Nutro Max Cat Weight Control Adult Cat Food

First off, why is dry cat food placed in cat decor and accessories as "durability" and "material quality" are not relevant to food? But this is where I found the product that I was looking to review, so rather than write a review that will be "pending" for a "new" product, I will go with this cat product subcategory.

I am very confused with the Nutro cat food line. There is Nutro Max Cat/Kitten and Nutro Natural Balance, and I don't know if they are made by the same company. One of the Petsmart managers told me that Nutro had been bought out and this is why there was a forumulation change for the food. The Natural Balance line is considered the premium cat food line for Nutro and the company has priced themselves out of the market. The Natural Balance bags are way out of my price range for a multi-cat household. The new Nutro Max Cat is not the same quality or ingredients as the new Natural Balance line. The new Natural Balance line has a much higher percentage by weight of protein.

I was introduced to Nutro when our rescue received a large food donation of Nutro Natural Balance Senior from the Nutro rep/Petco. Petco had to make room for the "new and improved" formulations on their shelves and Nutro couldn't be offering their old brand for sale. I fed this Nutro Senior to 13 cats for almost 3 months with no problems. The cats enjoyed the food, it was easy to digest, and their stools improved. The Senior line is a bit lower in protein content than their adult or kitten, but not remarkably different that I felt cats about 1 year to 5 years couldn't benefit from or have a problem with the senior formulation.

When I was about to run out of my Nutro donation, I went in search of another quality dry cat food without chicken byproduct that didn't cost too much. That was a bit tough to find. I bought one 17.5 pound bag of Nutro Max Cat Weight Control Roasted Chicken thinking that it would be similiar enough to the other Nutro that I had been feeding my cats so as not to upset their digestive tracts. The first two ingredients were the same between the new weight control and the old senior.

The new kibble is a totally new shape and consistency. The dry kibble resembles a flat cracker in the shape of a fish with a hole in it. My 13 cats eagerly ate this food, but I soon noticed dramatic changes in their stools to ploppy pudding in some of my cats, especially the youngest ones. I also had cats vomitting immediately after eating this food who had never vomitted up food before. I was finding a lot of cat puke on my carpet, and litterbox duty was very unpleasant.

I decided to add in Science Diet Senior to this Max Cat Weight Control to use it up and be done with this bag while gradually introducing a new brand of cat food. I will not buy Nutro again or feed it to my cats. Nutro had a chance to get another customer, but blew it with their new formulation.

Pros: Chicken meal rather than chicken byproduct used

Cons: Caused vomitting and stool changes in several of my cats