How good is Nutro dry cat food?
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
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 messageOriginally Posted by buckeye204
How good is Nutro dry cat food?
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
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.
^This.Originally Posted by otto
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.
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.
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.Originally Posted by buckeye204
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.
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.Originally Posted by buckeye204
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.
Misty, what are you using for wet now?Originally Posted by Misty8723
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.
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 ), 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.
http://www.google.com/search?q=nutro...ient=firefox-aOriginally Posted by NutroMike
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?
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.
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).Originally Posted by NutroMike
Misty, what are you using for wet now?