Nature's Variety Instinct wet - formula change?

This was mentioned briefly in another thread: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/272867/...ion-urinary-crystals-food-sensitivites-asthma

Cocheezie loved the rabbit and went off of it suddenly, as did another cat Tim. Both had NVI rabbit with an expiry date of Feb 2015. Cocheezie has also gone off the NVI beef cans, even though she will bury her face in FF beef and a different brand of rabbit. The NVI rabbit and beef were her go-to foods. Now she won't touch them.

I'm wondering if anyone has similar experiences or has heard about a formula change. I shall be emailing the company to ask.

It wouldn't surprise me. I know for a fact that at least one of their dry formulas has changed, so I'm assuming the others have, too. It was pretty drastic, with less protein and higher carbs. A ferret website went into details just last month about changes to the raw formulas. It seems NV may have made changes all across their product lines. I cannot find anything specifically about the canned, but I thought someone from TCS said they changed their rabbit source from China to some other country, so maybe the different rabbit source makes it taste different. I cannot find the thread/post and there are like a million threads about Nature's Variety. 

I guess I'll try running around and see if there are older cans out there. I've spent tons of money on cans of this and that in the last 9  months trying to find something/anything she'll eat. Back to the drawing board (and the cat food aisles at the local stores).

I know how frustrating it is to finally find something they'll eat only to have it change. What about their Pork Formula?

The pork formula is not available here. I tried Hounds and Gatos pork over the weekend. The feral was the only one who liked it. Waiting to hear back from NVI. Sent them an email.

Bummer. I figured with the rabbit formula being rabbit and pork, that maybe she'd like just the pork.

I've been feeding only the chicken and the beef.   He still eats the chicken or he at it last week but the last 2 times I've given him the beef he picked at it.   Today he ate the beef in the morning but when I gave it to him late afternoon he sniffed at it and walked away.  

I noticed there's very little smell to the beef flavor I tried today.   I put it in the microwave to heat it up for a few seconds and it still didn't give off a strong smell. Weird.  It looks different too.   I'm not sure if this is something new or not. 

I had a similar problem years ago with a previous cat. Occasionally he would flat out refuse to eat the NV I bought. I would then buy NV from a different store and then he would eat again.A NV rep told me that NV has a few different processing plants and each plant may source their ingredients from different places. So while the same recipie is used, a cat may detect a slight difference in the ingredients and refuse to eat.

LTS3 said:

 
I had a similar problem years ago with a previous cat. Occasionally he would flat out refuse to eat the NV I bought. I would then buy NV from a different store and then he would eat again.A NV rep told me that NV has a few different processing plants and each plant may source their ingredients from different places. So while the same recipie is used, a cat may detect a slight difference in the ingredients and refuse to eat.

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That's very interesting and might explain why our cats, too, are so back-and-forth about NVI foods. It's never been their favorite food but sometimes they completely refuse it! Today, though, they happily ate the chicken.

It was a PITA to check every single can of NV at the store for the batch / lot number and buy only the ones from a certain processing plant

I haven't had any problems feeding NV to my current two cats. Maybe they're less finicky

Thanks for the support and info. Yeah, I'm not looking forward to it. The stores here don't put many cans on the shelf at any given time, so it means driving around to every pet food store in town (9 or 10?), checking, and asking if there's any in the back, then buying one or two cans to try. Road trip!

I tried the Halo wet rabbit and pea yesterday - no go.

I ordered a cast of NI Chicken last week from Amazon for the first time.     Hopefully, its not like the beef my kitten was picking at

Tried the beef with an expiry date of Jan 2015 again last night. Nope. NVI has yet to respond to my email. Shall try again later today.

I have long since lost my awe of Nature's Variety when I discovered foods just as good and often better at better prices. 

Thehistorian said:

 
I have long since lost my awe of Nature's Variety when I discovered foods just as good and often better at better prices. 

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Which foods are you using?       I need to find something more than chicken to feed(Natural Choice, Weruva I feed now).    I have been feeding the Natures Variety Beef, Lamb and Duck but since my cat turned his nose at the beef this week I think I'll have to explore other options. 

Lokhismom said:

 
Which foods are you using?       I need to find something more than chicken to feed(Natural Choice, Weruva I feed now).    I have been feeding the Natures Variety Beef, Lamb and Duck but since my cat turned his nose at the beef this week I think I'll have to explore other options. 

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I feed Nutro Natural Choice Chicken soft loaf pate, NNCC Turkey soft loaf pate, NNCC Duck soft loaf pate, L.I.D. Natural Balance Venison pate, and Sheba Beef pate. I do need to find more wet foods to rotate myself, but for right now she is eating all of the 3 oz. can of these varieties in the morning, thank goodness. 

I wish my girl liked more than chicken and duck. If she develops allergies I am in trouble. She will pick at rabbit. Says no to beef, venison, fish, turkey, lamb. She likes several, but only the grain free keeps her from vomiting. She likes nutro natural choice chunky chicken loaf or minced chicken dinner. She likes Merrick chicken or duck pate.

Good news is my kitty at up all this Natures Variety chicken this morning.     I noticed the chicken is more moist and had more juice than the beef he refused last week. 

Was this the company that ran out of its rabbitt suppy? 

The NVI rep asked me for exact expiry dates, but since I told my DH not to feed it to our cats, he put the rest out for the feral. Recycling picked up the cans this morning. The beef was Jan 2015 and the rabbit was Feb 2015, but the rep wants more precise expiry dates. Going cat food can hunting tomorrow (what your cat thinks you are doing when you go out and come back with fresh cans of cat food). Maybe there will still be some on the shelf. I'll have to ask the store staff if they sell a lot of NVI, but it's still a crap shoot if it's the same lot.