So what is so bad about Nestle Purina ?

Maybe I have been living under a rock but I don't see what is so bad about  NP .

 I know  that people ( myself included )  on TCS feed Purina products  ( Friskies , Fancy Feast etc...)  ...

I have read that people will no longer feed Merrick products now just because Purina bought them .. 

Please enlighten me ... 

I wonder about that as well.  I have fed my cats Friskies canned food for years and never had a problem.

2Cats4Me said:

 
Maybe I have been living under a rock but I don't see what is so bad about  NP .

 I know  that people ( myself included )  on TCS feed Purina products  ( Friskies , Fancy Feast etc...)  ...

I have read that people will no longer feed Merrick products now just because Purina bought them .. 

Please enlighten me ... 

Click to expand...

This is my opinion and I could be wrong. I have a feeling that it's partly because NP is so readily available pretty much everywhere and they make such a wide variety of products that they can't be really good at one thing. Kind of a "jack of all trades, master of none" thing. Will they now lower the standards and use cheaper ingredients than a smaller manufacturer would. 

I think that it's also because they do make the more affordable food that some don't want to associate with that. The thought process being that if they make Friskies, why would I want my high end food made in a vat right next to it? Are they really the same thing with different labels? I think some people are concerned that they are no longer getting what they pay for. 

Between a big producer like Purina or Mars or Big Heart (Smucker) or Hill's (Colgate) or P&G (although P&G brands have gone to Mars I guess) (probably forgot a few) and SOME other companies there may be a significant difference in the quality/state/type/grade of ingredients that go in.

Between Purina and Merrick?  Not as much, I'm thinking.  The main difference is Merrick is already big in grain-free diets and Purina is really not in that space so much.  So this is their easy way to get into that space and claim their share of the growing higher end pet food market.  I don't believe Merrick would have been using a higher grade of meat ingredient or anything.

But really, what is so "bad"?  Eh.  About the products themselves I'd say they're probably no worse than any other pet food produced on an extremely huge scale.  Sometimes this leads to a higher likelihood of problems (contamination and recall) and we tend to think that the large companies are less forthcoming about the nature of what is going into their products.  Pet food typically uses meat that is otherwise not fit or not used for human consumption.  Whether this is bad is probably more emotion than science but in some cases it might be.  Big pet food producers have (apparently successfully) fought against other smaller producers being able to label their ingredients as "human grade" with any kind of accuracy.  Basically, a big pet food producer would like us to believe that all pet food is the same, even as they realize people are willing to spend more for stuff that appears not to be the same.

I would say, if you're looking for a low priced but adequate food, it probably doesn't matter if it comes from Purina or whomever.  All the cheapest things are going to come from pretty large production because of the economies of scale.  But if you're spending more, make sure you're actually getting something more and not just fancy packaging and marketing.  I think that's kinda what Kat0121 was saying above about Merrick, that now if the "efficiencies" mean that this product could be produced in plants alongside Friskies or whatever, is the extra money that the Merrick products cost really worth it?

One part of my dislike of Purina is they make crap foods like Beneful. Another part is their advertising. For example, one of their tv ads bragged that dogs fed their Dog Chow food lived an average of 2 years longer than dogs fed other leading brands based on a 14 year study. As I have access to veterinary studies, I read the study. The study looked at one group of labrador retrievers fed Dog Chow on a free-feeding basis and another group of labs fed on a scheduled basis. Both groups were fed the same calories. After 14 years, they compared the two groups. Basically, they found that the dogs fed on scheduled basis lived an average of two years longer than the free-fed group and they had better body condition scores. So they were not comparing Dog Chow to other leading brands like their ad said. So misleading yet they sue Blue Buffalo for false advertising. (Not a fan of theirs either). If one is to judge a pet food by its ingredients, Purina's ingredients are mediocre.

Purina, over all, is a dependable brand. And by dependable I mean they are AAFCO approved, so their foods are all technically considered a "balanced diet".

I have no issue with Purina. All of my cats prior to my kitten that I have now (he now eats Blue Buffalo. He had a GI reaction to a salmon flavor of Purina and after that would turn his nose up at ANY of their food)

But, I think the issue with Purina is, what others have pointed out, they are considered 'cheap'. They use meat by-products, which is a "no-no" for some. And, although, Purina makes SEVERAL different diets of all cost ranges and quality: Many people see them as a lower quality brand. Plain and simple. 

I'm a Veterinary Assistant, I know Veterinarians that feed their animals Purina. Like I said, I have fed my cats it before.They are a decent brand!

I think my only issue with them is the company itself: not the food. They had a petty law suit against another food company that I found ridiculous and overly competitive. But, I digress.

Merrick is a higher quality food. I'm sure people worry that the ingredients will change or that the limited ingredient diets will be tainted by the same factory as other diets and allergies will be an issue.

Who knows, people are paranoid about that stuff. lol

I don't hate Purina. My issue is all the corn they use in the One. Their Beyond products are pretty good, though the Beyond dry kibble is a little too rich for me. My cat loves the canned Beyond, and the ingredients look healthy-- it makes a nice change in his eating routine.