I am sad to say that one of my favorite brands of treats- Zukes- Has been bought by Nestle Purina Pet Care. Unfortunately as we have seen with many past brands this is sure to mean a compromise in ingredients and safety no matter what they say to the contrary. I will no longer be buying them because neither the people or the dogs in this house consume any Nestle products, but I am very sad. The power bones were great for active dogs like Kerri who were skinny buy wanted to keep going for many hours on the trail. The minis were perfect training treats. You can read the statement from zukes on their website-
They have some empty promises in the "Hot News" area of their homepage and a full press release if you click on the link.
This is the bullet point that most concerns me the most-
• Every recipe will remain the same, or be improved, but will never be compromised.
They are not even saying things will be the same. We all have seen what happens when giant pet food manufacturers "improves" things. We also are starting to see the deception tactics that are all too common in the business. Highlight the part of the sentience saying you will never change and follow it by the rest of the sentence saying you will be improving things. Zukes do not need improved and it is sad that they are already preparing consumers for their formulas to change. I guess to our house it doesn't really matter anyway, we will not be buying them ever again no matter what they put in them (that is after I go buy every store out of power bones).
My hope is owners who were buying these more expensive, high quality treats will abandon the brand ASAP, it will go out of business and never again will a company think that partnering with Nestle is a good thing.
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Mom Kim here - Thank you for letting us know but don't like this news at all. First, from the littgle research I have done on Purina Dog Foods, they have some of the lowest analysis ratings and the ingredients are some that I would only feed to an ant - not my furry four legged family members. Then when some so called "expert" comes in and talks "new and improved" - it only means one thing - it may be new but usually NOT improved. I just don't like ANYTHING to do with anything Purina. I don't have the money to go out and buy all Zuke's that I can find however I did just put in an order to Chewy.com for a few Zuke's products - I often get the Beaglebratz;s kibble from there so I just went ahead and got some Zuke's. I am going to be very diligent though of what is listed in the ingredients - if they are not the usual Zuke's quality then back they go.
ReplyDeleteMom Kim
It's so depressing. Zuke's was the only brand Nola could have every single treat in their line and not get an upset stomach.
ReplyDeleteNola's Mom
I knew you would be upset about this Nola! Have you tried the Cloud Star products everyone is raving about? I use their conditioner but don't believe I have tried the treats.
DeleteMom Kim here again - I just got through doing a quick check of Nestle Purina. One thing I found when doing a quick google search is how they played up Pro Plan - that it was fed tp a majority of the winners at Westminster (last year ?) Ok, so then I did another quick search for the ingredient list of Purina's Dog Chow and Pro Plan - trying to keep an open mind thinking well maybe they had changed since I last looked - NATA - NO WAY! I looked on Dog Food Advisor and I have never been able to get it out of my mind when they talk about, for example - chicken BY-PRODUCTS being those things left after the rendering of chickens such as beaks, feet, undeveloped eggs and who knows what else. And sometimes they are not specific and just say animal or meat by-products. I guess that stufff cvould be a source of protein but something about evisioning my dog eating a chicken beak - DON'T THINK SO! Not to mention the possible other sources of their "meat" such as dying, sick and diseased animals. Yep, Nestle Purina maintains it's poor reputation with me.
ReplyDeleteWhat I really stopped by for again - to thank you for being Team Beaglebratz' newest follower :) I really appreciate it. And I am hoping to get a new blog post up in the next day or so about Zuke's move.
Mom Kim
Purina also makes the Beneful brand. It is really just sugar, corn and food coloring.
DeleteSorry to read about Zukes. Hope you find a suitable alternative. Have a super Saturday.
ReplyDeleteBest wishes Molly
There was quite the buzz about this yesterday. I was doubly disappointed as the company is based in Durango, CO near my hometown. They promise that won't change either, but I am not convinced. I will be switching over to Cloud Star Tricky Trainers, which I was already a fan of. It's always sad when a small company gets swallowed up by a big one that doesn't have the welfare of our beloved pets at the forefront.
ReplyDeleteTo me it does not matter if they change or not (although I believe they will). I simply do not give my money to Nestle Purina. Nestle and it's support of GMOs, control of water in smaller countries and it's selling formula in places without clean water to safely make it has killed many people. Not to mention all the dogs suffering from these Chinese chicken jerky issues and the kibble such as Bennefull (or as i call it sugar with food coloring).
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