Nutriment Dinner for Dogs

[ediefied]

Hi all,

Whilst putting together my next Nutriment order, I noticed their 'dinner for dogs' range which they claim is specially designed with small dogs in mind and was wondering if anyone had any experience with it? Edie has been doing well in their standard food (which I hadn't noticed is branded 'working dog food' - VAT reasons?) but I'm now wondering if the lower fat content in the small dog range might be a good idea?

The major difference seems to be the removal of the offal from the recipe. To the see difference it's worth comparing the standard chicken food with the small dog version:

http://www.nutriment.co/chicken-formula-adult/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.nutriment.co/chicken-dinner/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Most of the standard foods are around 10% fat - is this particularly high with a mini in mind? Would the drop to 8% for the small dog range make much difference at all? Is the loss of the offal something to be worried about?


Thanks!

[zeta1454]

We have been using Nutriment for just over a year now alternating between the turkey formula and the low purine/low phosphorus formula which also does not have offal ( liver, kidney, heart ) and is a mixture of tripe and chicken plus the extras. We have found one of our small breed pups prefers the latter and as it is designed for dogs that could be prone to bladder issues / pancreatitis etc ( which seems not uncommon nowadays with mini schnauzers) we have been happy to feed them all with these two varieties.

We did experiment with the new dogs' dinner range but our picky puppy would not touch it and given the price, and that for us with seven dogs the fact they only come n 500g trays I could not see any real benefit so we have not ordered it again,

Some offal in the diet is considered good for dogs as it contains a wide range of beneficial nutrients however the smaller the breed of dog the more careful you need to be as regards the quantity of offal to avoid an excessive amount of certain nutrients e.g. vitamins A & D which are stored in the body if not used rather than being eliminated. The regular Nutriment has a small amount of offal included which should not cause a problem unless a dog is prone to bladder or liver problems but if you are worried about the amount of offal on a regular basis you could try substituting some of the meals with the LowPurine/Low Phosphorus blend (without offal) instead which still allows for some meals to include offal for the benefits they give.

The fat issue is also difficult to give a hard and fast rule. Dogs generally do deal with the naturally occurring fats in raw meat well from what I have read on the subject and can process quite high levels satisfactorily. However miniature schnauzers can suffer hyperlipidemia which is a condition where too much fat circulates in the blood and can cause undue stress on the pancreas leading to pancreatitis. This is not general to all mini schnauzers but has been recorded in enough for it to be recognised as a problem which means mini schnauzers might be a breed that would benefit from a diet lower in fat than other breeds of dog. There is a link here which explains in more detail:
http://www.2ndchance.info/pancreatitisdog.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I have tried with ours to keep fat content in their food not much above 10% and with the LowP formula it is just under 8% . I like them to have the tripe which is very gentle on the digestion and full of nutrients so that was another reason I was less keen ( as was our puppy ) on the dogs dinner formula. Unless you have any specific worries about your dog the regular Nutriment food should be fine

[ediefied]

Thanks Leigh, that's really reassuring!

We've actually been doing exactly that - rotating between the low purine (for the same reason as you - mainly the tripe), the chicken and the beef. I added the beef because it doesn't contain bone, and was worried about her having too much - is this justified do you think?

And is there any reason the turkey would be preferable over the chicken? Is it more digestible/less prone to provoke allergic reactions?

I think it was you who mentioned Pure pet foods a while ago, as a solution to travelling and BARF. It was a huge success with Edie, but I wasn't hugely impressed - it smelled a bit like a pot noodle for dogs! We ended up buying a bag of Natures Menu nuggets from a local P@H where we were staying - again not hugely impressed - there seemed to be a lot of peas involved that went in one end and came out completely undigested the other end!

[zeta1454]

We changed to using the turkey based food instead of chicken after one of our minis seemed to have a kind of allergy issue where she was chewing at her paws a lot and I had read that some dogs did develop allergies to chicken. It does seem to have helped and we have just stayed with the turkey as a result but otherwise we would have been happy to use a chicken meal. She does not seem to be affected by the chicken in the low purine food so either it was coincidence or maybe just the fact she was having chicken for every meal.

I have wondered about the bone issue as a lot of DIY raw feeders do seem hung up on the quantities of bone in meals and say dogs should have bone free days every week. When we were originally feeding Natural Instinct over a year ago I was noticing that one of our minis had very dry and hard poo and did struggle at times to go which I felt did mean the bone content was too high. Since we switched to Nutriment I have not noticed this even though they have bone in all the meals but I am going to try having a bone free day a week using just raw green tripe ( as an experiment ) and see how they manage with that.

Re the Pure Pet food I do know what you mean about the appearance which I found very off putting even though the dogs loved it. Luckily we have never had the need to use any substitute for the raw complete foods as having only had one holiday of less than a week in the past few years we were able to find so where with adequate freezer space

I think your comment about the working dog food being due to the VAT issue is right. There is very little difference often between " working dog" food and the normal food but it should make it a bit cheaper and a number of the newer companies both kibble and raw are using the opportunity to add a "working dog" option to make their pricing more competitive.

[Cat M]

Wow, I'm feeling a bit of a bad mummy as I hadn't clocked that the beef contains no bone! It explains why Lola has a softer poo when she has this. I'd put it down to the offal. Thanks for pointing it out Tom - makes me feel ok to feed the beef.
Like you both, I alternate the low purine with other flavours - mainly turkey (I think I read it's a lower purine meat and that was my reasoning) also salmon and chicken. They do get one tub of beef and duck in an order, so that is just fed occasionally.
I might order the plain tripe and give that a whirl for a bone free day too Leigh. I'm sure Pixie and Lola will love it

[ZiiPAngelclaws]

i tend to feed working dogs chicken, duck and salmon and just turkey. I was offering him the beef but he really was not enjoying it and we were throwing it away. I may order the just tripe as a treat and make sure its hubbys turn to feed him