Nutro

If I HAD to feed a nutro product it would be the ULTRA just my opinion, I had my dogs on NutroMaxx for a long time and they seemed to do well, that was until I switched them to Canidae and found out what doing really well looked like.
 
I know that it is not an option for you, but this is just my opinion.
What about homecooking to supplement this? Is that an option?

I used Nutro for a long time and I was pleased with it.  It's definitely better than anything you can buy at Walmart, and one of the better things you can buy at Petsmart for the price.
I just switched to another brand that has a little better quality of ingredients and I'm VERY happy with it.  It's relatively equal in price to Nutro, too. 
You can check it out here.  [linkhttp://www.canidae.com]www.canidae.com[/link]
 
Nutro is condsidered a mid-grade food by most people here on this board, but you do the best you can do with what you're able to get for your dog!  []

Lots of dogs seem to do really well on  Nutro especially the Natural Choice, I judge a food on performance instead of ingredients list, and this food seems to have a lot of positive feedback.

hey im a vet tech and a lot of the boarding pets are fed nutro. some react differntly. i have seen a lot of morbidly obese animals. i am new to the nutrition thing but its not just 1 or 2 animals. Hell i was feeding my dog iams but ive switched...i was hired by nutro and i am not taking the job because of what I know now

hope this helps

we used one of the nutro natural choice feeds for our dog amelia for quite a while. she liked it and did well on it. we only switched because she decided she didnt like it after we got our puppy.

since you are in a rural area, have you looked to see what is available at your local feed and seed. the one in the small town i grew up in has a pretty good selection of premium foods.

I have exhausted my resources looking for a better food, the feed stores around here only carry diamond and a few generics.  If I could do better, believe me, I would love to, but it's just one of the downfalls of being in a rural community.

have you considered something like petfoodsdirect.com. they have just about any food you can think of, the only downfall is the shipping.

I have no experience with Nutro, but you can check this link [linkhttp://www.dogaware.com]www.dogaware.com[/link] and see how they rate it.  I feed Wellness or Innova and my dog does well. 

Hey Meg! You could certainly do a LOT worse than Nutro. If your options are Walmart brand and Nutro, I'd jump for the Nutro. I don't know what your situation is to say any more than that. I fed Ginger Nutro for years, and she did well on it.

Edit to add: I went back and re-read your post. It IS a little grain heavy, but not as bad as what you'd get at wal-mart, etc. There is no wheat or soy, and no corn. No digest, no BHT and stuff like that. Lamb Meal as the 1st ingredient, which means more meat for your money, but there are several grains at the top, making it grain dominant (it includes ground rice, rice flour, rice bran, and rice gluten). They don't need the salt or the Menadione, but there are still several of the better foods that still contain Menadione. They do test it using AAFCO procedures. I could do without the beet pulp (a stool firmer, but contains unnecessary sugars) and dried egg product (I'd rather they use the whole egg), but those are further down on my list of EVILS.

Like I said before, you could do a lot worse Meg, and if your situation makes it to where your choice is Nutro over a Grocery or Wal-Mart Brand, I would say GO for it!

[linkhttp://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/showproduct.php?product=16&cat=all]http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/showproduct.php?product=16&cat=all[/link]
 
 

Walmart's Maxximum Nutrition ingredients:


Chicken, brewers rice, whole grain corn, corn gluten meal, poultry by-product meal (natural source of glucosamine), whole grain wheat, animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E), animal digest, chicken cartilage (natural source of glucosamine), dicalcium phosphate, salt, malted barley flour, potassium chloride, calcium carbonate, choline chloride, L-Lysine monohydrochloride, zinc sulfate, Vitamin E supplement, ferrous sulfate, manganese sulfate, niacin, Vitamin A supplement, calcium pantothenate, thiamine mononitrate, copper sulfate, riboflavin supplement, Vitamin B-12 supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride, garlic oil, folic acid, Vitamin D-3 supplement, calcium iodate, biotin, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity), sodium selenite.

One thing I dislike (to say the least) about Nutro is that the lamb and rice is not a strictly lamb and rice recipe.  If you look at the ingredients, it includes poultry fat which can contain chicken, which may give some dogs allergic reactions if they are allergic to chicken, and the owner thinks the food does not contain any because it says "lamb and rice."  

Papillon, I would be interested in learning more about the theory that fats (once purified) do not produce allergic reactions in dogs/cats that are allergic. I have read several sources that say it can't cause a reaction if it is properly purified, but haven't seen any crediable information the says it does.
Maybe you have some sources that can explain this further.

 
[8D]