| | |  | Food | Home » » » » Castor & Pollux Ultramix Puppy Formula Dry Puppy Food, 15-Pound Bag | | | | | | | Description: | | Castor & Pollux puppy formula dry puppy food is a unique puppy food combines multiple animal meat-based protein sources, natural fruits and vegetables, rich sources of carbohydrates, and essential vitamins and minerals to make tails wag and whiskers tingle the world over! Best of all, Natural ULTRAMIX brings your four-legged best friend a lifetime of complete and balanced nutrition | | | Features: | |
• Fortified with vitamins and minerals
• Natural chicken and turkey
• Contains protein barley and flax
• Firm foundation with DHA as found in the mother's milk
| | | Product Details: | | | Product Length:
| 23.0 inches | | Product Width:
| 15.0 inches | | Product Height:
| 4.0 inches | | Product Weight:
| 15.0 pounds | | Package Length:
| 23.0 inches | | Package Width:
| 14.5 inches | | Package Height:
| 3.0 inches | | Package Weight:
| 15.4 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 25 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 25 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
25 of 25 found the following review helpful:
Premium puppy food at a very good price!Apr 27, 2011
By B. Colonna
My apologies in advance for what is a lengthy review. However, if I can help anyone save a little time compared to what I spent trying to choose a good puppy food, that's my goal. So I wrote this not only to review the Castor & Pollux product, but also to provide some information on other types of dry dog food.
It is no secret that you can buy some very cheap and some very expensive dog/puppy foods. Common sense tells you that you can spend very little and get lots of filler and by-products, or spend a good deal more and get wholesome, healthy food. My personal opinion is that long term, both your dog and you are better off if s/he is fed good food. The little extra money spent now may offset potential medical bills and heartache later.
That being the case, I set out to find a really good dog food for my Golden Retriever puppy, while, of course, trying to keep cost down. I spent a good deal of time researching foods. I disregarded low end foods that are largely grains, fillers and meat by-products. I looked at average to premium foods.
I narrowed my choices to several including Castor & Pollux Natural Ultramix. The others were Blue, Eukanuba, Innova EVO, Merrick, Natural Balance, and Wellness.
After that I used a few review websites and ratings tables. These can be helpful. I used one that starts each perspective food off with 100 points and then subtracts for poor ingredients (example: -10 points of containing by-products) and then adds points for any really good ingredients - vegetables, etc. The foods are then rated in grades from A through F. Of my choices, all but one were in the A or higher range. From these I eliminated Ekanuba first, which had a B rating. Although it is what the breeder was feeding my puppy's litter, it appears to be average, at best, with some decent ingredients, but also containing by-products.
Once I had established that the remaining contenders all ranked in the same range, I looked at price. Now all of these will cost more than a store brand, but in the end your dog may end up healthier, which will make both him and you happier.
Castor and Pollux ranked in the top 5 or so of the foods I looked at, and in the end it costs about $1.71 a pound using Amazon's "Subscribe and Save" program. Plus it ends up shipped free to your home - which makes one less 15 pound item you need to lug home from grocery shopping!
Now, this price is perhaps double a store brand, Alpo, or Purina, but those brands contain a lot of fillers and meat by-products, and you have no way of knowing what is in by-product. Manufacturers are very good at fooling our eyes. We read "Meat By-products" and we see "meat". Yet at 85 cents a pound, you many no longer consider it a bargain when you realize "meat by-products" can include bones, blood, heads, lungs, intestines, ligaments, feet and feathers. Not so yummy any more.
The present ingredient list (all from the United States, by the way) for Castor & Pollux Natural Ultramix, is as follows:
Chicken, Chicken Meal, Turkey Meal, Milo, Ground Whole Oats, Ground Whole Barley, Dried Bananas, Chicken Fat (Naturally preserved with Mixed Tocopherols and Citric Acid), Brown Rice, Dried Peas, Natural Chicken Flavor, Salmon Meal, Tomato Pomace, Brewers Dried Yeast, Ground Whole Flaxseed, Dried Sweet Potatoes, Dried Carrots, Dried Egg Product, Potassium Chloride, Salt, Freeze Dried Peas, Dried Cranberries, Dicalcium Phosphate, Fructooligosaccharide, Calcium Carbonate, Zinc Sulfate, Vitamin E Supplement, Choline Chloride, Ferrous Sulfate, Niacin, Copper Sulfate, Thiamine Mononitrate, Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin A Supplement, Manganous Oxide, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Sodium Selenite, Riboflavin, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Calcium Iodate, Folic Acid, Rosemary Extract.
It contains very good protein sources such as poultry and poultry meal, as well as salmon meal, and its grain content comes from oats and barley. It also includes a good mix of dried vegetables and fruits. The dried fruits are easily visible. They are decent size pieces, not microscopic.
At first glance, you might think these ingredients aren't all that different than a less expensive brand like Iams. However, aside from the aforementioned meat by-products, another key thing to look at is whether a food contains corn, especially in the first few ingredients. Iams and many others will often include corn, which isn't worthwhile to your puppy. Typically they lack dried vegetables/fruits, which Casto & Pollux contains - so while other brands might seem less expensive (and are per pound) in the long run you are paying for fillers.
All in all, I think Natural Ultramix is a high grade dog food, but not at such a high cost as to prohibit using it on a regular basis. It is smaller size kibble to make it easier for puppies to chew, and it does not have an offensive aroma (either in the bowl or in the air, if you know what I mean).
PS - for anyone wondering why I chose this brand over the others, once I was satisfied I had found a few very good brands, it really just came down to the price and shopping availability among them, while still having the ingredients I desired (including vegetables & fruit). I can tell you I found Dick Van Patten's "Natural Balance" to be a sleeper in the bunch. I assumed that if the company tied a celebrity name to it, the product probably couldn't stand on its own, but based on ingredients, that looks like a good puppy food as well.
7 of 7 found the following review helpful:
Very Good DogfoodJul 05, 2011
By John Jackson
First my background as a dog owner. I have raised seven dogs. I have tended to more. The breeds include Labrador, Poodle, Schnoodle, Labradoodle, Akita, English Bulldog, Staffordshire Terrier, and Irish Setter. I have used Iams, Sams Club's Premium brand, Science Diet, Blue Mountain or whatever, lots of foods.
This is a very good dog food. The dogs love it, the ingredients are top notch, and it's highly digestible which means less poop and hardly any of those soft diarrhea mounds that make my stomach roil when I have to attempt to scoop them up so my two year old doesn't get poop all over her feet.
I would recommend this dog food over any other that I have tried. Excellent product.
5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
Picky eaters are finally eatingDec 04, 2010
By Tania Olabi
"Tania O"
I have two Havanese boys and the older one is the pickiest eater you will ever meet. My boys did well on Blue Buffalo but used to pick out the lifesource bits, leave them behind, and make a huge mess. As for Castor & Pollux Ultramix, they don't leave a single drop behind. They even clean up anything they dropped on the floor. I am very pleased with the quality of the food and even happier that they are getting nutritional goodies such as dried fruits. It is especially ideal for my older one who used to suffer allergic reactions and has a very sensitive stomach. Thanks Castor & Pollux!
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
Top-notch dog food...Jun 14, 2011
By abbr02
I have been researching dog food for our puppy for awhile. The goal was to find something that was 1.) optimal for her health, most importantly and 2.) not so hard on our wallets. After trying a few other foods, this one beat out the rest. She loves it, it is made with top-quality ingredients, and we get a reasonable deal through Amazon with free shipping if you sign-up for a delivery schedule. This was also the only place we found that sells bags larger than 5 Ibs. BEST of all... no more horrible puppy gas! She is part Boston Terrier, which can be known for flatuence... this food has completely done away with this problem. You can check any dog food review site, Castor & Pollux gets top reviews. Very pleased. We will be sticking with this brand for quite some time to come!
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
Excellent Food Source for PuppiesFeb 15, 2011
By nycgirl56
My small toy puppy loves the small heart shaped bite size. This food does not have a lot of cheap fillers so her stools don't smell as bad, nor does she poop as often as with the other brands of foods. She loves the small bite size bananas, raisins and carrots included in the meal. I feed her one cup twice a day and she's growing fast. Her coat is shiny and healthy looking too. Normally priced around $14-16 dollars at PETCO, I found it at Big Lots for $5 dollars with a six-month expiration date so the food was still good. I highly recommed it for small puppies. They also have organic snacks and training treats. I use them as well to keep her digestive system healthy and organic meal plan consistent.
See all 25 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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