# New Maltese , need new food not Nutro Ultra?



## RegDunlop (Dec 22, 2009)

We just got a maltese. He is not yet a year old, will be in Feb 2010.

The previous owners could no longer have a dog so we adopted him. I havent had a dog since I was a kid like 25 years ago. When I was a kid we fed our dog whatever dry food my mother would pick up at the grocery plus table food. He always seemd happy.

Now in recent years my wife had a cat, that died after eating poisoned Chinese cat food (supplemented with chinese malamine). We bought 3 or 4 difft brands of food for that cat, and after buying the company would come out and say "oops, last week we said our food was safe and not from china, turns out we were wrong." Anyway long story short the cat died after huge vet bills, and I am forever distrustful and angry at pet food companies. 

Well we got this maltese unexopectedly, so I went out to petco and spoke to a worker who recommended NUTRO ULTRA small breed after listening to my concerns, hes been eating it for a week now, and doesnt seem to like it. The previous owners fed him SD small breed. But we heard that was a bad food so we bought the Nutro Ultra. 

Now I found this great website, and everything I read about Nutro is Bad, and it sparked my memory I think one of the foods that killed our cat was nutro.

So I've done research on this website and dog food analysis dot com. And I've narrowed it down to either Wellness (does it have to be small breed?) and Innova Small Breed. Should he still be on a puppy food.

I asked the vet and he said SD, I noticed he has more SD adds, posters and foods in his office. They should just issue vets NASCAR style suits loaded with SD endorsements.

We need to feed dry food, Raw or preparing food for the dog is not an option as we both work opposite schedules, have kids and more than 2 jobs between us. The dog is not lefty alone often, but the time for dog food prep is not there thus the need for a good dry food.

We also need to know if it is okay to occasionally feed him canned dog food (I think wellness core sounds good) or plain bland cooked meat if we have extra from our own meal. We fed him plain boiled chick cutlet last night as we made chickedn for dinner. We dont always have tim eto even cook for ourselves.

Thanks in advance for any help, and really need to know what is best for this maltese.


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## Oz'sMommy (Sep 9, 2008)

both the wellness and innova puppy foods are great. i think either one would be an excellent choice. science diet isn't great and i was feeing nutro to my little guy when he was a puppy and he became deathly ill. 

if he isn't a year old yet i would continue with puppy food unless you plan to feed an all life stages food. wellness and innova have small breed adult kibbles as well.

i think adding plain meat (nothing terribly fatty/spicy or cooked with onions) or canned food is fine. wellness also has a great line of 95% meat cans - lamb, beef, chicken, turkey. you could always add a tablespoon of those on top of the kibble. if you can find plain cottage cheese that is good as an occasional topper as well.


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## rannmiller (Jun 27, 2008)

I agree with Oz's Mommy. Do you know how old the dog is though? If he's 9+ months old, you could switch him to an adult food since he's probably just about full grown. Wellness and Innova are good foods, as are their grain-free counterparts: Core and Evo (which I would personally recommend over the other two). Adding canned food is a very nice thing to do for this dog, it's very good for him, just don't let him get fat from over-feeding haha!

PS - you cracked me up with your NASCAR joke, I completely agree with you... they should do it for politicians too!


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## CorgiPaws (Mar 31, 2009)

I find it slightly ironic that having concerns about recalls due to tainted ingredients, they would lead you to Nutro... they have recalls more than anyone!! 

Wellness is a great food, made by a reliable company, as is Innova, made by an equally reliable company. (Natura) Wellness has the advantage of more formulas to pick from, wheras Innova just has "regular" and "red meat". Keep in mind, there is NOTHING wrong with rotating between Wellness and Innova on a rotation diet. It's important on a kibble diet to have a rotation for variety. 

The only way to rule out recalls, is to home prepare, be it raw or cooked. (raw is superior) With this not being an option for you for whatever reason, I'd place reliability of the company right up there with ingredients on the priority list.

ETA: a decent all life stages food is perfectly fine, there is no need for puppy formulas if you don't care to buy them. Wellness Adult Formulas as well as Innova Adult are all suitable for ALS. 

Also, large breed/ small breed formulas are nothing more than a marketing gimmick. They swap the order of a couple ingredients, change the kibble size, and jack up the price. I have another thread on this topic if you search for "Large Breed Formulas" discussing the matter. I'd say just buy the regular adult and pocket the fifteen extra bucks they charge for the "special" stuff.


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## rannmiller (Jun 27, 2008)

I think the main difference a lot of the time is kibble size, which can be a relatively important factor if you have a picky eater (created, not born).


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## RegDunlop (Dec 22, 2009)

Thanks for the replies,

I may go with wellness as it will be easier for me to p/u in smaller bags, the shop near me that sells the innova onl;y has tremendous bags and I think it may spoil before this samll dog would be able to finish it.

Thanks for all the answers, nedd to pick something up today as I DONT WANT TO feed him Nutro anymore.

It's tought o get an honest answer about this stuff from anyone, not vets , not petco workers nobody.


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## RegDunlop (Dec 22, 2009)

I found small bags of innova so I picked up both the red meat and regular (turkey) dry food for small breeds....but the little guy doesnt seem to like it at all


anybody else have a dog that doesnt like innova?


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## 1605 (May 27, 2009)

RegDunlop said:


> I found small bags of innova so I picked up both the red meat and regular (turkey) dry food for small breeds....but the little guy doesnt seem to like it at all
> 
> 
> anybody else have a dog that doesnt like innova?




Introduce the "new food" slowly by mixing it in with his old over a week or so until you have him switched totally over to the new one. To simply try & offer it by itself right off the bat usually doesn't work.

Also, feed the food to the dog for a while before even thinking about switching from to another brand; otherwise you are encouraging him to be a very picky eater. 

BTW, my GSP has been on Innova EVO large bites turkey & chicken since May & has been doing great on them. I especially like that they are grainless.

Bonne chance,


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## RegDunlop (Dec 22, 2009)

He's not really eating the Innova dry food?, unlees I wet it with water. And then only the red meat version, he will NOT touch the regular Innova small bites (comes in a green bag) .

So thinking about switching to wellness or merrick. His bag of Innova Red MEat small bites is just about empty, so I need to make up my mind soon so Ill have some of the old to mix in with some of the new (if I get a new brand).I have given up on the regular innova small bites (comes in green bag)

By looking at the pictures on the bags I want to eat the merrick it looks good; and, I have heard some good things about wellness ( but wellness small breed uses menhaden meal, which I objectto on an entirely different level being a Striped Bass fisherman).

1) should i be persistent and keep feeding him the innova red meat small bites?
2) should I give him canned with his dry (which is what ive been doing)?
3) what are "good looking dog stools," supposed to look like anyway?


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## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

I say stay with one food that you think is best. Even if he seems to not like it, you are the one in charge about what he eats. If you cater to his whims he is in control, not you. I highly suggest that you put his food down for fifteen minutes and give him a chance to eat. If he doesn't eat his food within the allotted time take it up until next meal time, or at least four hours. Put his food back down for another fifteen minutes. Again, if he chooses not to eat pick it up and try again later. Eventually he will discover that he is not going to get anything else to eat except what you provide, which is a very healthy and nutritious food. Remember, you are not starving him, he is choosing not
to eat when you provide him food.

Canned food is actually better for dogs than dry because it has added moisture and generally is more species appropriate. I would add it into his diet maybe as one meal a day. But you will want to give him something to clean his teeth with, a recreational bone or chew. I suggest raw beef ribs for this but since he's a little guy pork ribs would probably work well.


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## RegDunlop (Dec 22, 2009)

Thanks I think Ill stick with the Innova a while longer as they really seem like a good , quality, independent pet food company. 

I would like to switch him over to their EVO eventually, but I keep reading HIGH Protein is BAD for little dogs.


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## GermanSheperdlover (Nov 15, 2009)

Here are some other options. I recently introduced my dog to Wetlands Taste of the Wild and he doesn't eat it he inhales it. They are in no order. My dog also goes nuts over Orijen Regional Red (spendy),

Artemis
Blue Wilderness
Go
Horizon**
Evo**** 
Innova**
Instinct**
Orijen*****
Taste of the Wild***
Wellness
Acana
Fromm**
Merrick
Canidae
Evanders
Earthborn
Natures Variety
Natures logic
Solidgold
Pinnacle
Timberwolf
Blue Buffalo
Halo
California Natural**


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## Jordan S. (Feb 2, 2010)

RegDunlop said:


> We just got a maltese. He is not yet a year old, will be in Feb 2010.
> 
> The previous owners could no longer have a dog so we adopted him. I havent had a dog since I was a kid like 25 years ago. When I was a kid we fed our dog whatever dry food my mother would pick up at the grocery plus table food. He always seemd happy.
> 
> ...




Whatever fits your budget. both innova and wellness are great.


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## dogtrainer1507 (Feb 7, 2010)

I have been looking at your posts and reading what everyone else is saying as well. I personally used to feed my dogs nutro but don't anymore. MY dogs currently eat a food called lifes abundance. It's a really good food and my dogs do really well on it. They look and smell great and I have personally been able to speak with the formulator of the food and she has answered any questions that I have had as well. Alot of my clients are using this food as well and seem to have good results with it. As to the little guy not wanting to eat, this is what I would tell you as a dogtrainer. You decide what and when he eats, he WILL NOT starve himself, find a food you are comfortable with, just make sure that its a balanced food. Make meal times and put the food down for 15-20 mins and what he eats in that time frame is what he gets, feed at least two times a day. He will learn when the food is there, and how long it stays there and he will eat. If you are interested in the food I got it from this website: thebetterdogfood.com. I hoped I helped and if you need any info from a dog trainers point of you I am more then happy to help.


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## ruckusluvr (Oct 28, 2009)

there are many great kibble choices.
just get what fits your budget and your dog seems to enjoy. Most dogs will eat any food as long as you give them a set time to eat it, and then take it up. but I like to see my dogs enjoy their dog foods. I like seeing waggy tails and just cant wait for me to put the food bowl dog. When my guys were eating Diamond Naturals they were NOT very enthusiastic about supper time.


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## sganow (Apr 16, 2009)

We've had good luck with Nature's Variety. It is a good all life stages food and my dogs have done very well on it and love it. The kibble is round and pretty small. All our dogs eat it, our 4 month old Maltese, our 1 yr old Yorkie, our 6 yr old Yorkie, and our 8 yr old Yellow Lab. They definitely like Nature's Variety better than a lot of, if not most of the other foods we've tried. If you go to their website you can sign up for a coupon for a free bag of food with the purchase of a bag. www.naturesvariety.com/tryit

Our son and daugther in law have a 4 month old Morkie and feed her Blue Buffalo puppy food and are happy with it. People speak pretty highly of Blue Buffalo dog food. Just another option, and you can get Blue at Petco and Petsmart.


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## RegDunlop (Dec 22, 2009)

I gave in and bought Merrick grammys pot pie, it looks good and he seems to love it...so Ill stick to it


Thanks everybody


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