Puppy Food

What about Nutro?

I am by no means an expert on Shelties, or dogs in general. When our Sammie was young, we fed him Pedigree (I know now how bad that was) until he was about 5 or 6. Suddenly it seemed he was always ravenous; he would eat nonstop. The vet said it was because he wasn't getting enough nutrients and to switch to a higher-grade food, but said that any of the higher-end foods would do.

We started with the regular Nutro, and over time moved to the Ultra. He seemed to like it, and we were happy with it. When our cat was a kitten, we started him on Nutro's kitten food, and then transferred him to the indoor cat adult Nutro.

When we got Oberon, our Sheltie puppy, we just automatically started him on the Nutro Ultra small-breed puppy food. So far, no problems. The breeder was mixing a little milk into the food, and we've continued to do so -- just a couple of teaspoons or so. He'll be 10 weeks on Thursday and eats 1/3 cup 3x a day.
 
According to Dog Food Advisor (it's a pretty substantially large website), Nutro Max is 3.5 stars, and Nutro Ultra is 4 stars (out of five). It's far, far better than Pedigree or Purina Dog Chow or Alpo or Kibbles n Bits or any of that other junk food. There are some higher quality brands like Merrick, Fromm, Taste of the Wild, Honest Kitchen, Sun Dancer, perhaps Blue Buffalo, etc, but if your pets do well on Nutro Ultra, that is great :smile2: Generally I just say do the best you can with the budget you've got.
 
Just my opinion. Protein is the most essential element in nutrition. It's vital for growth, repair, immunity, and just about every process occurring in living organisms as we know them. Don't stint on it! I would say, give your dog a good, high-protein, low-starch dog food, cut down the quantity, and supplement it with meat of some kind, either raw or cooked (I give Dickens raw, simply because it's easy and he's used to it).

I would also recommend that you not apply human food fads to your dog. These trends are seldom good for people, and much less so for our canine friends!
 
I remember Lucky as a pup starting him on Nutro. He was doing great then starting to puke the food up. Here they changed the recipe and he wasn't the only one barfing, other dog owners in the store were changing also. Then I switched to Wellness.

Wellness was close to what Lady's breeder was feeding her, which was Precise.
They both do well on the food.

My thought too, if it works don't fix it. Back when my setters ate Purina, and the
one brother lived til he was 15 1/2. That is great for a sporting/hunting dog. Not much of a choice when I had the setters what food I could buy. I lost his brother
to cancer, not the food.

Lucky is 13 1/2 and Lil' Lady will be 9 at the end of December. Is it the food or the genes? I guess its a little of both.
 
So, is higher protein good for a growing puppy? One of the other threads says higher protein isn't good for the kidneys?

Still doing my research, but found a 4 star food in my price range and is available in the area. It's grain free, and had 29% protein, but 47% carbs. Should I look for a higher protein percentage?

Not sure yet what the breeder feeds, though I suspect that it's a quality food after meeting her and her dogs :) I was just thinking ahead.
 
I am now feeding Bailey ( 9.5 months) Adult Acana lamb & apple since Molly our cat is allergic to chicken ( & possibly beef) I am staying away from both proteins since Molly is constantly drinking from Bailey's water bowls & licking his food bowls:eek2:

I like the fact that it is manufactered in Canada - less history of recalls( although the lamb come from New Zealand!) and the protein is only 27%- some of the others were a bit high for my liking.

So far so good :biggrin2: It has a 4 star rating on the dogfoodadvisor.com website
 
I am feeding Acana Ranchlands. My shepherd does SO well on the beef/bison/vension combo that he has had no stomach trouble at all since I switched. The fiber is also good and produces such firm stool the shepherd who tends to have anal gland filling and squirting has not had any build up since the switch either. Protein is a bit higher than I like but not shockingly high.
 
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