On May 5th, the horrible and upsetting news broke that Proctor & Gamble were purchasing the Natura Pet Food company. Word spread like wildfire online, and there weren’t too many dog parents that were happy about the announcement. Most were in agreement that Natura Pet food would not be the same once P&G took over.

From the Natura Pet web site:

Natura Announces Change In Ownership, But Not Philosophy or Commitment to Quality

You may have heard Natura expects to be acquired by The Procter and Gamble Company sometime in June 2010. By joining the P&G family of brands, our intent is that we will have more resources to raise awareness for the benefits of natural and holistic pet foods. Our hope is even more pets will then experience the benefits of Natura’s high-quality, super-premium brands.

P&G has assured us of their commitment to this business and to the people who have been our partners and our advocates over the years. We will continue to deliver the high quality products that have earned consumers’ trust.

For more than 20 years, Natura has dedicated itself to producing healthy, high-quality pet foods, and we will remain true to that philosophy. As we move forward with this change in ownership you can continue to find Natura pet foods at your local independent pet specialty retailers.

Thank you for your dedicated support and advocacy for Natura Pet foods. We have genuinely appreciated your support in the past and we hope we can count you among our valued customers in the future.

Sincerely,
Don Scott
President

My favorite is this line:

P&G has assured us of their commitment to this business and to the people who have been our partners and our advocates over the years. We will continue to deliver the high quality products that have earned consumers’ trust.

Okay, come on! Why on earth would a company that supposedly cared soooo much about pets in the past, believe the same company that destroyed other petfoods like Iams and Eukanuba? Do they think we are stupid? Or is it just that their definitions of “commitment” and “high quality” have changed?

The Natura president even released a video explaining their reasons for partnering with P&G
http://www.naturapet.com/video/don-video-c.swf

It’s laughable. They’re either delusional or plain just don’t care! I can’t imagine how they could think P&G has a commitment to excellence and animal well being. It’s truly a shame!

As soon as I heard the news, I thought, darn, okay, maybe I need to stock up on EVO kibble. I felt relieved that I just purchased a bag the previous day. But as I thought about it more, I became more and more worried.

What if even now, before the sale is even finalized, there was quality issues with Natura petfoods? How could I possibly trust a company that wants to be affiliated with such a poor pet food company. Yes, I totally understand a need to sell or find new partners, but come on, why would you pick the bottom of the bottom?

So, I returned the new bag I bought, and decided to make a clean break from them.

I have been trying to decide which route I am going to take with regards to my two ratties’ pet food. Thankfully, I only feed a small amount of kibble in the morning, their main meal is dinner when I feed commercial RAW (Bravo, Stella & Chewy)

I really would love to try Orijen, but my regular retailer doesn’t carry it, and it’s doubtful she will be able to in the near future. They manufacturer in such small amounts that they keep their retail options lower than most pet food companies. There are at least two other stores in my area that do carry Orijen, and I might look into them in the future.

In the meantime, I have a bag of Petcurean Go Natural on order from my local pet food store. No, I am not 100% convinced that this is the best brand, but I will give them a chance.

I have been using freeze dried Stella & Chewy for their AM meal, which they absolutely love, but it’s expensive. I also really would like to try Honest Kitchen dehydrated. Both are great options for when we travel!

I’ll post regular updates on how their food situation plays out.

Other Links:

• Our Dogs Online forum – P&G acquiring Natura
• Our Dogs Online – What do you feed?

Updated from article dated Jun 13, 2009

This is so strange. I haven’t been happy with any of the other kibble choices, I was using the rest of a leftover bag of California Natural and some samples of Nature’s Variety Instinct, but I really wanted EVO….so yesterday I bought a bag. Guess what! The size of the kibble is small again. I compared it to the original smaller sized samples I saved, and they match!

And now I am wondering if I was right all along, and they messed up on a batch of food. I wish I noted the expiration date of the bag I returned, to compare. I guess I assumed that since Heather said they changed the processing, it was a permanent change. Unless of course, I have a bag that was processed before the change. I don’t know. But thankfully, this bag will last a long time, so we’ll see what happens when I have to purchase again months from now.

Updated once again…2009-08-11
Updated 2009-06-15 read below!

Even though I feed RAW food to my two dogs, I still like having a bag of EVO Small Bites. I sometimes give it for a quick breakfast meal and I use it for training treats.

I like it because the pieces are very small, and since Lexi is under 10 lbs, small is good.

Well, I just opened a new package of EVO Small Bites this morning and was surprised that they looked larger. I still had a few pieces from the last bag, so I compared the two sizes. The pieces in the new bag were DOUBLED in size of the previous bag.
What is going on?

Here’s a photo for comparison (note: the depth of each bite is still the same, even though the larger piece looks thicker in the photo, it’s really not)

I am going to try to contact them today to see what their explanation is. If this is the new size, then I am very disappointed. It’s not small enough!

Update 2009-06-15: I phoned Natura Pet, I spoke to Heather; I explained my problem.

She went on to say that they have a new processing system now and that it allows the pieces to retain their full size. She said that before pieces were breaking down in transit (to the stores) and therefor causing a lot of crumbs in the bag. She said that EVO was their toughest product to make since there were no grains. The pieces were very hard and crumbled easy.

She asked me to compare the size of the new pieces to the example on the bag. At first they did look comparable, and it sounded reasonable. I asked if I could return the bag, and she answered of course.

I hung up, and then I compared the old pieces I had to the bag example photo, and they seemed just a tiny tad bit smaller. On a second look, the new pieces were indeed a little larger than the example on the bag. Some pieces were a lot larger than the example.

I redialed Natura, and Heather answered again.

Same story, she said there was nothing wrong, and the pieces now are the way they are supposed to be. She suggested that I return the bag and try to find one that was a different expiration that might have the older size.

Okay, update #2. I just looked at pieces from an older bag of California Natural Small Bites and they match the size of the larger EVO small bites….so maybe Heather was right all along! Oops, my bad. I guess I am being too picky!

Maybe I will keep the bag and just break them in half before giving them out. Oh well! I am now remembering why I always liked the EVO better for feeding and training. They were always smaller than the California Natural. Truthfully, I didn’t even realize the California Natural was Small Bites until I looked at the bag label.

I guess "small" is relative!

UPDATE 2009-08-11: This is so strange. I haven’t been happy with any of the other kibble choices, I was using the rest of a leftover bag of California Natural and some samples of Nature’s Variety Instinct, but I really wanted EVO….so yesterday I bought a bag. Guess what! The size of the kibble is small again. I compared it to the original smaller sized samples I saved, and they match!

And now I am wondering if I was right all along, and they messed up on the size of a batch of food. I have no idea!