Nutra Gold Dog Food Review

WebsiteNutra Gold
Available fromPet Circle  

I’ll write this review slightly differently to the ones I’ve written before, and start by saying Nutra Gold is a pretty good food.

This is a new food to our shelves, being sold by  . It’s made by Diamond Petfoods in the US who also make Taste of the Wild and Kirkland (sold in CostCo), both decent foods as far as the reviews on this website go.

Nutra Gold Dog Food Review

The ingredients are good quality and in the right order – meat before carbs (turkey and turkey meal), sweet potato as a better selection than potato, peas and garbanzo beans (chickpeas) for added fiber as well as protein.

We find a couple of ominous ingredients in the food. Chicken digest isn’t a pleasant ingredient, being a broth from rendering 4D chickens (poor quality) in a huge pot. We normally see an ingredient such as this in a food with a lot of cheap by-products. Fish meal is another ingredient which tends to be poor quality, often rank fish.

What I can’t ignore with this food is they’ve listed the percentage quantity of two main ingredients – turkey and sweet potato. I wish other manufacturers did this, and it should be compulsory.

What can we deduce from this?

Turkey comprises 15% of the food, and this is prior to cooking off between 70 and 80 percent water content. The reality after cooking is more like 5 to 10%. Given ingredients are listed in order of weight prior to cooking, with sweet potato at 15% that means the turkey meal will also be 15%. That means the meat content of the food as a whole is a mere 20 to 25%.

Nutra Gold Dog Food Review

That may be an eye opener, but that’s the reality with most pet foods. This food is far better than many other brands you find in the supermarkets, and at least it isn’t filled to the brim with allergenic grains and other fillers.

Ingredients

Turkey (15%), turkey meal, sweet potatoes (15%), peas, garbanzo beans, potatoes, chicken fat, tomato pomace, chicken digest, fish meal, flaxseed, salt, dried chicory root (0.05%), tomatoes, blueberries, raspberries, dried Enterococcus faecium fermentation product, dried Lactobacillus acidophilus fermentation product, dried Lactobacillus casei fermentation product, dried Lactobacillus plantarum fermentation product, dried Trichoderma longibrachiatum fermentation extract.

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7.9 Total Score

PROS
  • Labelling transparency
  • Good ingredients
CONS
  • Potato and legume heavy

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8 Comments
  1. Hey people, it is just dried food.
    If you really loved your pet you would go to the effort of making the food yourself, not by being lazy and slack just cos it is so convenient to just take 10 secs to pour some dried food in your pets bowl.
    You have all been conned by a pet food manufacturer who just wants to make profits and has good marketing managers.
    Do yourself and your pet a favour by giving it real food.
    Would you like to eat Weetbix as your meal for the rest of your life ?

  2. I’ve been feeding a combination of Blackhawk grain free chicken and Blackhawk fish and potato (which seems to be very limited grain), supplemented with raw and home prepared food. This food appealed to me as an alternative for some variety, but I notice it’s made by Diamond pet foods, who I’ve read have been caught up in high-profile recalls and contamination scandals. I’m now very reluctant to give it a try because of that. Any thoughts?

    • They’re a big company and have had their problems in the past, but nothing recently. After the contamination issue in South Carolina they stripped the plant back to nothing and started again from what I believe.

  3. They have a handy little glossary that explains ingredients and how they are used on there website. It leans towards them obviously but is a interesting none the less .
    Chicken Digest – Ingredient that is applied to the outside of the kibble to enhance the flavor and acceptance of the dry pet food. (It does not contain MSG.
    http://www.nutragold.com.au/our-products/

  4. At least this version states digest of an actual animal, the fish version simply says digest leaving us wondering digest made from what animal/s?

    The price for it is good though, giving people who don’t want to spend a fortune yet another choice beyond blackhawk.

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