Nutro

Originally Posted by NutroMike

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.

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'A' pay per click site? My link leads to HUNDREDS of sites that have complaints about Nutro.
Consumeraffairs, efoodalert, petfinder, complaintsboard, cocothebloggingdog, cat.about.com, truthaboutpetfood, wikipedia, yahoo answers, ripoffreport, securepet, dogster, clubchi and thebark, just to name a few.

'Before Grain complaints' gives no results (only reviews)
Evo yields the same.
Innova has a few but not many.

I have a feeling you forgot Nutro's recall history.

Here is a list of most (if not all) of the Nutro recalls:
http://google2.fda.gov/search?q=nutr...td&getfields=*

This information was current as of noon May 16, 2011
http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/script...=NUTRO&pet=Dog

Also, here are lists of several complaints against Nutro foods.
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/pets/nutro.html
http://petnblog.preciouspets.org/?p=560
http://www.securepet.biz/wordpress/2...suspect-nutro/

If you want to backup your claim that they do 600, can you explain to me just why the May 2010 "toxic levels of vitamin D" in Nutro cat food happened? Or how come Nutro is ever recalled? After all, considering how many tests Nutro goes through, none of that should EVER happen After all, pieces of hard hat in puppy food (October 2009) has got to be hard to miss, after all those tests. Not to mention a recall for levels of excess zinc & under-supplemented potassium in Nutro cat foods (May 2009)...how does one miss that?

All Natural? Yes, corn is natural, but it is one of the hardest foods for a human to digest, so can you even imagine just how well a carnivore can digest corn? Yeah, not so well, obviously! Corn Gluten Meal, Ground Rice (known to deplete taurine levels), wheat flour, natural flavors (oh, does it not taste like food without it? What are the natural flavors - leftover restaurant grease as pet food companies love to use?), Dried Plain Beet Pulp, Sunflower Oil, Soybean Oil, Oat Fiber, Dried Yeast, Dried Vegetable Pomace, Soy Protein Concentrate, Cranberry Pomace,...I would imagine any carnivore is just drooling over that ingrediant list. "Bring on the meat" is what my cats would prefer to say

Then, of course, the infamous Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (source of Vitamin K activity). Something banned for human use, but it is just fine to add to pet foods of course! http://www.truthaboutpetfood.com/art...-pet-food.html http://www.sciencelab.com/xMSDS-Mena...ulfite-9924604

Originally Posted by Minka

'A' pay per click site? My link leads to HUNDREDS of sites that have complaints about Nutro.
Consumeraffairs, efoodalert, petfinder, complaintsboard, cocothebloggingdog, cat.about.com, truthaboutpetfood, wikipedia, yahoo answers, ripoffreport, securepet, dogster, clubchi and thebark, just to name a few.

'Before Grain complaints' gives no results (only reviews)
Evo yields the same.
Innova has a few but not many.

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Yes, it is a pay per click site. Has absolutely no credibility regarding recalls etc. Nutro has been around 80 years. They will have more complaints than the brand new pet food companies. Some of these companies have only been around a few years and have already experienced recalls.

Originally Posted by furryfriends50

I have a feeling you forgot Nutro's recall history.

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Nope. I know every recall Nutro has experienced. I also know the recall history of most of the other brands. I also know who manufactures the food for which pet food company.

I can post hundreds of links regarding recalls, pet nutrition etc.

You may want to try and determine what the difference between a market withdrawal and recall is.

I know you are an avid Nutro hater. That's fine by me. You are entitled to your opinion but don't try and bamboozle me with link after link after link of information. I've probably already seen it and read it. I know what it is.

Don't you feed a raw diet to your cats?

Originally Posted by otto

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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.

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A lot of pertinent points have been made, and I think the OP has already made their choice, but I just wanted to add one more piece of evidence for not feeding Nutro cat food (which I wouldn't feed to my foster kitties even if it was given to me free) or other products composed of similar ingredients.

Here is an excerpt from the book "Food Pets Die For", as illustrated on the site run by Jeff Feinman, VMD, CVH (http://www.homevet.com/petcare/foodbook.html):

Powdered cellulose is purified, mechanically disintegrated cellulose prepared by processing alpha cellulose obtained as a pulp from fibrous plant material. In other words, sawdust.

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Yes, you read that right - sawdust.

And a footnote from the Feline Nutrition Education Society on the use of cellulose, in the article "Diabetes and Obesity: Preventable Epidemics":

Other canned foods have high levels of indigestible fiber (wood cellulose), supposedly because this slows the absorption of sugar and calories from the food in which it is included. This is supposed to assist in the control of overweight and/or diabetes. The foods do neither very well. High fiber diets, canned and dry, limit the digestion and absorption of many vital nutrients, especially in a species with a short gastrointestinal tract and limited capability to extract nutrients from vegetation. They represent an irrational approach to meeting the nutritional needs of the overweight or diabetic cat and contain egregious amounts of simple carbohydrate, including carbohydrate and sugar from corn.

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I would venture to say that rather than an "irrational approach", adding sawdust to a "food" intended for an obligate carnivore is a "bottom line" approach.

AC

You know, I'd trust Nutro and Mars, their vets and certified nutritionists, way more than ConsumerAffairs and their bunch. Talk about an interesting background search.

And, honestly, any company is damned if they do, and damned if they don't, regarding recalls. Heck, Trader Joe recalled their wet pet food during the big recall out of an abundance of caution.

But, I suspect food is one of those issues where you have 'true believers' and others, and rarely will the twain meet. Then again, I feed my boy Hills C/D - and I know a lot of people have knee jerk reactions toward prescription foods, and Hills in particular. I just like a healthy cat, myself.

Originally Posted by NutroMike

Nope. I know every recall Nutro has experienced. I also know the recall history of most of the other brands. I also know who manufactures the food for which pet food company.

I can post hundreds of links regarding recalls, pet nutrition etc.

You may want to try and determine what the difference between a market withdrawal and recall is.

I know you are an avid Nutro hater. That's fine by me. You are entitled to your opinion but don't try and bamboozle me with link after link after link of information. I've probably already seen it and read it. I know what it is.

Don't you feed a raw diet to your cats?

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Recall, withdrawel, same thing. Something was wrong with the food, and it had to be taken out of stores

I wouldn't hate Nutro if they had not given me so many reasons to do so

Raw feeding is a personal choice. Like your personal choice to like Nutro. I do not see how that has ANYTHING to do with this! Besides, I also feed commercial food to some of my cats, from companies I can trust So, do you then have a hatred towards all raw feeders, as you so like to point out if one is a raw feeder or not

Ainsworth Pet Nutrition has been around for over 75 years. Yet a search for complaints against them yields very few results

Originally Posted by furryfriends50

Recall, withdrawel, same thing. Something was wrong with the food, and it had to be taken out of stores

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True but there is an enormous difference between being forced off the shelves by a government agency and finding the problem and immediately being proactive about it.

[/quote]I wouldn't hate Nutro if they had not given me so many reasons to do so

Raw feeding is a personal choice. Like your personal choice to like Nutro. I do not see how that has ANYTHING to do with this! Besides, I also feed commercial food to some of my cats, from companies I can trust So, do you then have a hatred towards all raw feeders, as you so like to point out if one is a raw feeder or not [/quote]

Anything we feed our pets is a personal choice, and a passionate one How on earth did you get the idea I hate raw feeders or raw feeding? How can I hate you? I don't even know you. I was asking you a simple question. There was no reason, or need, for you to feel defensive about it. I have made it abundantly clear in more than one post I don't have enough knowledge of raw feeding to make ANY intelligent remarks on the subject.

What I take issue with is misinformation. I've been around the Internet since it's inception, and before the Net was around I managed NNTP servers hosting Usenet sites. There is now, in this day and age, a lot of misinformation and misinterpretation out there and a lot of people are making a lot of money spreading it. I don't care if it's Nutro, or any other brand of pet food, kibble or wet feeding or raw feeding. People deserve the best information they can get their hands on.

Originally Posted by darlili

You know, I'd trust Nutro and Mars, their vets and certified nutritionists, way more than ConsumerAffairs and their bunch. Talk about an interesting background search.

And, honestly, any company is damned if they do, and damned if they don't, regarding recalls. Heck, Trader Joe recalled their wet pet food during the big recall out of an abundance of caution.

But, I suspect food is one of those issues where you have 'true believers' and others, and rarely will the twain meet. Then again, I feed my boy Hills C/D - and I know a lot of people have knee jerk reactions toward prescription foods, and Hills in particular. I just like a healthy cat, myself.

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Most of the major market share pet foods have had recalls. The important thing for me is that it's a voluntary recall. And you're right about the "damned if they do, damned if they don't" statement

The Waltham Center for Pet Nutrition endorses Nutro. They are one of the leading pet nutrition centers in the world.

Originally Posted by furryfriends50

Ainsworth Pet Nutrition has been around for over 75 years. Yet a search for complaints against them yields very few results

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Other than B2B I don't recall seeing any of the other brands they own. That does not mean anything because not all brands are distributed in all areas of the U.S. I don't know what type of market share they possess but it would stand to reason it is not an enormous share, say like, Science Diet or some of the Purina lines. Hence, they would have fewer complaints.

Originally Posted by NutroMike

True but there is an enormous difference between being forced off the shelves by a government agency and finding the problem and immediately being proactive about it.
...

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Originally Posted by NutroMike

Most of the major market share pet foods have had recalls. The important thing for me is that it's a voluntary recall. ....

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Since there is currently NO government agency endowed with the authority to enforce a pet food recall, these comments are rather disingenuous. ALL pet food recalls and "withdrawals" are voluntary, every single one of them. Even the largest recall in US history, triggered by the massive 2007 pet food poisoning that resulted in thousands of pet deaths, was done - had to be done - strictly on a "voluntary" basis.

AC

Originally Posted by NutroMike

Originally Posted by darlili

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And, honestly, any company is damned if they do, and damned if they don't, regarding recalls. Heck, Trader Joe recalled their wet pet food during the big recall out of an abundance of caution.

But, I suspect food is one of those issues where you have 'true believers' and others, and rarely will the twain meet. ...

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... And you're right about the "damned if they do, damned if they don't" statement

...

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I heartily disagree with this take on recalls, and on pet owners.

Perfection is unattainable. But perfection isn't what most cat and dog owners want - it's honesty and the simple ability to trust the manufacturer of the foods they're feeding their beloved pets.

It isn't whether a company has a recall or two in their history that's important, it's very much about HOW they handle those recalls. Companies that do a decent job of trying to reach their customers to inform them of the action taken (a la Primal with their 31 May recall - notices went up on their website as well as their Facebook and Twitter accounts and emails were sent directly to customers for whom they had addresses), earn the respect and loyalty of their customers. By their honesty and transparency in "admitting" they have a quality control issue and reaching out to as many consumers as they can with the alert, it's clear their priorities lie with the health and needs of those customers and their pets.

The vast majority of recalls, however, are kept as quiet as the company thinks it can get away with. Many are drop and run notices published late on Friday afternoons and are missed as folks head off for their weekend activities. By the time Monday rolls around, other news has buried the notices and the public remains largely unaware.

These actions are taken specifically to keep the company's public relations machine humming nicely along, not to protect customers and their pets. And companies that engage in this type of recall activity earn every bit of the condemnation they receive.

Pet owners, by and large, are more aware and more informed than the 2007 public. They know that relabeling a recall as a withdrawal does nothing to help pets, is not intended to help pets, and is, in fact, nothing but a PR spin; therefore, obviously, engaging in this type of double-speak does nothing (can do nothing!) but erode customer confidence.

Feeding Fluffy and Fido should NOT require constant vigilance or a degree in animal nutrition; people just want to be able to pick out a food they can trust is truly healthy for their pet. Unfortunately, until pet food companies begin putting consumers first, until they begin conversing honestly and transparently with consumers when something goes wrong, they are simply - as a just and direct result of their behavior - going to have to deal with the public's anger and mistrust.

Best regards.

AC

Originally Posted by NutroMike

Yes, it is a pay per click site. Has absolutely no credibility regarding recalls etc. Nutro has been around 80 years. They will have more complaints than the brand new pet food companies. Some of these companies have only been around a few years and have already experienced recalls.

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You are entirely confused. My link goes a Google Search. Not a website. Your computer must be broken or something..

Originally Posted by Auntie Crazy

I heartily disagree with this take on recalls, and on pet owners.

Perfection is unattainable. But perfection isn't what most cat and dog owners want - it's honesty and the simple ability to trust the manufacturer of the foods they're feeding their beloved pets........

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Thanks for your post Auntie Crazy, I always love them

Originally Posted by Auntie Crazy

Feeding Fluffy and Fido should NOT require constant vigilance or a degree in animal nutrition; people just want to be able to pick out a food they can trust is truly healthy for their pet. Unfortunately, until pet food companies begin putting consumers first, until they begin conversing honestly and transparently with consumers when something goes wrong, they are simply - as a just and direct result of their behavior - going to have to deal with the public's anger and mistrust.AC

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That is it exactly.