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With dog food, you can’t always trust the label. Not all them are created equal. While there are high quality dog food brands on the market, there are also those who fill their products with low quality ingredients and artificial additives.
The practice is so rampant amongst manufacturers because dog foods are not regulated as stringently as human foods are. So if you have a particular brand of dog food in mind, you will have to do some digging.
That’s exactly why we are here. In this post, we are digging into Nutra Nuggets dog food and finding out if it’s worth your money.
Nutra Nuggets Dog Food Review – UPDATED 2022
Nutra nuggets provides premium nutrition for dogs and cats at every stage. It is packed with high-quality digestible proteins and optimum levels of vitamins and minerals.
The brand makes two sets of products, one for the US market and the other for the global one. It is not clear as to why they do that but the ingredients in both the sets are quite similar but not identical to each other.
With that being said, let’s look at the ingredient list and find out what actually goes into a packet of Nutra Nugget.
Chicken By-Product
The first ingredient in Nutra Nuggets is a chicken by-product. It is dry rendered chicken by-product acquired by the slaughterhouse waste.
A by-product is generally made from what is left behind when all the main parts of a chicken is removed. It includes waste materials like liver, brain, kidneys, lungs, etc.
Besides these nutritious organs, the by-product meal can sometimes include unwanted things like feet, beaks, underdeveloped eggs, except the feather.
On the positive side, by-products are highly concentrated meat which means they can contain nearly 300 percent more protein than chicken pieces. However, even if a by-product contains all the amino acids that a dog needs, we cannot ignore the fact that it is still an inexpensive and lower quality ingredient.
Corn
Another inexpensive cereal grain. Besides energy benefits, there is not much nutritional value that corn adds in. Moreover, corn is a problematic grain to be added in dog foods as it can be difficult to digest. It is also known to cause allergies in dogs. Hence, corn is best left out of dog foods.
Wheat Flour
The next ingredient is wheat flour which is again inexpensive and contains moderate nutritional value for dogs.
Chicken Fat
The following ingredient is chicken fat procured from rendering chicken, which is a process of making soup in which fat is skimmed from the surface of the liquid.
High in linoleic which is an omega-6 fatty acid, chicken fat is a high quality ingredient added in here.
Egg Product
A form of shell-free eggs, it is specified whether the egg product added in Nutra Nuggets is in wet or dry form. Quality can be varying.
Lower quality egg products can come from eggs that have failed to hatch. Either way, eggs are easily digestible by dogs and come with an extremely high biological value.
Beetroot Pulp
Beet pulp is a by-product, which is a dry residue extracted from the process of manufacturing sugar.
Some say that beet pulp is added as an inexpensive filler while other uphold that beet comes with benefits such as improving intestinal health and maintaining blood sugar.
Flaxseeds
Flaxseed is the most healthy plant based source of Omega-3 fatty acids. When crushed into a meal, flaxseeds are rich in soluble fibres.
An interesting revelation is that flaxseeds account for 19% of protein content which should be factored in when looking at the actual meat content in Nutra Nuggets.
Fish Meal
Another protein-rich meat concentrate, fish meal is usually derived from cleaning and drying out tissues of undecomposed fish. These are obtained from commercial fish operations.
However, which species is used here is completely unknown. Since various fish have different types of fat, it would have been beneficial to know the source here.
Salmon Oil
Salmon oil is a brilliant addition here as it is naturally rich in EPA and DHA type of omega-3 fatty acids.
Chelated Minerals
Chelated minerals make it easier to absorb protein from meals and they are usually found in superior quality dog foods.
Dried Fermentation Products
Fermentation products are normally added to give out enzymes that help improve digestion in dogs.
Is Nutra Nuggets A Good Dog Food?
Nutra Nuggets features a decent balance of grains and meat content. It uses a moderate amount of popular meat as its main source of protein, which works as plus for this brand. However, if you compare it to other popular dry dog foods, you will find that Nutra Nuggets comes up with an average protein content, an above average fat content and a below average carb composition.
Even if you add in the protein from flaxseed and legumes, the formula sounds like it is a kibble with an average addition of meat.
Coming back to the point, “Is nutra nuggets a good dog food?”, we would say yes. Nutra Nugget comes out as a decent dog food on paper, as per its ingredients.
Nutra Nuggets Lamb & Rice Ingredients
The Nutra Nuggets lamb and rice meal is designed for dogs who prefer the taste of lamb over chicken. It is suited for moderated active dogs and dogs who have sensitivity to chicken or corn.
The formula is rich in lamb protein and is supplemented by glucosamine and chondroitin, both of which contribute towards healthy joints.
The formula contains a perfect blend of Omega fatty acids which promotes overall health and a shiny-looking coat.
Calorie Content
3,631 kcal/kg (340 kcal/cup).
Ingredient Composition
Lamb meal (21%), brewers rice (15%), brown rice, maize gluten meal, oat flakes, chicken fat, dried plain beet pulp, egg derivatives, fish meal, linseed, chicken digest, potassium chloride, salt, glucosamine hydrochloride (0.03%) and chondroitin sulphate (0.01%).
Nutritional content
- Protein – 25%
- Fat – 15%
- Crude fibres – 3%
- Calcium – 1%
- Phosphorous – 0.8%
- Omega 6 fatty acids – 1.8%
- Omega 3 fatty acids – 0.3 %
Where To Buy Nutra Nuggets Dog Food?
Nutra Nuggets are available to buy at major retailers like Amazon, Walmart, Chewy, Costco etc.