How good is Nutro dry cat food?
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Nutro
- Thread starter buckeye204
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For the price, you can get much better foods. Google Nutro recalls...they recall their food so often...and the ingrediants aren't to great either. I'd avoid it if you can, IMO
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Not so great.
. Way over priced for what you get. Wasn't too bad before it was bought out by Mars, but like all foods after they get bought by the big companies, down it went.
There are several dry formulas, you can read up on the ingredients here:
http://www.nutro.com/natural-cat-foo...-cat-food.aspx
There are several dry formulas, you can read up on the ingredients here:
http://www.nutro.com/natural-cat-foo...-cat-food.aspx
Nutro is an all natural product. The last recall, which was voluntary, was in June of 2009. You can Google just about any brand using the same criteria you outlined above and find some kind of recall on them.Originally Posted by furryfriends50
For the price, you can get much better foods. Google Nutro recalls...they recall their food so often...and the ingrediants aren't to great either. I'd avoid it if you can, IMO
Nutro is a guaranteed product and Nutro has their own plants. Yes, Nutro, unlike so many of the other so called "premium" brands, manufactures all of their own products. The products are tested 600 times before hitting the shelves.
No need to avoid it. It's a win-win situation for the consumer. If they don't like it after purchase, return the unused portion to the place they bought it and they'll receive a no questions asked refund.
Personally my cats have thrived on the Nutro products and I'm not saying that because I work for them. There are several options for you and otto pointed you to a link which will give you an overview. If you ever have questions about it feel free to post in the forum or send me a private message
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I personally like Nutro! It doesn't make my cats stink LOL We tried a "higher end" brand and It seemed too rich for my babies. I also like they put out coupons!
As far as recalls. There has been recalls on super expensive food too!
As far as recalls. There has been recalls on super expensive food too!
OttoOriginally Posted by otto
Not so great.. Way over priced for what you get. Wasn't too bad before it was bought out by Mars, but like all foods after they get bought by the big companies, down it went.
There are several dry formulas, you can read up on the ingredients here:
http://www.nutro.com/natural-cat-foo...-cat-food.aspx
Don't know how much you know about the Mars/Nutro alliance. Nutro was a privately held company looking for a larger, privately held company to either merge with or buy them out. The owners of Nutro wanted more money for expansion efforts (manufacturing plants, testing etc.) without incurring a large debt. The owners of Nutro also wanted to expand their philanthropic efforts. Mars is privately held by the Mars family and it was a logical choice. There are no stockholders to answer to
Nutro operates as a completely separate entity. The formula changes have been due to market demand, the cutting edge scientific information proved to us by Waltham Center for Pet Nutrition' and for the better health of the pet. Any formula changes in Nutro products have been implemented by Nutro and not Mars, or stockholders demanding profits.
My cats wouldn't eat Nutro Dry and I stopped buying the cans (which I did buy once in awhile, but never their main food) after the last round of recalls.
My crew loved Nutro, however, in my area at least, there are equal, or better quality feeds at lower prices, and times are pretty tough.
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Thanks for the info. I used to feed Nutro as part of my rotation, years ago. When the new bags came out, after the buy out or whatever it was that happened, my cats would no longer eat it. Not even the cats who will eat anything would eat it, ANY kind. They walked a wide berth around any dish I put down with Nutro in it and looked at me like I was trying to get them to eat poison.Originally Posted by NutroMike
Otto
Don't know how much you know about the Mars/Nutro alliance. Nutro was a privately held company looking for a larger, privately held company to either merge with or buy them out. The owners of Nutro wanted more money for expansion efforts (manufacturing plants, testing etc.) without incurring a large debt. The owners of Nutro also wanted to expand their philanthropic efforts. Mars is privately held by the Mars family and it was a logical choice. There are no stockholders to answer toThe only difference I can tell since Mars bought Nutro is the procedures in the HR policy.
Nutro operates as a completely separate entity. The formula changes have been due to market demand, the cutting edge scientific information proved to us by Waltham Center for Pet Nutrition' and for the better health of the pet. Any formula changes in Nutro products have been implemented by Nutro and not Mars, or stockholders demanding profits.
When I contacted Nutro (it took two tries to get a reply) with my concerns I was told that "there was nothing wrong with the food and if your cats won't eat it they must be sick and you should take them to the vet." Those were the exact words of the response.
That was the last time I shelled out big bucks for a mediocre food.
All the Natural choice foods start with: Chicken Meal, Corn Gluten Meal, Wheat Flour, Ground Rice, Powdered Cellulose, Dried Plain Beet Pulp and the list does not improve.
The Maxx cat foods are the same.
The canned foods are slightly better simply because they are canned, but they are still grain heavy and contain wheat gluten.
The only thing canned Nutro has above canned Fancy Feast for example, in my opinion, is that the Nutro doesn't contain the dyes,artificial flavors or artificial preservatives that FF does, so the labels say.
^This.
I know you (NutroMike) don't have a direct say in anything (besides nutrition, obviously
), but if Nutro wants better credit with owners who look into foods like the people around here do, they should have better customer service than that. They should at least reply nicely to customers questions, and respond to the thousands of complaints addressed against them. Other higher brand companies do.They should either move Corn Gluten Meal further down the list of their food, or remove it completely IMHO. It's a super cheap way to pump protein into a food so that not as much real meat is needed. Here is the definition from the AAFCO - "the dried residue from corn after the removal of the larger part of the starch and germ, and the separation of the bran by the process employed in the wet milling manufacture of corn starch or syrup, or by enzymatic treatment of the endosperm."
So it's basically the bare bones leftover from corn. Which is already genetically modified to be it's own pesticide. Yum. That combined with 4 of the 5 first ingredients being plant products in a food that is for a carnivore doesn't sit well with me.
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
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I went to my local pet store and after talking to the sales person, who advised me not to buy Nutro because of all the grain in it, I decided on Wellness Indoor. If he won't eat it, then I will try Blue Buffalo Indoor. She told me sometime the so called good dry will not help with hair balls like the more expensive (Wellness, Blue Buffalo, etc) will. So if doesn't chew it, swallows it whole and then throws it up, well I guess he will learn to chew it when he is hungry.
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Cats don't "chew" dry food, they don't have chewing molars. At most, they may be able to crunch a kibble once or twice.
A cat won't "learn" from regurgitating, to "chew" his food. Nor will he learn to eat more slowly. Cats are not able to reason that way.
If your cat is regurgitating his kibble, it is because he is eating too much all at once. Schedule feed smaller portions more often, or better yet, put him on a canned diet.
Brushing him every day will cut down on ingested fur.
For what its worth, Blue has really good customer service as I contacted them a couple times because I had questions about their food and I got a reply within 24 hours. Wellness also replies quickly as well. I have never had to contact Nutro as I won't feed the dry food, but I do feed the cans once in a while in rotation. My cats love the chunks in gravy and I can always be sure that it will be gone. I don't like the fact that there is wheat gluten in it, but I keep a close eye on recalls and I would hope that after the 2007 scare you'd think that they would be even more vigilant in QA for their food.
Hmmm... Not to sound negative but it sounds like you local pet store person might have been trying to upsell you to plump up the bottom line.
Misty, what are you using for wet now?
No, I have no control over customer service but the people I have talked to have had very good CS with a variety of issues. They do respond to complaints, issues, questions on a timely manner AFAIK. And about these "thousands of complaints" you're referring to - Where do you get this information from?Originally Posted by Minka
^This.
I know you (NutroMike) don't have a direct say in anything (besides nutrition, obviously
Sorry Minka. You're going to have to do a little better than a simple Google search that leads to a pay per click site to have any credibility in your original statement. You can find the same information on just about any brand of food on that website. The more hysteria generated the more hits to the site. I know you don't like Nutro and that's your business. But knocking ANY food citing non credible evidence is really not in your best interest.
What is ConsumerAffairs.com? a. During the FDA investigation rumors and cat food recall, much attention was drawn to the Consumer Affairs website, which claims to have over 800 complaints of sick or deceased pets as a result of eating Nutro. Despite a lack of credibility, these stories were referenced as concrete evidence against Nutro on Twitter, blogs, forums, comments, and other social media sites. The site continues to post complaints and still sometimes references Nutro foods in articles. It was after these events that a group of hostile users became active on Twitter, posting almost exclusively about Nutro in a negative way.
b. From the site: ConsumerAffairs.com is an independent Web-based consumer news and resource center. We are not a government agency, not affiliated with any other consumer organization and not affiliated with any of the corporations whose products are reviewed on our site.
c. From Consumer Affairs regarding affiliation with lawyers: Yes, lawyers read all of the complaints submitted to us by consumers. On occasion, the lawyers will find something they believe could form the basis of a class action suit on behalf of consumers. If a consumer has indicated on their complaint form that they want to be contacted by a lawyer, they then research the issue and, now and then, contact the consumer and file suit on his behalf. Since our founding, hundreds of class action suits have been filed on behalf of consumers. We are not a party to those actions and do not profit from them.
Edit: I also meant to add -
Nutro has been around well over 80 years. It stands to reason they will have more complaints than the newbie companies cropping up all over the place. Every pet food company will have it's share of complaints.
A variety of foods, including Soulistic, Natural Balance, Merrick, and (sadly) Fancy Feast Classic (because sometimes its the only thing I can get Cindy to eat).
