down & not giving it back until the next feeding, but then she would only just pick at it.  The solid gold one that I wanted "wee bites" wasn't in stock and my dog can't eat big pieces of dog food.

So far with only half nutro & nature's variety she's gobbling it up and quick, which she never used to do with the NV.

Picking your food on the basis of whether the dog gobbles it up or not is akin to feeding your children a diet of twinkies because they won't eat broccoli. Why not choose a high-quality food (i.e not Nutro) and mix a bit of canned food with it?

My 20 pound agility dog gets 1 cup a day, so you are probably feeding too much. 

I feed Nutro Natural Choice Lamb and Rice and my dogs do really well on it.  We tried Canidae for a few months and their poop never really firmed up so we switched back.    It works, they eat it and that's fine with me. 

 we used to feed amelia nutro natural choice for sensitive stomachs. it worked ok for her. her fur was noticeably drier on it than on some other foods, but there seemed to only be two foods that didnt give her diarhea and nutro was one of them.

mudpuppy

Picking your food on the basis of whether the dog gobbles it up or not is akin to feeding your children a diet of twinkies because they won't eat broccoli. Why not choose a high-quality food (i.e not Nutro) and mix a bit of canned food with it?

So is Nutro just as bad as the supermarket dog foods.  I thought this was considered a better brand

depends on who you ask Brandy. Some folks have differing ideas.

IMO great food doesn't do your dog any good if the dog won't eat it...and some won't. You can spoil a dog and condition it to expect goodies all the time...but there is also something to be said for a dog LIKING their food and WANTING to eat. I am not a proponent of doing whatever it takes to get a dog to eat...but if a dog prefers one food over another...and does WELL on it...I see no reason not to cater a small bit to their taste.

After all...unlike what MP is saying...I do not feed my kids junk because they want it...but neither do I purposely give them food that while it may be nutritious....causes them mental distress to the point that they would rather not eat at all, or vomit, or come to view mealtimes with apprehension (this ex doesn't really make sense since I can reason with my kids and explain nutrition to them,...cannot do that with a dog). I try to make food that TASTES GOOD to them...and has some nutritional value as well.  No need to be draconian about it...IMO.

I do not consider Nutro the devil....some here might...but no IMO it is not Ol Roy or Beneful or the other supermarket brands. It is a food my dogs...Beagles and Leo and mix...have done well on in past...well meaning no itch, nice coats and normal stools.

I would suggest you buy a small amount and try it...and see how it agrees or doesn't with your particular dog..after all that is what's important here...and why you are asking...about your dog...not ours LOL.

Thanks RW!!! I know it's my dog, but during her early months I relied on this board for many suggestions on dog food, since I didn't know anything about dog food & what ingredients to look for.

 I've gone thru a few brands recommended on here and don't remember seeing Nutro. 

So far I'm still in the transition stage where she's eating half new / half old and she gobbles it up (looking for more) which she's never done before.  Hopefully this will continue when she's completely on the new one

 nutro isn't a terrible food by any means. i wouldn't, however, recommend Nutro Max. that is their line that is not too far off from the bad supermarket brands. THe Nutro Natural Choice is a much better line than the max and the Ultra is even better. So, if i were going to feed Nutro I would choose their natural choice or their ultra. but, in the end it's up to you because it is your dog.

I agree that Nutro Max is not a very good brand. And although a dog may have done well on it in the past, it is important to note that since the company was bought by Mars they have cheapened their ingredients so the formulas are not the same. (This is true with a lot of brands, they are always tinkering with the formulas to save money.) I know that around the time of the recalls there were a lot of anedotal reports about sick dogs on Nutro, enough to make me avoid that brand like the plague. There are a lot of other comparable foods out there that I would buy first.

I just saw this article linked on another site and thought I'd pass it along. The complaints about this company are still going on.

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2008/06/pet_food_recalls98.html

DanielleNY

I just saw this article linked on another site and thought I'd pass it along. The complaints about this company are still going on.

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2008/06/pet_food_recalls98.html

I just saw the same on another site.   It doesnt sound too good.  I was getting ready to post this link myself.   It is so nice to see that we are all on the lookout for good and not so good information that will keep our babies safe.

I don't have any experience with Nutro dog food, but I've been feeding my cats Nutro and I'm very happy with it. I have a senior cat who went downhill fast on another food that was considered premium, but she has energy and is keeping weight on on the Nutro, and I still consider it to be a step up from what she was eating before. The one thing I will say is that Nutro has tons and tons of different varieties and the ingredients vary alot. I read the package every time to be sure the variety I'm buying is one of the better ones.

great food doesn't do your dog any good if the dog won't eat it...and some won't. You can spoil a dog and condition it to expect goodies all the time...but there is also something to be said for a dog LIKING their food and WANTING to eat.

the vast majority of dogs think kibble of any brand = not food and only eat it because they have no choice. Offer a dog a NEW brand of kibble and they usually gobble it up. For a few days. Then it becomes boring kibble again. Which is yet another reason why home-prepared or canned diets are so superior to kibble diets. You'll never see the joy in eating a raw-fed dog exhibits compared to a kibble-fed dog. Despite all the dog food company propaganda dogs LOVE variety in their diets, they are natural carnivores, and eating dried lumps of grain is very unnatural.