Purina Buys Merrick; 18 Months Later

[thegreystalker]

Purina purchased rival pet food maker Merrick in the summer of 2015.  Have any of you Merrick customers noticed any changes in the formulas or changes in your cat's attitude regarding the taste of Merrick, good or ill?  The only Merrick product we have experimented with is Whole Earth Farms Duck Recipe (wet), which I purchased after Purina took over Merrick.

 

[destinyz12]

I don't know about prior to then, but currently my really picky cat is very satisfied with the Merrick Purrfect Bistro trays, which are fairly new i think, and have better ingredients than most of the Merrick canned food I've seen (which to my knowledge are recipes that have been around for at least a few years), so what I've seen is positive so far regarding Merrick, food wise. It is currently her favorite food and she's been very healthy with a really soft shiny coat. The price isn't the most budget friendly though, at $1.60 a tray individually or $1.48 a tray when bought in bulk from Chewy (3.5 oz each). 

 

[zoocat]

I think their limited ingredient canned food is really good and my cats love it --four flavors: chicken, turkey, duck and salmon. I don't think they had these prior to Purina purchasing Merrick.

 

[banbury]

I was feeding the limited ingredient chicken and turkey formulas (wet) to both of my cats until one got very sick. My youngest was throwing up for almost three days and couldn't even hold water down. My (slightly) older cat had eaten from a different can and flavor and was perfectly fine.

A few hundred dollars later at the vet and after ruling out an impaction in his GI tract, it had to have been something he ingested. Seeing as they're indoor only, don't have accesss to anything hazardous, that really only left the food.

On top of all of that, their customer service was even more of a kicker. Complete lack of empathy. I wasn't calling to complain, just to file s report in case there was something wrong with the batch. Dealing with their customer service after also dealing with a sick cat for days left a very sour taste in my mouth. I've now switched both my cats off of their food.

 

[zoocat]

Gosh, I hope your cat is okay now. Given that report, I don't think I'll be buying any more of their food--dang, it's ingredients look so good. It's just so hard to try to feed them safe food.

 

[banbury]

Thanks, he's doing well now! He was given an injection of anti-nausea meds at the vet which help him start to keep water down. I think by then his stomach was just so upset by being sick, it was just making it a viscous circle. I lucked out because he's young and healthy; if it had happened to an older cat or one with medical issues, I'm not sure how it would have turned out. It probably took him at least a week before he had a semi normal appetite again.

I was super disappointed though because my cats were happy on the food before all of that and I really liked the limited ingredient versions, but I just couldnt do it.

 

[thegreystalker]

Very sorry to hear about your troubles with Merrick.  Your cat's health is the most important thing, but hearing about shoddy customer service always infuriates me.

 

[Gizmobius]

I just bought a case of the rabbit pate as it's one of the few flavors that doesn't have carrageenan. It hasn't arrived yet, but I've got a pretty ravenous kitten who hasn't scoffed at any food I've put in front of him so I'm sure he'll go to town on it.