Maxximum Nutrition - change in formula

I buy Maxx Nutrition (found at Wal-mart) because it's supposed to be better quality than other brands typically found at Wal-mart, but at a pretty good price. I bought a sack a few days ago, and it has new packaging and "better ingredients." I think the top ingredient before was chicken meal, but now it's "chicken." Is it possible that this could be chicken by-products, or would it have to say "chicken by-products" on the label? I'm wary whenever there's a formula change. I don't see chicken-by products listed further on down the list. I think the old sack did have it listed as an ingredient, but it wasn't one of the top ingredients. It did cost more than usual, so maybe it is better quality after all, but I won't take their word on that. Before you say, just go to the pet store and get your cat on a better quality food: I paid serious bucks for Science Diet, and it made my cat's vomiting worse. It had a funny smell to it. I don't know if it was the brand or type (ironically I got the sensitive stomach formula), or the pet store - it's the main pet store in town, and still doesn't sell a lot of cat food. I think it just sits there for who knows how long. I'm very hesitant to shell out bucks for Nutro or one of the other health food-type brands. My cat is very iffy with food for some reason - she's been doing very well with Maxx, though. I'd like to stick with this one. Anybody else use Maxx and notice the change? How is your cat doing on it? This is Maisey's first day on the new formula, and she seems to be fine with it.

chicken meal first is preferable to chicken since it has more meat after cooking ... I didnt notice any real formula changes so if she does well stay with it .. it still is a decent formula

They stopped making at least one of the formulas altogether, the indoor formula in the purple bag, quite a while back. My kitty Sho had problems keeping dry foods down too, while he had no problem with the old Maxx indoor formula the indoor hairball one would occasionally upset his stomach. I switched him off of that a while back because I didn't like what it did to his coat and he gained a lot of weight on it.
I can't remember at the moment why the formulas were changed but I do know that an off-shoot brand still uses the regular formula for a russian export. I have a couple bags of this for feeding outdoor kitties and the bags are all in russian!

If you're worried about spending a lot on food you can try brands that have smaller "trial sized" bags.

I've been feeding my boys this for a year or so - I saw they changed their bag, but I couldn't remember their formula so I couldn't tell if it was changed for the better/worse. I bought it and my boys freaked out at first. Davidson wouldn't go near the bowl and Harley only ate a little bit.
But after leaving it out for a day, they wouldn't eat it. But now they are doing well and eating it regularly