Opinion on dog food ingredients?

Question

This is the ingredients in the dog food that I feed my dog. Can I please have opinions on whether or not this is a good food?

Venison Meal, Whole Brown Rice, Ground Rice, Rice Gluten, Rice Bran, Poultry Fat (preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of Vitamin E), Rice Flour, Dried Plain Beet Pulp, Oatmeal, Natural Flavors, Sunflower Oil (preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of Vitamin E), Soybean Oil (preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of Vitamin E), Dehydrated Potatoes, Calcium Carbonate, Potassium Chloride, L-Lysine, Salt, Dried Egg Product, Dried Kelp, Taurine, Choline Chloride, Vitamin E Supplement, Zinc Sulfate, Zinc Proteinate, Ferrous Sulfate, Ascorbic Acid (source of Vitamin C), Biotin, Manganese Proteinate, Manganous Oxide, Niacin, Garlic Flavor, Calcium Iodate, Calcium Pantothenate, Copper Sulfate, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Riboflavin Supplement (source of Vitamin B2), Vitamin A Supplement, Glucosamine Hydrochloride, Thiamine Mononitrate (source of Vitamin B1), Copper Proteinate, Sodium Selenite, Chondroitin Sulfate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (source of Vitamin K activity), Folic Acid, Vitamin D3 Supplement.

It is Nutro Natural Choice Venison Meal & Whole Brown Rice Formula

She does not have a sensitive stomach but she does love this food.
I appreciate all of the answers!!

Answer 1

It sounds like they're trying to be decent, but here's where I have problems:

Venison Meal as 1st ingredient: Good that the 1st ingredient (most by volume) is a protein source, but a whole meat source (i.e. Venison, not Venison Meal) would be better.

Various bits of rice as the next 4 ingedients: Again, ingredients are listed from most to least. Separated, this doesn't seem like much, but if you lump them all together, that's a hell of a lot of rice -- much more than the meat source.

Poultry Fat: I hate unspecific ingredients. What consititutes "Poultry"?

Rice Flour: More rice! Yeesh!!

Natural Flavors: You should never have to add flavor to a dog food -- the ingredients alone should be of sufficient quality to attract the dog's interest.

Salt: No added salt in dog food! All it's there for is to induce the dog to eat. They shouldn't have to add salt to make the food palatable.

Garlic Flavor: Why??

The addition of Glucosamine and Chondroiton are nice, but I'm blown away by all of the carbohydrates in the food -- in addition to all of the rice, there's beet pulp *and* potatoes.

I prefer meat-based dog food.

You could do better. Try Canidae or, if you can afford it, Innova or Solid Gold.

ADDED: had to go hunt down this website -- check it out, it's a great resource:
http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/

The Whole Dog Journal also does good dog food reviews.

Answer 2

I think you could get a food with less rice and more protein in it. It has an awful lot of rice at the beginning of the ingredients list. I have been told that you should have at least 2 protein sources (it can be a meat or a meat "meal" ) in the first 5 ingredients. Nutro Natural Choice is better than Nutro Max, Iams, Eukanuba, Science Diet. Some other brands you may want to consider are listed below;

Canidae
Solid Gold
Natural Balance
Wellness
Innova

Answer 3

This would not be a bad food. Dried chicken is just dehydrated chicken. Since it is the first and only meat ingredient, it is the primary protein source. Beet pulp is a fiber type of food in which all sugars have been removed so it sole purpose is bulk and fiber to keep the gut healthy. The other things are vitamins and minerals. The sunflower oil I am not crazy about because of the imbalance between omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids, but that is just one of my personal opinions and there has been no negative research about the omega balance in dogs. There are no preservatives present. I see no artificial colors or flavorings. All in all, and judging this against most foods in the stores, this is not a bad food. It does not have any vegetable sources unless you want to consider the kelp, but it has other fiber and carbohydrate content.

Answer 4

It is unlikely there is enough meat. Its a single meat, then 3 rices which most likely add up to much greater volume than the meat.

Protein content will be essentially a lie as protein from rice and rice gluten are not processed well by dogs.

Better than most foods, but it looks like theyre making an effort to hide the amount of rice vs. the amount of meat.

Answer 5

Whoa, that is a LOT of ingredients!

If it is Nutro, I'm not familiar with this brand or even it's reputation, so my answer is unbiased. From the list of ingredients I'm a bit dubious - there are a LOT of chemicals here. L-Lysine is an OK one, it's used to encourage fat metabolism, but the sheer number of others make me say Hmm. There is also added salt in here which is not really a welcomed thing.

Also, if this is indeed a diet for sensitive stomachs then I'm also surprised, the idea with sensitivity diets is to have a short list of plain ingredients - simple and digestible proteins and carbs. So my opinion is: hmmm.

EDIT: Yeah, as Loki_Wolfchild said, you could do better. However the inclusion of various rices shouldn't be a cause for concern if this is a product for sensitivity, this is a standard ingredient for such cases. So - is this a diet for sensitive stomachs??
Chalice

Answer 6

VERY little meat content and lots of grains and grain by products-ie,ground rice,rice gluten,rice bran-all by products and fragments. There are much better choices available.
I'd rather see meat in meal form as the "whole" meat form includes water.

Answer 7

It seems to have a lot of grain -- only one meat source, and fat is the 6th ingredient. I would say that there are a lot of other foods that your dog would be better off eating. Try Canidae or Innova.

Answer 8

Sounds great. There is one thing I have heard about Nutro. It can be hard for dogs to switch over to it. Not all dogs. But like changing any food I suggest not doing it all at once but mix slowing with the old food until your dog is only on Nutro. But Nutro is great food.

Answer 9

This food has way too much grain (rice) and not enough meat protein. It is not a very good quality food.

Answer 10

No corn and no by-product---GOOD JOB! lol.

***in reference to the answer ABOVE-whatever the brand people should always look for corn and by-product and skip any food that has it. There are other quality foods other then Nutro**