HoundMusic

I'm going to have to call the company.

I emailed them and told them it was a bad idea.  Having demo'ed for them for 8 years I know how upset people will be about this.  It is replacing Beef, Chicken and Lamb.  If they decide to change the Salmon I am screwed.  It is the only food I have had consistent results with.  My dog just can't do the switcharoo thing again.  He gets so sick.  If the formula stayed the same and they just ADD the shredded globs, I can see people like me picking out the shreds!  Wasting money! 

losinsusan

I emailed them and told them it was a bad idea.  Having demo'ed for them for 8 years I know how upset people will be about this.  It is replacing Beef, Chicken and Lamb.  If they decide to change the Salmon I am screwed.  It is the only food I have had consistent results with.  My dog just can't do the switcharoo thing again.  He gets so sick.  If the formula stayed the same and they just ADD the shredded globs, I can see people like me picking out the shreds!  Wasting money! 

So you are pretty sure this shredded stuff is gonna replace the old formulas. Like I said, they are probably hoping the PP faithfuls will go over to the Selects? Have you tried the fish Selects?

So I think I just figured it out.  If you put "soft bits" in a food, you can put in things with low nutritrive value and low cost, and the weight not only stays the same, but actually increases (the moisture in the food increases). 

Charge the same --->weighs the same ----> less actual food in bag.

brookcove

Charge the same --->weighs the same ----> less actual food in bag.

 Oh my.   You may have just hit upon their latest greatest maketing ploy. 

Yes it is a replacement.  They did say if you didn't get enough for a slow transition they will have some if you call in.

I would like to see what the shreds actually are though! 

And yes we have tried the Salmon and Brown Rice selects.  It is a good food.  Dub ate the Puppy selects his first year, but was having stomach problems when I made the transition to the adult Turkey and Barley.  So we then did the Salmon, but his poop just wasn't as well formed as it had been.  So Purina suggested I do the Sensitive Stomach formula which has been great for him.  He needs way less ingredients than selects has.  The blueberries, tomato pomice and all that stuff including Barley is way too much for his stomach to process I guess. 

I will try it again if they change the formula of what he is on though.  He loves fish formulas.

Maybe they are adding these bits to up the palatability of their foods to compete with all the tasty, meaty, grain-free foods that most dogs seem to prefer.

In my experience at least, my dog hates anything Purina b/c its just too much grain and not enough meat, so these shreds may help with that.

Its a bad idea though and cheap too!

brookcove

So I think I just figured it out.  If you put "soft bits" in a food, you can put in things with low nutritrive value and low cost, and the weight not only stays the same, but actually increases (the moisture in the food increases). 

Charge the same --->weighs the same ----> less actual food in bag.

     Ahhhhhhhh

     For the life of me, I just couldn't figure out what had possessed them to do this. I think you've hit the nail on the head. What a cheap, low tactic :(  The food was good enough that long time feeders would have continued to buy it even if they lowered the #'s of the bags. Don't know what I'm going to feed this winter. Can't keep them on a 21/10 formula and my old backup, Blackwood, seems to have changed as well. I fed it to the nursing bitches & pups after the initial bag/formula change to Dog/Puppy Chow about 2 months ago, and it's not the same food anymore :(  Thought I'd just back with Pro Plan. I know the Purina ONE bags were changed around the same time as Dog Chow, will just have to cross my fingers they didn't screw around with that formula. Somehow, I doubt it.

Their customer service is pretty bad.  I tried emailing numerous times but there is something wrong with the contact form on their website and it kept telling me it was unavailable.  I was finally able to get a small message through that said "Please email me, I am having trouble with your website contact form!"  So they emailed back and asked how they could help.

I asked for the kcals per cup, weight of a cup and as fed% calcium of the Three new shredded blends- and I specified Chicken, lamb and beef.

 This is the reply I got:

"Thank you for contacting Nestlé Purina PetCare Company.

We appreciate your response. Please know that our Purina (r)Pro Plan(r) brand Dog Food - Shredded Blend Natural Lamb & Rice Formula Adult Dog Food has 366 calories per 8 oz cup.  The as fed calcium amount for this product is 1.27.

We hope that this information is helpful.

Again, thank you for visiting our web site."

First of all, a cup of kibble does NOT weigh 8 oz!!  A "standard 8 oz measuring cup" of kibble always weighs about 3.5-4.5 oz. 

So they didn't answer that question at all for me. 

Then, they only gave me the values for the Lamb!  I specifically asked for Lamb, Chicken and beef.  I even spaced it out on different lines so they couldn't miss it. 

And what country is this person responding from??  "Please know that our dog food has..." (?)

So I emailed back and asked for the kcals per kg so I can figure the weight of a cup out for myself.  No response.  It's been a week.  I hope they are better about handling phone calls than they are with email.

I think we're facing the same problem, which I talked about in a recall thread.

For example, I feed Nutro. For 3 years, I have fed Shadow Nutro Large Breed Adult Lamb Meal and Rice. He did fantastic on it. Great coat, energy, etc. Now, it's no longer available. So, I've been feeding Senior Formula but I don't think 5 years old is old enough to be senior, even for his predominate breed.

The reply I get from Nutro is that there is a shortage of some ingredients. One rep told me the shortage was rice. Another told me the shortage was lamb. I theorize that Mars, owner of Nutro since last year, has decided that the formula I use is not selling enough so they are discontinuing it without being honest for the reason. So, I'm tempted to switch to Eagle Pack. Their formulation is similar to what his old formula was.

Otherwise, I better learn to start homecooking. And if enough people do that, it's possible that the corporations might get the message. Or, I could be an optimist.

ron2

I think we're facing the same problem, which I talked about in a recall thread.

For example, I feed Nutro. For 3 years, I have fed Shadow Nutro Large Breed Adult Lamb Meal and Rice. He did fantastic on it. Great coat, energy, etc. Now, it's no longer available. So, I've been feeding Senior Formula but I don't think 5 years old is old enough to be senior, even for his predominate breed.

The reply I get from Nutro is that there is a shortage of some ingredients. One rep told me the shortage was rice. Another told me the shortage was lamb. I theorize that Mars, owner of Nutro since last year, has decided that the formula I use is not selling enough so they are discontinuing it without being honest for the reason. So, I'm tempted to switch to Eagle Pack. Their formulation is similar to what his old formula was.

Otherwise, I better learn to start homecooking. And if enough people do that, it's possible that the corporations might get the message. Or, I could be an optimist.

 

Ron, did you hear about the nutritionist that left Nutro because she refused to work for such a "manipulative company."  I'll try and find the link again but after she resigned she spoke out about the company and where they were getting their ingredients from and some other dirt.  She left after the company started getting reports of dogs vomiting bile constantly and getting really ill.  Something about that it was consistent with one lot of their dry food but the company refused to pull the food from the shelves because it would get them "bad publicity."  They ended up settling individually with people and she was pissed about it.

 Eagle pack is a good choice
 

 Jana, is this what you're referring to;

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/pets/nutro.html;

 Scroll down to ;Cheryl of Ogden Utah (6/22/08)

 This person is a pet nutrition specialist, not a nutritionist, but it's the closest I could come to what you're referring to after a long search.

ron2

The reply I get from Nutro is that there is a shortage of some ingredients. One rep told me the shortage was rice. Another told me the shortage was lamb. I theorize that Mars, owner of Nutro since last year, has decided that the formula I use is not selling enough so they are discontinuing it without being honest for the reason. So, I'm tempted to switch to Eagle Pack. Their formulation is similar to what his old formula was.

Otherwise, I better learn to start homecooking. And if enough people do that, it's possible that the corporations might get the message. Or, I could be an optimist.

     I used to feed Nutro as well, going back maybe 5-6yrs. Was not a bad food at all but I noticed my dogs were always incontinant on any of the formulas. Then around '03, they added soy to the formulas and my dogs went to pot. Mind you, at that time, I was only feeding it to rescues and as a supplement (we were doing raw back then). But there was a very noticable difference in coat condition & health. I've tried the Max, Nat Choice, and the Ultra - they were all disasters :(  Way back when I supplemented with Nutro there was speculation that the company had a very slick habit of changing ingredients every few months to find the cheapest source. All the while they would leave the ingredient list the same becuase of some loophole wherein they were not required to list their changes for 6 months. the formula would keep changing, and no one would ever really know. I also found this a while ago & it just makes you wonder what is wrong with the food manufacturers: http://www.waiaw.com/2006/08/13/nutro-ultra-dog-food-im-scared/

Well, after some research I’ve just discovered that Bacillus licheniformis and Bacillus subtilis are soil/plant microbes with Bacillus licheniformis-(EPA) being implicated in human food poisoning, as well as abortions in cows and pigs! Bacillus subtilis-(EPA) seems to be safe but from what I skimmed over on the EPA website, I can’t see that it offers any health benefits or that it should even be considered a consumable at all.

     Nice, huh? Homecooking is easy, lol. I find myself buying more whole chickens on sale and the crockpot is coming out with greater frequency these days ...