Performatrin Ultra? Opinions?
 

Ok...the ongoing food saga here...

Today I went into a PetValu looking for a sm. bag of California Naturals and although they didn't carry it, I had a very helpful woman who really wanted to help me. I had decided to go back to the vet food for Fagan (Medi-cal Hypo/Gastro) but am now reconsidering. The woman was as shocked as me to see that most of the non-chicken formulas of the majority of foods also include chicken meal or broth or fat. So she spent about 20 mintues riffling through and reading cat food ingredients with me. And wala! Performatrin Ultra Lamb and Brown rice has no chicken/wheat/corn! (And is about $10 cheaper than vet food and I don't have to special order it.)

So I'm wondering, is it a good formula (it looks alright to me)... and have any of you used it before.

Oh and FYI, the owner told me that Performatrin is going single source protein in all its formula.:goodvibes:

Does it still contain menadione? Last time they were asked they had no plans to remove it. Being pet valu's store brand, I'm surprised it wasn't the first bag they showed you. Every time I've considered switching food I've had it pushed at me.

It lists [I]Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex [/I], is that bad? And how so?
And it is second to last on the ingredient list.

I just checked and I've been feeding them this for years with Nutro... and one poster in another thread boasted how great the performatrin worked for the exact same health and allergy issues I have here.

Lamb may be an option, but dogs get allergies based on exposure to a protein source, and because Lamb has been used significantly in pet foods of the years, it would not be considered an alternate protein. Something like venison, duck, salmon etc. would be.
Fat of any species is not a culprit with food allergies, as the molecular structure is different than meat protein, so no need to worry when you find chicken fat on the label.
The most important thing is what works for your dog, so if you like the ingredients, give it a try.

I hear ya on how hard it is to find stuff without chicken! My pup is allergic to chicken too... and others have told me as well that chicken fat should be ok, but we've found that ANY form of chicken makes him sick, no matter what type or how small the amount. Any bit of chicken fat in a food or treat makes him ill, and they tend to put it in everyyyyyything, don't they!

Performatrin was actually pretty good for Tommy for a while with all his digestive problems, but to be honest he's done much better on other brands. Solid Gold, Timberwolf and Eagle Pack have all shown much better results for us - better poops, better coat, more palatability - but I know they're also much more expensive. The biggest issue I had with Performatrin was that Tommy was pooping way more often than he did on any other food and his coat was noticeably less shiny and soft. I know menadione is an issue, too, and I prefer to stay away from it.

Performatrin's not bad in our experience, but I didn't realize until after we found other foods Tommy could eat with all his tummy issues that others were way, way better:shrug: .

Whoops that's my 1am spelling for you.. Yes I meant menadione.

Second to last ingredient or not, it's not something I's approve of in my dog food month after month. Better companies have removed it. Last time someone emailed they seemingly refused.

[url]http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?page=menadione[/url]

Thanks all... I think I'm going to give it a shot. And cross my fingers that if it goes over well here that they will bow down and remove the menadione. Fagan is my main concern, I just can't go another year with repeated episodes. If this food doesn't go over, I will go back to the vet food because I know it works. And the ingredients in the Hypo/Gastro don't seem to bad to me. Oh and I'm looking for work so that we could maybe afford the really pricy brands. So wish me luck! :)

Good luck! Most PetValu's have sample bags, did they give you one to try? It's much cheaper to try a new food that way!

Just another thought, too... do you have a Global or Ryan's pet food store near you (same company, they go by one name in some areas and the other in other areas)? They have tons of sample bags for a wide variety of foods, too. I swear I fed my pup for free for quite a while with the samples they gave me to try. I know there aren't quite as many samples for cats as there are for dogs, but they still have quite a few, if you're trying to conserve money it might be worth trying samples first until you see what agrees with your kitties.

I hope Fagan likes his new food:) .

Thanks Tommysmom... I did do a few sample bags here too, but with 6 kitties they do not last long! (and I'd feel to moochy to go around to different stores to get more:rolleyes: ) And the only way really to find out if it bothers his allergy is to have them on it about a month, so I just bought one big bag, plus that leaves me enought to mix them onto the next food. 2007 is definitely the year of pet food eh? It's crazy!

My dogs eat the Perfomatrin chicken and rice hollistic and one of my cats seem to like the dog food too... waiting for Isys to bark instead of meow. I like the fact it has brown rice instead of corn meal (people don't digest corn so why should animals). My dogs are healthy and happy and have no coat/skin problems of any kind. I live in a border town to the US and noticed that Solid Gold is about 30 bucks cheaper in the states for the biggest bag of dog food so if you're able to get there or going anyway that's a big savings now that the US dollar is pretty much par.

I hope you are not feeding it to your cat as dog food does not meet the nutritional needs of a cat. Cats also need much more protein from meat sources.

This food has too many grains imo. It also contains menhaden fish meal which is preserved with the ingredient ethoxyquin :yuck: before it is sold to the pet industry so the pet food company does not have to list it as an ingredient on their label as they didn't add it.

And, it also contains menadione sodium bisulfite complex :yuck: which is banned for human consumption. There is also the controversy that it can cause cancer. :eek: :sad:

what about the canned stuff?
 

I don't mean to hijack this thread, but lately I've been buying the Performatrin Ultra canned stuff because it's quite a bit cheaper than Wellness, but I'm not sure if I'm doing the right thing.

I've been feeding the kitties the chicken and the beef varieties. Neither seem to have any grains or by-products - they contain a lot of unnecessary herbs (does a cat REALLY care about rosemary in his mush? :rolleyes:), but it also looks like it has a lot of chemicals - chemicals that I don't understand. :shrug:

I've been spoiled by Wellness, I guess - their canned chicken just looks a lot more delicious than Performatrin. Anyway, I'd love to get anyone's feedback on this stuff.

bump bump
Anyone have any opinions on the canned stuff?

We do not have a Pet Valu here and I am not familiar with the Performatrin brand.......so can you please post the ingredients? :o

[url]http://www.performatrinultra.com/[/url]

Sorry :o

That website only has the ingredients for the canned "Chicken Stew", which I've never actually seen for some reason :shrug:.. I'm feeding the fuzzbots the Chicken and the Beef varieites.

I'll take a look at the can and give a rundown when I get home..

[QUOTE=wdawson;576633][url]http://www.performatrinultra.com/[/url][/QUOTE]

There seems to be an awful lot of salt (sodium) in the Chicken Stew one.

[QUOTE=rainbow;576938]There seems to be an awful lot of salt (sodium) in the Chicken Stew one.[/QUOTE]

Yeah.. it also stinks to high heaven. :yuck: I thought it was okay because it doesn't have any grains, and seems to have solid proteins, PLUS it's about $0.30 cheaper than Wellness.. but I'm a little worried about the protein amount - since Jake's been on it, it seems like his rear has thinned out more than anything else, which makes me feel like he's losing muscle mass.. :shrug:

Willow ate Performatrin Ultra for about two years and was fine with it. I've recently switched to Horizon Legacy though, which is grain (and menadione) free. Too bad you don't live closer, I have a coupon (in my name and at a specific location) for a free small bag of PU.