Problems with Nutro, illustrated

Good golly Gina! That's so cheap it's almost free.  And, as I said before, I consider Nutro to be a decent, middle of the road food.  But, HERE it's more like 40 bucks and up per bag.  Blue is $37.  Yes, it's only a 30 lb bag, BUT the kcals are all around 500 per cup, dpending on the formula so I wouldn't feed as much as Nutro, which doesn't list their kcals anyplace that I could find, and certainly not on the bag.  The Ultra looks pretty decent, but it's a LOT costlier, and definately not worth the price.

In our PetsMart foods are located by quality.....the outside aisle is the grocery store stuff, the next aisle in is the SD, Euk kind of foods, then the next one is Nutro, RC, Authority, BilJac, Blue is on the innermost "best" quality aisle and snugs up next to Ultra.

The CAT foods, the best is first, with the cheapest at the very back of the store.  Theoretically, the better foods are the most convenient to reach, but the Blue section is behind the training center so not quite so easy to get to as the Nutro.

 I personally wouldn't feed Nutro, but my Parents feed it to their 5 dogs and they all do great on it and are in great health.

I think you could probably find similar complaints about almost any dog food.  I don't feed Nutro but know a lot of people that have success with it. It is a bit heavy on the rice, in  my opinion, but certainly not the worst food out there. A lot of dogs do really well on it.

Just a few days ago someone posted a supposedly new and improved list of the recalled foods....and for all the world it looked like these were NEW recalls.  Since DS works for Blue, he contacted the CEO and got his answers that in fact this is NOT new recalls.

But, I have to wonder if on some level all this stuff is a way to keep the horror of the recalls fresh in the minds of consumers?  To be sure none of us gets too trusting or too comfortable?  I'm betting that there are folks who think that the FDA is now keeping a close eye on everything in the dog food industry and there is no need to worry.......I won't say that they are wrong, but I will say I'm not one of them.

I find it highly suspect that Nutro, after the losses they HAD to have suffered in the recall, would get sloppy.  Just not good for the bottom line to be anything BUT careful these days.

Jewlieee

I don't know. My sister switched her corgi to Nutro skin and coat formula and the dog has never looked or felt better. She was on Wellness and she lost fur and got ear infections. I think that whatever works for each individual dog is good.

Also, I don't alway believe what I read on the internet. For all we know those comments could be posted by a Nutro competitor.

     That needed to be repeated!!! Although I'm not a fan of Nutro, have tried all three of their product lines and was "underwhelmed" with each one. I think the Max formula was the first and only food I've ever thrown out while the bag was 50% full, without offering it to other dog owners in the area - just tossed it in the trash, where it belonged. Ruined my dog's coats, thoroughly, and was about 6 months before the mutt's skin/coat completely healed :( But then a friend of mine feeds it to 25 hunting Beagles, and coats are perfect    So it's all about finding that one food that does your dogs good.

     I also have to agree with the internet competitor theory - the best Vet I ever had was very much brushed up on her nutrition education, and was the first one who ever brought this to my attention. Competing foods do this all the time - if the #1 food has corn or beet pulp in it, they put out embellishments & scare tactics to get the consumer to feed their product. It's nuts. So I take everyothing I read on the internet with a huge grain of salt.

I've tried to feed Nutro a few times over the years.  Initially, I started my minpin puppy on the Nat. Choice puppy, but that was 12 years ago already.  He was very picky and hard to get him to eat it at that point.  Then several years later, I tried it on all my dogs (up to 7 at that time, when I was showing bichons/toy poodles and still have the minpin yet).  Vomiting.  Yellow bile 2-3 times a day.  Once I switched off to a different brand or homemade, they all were fine.

 Although.,.... now that I think of it, one of my good friends shows/breeds standard poodles and had a couple dogs with really strange symptoms and diseases.  Could be coincidence but she had one come down with a mysterious autoimmune disease (best dx her vet could come up with) who was later euthanized and one who went into kidney failure suddenly at age 7.  So who knows.  Her dogs are now all on eagle pack and doing  great.

I could not open the original posters site, so don't know what was said that was scarey.  But i do think any named dog food from the "worst" to the "best" (by whoever decides these things) will have dogs that do great and dogs that do awful.  You read that stuff about 4-D animals being put in "cheap dog food", etc, while only prime stuff is used in the top stuff.  Well, a couple of days ago i read about a recall of tons of ground beef.  it was found they wre using fork lifts to moved 'downed" cattle--thru injury or disease wasn't known for sure--and much of the meat was going to schools for lunches.  It just makes me realize that NO DOG FOOD, NO HUMAN FOOD can be determined to be perfectly safe, or even what the makers say it is.  Someone mentioned how Timber Wolf use to have organic tacked onto their name, but there was nothing organic about it.  How many folks do you think were fooled into thinking they were using only organic food for their dogs?  Is like the humane Soceity of the United States.  i gave to them for years thinking my money was being sent around to local humane soceity branchs..  Then i learned that it was just a ruse and many, many people fell for the title like i did.

 

sandra_slayton

I could not open the original posters site, so don't know what was said that was scarey. 

 

There are about 100 "quotes" from different people. Here is one of them:

 

Michael of San Antonio TX (02/09/08) I bought NATURAL CHOICE dog food by NUTRO Products and within 4 days my family dog, Zoe died. On December 6th 2007, I bought what I thought was a healthy dog food for our dog, Zoe. I bought it from the local Pet Smart on the advice of a store worker. The product was Natural Choice (made by NUTRO) Adult dry dog food, Chicken Meal Rice and Oatmeal Formula. Our dog ate the food on Thursday, 6 December and Friday, 7 December. On 8 December, Zoe became lethargic and was throwing up and not eating. On Sunday, 9 December, Zoe was still throwing up, had diarrehia and could barely move. At 1030 PM, sitting next to me,Zoe screamed out and died. I tried to get her to breathe again but to no avail. Zoe was 9 years old and in very good health. She was a small dog (8 lbs), a Maltese-Pomerian mix, which we found in Hawaii six years ago. Our daughter who is also 9 years old, asked where Zoe was the next morning and we told her she was sleeping under the bed but we were taking her to the veterinarian. Later that day we had to tell our daughter, that Zoe had to be put down on the advice of the veterinarian. She was crushed as was my wife and I. With obviously no proof, on Thursday, December 13th, I was rushed to the emergency room with acute signs of a heart attack,. I am only 42, but doctors said stress could have caused this attack. We were totally shocked on what happened to Zoe and could not figure out why she died. Yesterday, 8 February 2008, I was cleanig up the pantry and went to throw Zoe's almost full bag of dog food away. I finally realized, that was new food that we had introduced to her just a few days prior to her death. I went on-line and could not believe what I found. The exact same symptoms and immediate death of other dogs. It was exactly, almost word for word the same experience we went through. I am relieved I found the cause, but can't believe I killed our beloved Zoe, unwittingly. I still have the bag of dog food and expect to have it tested. This needs to be stopped.

 

Almost all of the people quoted say, and I'm paraphrasing, "I fed my dog Nutro, then he died a horrible death".

 

Yes, I'm a skeptic.

The biggest thing, and if I missed it please show me, I distinctly remember the only Nutro products on the recall list were canned?! Am I wrong?

 

At 1030 PM, sitting next to me,Zoe screamed out and died. I tried to get her to breathe again but to no avail. Zoe was 9 years old and in very good health. She was a small dog (8 lbs), a Maltese-Pomerian mix, which we found in Hawaii six years ago. Our daughter who is also 9 years old, asked where Zoe was the next morning and we told her she was sleeping under the bed but we were taking her to the veterinarian. Later that day we had to tell our daughter, that Zoe had to be put down on the advice of the veterinarian.

*********************************************************************************************************************************************************************

 

Odd testimonail.  The dog screamed and died and then they tell the daughter the dog is sleeping under the bed, but they are taking it to the vet, and then HAD to tell the daughter the dog was put to sleep on vet's advice.  Why not just say the dog died/  Why sayit was put to sleep on the vet's advice.  Just saying the dog died was one thing, but to say 'We killed her because the vet said we should" would be much crueler i think.  Much better to say tahe dog got sick and died .  No, i don't think i believe this.

I have little patience for these accounts that have all the gory, emotional details.  If true, it is enough that the dog died and they suspect a link to the food.  What they feed their dog has absolutely nothing to do with, where they found the dog six years ago, or how they decided to break the news to their nine year old daughter.  That's the age of my son, who is well able to understand and handle family tragedy like this, and has, in fact, at an even younger age.

Did any of the accounts include a post mortem report?  If my dog died suddenly, and I suspected a link to any commercial product, you bet your sweet Rosie I'd have a PM done.

 

I don't think any of the accounts (I only read some of them) had actual *proof* that it was the food.  The ones that I read all seemed like it was conjecture.

This is NOT actual first hand information but might be worth keeping in mind.

When I was at PS yesterday I mentioned the very low Nutro stock on the shelves to the trainer.  She told me that the Nutro rep told HER that the company rep had told HER (the Nutro rep) that the company has been having problems with the rice supplier and has pulled much of their product from the shelves as a result.

Again, this is not firsthand info, and I can only base my conclusions on the condition of the shelves at ONE store, but it's rather curious.  And frankly, it scares the crud out of me that there might be more rice issues coming.

at our Petsmart they have new styled bags....they changed the color and pattern etc. They were selling the old style bags for $2 off. I looked at the formula, looked the same.

Might be as simple as a lag between old and new packaging. Customers get confused with two styles of packaging so I can see why they want the old style bags gone quicker to lessen confusion.

Totally random...lol.

But, there remains the issue of what the Nutro rep was told and passed along to the trainer, who shared with me.

I'll be there again today, so will ask the rep directly.  But, the trainer isn't likely to have mixed things up.

I guess I'm still a bit gunshy about commercial foods after the last horrible situation.