I recently sent an e.mail to Natures Menu as neither of my cats would eat the last pack I bought, I also mentioned the sugar content.

Apparently the pouches I bought (from Pets at Home) were older ones. This is the reply I receieved

"In March of this year we eliminated the various sugars so that they are no longer added. Anything with a best before date of March 2013 or later will not contain any sugars. The pack will still state sugars of which we are currently updating."

I have also been offered some samples of the ones without sugar

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Which might explain why they are selling it off cheap at the moment in Pets at Home. Will check the best before date as I am on my way up there right now....

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Nellie Paddy Mitzy Milo Peggy Murphy

Millie and Monty, the White Devils!

There is not enough Taurin in Nature's Menu imo;

Taurin: 300 mg/Kg


But it is readily available, comes in 3 flavors, and is fairly cheap (50p per 100g, sometimes on offer).
I am considering using it but supplementing Taurin... anyone have any comments on that?

I used to get Nature's Menu delivered direct from the manufacturer and now don't use it at all. I stopped buying it when other parts of my order went down in quality. As the other main constituent of my order was a main constituent of their processed food I drew my own conclusions.

I have bought it from time to time in an attempt to get them off Whiskas and Felix, without success. They will try a little bit and then leave it.

What I did find it useful for was mixing into a soup in order to get liquid into my boy. He was never mad for it but would take half a pouch mixed with water before refusing the rest. I am now resorting to mixing the gravy from the Whiskas with water.

I am in the position of needing to find something he will take as he has heart failure and is beginning to lose his appetite. He needs liquids as he gets cystitis. I need something to put his meds in.

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Either (or both) of these may be of help. please note I go looking for links as an example, doesn't mean I've found the cheapest or best source

Bestpet Pharmacy -

Bestpet Pharmacy -

If the taurine is listed as part of the additives and not the analysis, than that is what they add to the food; doesn't necessarily mean that it only contains 300mg/kg. With NM it is unclear so you could always get in touch with the manufacturers to see what's what.

why did they add sugar? in the past I've read that cats can't even taste sweet things :/

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Well, that is the interesting thing about NM and the various sugars in their old recipe. When asked about those sugars their response consistently has been that they don't add any sugars but are highlighting the naturally occurring ones in the food.

Now that has always slightly puzzled me (no, I lie, I found this very strange and actually quite amusing) as manufacturers are only required to state in their composition (ingredients) list the things that they use to make up the recipe. If a food already contains a certain something, say preservative, they are not required to list that one as it is seen as inherent in the food that they use to make up their recipe. However, if they add a preservative, then they need to declare it.

True, it is the manufacturer's prerogative to state other things, like sugars, that are inherent in the food in addition to the recipe ingredients. But considering the length that other manufacturers go to hide the true nature of their less flavoursome ingredients, it is perhaps strange that NM should take it up themselves to highlight various sugars when they didn't need to.

And their whole previous statement re the various sugars now is a complete farce because in their reply to the OP they now admit that they have "added" them previously and now will not do so any more.

Might have used sugars to bump up calories or to add shine to their food.

The 'naturally occurring sugars' in the food makes me wonder which foods they're referring to as well!!