Nutro Ultra & Innova Puppy???

[dalefuller]

Our vote...

If you had to pick one.....which one????

We've fed both to our Boxers. We dropped the Nutro after about 2 months. It wasn't performingnearly as well as the Innova did. They were gaining weight, threw up some, and their coats were dull. We went back to Innova and have since switched to Innova's EVO with excellent results. Their coats are shiny, their weight is exactly where their vets want it to be, we rarely have any barf incidents, and they have plenty of energy.

I've spent hours on Naturapet's website (Innova) checing their ingredients against other foods. I haven't found many other commercial foods I'd be willing to try (maybe Canidae or one of the Timberwolf products).

That being said, we do supplement their diet (even Innova) with a multi-vitamin, Prozyme, Barley Dog, and virgin coconut oil. We give them their vitamins for treats and we keep organically-grown raw carrots in our reefer for chewy treats. They canchew them to pieces, eat them, and their good for them. They also share out apples and bananas with us. and we home cok for tem regularly (but not daily). They get a good bit of variety from all of this, but their basic diet is still EVO and some canned Innova.

Best wishes,
Dale

 

[Cheryl&Ellie]

Out of that selection, I would rate them in the following order:
1. Chicken Soup (either adult or puppy is fine - the only difference is that the puppy formula contains slightly more chicken fat), and I'd rate this food right alongside Innova for quality.
2. Merrick (again, either puppy or adult formula).
3. Natural Balance (but note that some formula's are better than others).
4. Solid Gold
5. Royal Canin (but only the Natural Blend formula - the others are low/mid grade foods that I'd pass on completely).

Thanks soooo much for your help and putting things into prospective. It gets so confusing when you start reading labels. We also have another brand that looks interesting and I was wondering what your thoughts are on this food and whether or not you would rate this as a high quality food like Innova and Chicken Soup?

http://www.frommfamily.com/products_fourstardry_duck.asp

Thanks and Ellie's poor stomach will be thanking you more!

 

[gmacleod]

...I was wondering what your thoughts are on this food and whether or not you would rate this as a high quality food like Innova and Chicken Soup?

Yes and no LOL

I would rate the Fromms Four Star very highly - it's a food I frequently recommend. Based on its ingredients, and the reports of people who've used it, it's amongst the best foods out there and its high quality ingredients make it a very good food for dogs that suffer with sensitive tummies and allergies. In fact it's one of the few good foods for allergy dogs that aren't limited to just two or three ingredients.

Compared strictly against Chicken Soup and Innova, I'd have to criticise the Fromms for a relatively low meat content (though that varies somewhat between formulas). It still has a higher meat content than most foods around though, and I like the fact that the non-meat content is not exclusively or predominantly grains (ie. the vegetables aren't so far down the ingredient list as to be there for show only).

 

[Cheryl&Ellie]

Yes and no I would rate the Fromms Four Star very highly - it's a food I frequently recommend. Based on its ingredients, and the reports of people who've used it, it's amongst the best foods out there and its high quality ingredients make it a very good food for dogs that suffer with sensitive tummies and allergies.

OK LOL, I'm glad to hear that it's a high quality food because the duck and sweet potatoes is what I picked up for Ellie on the weekend. After going through all the info that was posted here on BW I went to the store armed with all my list of do's and don't and ended up selecting Fromms.
The only thing I'm a bit confused with is I thought I got one with the proper amount of meat seeing as the first two ingredients are duck and duck meal. I must have read the thread wrong or got confused.
If this doesn't work the next one I'll try is Chicken Soup but I'm hoping for the best with Fromms.
Thanks so much for your input, I really appreciate it!!

 

[gmacleod]

The only thing I'm a bit confused with is I thought I got one with the proper amount of meat seeing as the first two ingredients are duck and duck meal. I must have read the thread wrong or got confused.

No, you did get one with a decent amount of meat Fromms is better than most, and I still rate it very highly. Most especially for an allergy formula. But you asked about it compared to something like Chicken Soup. The top four ingredients in CS are meat products (versus 2 in Fromms) - that's pretty outstanding.

It kind of brings you back to the original question asked in this thread: which is better, Innova or Nutro Ultra. The answer there is that Innova is the better food. It doesn't mean that Ultra is bad, it's not. It's a very good food. It's just that Innova is better.

And when it comes to Cs versus Fromms, the answer is similar. Fromms is a very good food, and one I particularly favour. But for the average dog, CS is the higher quality product - it contains quite a lot more meat.

The exception would be allergic dogs or those with sensitive tummies. In that case, even though Fromms doesn't have as high a meat content as the likes of CS, it has an exceptionally good ingredient list that is unlikely to cause any allergy or tummy upsets. So for those particular dogs, Fromms is probably the better choice.

In any case, when you're not asking for a comparison against an individual food, Fromms is probably one of the top ten dry dog food available (which makes it pretty darn good). LOL - it's just that the particular food you asked for a comparison against is probably one of the top 5

 

[Cheryl&Ellie]

Thanks again for all your input. I have good news, Ellie stomach is starting to settle for the first time, poor baby, she's 4 months old and that's a long time to have tummy troubles. She's now eating half Wellness and half Fromm and as funny as it may sound my DH came in this morning and said "Ellie is finally starting to have poops that are almost solid, yes, that was our conversation this morning. Come to think of it, it's been our conversation most mornings since she starting with all the tummy troubles.
I'm guessing by the time she's totally switched over to Fromm's her stomach should be back on track.
I only wish I knew what ingredient they use in Wellness that causes this then I would know when I read labels for treats etc..

Thanks again for all your help. I just recently joined BW and I'm thrilled with the amount of info thats provided and support. It's Wonderful!