[Lilly]

I have always used meow mix or seefood middles and had no idea it was bad for them until I started reading on cat web sites. I have now upgraded to a food called Nutro Max cat food. Is this a good choice? The lady I spoke to at petsmart said it is a really good food.

 

[opokki]

IMO, yes that is a fine choice...definately a step up from Meow Mix.

 

[kitkat]

Definitely better than meow mix! If you are looking at the ingredients just make sure it doesnt contain by products, thats not a good ingredient to have in cat food. I am also about to switch my cats diet b/c Sugar has been throwing up again so I hope Felidae works! :lol:

 

[AngelZoo]

Lilly:

While yes, Nutro Max is a step up from Meow Mix, and that's a good decision, Nutro Max is not a great food. There are far better ones out there, and in the future becareful who you ask for food advice, a lot of petsmart employee's actually know very little about what foods are good for which cats, they mostly go by how much they sell of a certain product. And well, as we should all know the human race is very gulible for the most part and quick to believe almost anything in some cases.

Here's a list of dry cat foods for you, you can see where Nutro Max places on the list.

Highest Grade:
- Blue (sold in PetSmart)
- Natural Balance (sold in Petco)
- Felidae
- Solid Gold
- Innova
- Chicken Soup for the Cat Lovers Soul
- Pinnacle
- Wellness
- Timberwolf Organics

Second Grade:
- Natures Variety
- Evolve
- Holistic Blend
- Lick your Chops
- Sensible Choice (sold at Petco)
- Verus

Third Grade:
- Authority (sold at PetSmart)
- Bil-Jac (sold at PetSmart)
- Nutro Natural (sold at PetSmart & Petco)
- Nutro Max (sold at PetSmart & Petco)
- Natures Recpie (sold at PetSmart & Petco)
- Royal Canin (sold at PetSmart & Petco)
- AvoDerm (sold at Petco)
- Avo-Cat (sold at Petco)
- Pro Plan (sold at PetSmart & Petco)
- Purina ONE (sold at PetSmart, Petco, Walmart, Target & Grocery

Stores)
- Maxximum Nutrition (sold at Walmart)
- Annamaet
- Artemis
- Azmira
- Eagle Pack
- Excel
- Natural Life
- PetGuard
- Precise
- Premium Edge
- Prism
- Pro Pac
- Professional
- Triumph

 

[kittygirl04]

My cats love Nutro Natural and also Natural Balance. I have been giving them Wellness wet food for a treat. I used to feed them Meow Mix--so I agree that Nutro is a good choice. It's a big step up from Meow Mix.

 

[Lilly]

I am haveing troubles with the cats, I am mixing new food and old food and gradually cutting down. The thing is as I am cutting down they are eating less and less. They also ask me for food every time I go into the kitchen like they do if they are hungry and I am not moving fast enough., The problem is they have an entire bowl of food.
I gave them some plain old meow mix last night because they acted so hungry and they went crazy eating it. Minnie was even growling so no one would come near her bowl while she was eating. (minnie is not very freindly all the time, she usally will not growl over dry food, however she does growl over wet food and treats)
So what do I do now? I want them to have food that is good for them, but they need to eat! Especially minnie who is nurseing.

 

[kitkat]

Eventually they should like that new food but if not, have you tried to give wet food for the one that is nursing. I'm sure she would eat that up. It takes time if you are switching foods but maybe if that doesnt work out you can try another healthy brand that they would like better. Good Luck :wink:

 

[AngelZoo]

Yup!

Try coaxing them onto the new food by adding a tad bit of warm water with the kibble, or a little bit of wet food for flavor.

The problem mostly lies in the flavor additives foods like Meow Mix use, and foods like Solid Gold DON'T use. This makes the food much more palatable, like having chocolate covered strawberries, instead of just strawberries, it's a trick many pet food manufacturers use to make pet owners think that if their animals really likes to eat a food then it MUST be good for them, they will also eat more of the food then needed sometimes.

So, give it some time, be persistant, do not give in by resorting to feeding only or mostly meow mix again.

Every pet is different, it is normal for you to have to test out about 3 different foods until you find one which is compatible for your pet.

 

[Lilly]

ok you have to know that I love my cats very much and want the absolute best for them! I will do anything to make sure they are healthy and happy.

However, I dont have alot of money, when we went to petsmart to buy the food we spoke to a representitive from nutro who happened to be there that day. After talking to her I wanted to buy nutro beliveing it is a good food for my cats.

I live in a very tiny town, Petsmart is an hour from my house. So not wanting to drive back all the time for more food, we bought the biggest bag of food to save time money and to save the cats from haveing to eat store brand until we could make it back to petsmart.

They are going to have to eat the bag of nutro before I buy them more food! Is that terrible?

 

[queen of the nile]

Lilly, that is definately NOT terrible. Many cats have been fed worse for their entire lives! My poor babies have been fed Store brands and Science diet for the last 3 years of their short lives. (going to be switching soon ) If you are really worried, you could always mix a better quality food with the Nutro, say 1/2 and 1/2. I really wouldn't worry that much though, it's not like this is a forever solution or even that the food you are feeding is bad. Nutro is just lower quality than some foods you COULD be feeding.

 

[AngelZoo]

Lilly: Hee hee, no way! What's important is that you care about what your cats eat, and you are trying.

If PetSmart is your only option, and remember on a higher brand of food, typically your cat will eat less, which makes the food last longer, so it's not really more expensive in all cases for a better brand. I struggled for years between trying to feed what was best and what I could actually afford.
I work inside of a PetSmart, but not for them, and I know a lot of people who do work for them from all over, the PetSmart workers go by what they are told, and by what sells the most, Nutro sells A LOT, but it is not the best, I would do very little listening to PetSmart employee's, they are not nutritionist, they are not trained to know why one food is better then the other. No I am not a nutritionist, yet, but I have done many years of studying, enough to know that when a PetSmart employee tells a customer to stay away from foods that have corn in them, and then turns around to tell them to buy Nutro (which has corn) that they are blind idiots, lol.

So, from PetSmart, the best selection there would be (in no real order)...

Authority - Lamb & Rice
Blue
Nutro Max - Kitten
Nutro Max - Adult (with Salmon Meal only)
Nutro Natural Choice - Kitten
Pro Plan - Adult Beef & Rice
Pro Plan - Adult Chicken & Rice
Pro Plan - Adult Salmon & Rice
Pro Plan - Turkey & Barley
Pro Plan - Kitten
Royal Canin - Babycat 34
Royal Canin - Siamese 38
Royal Canin - Kitten 34
Royal Canin - Special 33
Royal Canin - Outdoor 30

Hopefully among these 5 brands your cats will find something tasty and that you can afford, yes you can continue to feed this bag of nutro there is nothing wrong with that, you can buy another food and slowly start to mix it in with the other, however you want to do it.

 

[faile]

a PetSmart employee tells a customer to stay away from foods that have corn in them, and then turns around to tell them to buy Nutro (which has corn)

*smack*

hee hee.

 

[AngelZoo]

Faile:
So very much! lol

The other day I had walked out into the store to assist a customer with finding a perscription food they needed.

I over heard (well actually she yells loudly all the time.) one of the PetSmart pet trainers talking to this lady who was shopping for food, she started saying...

"What you want to do is stay away from foods with corn, Nutro is a great food so I highly recommend that!"

I just thought to my self (no no, I can't let this one slide, I have to listen to them state this crud alllll day.) I never like to let my hospital uniform hold sway over customers because I am NOT a vet, but I know it does work, and I allowed it to help me this one time, tee hee.

So I turn around and said "mama, your best bet would be to feed the food called Blue, they sell it here."

The lady trainer flips around, looks at me with her hand on her hip and says "Ah!" with a complete sassy attitude.

It was a great day for me.

 

[tiggs]

While we're on that subject, it would be a good idea for Nutro to clean up the misleading comments on the back of their bags of Nutro Natural, because they make a big deal out of saying how they don't use ground corn. When I first bought it I was all proud of myself and then looked at the ingredients more closely and saw that corn gluten meal was the third ingredient. :roll: Not exactly the same, but misleading just the same, don't you think? For employees without a lot of experience, its not suprising they would say what they did.