cats loved the first bag of Primal freeze-dried, won't touch the second

As the title indicates, Abby and Tim loved the first bag of Primal freeze-dried turkey. Each time I fed it, they gobbled it and begged for more. This made me happy, because I am trying to expand Tim's food variety and I am trying to get Abby to eat more raw.

Because the first bag was such a hit, I bought a second bag in the larger size. Neither cat will have anything to do with it. Even Tim, who is not normally a picky cat, approaches the bowl and backs off. Could there be such variation between bags that they would love the food from one, but completely refuse food from another? When they refused the turkey last night, I gave them Primal beef and salmon, so they are not refusing all freeze-dried raw.

Any thoughts or insights would be greatly appreciated. I plan to return the large bag and try another small bag.

Our cats eat a lot of Primal and have never had a reaction like that... but I do notice that the textures of the "loaves" can vary. Have you tried mixing two kinds of foods? Maybe they'd eat the turkey if you mixed a little in with the beef? We almost always mix the various Primal flavors, along with a little bit of Stella & Chewy's.

Good luck!

I would be suspicious if my cats reacted like that. I think the food is off perhaps. My boys have reacted like that to a can of food they normally eat, and then they ate a different one just fine. So I would be inclined to be cautious.
How is Primal's customer service? Can you return for a refund or exchange?

I've been feeding Primal FD turkey for about a year now and the cats love it, although sometimes I thought they may be getting tired of it, but overall they are fine with the food.

One thing about Primal that I've had experiences with (and I would definitely suggest you call the company, they are extremely helpful  - great customer service and see about either an exchange or return), is that their food tends to vary from batch to batch, occasionally.

In the past, with the frozen raw foods, there were several occasions where I had to return the food - e.g., the rabbit. I was told that the meat varied "from batch to batch" b/c they were using two different sources of rabbit (at that time, lately I've not had a problem). My one cat, who loves Primal's rabbit, wouldn't touch the food on three separate occasions.  This was about two years ago, however, all is good now. I've noticed on another blog also, someone who recommends this food, also noted that Primal meats vary from batch to batch.

Wherever you purchased the food from - indy store or online, call Primal, they will get the address of the retailer, and reimburse the retailer, you can either exchange the food or get your money back.

I've actually wanted to know why the nuggets sometimes vary in texture, e.g., some crumble very easily, they are soft and powdery, while other nuggets - and nuggets in the same bag, are hard as a rock and break apart with difficulty.

Anyway, they are a great company (they offer full transparency to their customers re: all their ingredients - info available on truthaboutpetfood.com) so do give them a call to get this issue resolved.

P.S.  

One thing I also noticed, and I don't know if this is the case where you purchased your FD Primal from -- my local indy retailer hangs the bags of Primal FD on a hanging rack (due to lack of space), with a single hole punch on the bag. I noticed on several bags that Primal's "seal" on their bags was never fully closed.  (I ended up testing all the bags and all of them were half opened). This normally would not be an issue since the bags are glued at the top, so no air is leaking anywhere from the bags. With the hole punch, however, the staff were putting the hole punch right above the half opened seal to hang the bags, instead of punching the hole above the upper part of the bag that's glued, hence, using the former method, the food was compromised, exposed to air.  I showed the staff and owner the issue and now they put the hole punch at the upper most part of the bag, above the area that's glued.

Anyway, just thought I'd mention this.

Thanks, all for your replies!

I've tried two feedings from this particular bag and neither cat will touch it. I tend to trust their noses and if they don't want to eat it, I won't force it. For Tim, anyway, we need to keep his food as simple as possible, so I try not to mix proteins or even too many types of the same protein for any given meal. His stomach is very sensitive and I can definitely tell when I've given him too much variety, even if a given food on its own is fine.

I think I will contact Primal to see what they say. Then return the bag to the store I bought it from.

Thank you guys for verifying that I am not crazy.

I have a very similar problem with frozen Primal.  My female will eat Primal just fine for months, then one day we'll open up a new bag and she won't touch it or occasionally she'll throw it up.  We'll go and exchange the bag, and then she has no problems (identical formulas, also frozen).  It's really weird and definitely seems to be the food and not the cat.  Luckily, our local supplier will take bags back no questions asked, but every time I feel bad about it (and I worry they're going to think I'm nuts!).

One particularly weird week, when we opened a new bag, our female completely refused to touch it.  Our male ate it happily for a few days but  each day we noticed his appetite got smaller and smaller.  Just before we hit the panic button and called the vet, we tried a new bag and everyone's appetites were completely normal.  It's extremely weird.

Our solution right now is doing freeze dried, and so far we haven't had any problems.  (Sorry that doesn't help you since you're struggling with this type!)  I will say that we have only had trouble with the Chicken and Salmon variety, but it's the only one we've fed regularly (they only occasionally get pheasant or rabbit) so it's hard to say if this is the only type that has problems.

One theory I have (at least for the times when Zelda actually throws up and doesn't just turn her nose up at it) is that in some batches the nuggets are processed on the same machinery.  Zelda has a pretty severe beef intolerance (it goes down, comes back up within 30 seconds and she doesn't stop throwing up for the next 10-20 minutes) and I think just having a little beef juice mixed in might set her off.  But I don't think that's the whole story.

Kaquel, I would definitely give Primal a call. As I mentioned to AbbyNTim, Primal's customer service is excellent, you will likely speak with Angeline. At a minimum, they will reimburse the retailer but they are also genuinely concerned with any negative issues that may arise with their products, this much I know from past experience. They will want to know the batch number or best buy date of the item(s) in question. Good luck.