Nutro Natural Choice Puppy Chicken & Brown Rice Recipe review

Nutro · Natural Choice Puppy Chicken & Brown Rice Recipe · Dry food · Growth (puppy)

83 / 100Our label score

★★★★☆4 of 5 stars, from the score

28%Crude protein (min)

407kcal per cup

1FDA recall event for the brand

On the facts printed on its own label, Nutro Natural Choice Puppy Chicken & Brown Rice Recipe scores 83 out of 100 on our rubric: a strong label by the standards of this database. The panel opens with Chicken, and the first ingredient signal earns 20 of its 20 points. At 28% crude protein it ranks 1 of the 6 Nutro recipes we scored for protein. Crude fat reads 16%.

At 407 kcal a cup it sits mid range for energy, so standard portion maths applies. The brand carries one FDA posted recall event in our check, set out below with its date.

The panel runs to 46 ingredient lines. 5 of them are animal source lines and 14 are plant lines. The first added fat appears at line 8, so 7 lines sit ahead of it in the recipe by weight. Salt appears at line 12 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 Senior Chicken & Brown Rice Recipe, sold as Dry food: the two panels share most of their ingredients. In the first ten, this recipe has Chicken Fat (preserved with Mixed Tocopherols), Pea Protein, where its relative has Whole Grain Sorghum, Natural Flavors. The full comparison is on the relative's own review page.

The label facts

Maker	Mars Petcare
Format	Dry food
Life stage	Growth (puppy)
Full ingredient list, in label order	Chicken Chicken Meal Brown Rice Barley Oatmeal Brewers Rice Peas Chicken Fat (preserved with Mixed Tocopherols) Pea Protein Dried Plain Beet Pulp Natural Flavors Salt Fish Oil (preserved with Mixed Tocopherols) Potassium Chloride Dicalcium Phosphate Choline Chloride DL-Methionine Chia Seed Dried Coconut Dried Tomato Pomace Dried Egg Product Dried Pumpkin Dried Kale Dried Spinach Citric Acid (preservative) Mixed Tocopherols (preservative) Vitamin E Supplement Ferrous Sulfate Zinc Oxide Sodium Selenite L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (source of Vitamin C) Manganese Sulfate Copper Sulfate D-Calcium Pantothenate Biotin Thiamine Mononitrate (Vitamin B1) Vitamin B12 Supplement Vitamin A Supplement Niacin Supplement Riboflavin Supplement (Vitamin B2) Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B6) Vitamin D3 Supplement Potassium Iodide Manganous Oxide Folic Acid Rosemary Extract
Guaranteed analysis	Crude protein (min) 28% · crude fat (min) 16% · crude fibre (max) 3% · moisture (max) 10%
Dry matter reading	With the water taken out, the same analysis reads 31.1% protein and 17.8% fat. Dry matter is how wet and dry foods can be compared fairly.
Calories	3,697 kcal/kg, 407 kcal/cup, as labelled
AAFCO adequacy	Not stated on the product page we read. The life stage above follows the maker's own description of the recipe.
Price	Not listed. We publish a price only when we have verified it from a dated listing, and we had not for this recipe when the label was read.

How the score breaks down

Signal	Points	What the label shows
First ingredient	20 / 20	Chicken, a named whole animal protein, opens the panel.
Animal protein depth, first 10 ingredients	10 / 15	3 of the first ten ingredients are named animal ingredients.
Protein level for the life stage	12 / 15	Crude protein reads 28% as labelled, read against the growth (puppy) stage the label claims.
Fat level fit	10 / 10	Crude fat reads 16% as labelled.
Whole foods versus filler-flagged ingredients	7 / 10	Flagged in the first ten: brewers rice. Flagged means cheapest calorie sources, not unsafe.
Artificial colours and preservatives	10 / 10	No artificial colours, colour-retention chemicals or artificial preservatives appear in the panel.
AAFCO adequacy basis	Not scored	No AAFCO adequacy basis was stated in the data we could verify, so this signal is not scored.
FDA recall history	6 / 10	One FDA posted dog food recall event found for the brand in our November 2026 check.
Price tier	Not scored	Not scored in this round. We publish a price only when we have verified it from a dated listing.
Total	83 / 100	Scaled from 75 of 90 available points. Stars are the score divided by 20, rounded to the nearest half. The method is published in full on the dog food hub.

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.
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.
Barley. Barley is a whole grain rich in beta glucan fibre, which feeds gut bacteria and slows digestion.
Oatmeal. Oatmeal is a whole grain that digests slowly and brings soluble fibre, a steady energy source in grain inclusive recipes.
Brewers Rice. Brewers Rice is the small broken fragments separated out when rice is milled for people. Almost pure starch, it adds energy and little else.
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.
Chicken Fat (preserved with Mixed Tocopherols). Chicken Fat (preserved with Mixed Tocopherols) is rendered fat from the named source. Fat is the densest energy in the recipe and carries much of its flavour.
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.
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.

Who it suits

Puppies: the label is written for growth, which adult maintenance foods are not
Owners who want a named whole meat, not a meal or a plant, at the top of the panel

Who should skip it

Dogs with a diagnosed condition: that choice belongs with their vet, not a review page

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

Recipe	Score / 100	Protein	Format
Natural Choice Small Breed Adult Chicken & Brown Rice Recipe	83	26%	Dry food
Natural Choice Adult Chicken & Brown Rice Recipe	81	24%	Dry food
Natural Choice Senior Chicken & Brown Rice Recipe	77	26%	Dry food
Natural Choice Adult Healthy Weight Chicken & Brown Rice Recipe	76	26%	Dry food
Natural Choice Large Breed Adult Chicken & Brown Rice Recipe	74	22%	Dry food

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.

What that means at the bowl, for a typical neutered adult (resting energy 70 times body weight to the power 0.75, times 1.6; treats come out of the same budget):

Dog's weight	Daily energy	Of this recipe, at 407 kcal a cup
3 kg	about 255 kcal	about 0.6 cups
10 kg	about 630 kcal	about 1.5 cups
20 kg	about 1,059 kcal	about 2.6 cups
30 kg	about 1,436 kcal	about 3.5 cups

Puppies, pregnant dogs and very active dogs need more; older and weight watching dogs need less. The calculator linked above adjusts for those cases.

Nutro Natural Choice Puppy Chicken & Brown Rice Recipe: our recipe review