Wellness Cat food: taste change? bad batch?

[Joeyjoejoe]

My two cats will eat between them one 12 oz can of Wellness a day. Half the can in the morning and the other half at night. Their favourite is Beef and Chicken, but I occasionally mix up the flavours. They also get a little dry food (Wellness Indoor) right before I go to bed. That's so they don't wake me up in the middle of the night because they are hungry.

I recently bought a 12 pack of Beef and Chicken on the weekend and gave them some on Sunday. They didn't touch it. However, when I gave them some dry food, they gobbled it up. Since they didn't eat much, I gave them more dry food. Monday, I try again with the Beef and Chicken can food. I come home and they didn't touch it. I toss that out and give them the other half... and again they don't touch it.

This morning, I gave them Chicken and Herring and they were eating it up! So that gets me thinking that the problem is with the food and not the cats. Is it possible that Wellness changed their formula? The 12 pack I got doesn't expire until 2012, so it's not an expiry issue. Maybe I just got a bad batch? Any thoughts?

[Love4himies]

I have found that with my cats when they were eating Wellness so I changed to Instinct and have not had a problem since. I trust their noses over mine .

[sugarcatmom]

They haven't changed their formula, but there are differences between lots depending on where they're coming from. If you check the small print on the side of the can, see if it was made in Canada or in the U.S.. I've found those have the biggest variation. The ones made in Canada are a little "juicier" and I think they smell better, but they're actually hard to find where I live. It's probably not a case of a particular batch being tainted in any way, but more likely that because the ingredient sources are different, it smells different to the cats and they're being their normal suspicious selves.

[Joeyjoejoe]

Originally Posted by sugarcatmom

They haven't changed their formula, but there are differences between lots depending on where they're coming from. If you check the small print on the side of the can, see if it was made in Canada or in the U.S.. I've found those have the biggest variation. The ones made in Canada are a little "juicier" and I think they smell better, but they're actually hard to find where I live. It's probably not a case of a particular batch being tainted in any way, but more likely that because the ingredient sources are different, it smells different to the cats and they're being their normal suspicious selves.

I'll check the labels when I get home.

It was a struggle to get my cats on wet food, but once I got them on it, they never really complained (much) about the various flavours. I can ususally tell if they like a certain flavour from how quickly they eat their food. Beef + Chicken has always been the fastest. And even the ones that they didn't like that much (like Lobster), they still ate more than half of it. I find it odd that they won't even touch the Beef + Chicken now.

Seems like such a waste of food... I could donate the remaining 10 cans to a shelter, but I can't shake the feeling that there is something wrong with the food.

[sugarcatmom]

Originally Posted by Joeyjoejoe

Seems like such a waste of food... I could donate the remaining 10 cans to a shelter, but I can't shake the feeling that there is something wrong with the food.

You can contact Wellness and see what they say (they'll likely send you some coupons or something), or post on the Itchmo forums in case anyone else has had a problem with that particular batch.

You could also hang on to the cans and try them again at a later date, once they've had a break from the beef & chicken.

[chico2]

JJJ,I used to buy the large cans of Wellness,but then at one time it was so runny and my cats would not eat it.
Now I am back to buying the mid-sized cans which were ok, 2 cans/a day for 3 cats.
I also give them one can of Fancy Feast at lunch,because my Rocky takes his pill 3 times/day in the food.

[Joeyjoejoe]

Originally Posted by sugarcatmom

You can contact Wellness and see what they say (they'll likely send you some coupons or something), or post on the Itchmo forums in case anyone else has had a problem with that particular batch.

You could also hang on to the cans and try them again at a later date, once they've had a break from the beef & chicken.

Thanks. Took a peak at the other site and saw other people having some consistancy issues, but nothing that is exactly like mine. I want to conduct a little experiment... I'll try buying another can of Chicken & Beef, but with a different expiry date. That way it'll eliminate the possibility of whether they are tired of the flavour and will answer the question of whether the flavour is off in the cans I got now.

[ancientgirl]

Originally Posted by Love4himies

I have found that with my cats when they were eating Wellness so I changed to Instinct and have not had a problem since. I trust their noses over mine .

I had the same issue when I was feeding Wellness. I haven't had a problem with the EVO.