Comments on: Nutro Ultra (Dry)

By: marcus

marcus — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 21:53:42 +0000

I have a 2 1/2 year old Cocker Spaniel . . . I switched to Nutro Ultra a few weeks ago because of a recommendation from PetsMarts sales associate on the floor. My dog seemed to like it . . . ate food dry which she normally doesn’t. She has gone through about 3 bags (a few weeks / couple of months later) and now she is experiencing massive diarrhea. I switched her to home made rice and chicken mixture and she started doing better . . . then I switched her back to Nurto Ultra and she is back to being sick in her stomach. Based off my internet research, it seems other dogs are experiencing this too. Wanted to share my experience on this forum. I will not be giving my dog any more Nutro Ultra.

By: Debbie

Debbie — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 17:14:54 +0000

I switched my dogs from Nutro Ultra to Diamond Naturals Chicken and Rice 3-4 months ago. I’d been feeding Ultra for a number of years and was satisfied, but when Nutro shrank the bag to 30# and raised to the price to $50 it wasn’t feasible to feed multiple dogs. My guys have done fabulously well on the Diamond Naturals. Firm stools and dense, shiny coats. I couldn’t be more pleased. Even the folks at my vet’s office noticed the difference and asked me what I’d done.

By: Mike Sagman

Mike Sagman — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 02:04:38 +0000

Hi Allyson… I have no favorite weight loss product. Actually, in theory, nearly any dog food can work for weight loss. Just reduce the caloric intake below your dog’s daily energy use. If your dogs don’t lose weight on 3 cups, try reducing the amount.

Though I’m not a vet, it just makes sense to me that your dogs must not be starving if they’re overweight.

By: Allyson

Allyson — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 23:42:15 +0000

Mike, Thanks for your quick response. We just started the Nutro Ultra Weight Management for our saints yesterday. We have always fed them 3 cups in the morning per dog, and 3 cups at night. Our vet said that is the right amount to feed them since they are such a large breed. Anything less than that we would be starving our saints. Do you think I am safe keeping them on Nutro Ultra Weight Management or is there a better brand you would recommend for weight loss? We won’t know if Nutro Ultra is working for a while until that is the only food they are eating because we are slowly incorporating it with their Pro Plan they have been eating. Thanks.

By: Mike Sagman

Mike Sagman — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 01:32:16 +0000

Hi Allyson… If your dogs haven’t lost weight, I’m guessing you might be feeding the wrong serving size. Simply put, weight loss with dogs is much like weight loss with humans. The only way to lose weight is for caloric input (food intake) to be below caloric output (energy expenditure of the dog). My advice (with the approval of your vet)… choose a good quality dog food and feed less of it. Then, watch the weight go down. Hope this helps.

By: Allyson

Allyson — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 23:27:33 +0000

Mike, I need your advice. I have 3 saint bernards and one of my males is 5 years old and needs to lose some weight. I have been feeding my saints ProPLan Weight Management and they have not lost weight because as I have found out, I am feeding my saints junk. I went Petsmart today and bought the Nutro Ultra Holistic Weight Management brand. Do you think this is a better food for my saints to help them shed some pounds? I have read reviews on other sites from people on some brands that earned 5 and 4 stars and read some horror stories of what people went through with the dog food and they weren’t isolated events. It can be frustrating trying to find the best food for our companions with the feedback people give but the feedback can also be very helpful. I have been close to buying some top quality foods that earned a 5 or 4 rating and then I read the reviews and vow I would never buy that food. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Please let me know if you would recommend Nutro Ultra Weight Management and if not, what other brands would you recommend for Weight Loss? I also can’t buy a food that will break the bank because I have 3 saint bernards to feed plus the money I spend on their monthly supplements and heartworm/flea preventative. Thank you.

By: Sue

Sue — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 17:12:36 +0000

Hi Beverly,

I’m Sue the one that left the comments for Laura about how I rotate my dogs’ food all the time. I just read your question about Nutro NC Lite. Nutro carries 3 grades of their dog food. Nutro Max is the bottom, Natural Choice is the middle line and Nutro Ultra is their premium. If you go to their website and see the ingredients for Nutro Natural Choice Lite, you might not believe the claims. Here’s the list I copied and pasted from their website:

Ground Rice, Lamb Meal, Rice Bran, Dried Plain Beet Pulp, Powdered Cellulose, Lamb, Natural Flavors, Yeast Culture, Soybean Oil (preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of Vitamin E), Sunflower Oil (preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of Vitamin E), Calcium Carbonate, Poultry Fat (preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of Vitamin E), Potassium Chloride, Monosodium Phosphate, Taurine, Choline Chloride, Egg Product, Dried Kelp, Magnesium Oxide, Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Sulfate, Vitamin E Supplement, L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (source of Vitamin C), Copper Proteinate, Manganous Oxide, Biotin, Potassium Iodide, Calcium Pantothenate, Niacin Supplement, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Riboflavin Supplement (source of Vitamin B2), Sodium Selenite, Vitamin A supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (source of Vitamin B6), Thiamine Mononitrate (source of Vitamin B1), Vitamin D3 Supplement, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (source of Vitamin K activity), Folic Acid.

Rice is listed twice in the first 5 ingredients. Powdered Cellulose is a cheap fiber filler. Dried beet pulp, another filler, is 4th and only 1 meat product in the first 5. It uses synthetic Vitamin K (Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex) a contorversial item! Also, this is a lite food. People don’t really need to feed a lite food, they just need to feed their dogs less food or give them more exercise! Kind of the same as humans. We need to eat less or exercise more to stay at the right weight. When you are feeding a good food the cost is not really much more. They eat less of it for the same or more nutrition. Less poop to clean up too because it is metabolized better and has less fillers. Our lab got a little bit heavy over the winter, so we just fed her less, per our vet’s direction. She looks great!

Some people may say the Nutro food is great for their dogs, but what were they feeding their dogs before this? Maybe a really bad dog food, which would make Nutro an improvement. Some people also feed table scraps, which would enhance the dogs food to some extent.

Sorry I made this so long. I hope Beverly gets a chance to see this. Great work with this site Mike!

By: Beverly

Beverly — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 21:04:35 +0000

What a lot of information this site provides! There are some great suggestions/recommendations provided by other readers, particularly Laura. Great, rotation is always a good philosophy in everybody’s diet – four paws/humans. What I have not seen is any discussion about the Nutro NC (Lite) claim to “guaranteed coat and skin improvement”. Petsmart Nutro rep used this as the biggest sell point for my dog with allergy problems. Not taking a reps word, I asked other buyers about this claim – they agreed and highly recommended the product for those reasons.
Any insight or comments on these particular points?

By: Mike Sagman

Mike Sagman — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 22:36:30 +0000

Hi Christina… This review is written for the full product line (which contains seven products). Three of them (Puppy, Large Breed Adult and Large Breed Puppy) all contain corn gluten meal.

By: Christina

Christina — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 22:04:15 +0000

Still don’t see any form of corn in the Adult formula……