First, thank you for such a wonderful resource. It's nice to see the results of some research already done, so I don't have to reinvent the wheel in choosing a canned food for my kitten.
Second, I just wanted to suggest that #6 (Nutro Natural Choice Complete Care Kitten Food) be removed from the list, as all Nutro Natural Choice kitten foods have been recalled for potential safety issues. More information is available here:
http://www.nutroproducts.com/mfproductlist.shtml
http://www.nutroproducts.com/mfproductlist.shtml
As far as I know, the Nutro Natural Choice Adult canned food is still safe, but then the kitten food was considered safe before we were notified otherwise, so buyer beware.
*hugs* and good luck everyone.
thanks!
-sean
My Reply
Hi Sean and welcome to our forum. You've given us all some food for thought.
OTOH, did you notice the date on that Nutro recall notice you referenced? That was during the height of the pet food recall which started in March of 2007. As I recall, somewhere in the scope of 7,000 different brands and formulas of pet foods were recalled at that time. (This is off the top of my head, it actually could be more or less.)
Like many other manufacturers, Nutro reformulated its pet food after the recall, and many people continue to feed their cats and dogs Nutro foods.
In the interest of full disclosure, however, I must mention that there have been a number of allegations of (mostly dogs) and cats becoming sick after eating the reformulated Nutro products. ConsumerAffairs.com has posted a number of articles about these complaints, which to my knowledge, are so far all anecdotal. You can do a search on their site for "Nutro complaints" to read more of their blogs. For the other side, here is Nutro's press release about these complaints.
In fairness, I have to say that I have not seen one documented complaint where the Nutro food in question has been analyzed by an independent lab. When I first blogged about the Nutro Concerns, I asked for my readers' comments. To date, the vast majority of them have been related to dogs, and a number of people commented that their pets eat Nutro with no ill effect. An equal number of people commented that their pets had become very sick after eating the reformulated Nutro. However, none of these had had the food analyzed, although one woman went to the trouble to contact the FDA.
Over the weekend, a good friend called me to ask about cat food. Her cat had been throwing up periodically, and a couple of days before had refused to eat his food. She had given him cooked chicken breast and he seemed to be much better. Sensing a potential red flag, I asked her what brand of food she had been feeding him. Nutro.
Although I always try to be completely objective about my recommendations for all cat products, and there is still no documented proof that Nutro is harmful, I have to go with my gut reactions, under the premise that "where there is smoke, there is fire." Or as an ex-military reader posted, “The first occurrence is of no consequence. The second occurrence is coincidence. But the third occurrence is enemy action!”
Therefore, I have removed Nutro products from my top picks lists until this situation can be completely resolved.
Join the Discussion, or post your comments here.
My Top Picks for Cat and Kitten Foods:
Premium Canned Cat Food
Premium Dry Cat Foods
Premium Canned Kitten Foods
Premium Dry Kitten Foods
Comments
Yesterday I took my 10 year old cat to the vet – he’s had diarreah for a week and had just begun vomiting as well. He just had an extensive check up, so I thought it might be a minor bug at first, but by day 4 I tossed out all the food and treats and purchased new. Ironically, this included a bag of Nutro dry food that I bought about three weeks ago. I have been feeding ProPlan canned with non-grain dry (such as Evo, Fromm) for years, but ran into a Nutro Rep at my local pet store and bought their product for the first time in years. Coincidence? I’m wondering now… the tests at the vet came back okay so there’s nothing that substantiates a problem but there’s not a chance I’d buy Nutro again now! Thanks Franny making this kind of information available!
I have been tracing some of these postings back to their sources…. Almost funny, the way one of the posts with the most contempt for nutro/mars, has his own site, with a link to a product that I would NEVER feed to a pet, since the entire line consists of ingredients I would consider to be garbage (by-products, digest etc).
I suspect that some of these posts (showing up word for word on different sites), are quite unreliable, and not just because of the lack of supporting evidence.
It seems that people only post negative comments so let me say that my dog has been eating nutro for 8 years and my cat for 17 years… Both are eating well and love Nutro… Some of my friend also use the product with no problems… I am wondering if anyone with digestive issues are looking into the junk that is highly advertised on TV that they feed their pets as treats?
Happy nutro user!
My pets have been on NUTRO for the last 8 years. I have dogs as well as cats. I too can’t help but notice how most of the negative NUTRO reports never have a batch# to track down these ‘tainted’ products. Most of them also recommend some sort of product that has inferior ingredients.
My cats ate Nutro for years also, with no problem. (Mars bought Nutro about 3 years ago) Recently Nutro has changed something- 2 bags- different lot numbers & NOT in the Summer 2009 recall date range. Cats did NOT want to touch the stuff & when I mixed it with another high-quality food (for transition to the new food), tricking them into eating it, 2 cats became ill. Symptoms were those Nutro finally warned about their TOXIC zinc level problem could cause. Major vet bills & hospitalization for 1 & I’m having the food tested to see what else might be out of whack now. The toxic level of zinc fiasco Nutro had was unreal. And to say they had no customer complaints is a pure LIE! I will never use Nutro/Mars owned pet foods again.
Any company can make a mistake, but to deny customer complaints, NOT document customer calls & have repeated pet food production problems is a HUGE red flag!