Another pet food recall

[Haudlady]

Hello everyone - I just got news that Natural Balance is recalling:

venison and brown rice dry dog food and
venison and green pea dry cat food

They are not sure what the problem is but customers have complained that some pets have become sick with vomiting and kidney problems.

I use the Venison & Green Pea for two of my cats - Edgar and Ranya - and am worried. Ranya had a urinary tract infection recently. I can't help but wonder if it is connected.

My local store is confirming the news, and is accepting the food back.

[mimitabby]

tonight i am getting set up to make my own cat food using chickens, livers, hearts & eggs.

if even the most prestigious cat foods are suspect, i will feed them people food which, of course; is suspsect.

[IFjane]

Strange thing happened this morning at my house. In my front yard was a dead chicken. Really. Complete with feathers & very fresh looking meat. Minus the head and some of the feathers. (The neighbors across the road have chickens.) My SO got the pitch fork & disposed of it. Perhaps instead, we should have just tossed it in on the kitchen floor for the cats. Can't be any worse, right?

[Eden]

This is so frustrating! From all outward appearances that one looks like a very good food too - good ingredients without fillers or a lot of junk in it and none of the things that were the suspects for causing the illnesses in the last recalled food. It makes me think that they still have not nailed down what was wrong before....

[mimitabby]

Strange thing happened this morning at my house. In my front yard was a dead chicken. Really. Complete with feathers & very fresh looking meat. Minus the head and some of the feathers. (The neighbors across the road have chickens.) My SO got the pitch fork & disposed of it. Perhaps instead, we should have just tossed it in on the kitchen floor for the cats. Can't be any worse, right?

send ME that chicken!

Yes, Eden, that's part of what's worrying me too.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Yeah, I have NEVER bought any of the recalled foods, yet 3 of my 4 cats have gotten kidney failure in the past 4 years- all cats under the age of 6 and from different backgrounds. I've alternated among high end cat foods.
As I mentioned before- I've switched to Paul Newman's organic food and they seem to be loving it and not throwing up so far like one or another of them often does...
I believe there is a lOT more contamination out there than anyone has so far suspected. When I was a kid we always had cats- 3 to 6 of them at a time. They NEVER got kidney disease. Something is fishy.

[oxysback]

Well poot. That's the food I feed Frankie, our pug. She hasn't been showing any signs of illness, and we definitely haven't had any vomiting, but our vet says it's such a crap-shoot as to how long it takes and recommended a kidney test and urinalisys. So off to the vet we go.

Send vibes for normal puggy kidneys, everyone!!

[surgtech1956]

This is very disturbing this pet food recall. I can't believe there is no regulation on the pet food industry, look how much $$$$ we spend on our pets & their foods. I have 2 dogs & 8 cats. We were feeding the dogs the Alpo brand that was voluntarily recalled by the company. But they are OK. Our pets are like our children. I was talking with my vet about the lack of regulation. He told me that he visited the Hills/Science Diet plant - the plant that the prescription food comes from, well they actually have a guy who's job it is to 'taste test' all the food.

[Eden]

He told me that he visited the Hills/Science Diet plant - the plant that the prescription food comes from, well they actually have a guy who's job it is to 'taste test' all the food.

sounds like hooey to me - the some of the Hills stuff comes from the same d@mn plant as all the other contaminated foods. I was really, really suprised at how much pet food is all produced in one big vat basically and then lableled with dozens of different brand names all claiming to be the best stuff out there.

Even many of the "recipies" that you can find for making pet food at home are bad - so many that I just looked at contain onions/garlic - these are toxic to cats!! (not in small quantities but over time can cause anemia and death!). I don't know what to feed the poor kitties these days. Apparently good cat diets are pretty darn complex....

[mimitabby]

really Eden, if you feed them raw whole animals. horses, goats...no only kidding, chickens!!
I'll give a full report Thursday when i come back from my cat food preparation lesson.

[Eden]

maybe its time to start trapping mice and sparrows.....

[mimitabby]

the mice and sparrows have worms...

[lisa_b]

I feed my orange tabby, George, the Natural Balance venison/green pea. It is the allergy formula for Natural Balance and recommended by my vet. He seems fine, no vomiting/still has a big appetite, but the vet says to bring him in, so off to the vet we go as well. Poor baby, and here I thought I was helping him by feeding him the allergy formula to help with his ear/eye problems! So frustrating, I really don't know what to feed him at the moment.

[mimitabby]

i know it's gross, but laboratory mice would be great cat food. they are healthy.
but then you'd have to kill them! and that's no fun.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

i know it's gross, but laboratory mice would be great cat food. they are healthy.
but then you'd have to kill them! and that's no fun.

Well remember all the animals that are killed in order to go into the pet food anyway. Cats are designed to eat meat, and that means some animal has to die somewhere in the equation...