My 5 cats eat a variety of wet food brands and flavors. But, they love Max Cat above all others. Max Cat is a Nutro food that’s been around for years. I order it by the case in 6 flavors. For the past several months, some flavors have been “temporarily unavailable” on Chewy, so I ordered it on Amazon. Suddenly, it’s not available anywhere. The owner of a local pet store near me told me it’s discontinued with no replacement. When I reached out to Nutro, they told me to try their Perfect Portions, which is the recommended replacement.
The Perfect Portions are available in a pack of two. Two tiny portions that do not add up to one can of Max Cat, though they cost more. I looked at the ingredient list, and it’s similar to Max Cat. The Perfect Portions are in these plastic containers that you have to peel the top off to reveal the small portion. It’s surprisingly difficult to peel off the top off one. When you have to peel off 4 tops, it’s almost impossible. I end up getting the juice all over my fingers, and that makes peeling the next one that much more difficult. I reached out again to Nutro to express my dissatisfaction, but their response was exactly the same as the first one, except for one sentence which said they were sorry I was not satisfied with the replacement product.
I started looking at Amazon reviews and Nutro’s Facebook page to see if I am the only one who is unhappy. Turns out, there are lots of unhappy cat owners. I felt bad for those guardians who talked about how their 18 year old cat will only eat the Max Cat duck flavor, and now what do they do? There’s not even a duck flavor of the Perfect Portions. In fact, their flavors are pretty limited if you’re trying to avoid giving your cats too much fish. I’m feeling angry and betrayed by Nutro right now, so I decided I will try to find something my cats like just as much from another company. They already eat Merrick, Wellness, Weruva and American Journey. I’m looking for another company or two with a variety of flavors to replace Nutro. My cats do not like pate, but prefer chopped, sliced, or minced foods.
I went to Petsmart this morning, and picked up about 30 different brands and flavors. Tonight, they tried Beyond Wild Turkey, Liver and Quail, which happened to be a pate. Three of 5 cats ate it without issue. It was completely gone from all dishes within 15 minutes of feeding, so I’m thinking that’s a success. 29 cans left to try. I figure worst case, I forgive Nutro, and open the ridiculously small "Perfect Portions" with a knife. But, I'm not ready to forgive them just yet.
See my most recent post: Replacing Nutro's Max Cat Led to a Feline Nutrition Education, which includes what my cats are currently eating.
Jennifer Van de Kieft is a Certified Advanced Feline Training & Behavior Professional located in Brooklyn, NYC and providing virtual behavior consultations throughout the United States.