Nutro Natural Choice Adult Healthy Weight Chicken & Brown Rice Recipe: our recipe review

Nutro · Natural Choice Adult Healthy Weight Chicken & Brown Rice Recipe · Dry food · Adult maintenance

On the facts printed on its own label, Nutro Natural Choice Adult Healthy Weight Chicken & Brown Rice Recipe scores 76 out of 100 on our rubric: a solid mid table label. The panel opens with Chicken, and the first ingredient signal earns 20 of its 20 points. At 26% crude protein it ranks 4 of the 6 Nutro recipes we scored for protein. Crude fat reads 8%.

Legumes appear on 3 separate lines of the panel (Peas, Dehydrated Alfalfa Meal, Pea Protein). Read together they would sit higher in the order than any one of them does alone, and they carry part of the protein figure with them. The brand carries one FDA posted recall event in our check, set out below with its date.

The panel runs to 46 ingredient lines. 4 of them are animal source lines and 15 are plant lines. The first added fat appears at line 12, so 11 lines sit ahead of it in the recipe by weight. Salt appears at line 14 of 46: ingredients listed after salt are present in small amounts, a standard reading aid for long panels. The vitamin and mineral pack begins around line 27; the 20 lines from there on are mostly supplements, preservatives and functional extras rather than staple foods.

Its closest relative in this brand is Natural Choice Adult Chicken & Brown Rice Recipe, sold as Dry food: the two panels share most of their ingredients. In the first ten, this recipe has Powdered Cellulose, Dehydrated Alfalfa Meal, Pea Protein, where its relative has Brewers Rice, Chicken Fat (preserved with Mixed Tocopherols), Natural Flavors. The full comparison is on the relative's own review page.

The label facts

How the score breaks down

Ingredient notes: the first ten, one by one

Definitions below are written from AAFCO's ingredient definitions in our own words. They describe what an ingredient is, never what a brand claims about it. Names that appear in our ingredient dictionary link to it; the dictionary counts how many scored recipes carry each ingredient.

• Chicken. Chicken is the named meat in fresh form. Panel order is set by weight before cooking, and fresh meat is mostly water, so its share of the finished food is smaller than its place at the top suggests.
• Chicken Meal. Chicken Meal is the named animal rendered and ground, with water and most fat cooked off before it is weighed. Per kilo it carries far more protein than the fresh meat does.
• Barley. Barley is a whole grain rich in beta glucan fibre, which feeds gut bacteria and slows digestion.
• Brown Rice. Brown Rice is a milled grain used for energy and to bind the kibble. Whole grain forms keep the bran and bring gentle fibre with them.
• Oatmeal. Oatmeal is a whole grain that digests slowly and brings soluble fibre, a steady energy source in grain inclusive recipes.
• Peas. Peas is a legume bringing starch, fibre and plant protein together. Legumes help a panel reach its protein figure without meat, which is worth knowing when you read the protein line.
• Powdered Cellulose. Powdered Cellulose sits on the panel as a functional ingredient: a binder, supplement or processing aid rather than a nutrient base.
• Dried Plain Beet Pulp. Dried Plain Beet Pulp is the fibre left when sugar is extracted from sugar beets. It is a fermentable fibre that feeds the bacteria of the large intestine.
• Dehydrated Alfalfa Meal. Dehydrated Alfalfa Meal has already had its water taken out before it is weighed in, so a kilo of it stands for several kilos of the fresh meat. It is one of the most protein dense forms an ingredient can take.
• Pea Protein. Pea Protein is one fraction of the pea, split out and listed on its own. Each fraction is a small share of the whole pea, so several pea lines on one panel add up to more pea than any single line suggests.

One pattern to see whole: legumes appear on 3 lines of this panel. Makers split one plant family across several named forms (whole, protein, starch, fibre), and each form is legal on its own line. Read as a family, they would rank higher in the order than any one line does.

The brand's recall record

2007: Nutro cans and pouches for dogs and cats were part of the March 2007 melamine recall of Menu Foods made products, the largest pet food recall in FDA records.

The counted event is old and did not cover this recipe. We count it, labelled, because the record belongs to the brand. One further event is deliberately not counted: in December 2015, Nutro Chewy Treats with Real Apples were withdrawn at PetSmart over possible mould growth. That withdrawal was announced by the retailer only and has no FDA record, so under our counting rules it is listed in the recall tracker as retailer-announced and stays out of this count.

See the full dog food recall tracker for recent events across all brands.

Other Nutro recipes we scored

Feeding it

Switch foods gradually over about a week, mixing more of the new food into the old each day. Portion by calories, not by the look of the bowl: our feeding calculator works out a daily amount from your dog's weight, and this recipe's calorie line above is the number it needs.