More pet food recalls as of 4/26/07

[MikeW]

I am beside myself. I dodged a bullet on the earlier stuff, and upgraded to Natural Balance. Two weeks ago, their canned venison was recalled, but they kept stressing that all the rest of their products were safe. Only the venison had rice gluten.
I only use the lamb, so was a little shocked that a company that boasted about making their own 'all natural' food had to fess up to buying the same crud as everyone else.

You guessed it. Yesterday, lamb and beef added to the list. "Our manufacturer added rice gluten without telling us". I want to do physical harm to the CEO of that outfit. If nothing else, with all this junk going around, they are not testing what is going out under their label?

Was advised against radically switching food again, so was talked into the 'still safe' duck and potato. I am just waiting for this to be added.

Mad as hell, and angry to boot.

Mike

[tammie]

Yep.  I want to beat up somebody!  I've switched all 9 dogs over to Solid Gold dog food.  Let me tell you- it's expensive!  But I think worth it.  I had a sick Rotten-weiler for over a month, thought it was Giardia.  Could have been.  But she's been fine since changing her food.  And she was still sick for 2 weeks after treating her for Giardia.  Now it appears to be wheat and corn gluten and rice "protein". 
Tammie

[frloplady]

I don't think I'm gonna comment... ok maybe just one plug.... 

www.wholefoods4pets.com 

[barb]

I just switched our cats and dogs over to Eagle Pack dry pet foods, which are supposed to be high quality.  As expensive as it is, I certainly hope so.  I'm still feeding them cheap canned grocery food though, Pedigree and 9 Lives.  Neither of those brands were recalled.  Unless I missed something.   

[Teresa]

I'm so sorry Mike!  It's awful to think you've done right by your furry friends only to find out that someone else is screwing with them!!!

I switched all the furballs to California Natural . . . found a store near here that has several brands that were on the 5 star and 6 star lists from dogfoodanalysis.com . . . . picked it over innova because of the lamb and rice flavor which is what Casey was already on.  She absolutely loves it and since we started her on it, we've been able to eliminate the canned food altogether (she wouldn't eat the old food without the canned and this she happily eats with no canned food.)

I sure hope that Bear and Andy suffer no ill effects . . . .

[LeeAnne151]

I've been feeding Natural Balance for about a year now. I'm just sick.

[LeeAnne151]

Mike, have you read this?

http://www.naturalbalanceinc.com/faq_new.html

[MikeW]

I had seen most of that before, but what gave me nausea was the answer to "how can we trust your other foods?". When they say they don't use the rice gluten in them, that is EXACTLY what they had said earlier when assuring the public that only the venison was tainted, and the lamb and beef were still fabulous.

Turns out they don't know what the %$#*&# is in their food. I was poisoning my dogs for weeks with that exact "safe" lamb and beef, until "Oops, the people making our food that we blindly slap our lable on were adding the poison, without telling us"

I might be a bit harsh, and I am still using their other products on the advice not to start switching their food a second time in two months, but I go into PetCo everyday and make sure the stuff I am buying is still on the shelves. I just hate this!

I have moved away from the cans altogether, using a freshly baked chicken loaf type thing. "Thaw and serve". Even I can cook that much.

I'd rather human food was poisoned. We can at least complain. Animals tend to hide illness and injury, so one just never knows.

Cheers,

Mike

[Teresa]

This is really horrible and frightening.  I have to go buy more food for my furry friends today.  I check the fda website and the manufacturer's website every day to make sure that my brand hasn't been recalled.  Beyond that I have no choice but to trust that the food is safe . . . . I worry that this same thing will happen with my brand. 

[Teresa]

Mike . . . . after reading the link LeeAnne posted, I went and checked on the pet food that I've been buying.  They do own and run their own manufacturing facility for dry food.  Since Casey so loved the dry food, I've quit giving her canned with every meal.  Two of the three cats only eat dry.

Read this  . . . . they are going to start a facility to make their own canned food and have complete control over it.  Until they do, they have someone onsite watching everything that happens with their food . . . .

http://www.naturapet.com/about-natura/news.asp?id=16

[LeeAnne151]

No pets have gotten sick from Natural Balance, their recall is precautionary. Hopefully, no pets will.

My Zipper died from sudden kidney failure in late December, I've wondered many times if the food was the problem though she had other medical problems. Bob bought foods that were recalled when we ran out of Natural Balance, Wellness and Innova.

[MikeW]

I am still using Natural Balance, as I know they are way better than most - but am still jolly angry. Somewhere in my readings, I want to say I saw something about problems being suspected as far back as November.

No pets being sick from Natural Balance is what keeps me sane at this point. As I'm switching their 14 year old Iams habit to Natural Balance, the stools are a litle watery - many symptoms of kidney failure are also to be expected with food change apparently. Thank goodness I was told about that - but I have too keen of an interest in dog poop of late.

Cheers,

Mike

[LeeAnne151]

This is infuriating too:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/05/02/pet.food.poultry/index.html