Man this really sucks, as I feed several of my animals Natura products. My 10yo dog has been on Innova, or CN practically his whole life. It is the one food that he does really well on and his allergies don't flare up. My other cat Kattie is on CN because of her mega colon and it has the lowest fiber I can find, plus she has skin allergies too. I did email Natura and they "assured" me that the quality of the food will not go down, and the reasoning behind this buyout is so that they can market their food to a wider range of pet owners. Somehow I don't believe that they can keep the quality of the ingredients and sell at places like walmart too aka Iams. My other cat Oscar is on Blue Wilderness and Blue Spa Select. Now that company is really helpful and answers all my emails usually in the same day. I wanted to switch my dog to Blue Buffalo, but the dog food analysis website says it is only a 4 star food when the innova he is on is 5 star. Also I am wondering if the fiber difference in Blue vs CN will affect Kattie's mega colon. The Blue foods are usually around 3% fiber and CN is 1.5% fiber. She eats plenty of canned and drinks plenty of water so maybe I could switch but I am afraid to.
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VERY IMPORTANT - P&G buys more quality food
- Thread starter goldenkitty45
- Start Date
I wouldn't be against them making the products more readily available, at the moment it is difficult for me to obtain(CN) and requires a special trip to a store i otherwise do not shop at. I think if better quality foods were made more commonly available they may increase their market base, especially for those of us in more remote areas with limited choices for feeds locally.
I am concerned with an ingredient change however, but i have kept an old package to keep an eye out for changes and i will wait and see what happens.
I am concerned with an ingredient change however, but i have kept an old package to keep an eye out for changes and i will wait and see what happens.
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I feel exactly the same way. Tolly is THRIVING on the Innova flex chicken and brown rice stew and the CN venison and brown rice. I've never seen him so sleek. He's 11 years old with liver damage, and Has been taking phenobarbital for 8 years, but you'd never know it.
My Jennie does not have megacolon but she has trouble with constipation. Like your Kattie, I have her on a low fiber food, and grain free. The only diet I have found that keeps her regular is Wellness grain free chicken. If I try to vary it, more than once a week, she has trouble.
I wonder how she would do on the CN, since your Kattie is doing so well on it. Does CN have some grain free flavors?
More variety might help Jennie not feel so crazed for food all the time, plus the CN has fewer calories than the Wellness. (Jennie eats only 1 1/2 of a 3 oz.can of the Wellness grain free chicken a day, but she is over weight on that much. She was a good weight on only ONE 3 oz can, but it just wasn't enough quantity to satisfy her. But any time I try to give her a different food, or even flavor, for variety, she has trouble pooping again.
<edit> The wellness grain free chicken is only 1 % fiber.
What CN flavors does Kattie eat?
I will e mail Natura too.
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If the ingrediants change ... with Naturas tract record I would expect them Not to notify the customers add the buy out... but I for one will avoid them for at least the next 18 months as that will likely be the change s occur rapidly time frame....
I agree this stinks. My cats love their Innova Evo dry. I switched to grain free dry food during the pet food scare. I am not looking forward to having to go through another foood change. One of my cats is 15 and the other one is 4. I have another 15 year old that only eats wet food but he does not do well with the grain free wet foods anyway.
Fortunately the family owned store I get my dry food at is warning their customers about this change. They will probably quit carrying the Evo I use. They will work with there customers to find new foods. You can buy small bags and return them if your pet does not like the food. Anyone have any dry food reccomendations. I currently use Innova Evo weight control as my dry food. I am hoping to be able to stay grain free.
I have to warn a friend of mine who also feeds her cats Evo.
Fortunately the family owned store I get my dry food at is warning their customers about this change. They will probably quit carrying the Evo I use. They will work with there customers to find new foods. You can buy small bags and return them if your pet does not like the food. Anyone have any dry food reccomendations. I currently use Innova Evo weight control as my dry food. I am hoping to be able to stay grain free.
I have to warn a friend of mine who also feeds her cats Evo.
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I would for the dog suggest the Core wellness in either wt control or reg ( reg has 14% fat..lol I also have dogs
)
I just sent a message to California Natural. I really don't have a lot of options if Nabu stops eating the food.
He's very very picky.
So you feel if they change their ingredients, they will not inform their customers.. ie; bags will remain the same but contents will change.
Can you expand on the statement regarding their track record? as i am unfamiliar with it.
thanks.
Can you expand on the statement regarding their track record? as i am unfamiliar with it.
thanks.
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I was talking to the owner of the feed store where I get my Natura foods today. I told her I wanted to stock up, because of the pending buy out and that I feared the quality of the foods would suffer. She agreed with me that it was likely to happen, though maybe not right away.
As for labels, if they don't make any change in the actual ingredients, but only the quality of the ingredients, they don't have to change a thing on the labels. That is why it is so distressing.
It may still be chicken, for example, but instead of high quality fresh chicken, it may be some nasty chicken coming from who knows where.
Tolly will be able to tell the difference, there is no doubt of that.
As for labels, if they don't make any change in the actual ingredients, but only the quality of the ingredients, they don't have to change a thing on the labels. That is why it is so distressing.
It may still be chicken, for example, but instead of high quality fresh chicken, it may be some nasty chicken coming from who knows where.
Tolly will be able to tell the difference, there is no doubt of that.
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Plants can't order "nasty chicken", it doesn't come like that. There's chicken by-product, chicken, and chicken meal. All of it has to have certificates of analysis and then the plants will do their own analysis, too.
To Otto:
Kattie is doing great on CN Chicken and Rice formula. The dry version of this has 1.5% fiber which is what she needs. I have also been mixing Blue Wilderness Chicken into it to see how that does. It is 3% fiber but is high protein low carb. I was also thinking about Wellness Core as well. She does eat canned twice a day as well. Sometimes I have to entice her with the cheaper brands like Fancy Feast, but I try and use the appetizers variety that is jsut meat and no by product. She is also on lactulose as well. Since we started her on that protocol she hasn't had a "clean out" since the beginning of October. before that it was every 3-4 months that she'd get stopped up. I have taken her home though from work and so I can watch her more closely and hopefully we continue to do well
Kattie is doing great on CN Chicken and Rice formula. The dry version of this has 1.5% fiber which is what she needs. I have also been mixing Blue Wilderness Chicken into it to see how that does. It is 3% fiber but is high protein low carb. I was also thinking about Wellness Core as well. She does eat canned twice a day as well. Sometimes I have to entice her with the cheaper brands like Fancy Feast, but I try and use the appetizers variety that is jsut meat and no by product. She is also on lactulose as well. Since we started her on that protocol she hasn't had a "clean out" since the beginning of October. before that it was every 3-4 months that she'd get stopped up. I have taken her home though from work and so I can watch her more closely and hopefully we continue to do well
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OH! Now I remember who Kattie is!
congratulations to you both on Kattie coming to her forever home, by the way!
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Chicken can come from a source whose chickens are well fed and taken care of, slaughtered and processed right away. Or chicken can come from a source where the chickens are fed crap, mass slaughtered and not used right away.
Not all pet foods get their ingredients from the same sources. Some sources are better than others. Cheaper foods get cheaper, less quality, ingredients. One example would be the melamine poisoning three years a go. Many foods use wheat gluten, not all foods using wheat gluten were affected, because not all pet food manufacturers get their ingredients from the same places.
Using Innova, a family owned company up until now, as an example, they have always used the finest quality ingredients. P&G is not the engorged profit fat monster they are because they uphold the standards of these companies they buy out.
P&G are all about mass production. They can (and most likely will) keep the ingredient list the same, while using poorer quality, cheaper ingredients. Same on the list, poorer quality in the can. And I bet the price will go UP, not down.
I suppose that is a possibility, the quality changing vs the actual ingredients, perhaps more than likely the source of these?
Such a frustrating situation. It's so uncertain. Definitely not something i like surrounding my pets foods.
I wonder if many stores will discontinue carrying their products?
Such a frustrating situation. It's so uncertain. Definitely not something i like surrounding my pets foods.
I wonder if many stores will discontinue carrying their products?
Originally Posted by otto
I was talking to the owner of the feed store where I get my Natura foods today. I told her I wanted to stock up, because of the pending buy out and that I feared the quality of the foods would suffer. She agreed with me that it was likely to happen, though maybe not right away.
As for labels, if they don't make any change in the actual ingredients, but only the quality of the ingredients, they don't have to change a thing on the labels. That is why it is so distressing.
It may still be chicken, for example, but instead of high quality fresh chicken, it may be some nasty chicken coming from who knows where.
Tolly will be able to tell the difference, there is no doubt of that.
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And I'm telling you, they don't separate it out as much as you think - if you eat processed meat of any kind, you could very well be eating the meat that came from the same source as your cat's food.
The local Mars plant, for example, gets their chicken straight from a local meat processing plant in town (which does not let any meat sit around). Even the cheaper foods that took chicken got the same chicken that the $35 per 10lb bag food did - which was a human grade (think processed meats like hot dogs..) chicken. The "nastier" stuff gets tossed in with the by-product mix. My guess is they'll use the same chicken and meats that they use in their higher end foods simply because that's what the plants that get that product will have in stock and will be closest to the foods they're already spec'ed to run. Any quality drop won't be in the quality of the meat used unless they drop down to by-product.
As for glutens, yes I know they have multiple sources for that. During the melamine incident a few years ago I had a full list of every supplier - and all the information on those suppliers, that the local plant used because I did feed some of their food. I could probably dig up that list and some of those suppliers are probably still used by various companies.
But a better question may be whether P&G will even be able to afford taking on anything new right now. They just had some serious losses.
I might buy a last bag of NATURA made food before they can kiss my loyalty good bye in June when the p&g ownership is supposed to be finalized.
I went up yesterday to the store where I buy Cal Natural with the thought of stocking up. They only had one bag, but were supposed to get more in today or tomorrow. I was talking with the guy and told him that I wanted to stock up before P&G started lowering the quality. He said that there is supposedly a clause in the contract that P&G can't do that. I told him I would believe that when I see it, and he agreed with me. I'll go up tomorrow and get a few more bags, but I guess its going to be back to the drawing board to find something that they will eat.
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Lol during the buyout of another big food company that was said... today a formula/ line that was wheat free for over a decade has wheat in it
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I like the idea of stocking up on Evo before the takeover, but how fresh can unopened dry food last? Normally, I would buy the smallest bag available and it usually last about 2 months (because I feed him 75% wet; 25% dry).
I'd like to stock up, but freshness is a concern.
I'd like to stock up, but freshness is a concern.
I only bought 1 more bag of California Natural. I have an extra air tight container that fits the whole 15 lb unopened bag into it. Plus I just started a 15 lb bag and it lasts us quite a while.
I think even by the time we're done with the current bag I'll be able to tell if Natura/P&G decide to change the food. I definitely will by the time we're done with the second bag.
