Nutro dog food

Nutro is what I would consider to be a mid grade food. Of their formulas, Ultra is best in my opinion. The site below is the easiest to read explanation of dog nutrition and choosing a food.
 
[linkhttp://www.woodhavenlabs.com/dogfoods.html]http://www.woodhavenlabs.com/dogfoods.html[/link]

Nutro is what I would consider to be a mid grade food. Of their formulas, Ultra is best in my opinion. The site below is the easiest to read explanation of dog nutrition and choosing a food.

I agree. A mid grade, with an excellent marketing department food with a premium food price tag. For not much more or equal $$ you could buy a much better food than Nutro.

A mid grade, with an excellent marketing department food with a premium food price tag. For not much more or equal $$ you could buy a much better food than Nutro.

I agree 100% with that statement!

Almost all the nutro foods are high in grains and grain fractions.  Many rely heavily on corn as a protein source.  Nothing WRONG with corn, but something very wrong with corn when it is used to replace MEAT.  And, it's expensive for what you are getting.

It's a huge step up from Gravy Train.  And, many, many dogs eat it and do well on it.  The Ultra products are on the recommended list from the Whole Dog Journal. 

Yes, it is a huge step up from Gravy Train.  And, yes, it does make the WDJ list, but the ingredients are chicken meal, whole brown rice, ground rice, lamb meal, rice bran, sunflower oil, poultry fat, salmon meal, flaxseed, natural flavors.  So, again, really grain heavy.
 
Merrick also makes the list and we all know how you feel about THAT food, with good reason, but still, their Cowboy Cookout is on the list.......

I've been mostly staying out of food debates. And I will reply, not to disagree with others, but to offer my experience. I feed Nutro Natural Choice Large Breed Adult Lamb and Rice. My dog has done well on it. Some people that I know with hunting dogs feed their dogs Nutro foods and also have good experience with the brand. One married couple has two coonhounds and a pit bull and they feed Science Diet. They tried Nutro once and more voluminous stool and went back to Science Diet. I tried Shadow once on Innova and he had an allergic reaction, so I put him back on Nutro. I learned that feeding him is about what he needs, not what I think looks good enough for me to eat.
 
IMHO, how your dog is doing on a food is more important than whether the food has apples and carrots, or whatever. You are certainly welcome to change foods if you think your dog will do as well or better. There may be some gastric upset during a change. Watch the feeding amounts carefully. And, as a side, my old cat lived 17 years on Purina DeliCat.
 

I belong to a couple of other breed specific boards and numerous members mentioned having great results with the Nutro Natural Choice Line, even better results than they had on there Ultra Line or other holistic foods.  I think it is more important to make a food decision based on user experiences, instead of just reading an ingredients list.

I have fed canidae before and really liked it and would love to go back to using it, but I can't seem to find it anywhere near me. So I finally had to go to petsmart and get the best thing I could which I figured was probably the nutro ultra, but once again it seemed like that was just as expensive as the canidae and I dont really like the results as much. One thing about this dog that I'm fostering is that he seems to be having an allergic reaction to something and we can't figure out what it is. I'm beginning to wonder if it might be his food, is there anything in the nutro ultra that could possibly be doing this to him? A couple people have listed corn as something that dogs are often allergic to, but I didn't see that in the ingredients list. 

Yes, I do agree with using what works for your dog. Ron has had excellent results with Nutro.  I won't even feed it because I don't like the ingredients.  Maybe my dogs would do well on it also, but I haven't given it a chance based on the ingredient list.
 
Most often it's the protein that causes the food allergies.  However, when I was feeding the purina lines, there wasn't a heck of a lot of meat in that, and I'm positive that corn was what was lighting Misty up like a Christmas tree.  Looking at the ultra it has chicken meal, lamb meal and salmon meal, so it could be any of those proteins, or it could be from the grain fractions.  That formula uses an awful lot of rice in various forms.  The WDJ only lists the first ten ingredients and corn isn't IN those 10....but, there is unspecified "poultry fat" so that could be an issue.

ORIGINAL: glenmar

Yes, I do agree with using what works for your dog. Ron has had excellent results with Nutro.  I won't even feed it because I don't like the ingredients.  Maybe my dogs would do well on it also, but I haven't given it a chance based on the ingredient list.

Most often it's the protein that causes the food allergies.  However, when I was feeding the purina lines, there wasn't a heck of a lot of meat in that, and I'm positive that corn was what was lighting Misty up like a Christmas tree.  Looking at the ultra it has chicken meal, lamb meal and salmon meal, so it could be any of those proteins, or it could be from the grain fractions.  That formula uses an awful lot of rice in various forms.  The WDJ only lists the first ten ingredients and corn isn't IN those 10....but, there is unspecified "poultry fat" so that could be an issue.

I agree. I've heard of a LOT of dogs having issues with chicken.
You could try switching to a different Nutro formula if that brand is working for you , or if you liked the Canidae, you can do a store locator on their site or you can order it somewhere online.

If you liked or had good experience with Canidae, it might be worth the trouble to try and find it or have it shipped. Eagle Pack seems to produce good results, too.
 

Merrick also makes the list and we all know how you feel about THAT food, with good reason, but still, their Cowboy Cookout is on the list.......

 
I'm just saying the Ultra is noted for being a good food.  I'm keeping my own opinion out of it as what works for me might not work for her.  And, just to be fair, my bad experiences were with canned Merrick.  I have never tried the kibble.

My brother called me this morning and we were talking about him sleeping thru supper last night and eating the left over CF steak for breakfast this morning.  I told him I had made myself liver & onions and had boiled the rest of the liver along with some squash & frozen peas and carrots for the dogs supper.  He said "Your dogs eat better than I do...cooking for the every night.   How the  HE (double hockey sticks) did our dogs live to be so old when all they had was dry dog food?"  He is talking of the Purina Dog Chow our dad fed our setters and pointers most of whom lived healthy, active and hunting lives, well beyond their life expectancy.Like me, he still feeds Purina to his dog, but doesn't add the cooked food.