Most people should have heard about this by now, but over the weekend there was a massive pet food recall. Nearly 100 brands of dog and cat food are affected. The best source of information about it is here.
Our cats eat primarily dry food (which is not affected), but they also eat some wet food each day. Fortunately, our main brand of wet food, Fancy Feast, is not affected by the recall. We did have some cans of wet Iams. I found a few cans from the factory involved, but they were dated from before the problem. I threw them out anyway. I'm probably going to throw the rest of the wet Iams out also, as it turns out all Iams wet food is made by Menu Foods.
The scale of this is much greater than what is being reported in the regular media. One pet related blog has created a database and is taking reports from pet owners whose pets have been sick or have died from the food. This one blog is reporting 241 pet deaths. One of my sister's cats died yesterday, I don't know yet whether it was because of this food, but it would be rather a coincidence if it was not.
Unbelievably, another blog is reporting that the plant that makes this "food" is still operational.
They think that the problem is a contamination of wheat gluten. Apparently Menu Foods switched to a new supplier of wheat gluten in December. They claim to have dropped that supplier, but no one is naming what company that supplier is. A google search on wheat gluten turned up a number of companies that manufacture wheat gluten. The largest and most recognizable to me was ADM, which is located in my hometown. Of course, right now there is no way to know whether ADM was involved, or whether they were the company switched to or switched from.
I also discovered that there are apparently a number of flavors of Fancy Feast that contain no wheat gluten. A web site lists them here. Some of these flavors are among our cats favorites, so I expect to increase using these particular flavors.
I'm also looking to change their dry food, even though dry food is not affected by this recall. One of the things this recall reveals is that expensive cat foods such as Iams are made at the same factory as cheap store brands. I've been feeding them Iams, because it is a premium cat food that is supposed to be good. But the wet Iams turns out to be the same as the cheap stuff, so Iams has lost all their brand identity to me. I'm not going to feed them Iams anymore.
I've been researching what brands of dry food might be the healthiest. Apparently Innova and Natural Balance are good, but very expensive. The Purina products were unaffected by the recall, but have mixed reputations. Does anybody have any good dry cat food recommendations?
http://www.eaglepack.com/
Posted by: brad | March 21, 2007 at 11:07 AM
My 5 cats love Royal Canin.
The vet also recommended this brand.
Posted by: Peter Muys | March 21, 2007 at 12:50 PM
Wow, maybe I should start paying attention to the news again. Your blog post was the first report of this recall that I have heard.
Luckily my cats eat only dry food, but seeing the name Science Diet scared me for a second, especially since one of my cats seemed a bit more lethargic than usual the other day.
He's springing around today, though. Must have been tired.
My parents' cat eats wet food, though, and I am going to call them to see if they know.
Posted by: GBGames | March 21, 2007 at 03:29 PM
Hill's diet foods are expensive but they are the best, particularly for adult cats.
Posted by: Dingo | March 21, 2007 at 05:08 PM
Bob - Our cat is on Iams Hair Ball formula dry food. Our vet said it is fine - no worries about the dry food. But, our cat is old so the vet recommended a mature formula which Iams doesn't make in hairball control so the vet recommended Science Diet (Mature Hairball Control).
Posted by: Scott Meade | March 22, 2007 at 11:18 PM
Here's another vote for Royal Canin. We have feed both our cats and dogs (with the Royal Canin dog food, of course) this high-quality brand. Your best bet is to read the complete label for any pet food you are thinking of purchasing. You want to see very high quality ingredients, and no fillers, listed for about the first 5 ingredients--and not much else, especially synthetic substances.
Posted by: Craig | March 23, 2007 at 09:20 AM
Our cat will only eat Purina and has refused all other wet/dry foods consistently for over 11 years.
So, I guess it would get his vote.
Posted by: Duncan | March 26, 2007 at 04:27 PM
It is interesting about the cat foods by different manufacturers being made at the same plants. I did read something though that stated they are not the same food despite being made at the same plant. The pet food companies send them different formulations to use, which cost different based on the ingredients of course, so I'm not sure that Iam's and other, cheaper foods are the same.
Our cat, a blue burmese, eats a dry Iam's and dry Eukanuba mix, and we've haven't had any complaints. :)
Posted by: Jay | April 03, 2007 at 02:09 AM