Best Dry Food Available

[Guest Piximatosis]

I chop and change brands quite a bit as I work in a pet supply store and so will often be given bags that are about to go out of date or have been torn. I will only feed super premium brands but that still means I regularly trial Eukanuba, Advance, Science Diet, Nutrience & Nutro.

Of those, my dogs do best on Nutrience & Nutro. On both of these their coats are great but there is noticeably less shedding when they are on Nutro Lamb & Rice Large Breed.

Holly (5 year old Rottweiler/Golden Retriever) is prone to dandruff yet on Nutro this is not a problem for her. She is also a heavy shedder when on any other brand... as in, piles of fur clog your nose when you pat her... but on Nutro, again, this isn't an issue (thank god!!).

Kaeleigh is exceedingly difficult to keep weight on. She needs to eat a truckload of food each day to stay at a decent weight and yet she's fussy, so won't just trough on massive quantities. She is currently eating Nutrience Active and is maintaining her weight very well on significantly less than she eats when she is on Nutro. For her, though, her problems are compounded because she has a sensitive tummy... which the Nutro Performance upsets.

So generally... I highly recommend Nutro but if it isn't available where you are, give Nutrience a shot too.

[tramissa]

I finally just got hold of some Nutro up here - trialling the senior small breed one to see how Min goes.

[TigerJack]

Piximatosis

what store in Sydney do you work at that stocks Nutro? I've only managed to find one and I'm a bit reluctant to buy from there as they also sell puppies and birds. I don't mind travelling a little bit.

So far I like this food and so do the dogs but it is just too much hard work to get hold of. (and the bags are really fragile and rip easily.)

[Sayreovi]

Kaeleigh is exceedingly difficult to keep weight on. She needs to eat a truckload of food each day to stay at a decent weight and yet she's fussy, so won't just trough on massive quantities. She is currently eating Nutrience Active and is maintaining her weight very well on significantly less than she eats when she is on Nutro. For her, though, her problems are compounded because she has a sensitive tummy... which the Nutro Performance upsets.

Thats Darcy to a T! Pain in the arse he is ;)

I might give Nutrience a go now

[noisymina]

Noisymina, sounds to me as if your supplier doesnt sell much stock then to have gone past the use by date.

I have recently bought some adult and puppy food for my 4 adults and 5 horrors ( ) and the use by date is 2008

At those prices, I'm sure they don't sell much. It won't be on the shelf long at that rate.

To be fair to the retailer, I did not see expired stuff on the shelf - just stuff with dates very close to it. For a small dog or if feeding small amounts to a larger dog, one needs a few months leeway.

[ShesaLikeableBiBear]

As Sags has said the Nutro she is currently getting in has an expiry date of 2008, as does ours, so there would be plenty of leeway there.

[Teandell]

I have been feeding Nutro to my 2 for the past 3 months. Since I started on Nutro my CKCS's coat has improved 100% +. Pirior to Nutro it was dull, flaky and itchy now it is soft and flowing. I too live in the country so Nutro stockist is 7 hours round trip. Why go anywhere 4 paws and more provide a delivery to door for a very reasonable price, far cheaper than if you actually lived in Melbourne and was picking up yourself. As far as cost goes, Nutro lasts a lot longer than many other foods and really you need to break it down to a per day cost to truely understand the value. I'm still on my first bag.

Edited December 17, 2006 by Teandell

[curlyking]

Zorro, I tool feed predominately a BARF diet however, found I had one dog that just did not do as well on it as I thought he should so decided to introduce a premium dry food. I used Eagle Pack for a while and also Pro Plan both about the $100 mark for a 15 or 18 kg bag. Although both were good I tried on suggestion from a thread on DOL a little while ago, Uncle Albers. The ingredients I feel match the expensive brands and the dogs love it and have never looked better.

I did try Innova and it was excellent but too expensive for me.

The Uncle Albers is about $25 for a 20kg bag. Well worth a try in my book.

[Guest Piximatosis]

TigerJack - I'll PM you the store name.

[Flaves]

I can't reccommend Nutro more.

I find it fantastic. All my kids are on it canine and feline.

A 15kg bag lasts more than 3months for the dogs

THe cats go through 15kg in 4months.

It is great. I don't think that $95.00 is expensive for 3months food.

You spend more than that a week on people.

THey are getting great food.

Noisymina you would be surprised how fast stock moves. Sags has ordered me in food cause htey have run out.

I would give Nutro a o. THey can deliver it for about $15.00. Far cheaper than by car.

[samoyedman]

I'm feeding Nutro as well and my Samoyed's coat is amazing. The guard hairs are erect and his coat has a nice sheen to it. Plus he really enjoys his food...he's yet to ever leave any.

[mollynme]

Is Nutro and Nutrience the same thing?

[SueM]

I would recommend Nutro to anyone and do so when adopting our rescue dogs out, I have had my 2 chis on it for around 3 or 4 months now, their coats are shiny, they hold their weight nicely and a 7 kg bag is lasting forever, they get 1/2 cup each and they thrive on it....

Edited December 20, 2006 by varicool

[flycow]

Is Nutro and Nutrience the same thing?

They are different brands but both are on the Super Premium range together with Royal Canin, Eukanuba, Innova, Proplan etc. Prices varies depends on where you buy it from. They all have Money back guarantee if you are not satisfied and Brand Loyalty program aka buy 9 get 1 free from the manufacturer.

[Zorro_007]

God give me strength!!!!!!!!! I purchased a bag of Supercoat and fed some of my dogs with it (the local feed stores doesn't stock premium brands, the other choices around here are Pal pedigree, Bonnie and other rubbish) and the smell of their poo stinks, stinks to timbucktoo and back....I cannot stand it! I have thrown the remainder of the food out into the trailer destined for the tip! What on earth do they put in that food? NEVER EVER am I going to buy that rubbish again.

Give me BARF anytime. I will try a premium food like Nutro for the maremma only and I hope that I don't need to use a gas mask. Two of the dogs had the runs IN THE HOUSE which is not the norm and they only had a small handfull of the stuff so I had to clean that mess up and I'm lucky that the diarrhea was on vinyl...imagine if I had carpeting, UGH.

[InspectorRex]

I feed EaglePack and am very pleased with it.

[Guest Amy Rose]

Hmm, it turns out that 4 Paws is only a 20 minute drive from where I live, so the boy and I drove over today and grabbed about $150 worth of food (Nutro) and kong toys for the babies.

Buddy (borderxwhippet - 1 year old) was right into it, but Tucker (JRTxcorgi - 3 years old) would only eat it if I handfed him. He also won't touch the kongs. Hopefully he'll get used to the food. I put a little peanut butter in it and he ate about half of what I gave him.

[ShesaLikeableBiBear]

The super premiums as mentioned by Flycow may have a money back guarantee but NONE APART from Nutro Natural Choice (to give the product its correct name) have a specific skin and coat improvement guranatee as well.

[Just Midol]

My boy gets nutro and whatever I am eating mixed in (The meats, either a sausage or a bit of steak chopped up) for a bit of flavour.

He eats just under the recommended because of the extra sausage/steak and he gets Nutro either 4 or 5 days a week and he gets a treat for the other 2 days of whatever I feel like making him (Still a bit of nutro mixed in but not much.) In doing this (the treat days) I found he eats more willingly and doesn't get sick of his food.

[kelpiechick]

My boys are fed BARF and I supplement with Eagle Pack - the power formula for the 2 currently competing in agility - and I have been really happy with the results. (Used Science Diet before and was reasonably happy but EP is way better, for them anyway- guess all dogs respond differently) Haven't tried Nutro tho' so can't compare.

Would really prefer not to feed anything other than BARF but it is much easier travelling to 2 day trials if they are used to eating dried food, so feed it once a week. They also go crazy over the Eagle Pack wholistic biscuits as a treat every now and then.