Purina Launches New Dog Food in Jan 2011, Supports Shelter Pets

Better Ingredients and Promotion for Shelter Pets Too!
(I've sent to Susan Thixton to get her take on this new food.)

From Examiner: National

by Penny Eims
Dog News Examiner
Purina One - new product and a special promotion for shelter pets

November 28th, 2010 6:49 pm ET

A new line of pet food, available January 2011

Purina is launching a new a new line of pet food available in January 2011. Purina's new line of pet food, Purina One Beyond, is made from high-quality, well-balanced ingredients.

What will pet owners find in this new premium grade food? For starters - real meat. As a matter of fact, meat is the first ingredient. Added to the mix are fruits and vegetables, incluting carrots, apples, tomatoes, blueberries, sweet potatoes and spinach.

What you won't find are corn and wheat fillers. Purina One Beyond is designed to be an all-natural, high quality, flavorful kibble that is free from both fillers and artificial preservatives.

What about the shelter pet angle? Purina One is in the midst of a promotion designed to help feed homeless pets. Purina One Beyond has several videos that share more about their new product, including the inspiration for the food, and how the company is hoping to make a difference.

If you are a Facebook member, you can find Purina One Beyond and the videos at this link. (Go to my FB page - link did not show up here)

Each time one of their videos is viewed, Purina One Beyond will donate $1 to homeless pets in their network of animal shelters. It's an easy way for everyone to get involved and help feed the many homeless pets across our nation.

Purina One has already donated over $162,000. They will continue to make donations up to $300,000 through December 10, 2010.

Please take a moment to view the Purina One Beyond videos and tell your friends and family about the promotion. Everyone has the power to make a difference - it is easy and it gives you a tangible way to make a difference in the life of a homeless cat or dog.

Examiner Note (the author's): My own dog, a German shepherd, was able to sample the Purina One Beyond dog food. I will start by saying that my dog is a food snob. She has been provided with a wide-variety of high quality foods over the course of her nearly 8 yrs of life. To my constant dismay (and frustration) she usually turns her nose up to the offered food in her bowl. Rarely does she dive into her food dish with zest and zeal - however, she was quite enamored with the Purina One Beyond. From the very first bowl, she polished off the kibble - no amendments were needed to coax her through. Lily gives the new Purina One Beyond 2 paws up.

0 members like this

▶ Reply to This

Posts

AdminPermalink Reply by LM Fowler - Admin on November 30, 2010 at 5:44am

** Pet Peeve Alert ** Being that is it Purina I will hold judgement until I see the ingredients or see a review from Susan. Because they use questionable by-products and fillers that no-one should feed a beloved pet in their present products, it makes me wonder why they would go this route. Maybe because pet owners are not stupid and have been screaming for better products since 2007 when our eyes were opened by the largest mass recall of pet foods in our history. Maybe because more and more people have gone back to basics and feed their dogs real food and real ingredients, from their own kitchens instead of from rendering plants and questionable, cheap Chinese distributors. Like I said, I appreciate Purina might want to step up, might want to help shelter pets and might want to do better, I just will always see Purina as BIG commercial dog food whose main goal is profits and will never use human grade=more expensive ingredients. ** OK getting off my soap box now ** Thanks for sharing, Em. Let's wait and see what Susan finds.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Elizabeth Gunn on November 30, 2010 at 2:10pm

I have an adopter here in Arkansas who is a PhD pet nutritionist for Purina - I will have to see what her thoughts are. Her husband used to own ArKat Nutrition, a pet food manufacturing plant here in Arkansas. Their food is great - I bet they have some interesting dinner table conversations! Rick is a dog food snob and really knowledgeable about pet nutrition - and Jill has shared some "inside tips" about Purina foods with me in the past. They both did tell me that dog food is a lot like electronics in that the huge manufacturers also make many of the other brand labels of food you find in various stores - like Family Dollar, Kroger, Fred's, etc.. most electronics are made by the same manufacturer, just labeled with the individual brand. So a lot of the different brands are the same food or the same product. I can't remember which ones she said Purina makes, but it was some well known brands out there. Interesting.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Elizabeth Gunn on November 30, 2010 at 2:15pm

BTW, the ArKat brands are Enhance and Veterinarian Formulated - has anyone tried it? They were bought by a company in Pennsylvania a while back.
I also like Victor brand dog food, available at most feed stores - meat based, no corn, wheat, etc.. and affordable.

▶ Reply

Member Since 2009Permalink Reply by Emilie M Bottiggi on November 30, 2010 at 7:59pm

I'm not familiar with those particular names, but I know Mars Petcare, whose corporate offices are here in Franklin TN, manufacture lots of different names. Pedigree is their lead dog food and Friskies is their lead cat food. Several years ago, they bought Doane Pet Food which manufacturered a lot of labels, none of their own, with Ol' Roy being the most profitable. Since that purchase, I have noticed that Ol' Roy has added to its line, included some treats similar to Greenies biscuits. I have tested one box on my dogs and they seem to like it okay. The biscuits are hard, though, and not as easy to eat for my "little" babies, like Maltese and Minature Poodle. I've had to break them up for them. But my elderly Cocker enjoys them. With worn down teeth, though, I still have to at least break in half. (Never ever thought I would try anything Ol' Roy, much less admit it in public!)
Mars now owns Nutro and Greenies. They consider Pedigree the top of their grocery store brands, and Nutro their pet specialty brand. I suspect they will eventually drop the low end of Nutro, since it is a competitor to Pedigree, and Pedigree is a better seller than Natural Choice. I demo'd briefly for Nutro and Natural Choice was the "crossover" label - the label to suggest to someone who is ready to move out of the grocery story into pet specialty shopping. But if we could, we were supposed to move them on up to Nutro vs Natural Choice.

▶ Reply

Member Since 2009Permalink Reply by Emilie M Bottiggi on November 30, 2010 at 8:00pm

I agree that Susan will help us out here. And we can't buy it yet anyway - not until Jan 2011. But maybe Purina like Pedigree knows they need to make changes.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Elizabeth Gunn on November 30, 2010 at 8:21pm

The Ol Roy Lamb and Rice is decent - lamb is the first listed ingredient. And my dogs love those Ol Roy cookies - but, like you, I hate that they seem to only have the huge ones, now. And they are hard to break up into pieces.

▶ Reply

AdminPermalink Reply by LM Fowler - Admin on November 30, 2010 at 8:21pm

Sadly, after losing my Magic to the 2007 recalls, I personally will never trust Big Dog Food again. I will stick to my homecooking and "real" food. I can only hope these companies do begin to listen to pet owners, I fear that all they will ever listen to is their bottom line.

▶ Reply

Member Since 2009Permalink Reply by Emilie M Bottiggi on November 30, 2010 at 8:22pm

Susan's comment to me:

I want to see the ingredients before I read about how the new food saves the environment. Their new website doesn't show ingredients. We'll see.
Susan

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Elizabeth Gunn on November 30, 2010 at 8:24pm

Can I come be one of your dogs? What's on the menu for tonight? I'm starving! You don't even have to smash my peas, I'll eat em whole!
I think it is wonderful that you cook for your dogs - you are such a wonderful doggy momma! Lucky dogs!

▶ Reply

AdminPermalink Reply by LM Fowler - Admin on November 30, 2010 at 8:24pm

Marketing a splashy website will not put quality whole ingredients in their products.

▶ Reply

AdminPermalink Reply by LM Fowler - Admin on November 30, 2010 at 8:37pm

Oh, lady, my dogs eat better than my kids & husband, does. Chicken, Ground turkey, "smashed peas", whole wheat pasta, sweet potato, Solid Gold sea meal and a spoon full of yogurt. Flynn and Bella also got a fish oil squirt and the rest got Primrose oil in theirs. There's no dog food company that can match that. LOL

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Sue & the Crew on November 30, 2010 at 8:48pm

OK, I am going to stick my neck out here and say that a company's history is really important to me. And Purina has not really demonstrated those traits I would expect from a company that cares. A marketing ploy to suggest that they will produce a "quality" product in 2011 makes me wonder what does that mean for their "mainstream" product? Why did it take so long to produce a (so called) "quality" product? Do they plan on taking the old formula off the shelf because it is now inferior to the new product? I agree 100% with Lynne's statement: Purina as BIG commercial dog food whose main goal is profits and will never use human grade=more expensive ingredients.

I am afraid that nothing Purina does would ever make me feed their product to my girls. In fact, nothing the BIG commercial dog food companies do would change my mind. Profit driven, global companies do not care about anything than profit and bottom line - not matter what or who the cost. Just watch the Walmart: the High Cost of Low Prices documentary or Food Inc. or the fair trade coffee industry documentaries and consider how BIG corporations really care.