What Is Going On With Fancy Feast?

Furballsmom

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eeewwww, the pig hair review was gross, yuck!

Anyway, Purina foods have been undergoing a lot of changes and revisions to their formulas ever since Nestle bought them a few years ago, and in my opinion not for the better.

I nearly had a serious result of this early in 2018. I didn't immediately realize what exactly was happening because my boy gets some other foods, but he is addicted to Fancy Feast. The style we were getting for him had been changed and he didn't like it.

So, he started losing weight. I finally happened to see a thread on this site that there were other people having difficulties with FF, so I changed my focus of 2-3 years at that point (of trying to get him to eat so-called better foods/brands), to local Walmart and grocery store brands and even Petco although I mostly boycott them as much as I can, but my situation had just gotten urgent.

Today, he's gained the weight back and he's eating a couple decent brands like Merrick Backcountry but he WILL NOT let me take him off FF. Currently he's liking their Medleys Florentine. I'm anticipating that they'll change that as well at some point, but at least this time I know what to look for and can hopefully adjust a lot more quickly.
 

Willowy

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Um, if someone found an opened can in the closet after several days and it had "black hair" on it, it was definitely mold, not pig hair, lol.

Pig hair is small and bristly and sparse, and there's not a big chance of it ending up in pet food. I did find a fair-sized chunk of pig skin in there once though. Meat is gross.

Anyway, if you go looking for reviews of any food, you'll find a lot of bad ones. People usually don't write NICE reviews.
 
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EmersonandEvie

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Um, if someone found an opened can in the closet after several days and it had "black hair" on it, it was definitely mold, not pig hair, lol.

Pig hair is small and bristly and sparse, and there's not a big chance of it ending up in pet food. I did find a fair-sized chunk of pig skin in there once though. Meat is gross.

Anyway, if you go looking for reviews of any food, you'll find a lot of bad ones. People usually don't write NICE reviews.
I thought that as well! Closet...dark...warm...plus cat food...can only equal mold, not a rogue pig hair!

I know that's true about the reviews but these were all over, even from different continents. And members on here have mentioned Fancy Feast changing their formulations and where they source their ingredients. Just stuff to think about...
 

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I would like to know overall how many cans of food they sell in a day/week/month/year. It has to be a astronomical amount when you think how many people use that food worldwide.

I’m sure the ratios overall for complaints are probably pretty low in the grand scheme of things (not that I’m saying they should be dismissed).

It seems to be the issues are the cans made in France. In Canada I have not seen any cans not made in USA. I will admit some flavours my cats no longer eat and a few that make them vomit.
 

mizzely

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That's another thing. I've seen several people in the US say their cat won't eat Chicken Pate labeled made in France but Fancy Feast claims that ONLY grilled flavors sold in the case are made in France. Not sure what's going on there!
 

Tillybug

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I’ve read that the France cans have the round pull tab instead of the square.

I had a few cans with the round pull tab but they were still labeled made in USA but then I’ve also read they don’t legally have to change the labels for a length of time.
 

Richard2121

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The Fancy Feast did change. I actually made a thread about this awhile back and the link is escaping me. But I had come close to running out of my usual stock at the time (Fancy Feast Classic Pates) and I ordered more. I had seen something online about Purina "refocusing" their ingredients, but the ingredients label looked the same.

The only things I could think of is they must have started sourcing their proteins from somewhere else, using a lower or higher amount of some bonding agent, or added something to their artificial flavoring. Any flavors with fish in it, even if it was lower on the ingredients list, smelled like it was made mostly of fish (example: the classic chicken pate smelled like ground up walleye). And on top of all that the consistency was noticeably different. There used to be a slight molded shape and somewhat solid feel to the pate and now it is much softer and the "gravy" stuff that lines the outer edge seemed either more mixed into the food or there was less of it altogether. I noticed this especially with the beef flavor and chicken & liver flavor.

Well my cats noticed too. They refused to eat the same food that they were obsessed with the day before I got this shipment. The thing is I had a few cans remaining from my previous shipment I received a month prior. I would try to feed the "old formula" to them and the would devour it as usual. Then I would try to mix the new stuff in and they would walk away. I actually had to spend a month "transitioning" my cats from one formula of Fancy Feast to the new one and it turned out to be a waste of time. I now rarely feed Fancy Feast at all because they will only eat the Chicken & Beef combo flavor or the Kitten Chicken flavor.

I will say I am disappointed in Purina for even making the slightest change to the formula for one of their most dependable cat foods. For anyone out there trying to phase Fancy Feast out of your kitty's rotation, Tiny Tiger (Pates and chunks in gravy) and Blue Buffalo Freedom Indoor Flaked Chicken have been my successful brands and flavors of choice. My cats have been eating primarily these brands for the past couple of weeks and basically no Fancy Feast. I also had some success with Dave's Shredded Chicken Dinner but have not had a chance to pick up more cases yet. I could rant all day about how frustrating it is that pet food companies change their formula so often. Mostly their reasoning is not for the pet's benefit but to increase their profit margins. They know full-well that any slight change will not go unnoticed by a cat. How can pet food companies expect us pet owners to carry the unnecessary and stressful burden of switching foods all willy-nilly every time they decide they need to cut corners.
 

Richard2121

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Oh wow, thanks for the tips on possible food choices :)!
No problem! This is like my extended cat owner family where I bring all my questions. Glad I could contribute. I also mix in some of Kroger/Pick N Save’s brands Abound and Luvsome which seem to be a huge hit here as well. Abound is grain free and Luvsome is not. :)
 

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knowing Nestle, it's probably about money. But, to give them the benefit of the doubt, maybe they've been experimenting with some changes that would increase the quality of their food - but decrease it's attractiveness for cats as a side effect?

As a general rule I don't trust cat food that is loved by every cat, and Fancy Feast usually is. Maybe they have been messing around with their "artificial flavour" to make it healthier (I know some retailers plan to stop selling food with artificial additives - Petco?- all present in fancy Feast). My guess is that cats love FF because of their artificial flavour - if that is changed, improved in a way, well, that may explain why cats stop eating it? Just one of the theories.

EDITED to ask: has anyone actually have the label of the FF produced in France? Some ingredients that are allowed in US are not in EU, and maybe the artificial flavour is one of them? Is it present in French FF?
 
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Richard2121

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knowing Nestle, it's probably about money. But, to give them the benefit of the doubt, maybe they've been experimenting with some changes that would increase the quality of their food - but decrease it's attractiveness for cats as a side effect?

As a general rule I don't trust cat food that is loved by every cat, and Fancy Feast usually is. Maybe they have been messing around with their "artificial flavour" to make it healthier (I know some retailers plan to stop selling food with artificial additives - Petco?- all present in fancy Feast). My guess is that cats love FF because of their artificial flavour - if that is changed, improved in a way, well, that may explain why cats stop eating it? Just one of the theories.

EDITED to ask: has anyone actually have the label of the FF produced in France? Some ingredients that are allowed in US are not in EU, and maybe the artificial flavour is one of them? Is it present in French FF?
Your theory sounds right but when looking at the labels (I saved one from each batch) they both look identical and include artificial flavoring. Maybe they are using the legal loophole where they don’t have to update ingredient label right away? Maybe they only changed amounts of ingredients rather than adding or subtracting anything completely? There is definitely a subtle change. Enough of a change to turn my cats off to it. All 4 of them simultaneously said no way Jose.
 

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yeah, since they don't specify what the actual ingredient their artificial flavour is, if they've changed this ingredient, they don't have to change the labels?

I've just checked the French Purina website and they don't actually have Fancy Feast in France. I was thinking maybe they have a similar product under different name (no French person would want to use the English name for their cat food ;-)) but the closest by the look of it is "Gourmet", but looking at the recipe, it seems it's totally different product with much different ingredients (including plant based by products, whatever it is). So it seems Purina might have manufactured their FF in France but only for US market. Unless they have FF under different name and I was not able to figure it out. I cannot imagine they would sell their Gourmet as a FF, it's so much different.

Gourmet and Purina have a terrible reputation in Europe, I was actually surprised when I arrived to US that their FF is actually decent food comparing to other brands.
 

Richard2121

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Unfortunately the pet food industry as a whole is responsible to current circumstances and it will just continue to get worse as time goes by. More and more families are making pets a part of their lives. Cats included. Families from every single income bracket. This means some people can only afford cheaper brands like Purina or they can only afford to feed dry food or a combination of the two. There is nothing wrong with this. So people are forced to pay these companies for their inferior products because it’s what their budget allows to care for their loved pets. The premium brands like Weruva, Tiki Cat, Instinct, Wellness, etc. all know that they have superior products and they know that the percentage of well-informed pet owners is also increasing. Internet access, social media and word of mouth has allowed more people to have access to more information about what is healthy or unhealthy for a cat to eat. So they know people will feel obligated to purchase their foods if they “truly care” about their pets’ health. There is no way Tiki Cat should cost as much as it does for essentially shredded proteins and some supplementation. So you constantly have this war going on of lower end per food companies trying to hide their deficiencies better and higher end pet food companies trying to charge more for less. It leaves the consumer and their cats at the receiving end of all this.
 
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EmersonandEvie

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And even the premium brands that cost $2+ a can don't use the best ingredients...peas, rice, potatoes, and other vegetables don't belong anywhere in cat food, let alone the top 5 ingredients. Sigh. Then you have to worry about the thickening agents used. It's all a marketing ploy.
 

LadyLondonderry

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And even the premium brands that cost $2+ a can don't use the best ingredients...peas, rice, potatoes, and other vegetables don't belong anywhere in cat food, let alone the top 5 ingredients. Sigh. Then you have to worry about the thickening agents used. It's all a marketing ploy.
You're making me feel better about the small fortune I pay for Rawz, and pretty good about the lesser amount I'm about to pay for Redbarn!
 
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