During the recall, I did work at a grocery store, and was there when the recalls went out. You’d be surprised how many customers tried to buy the food anyway before we could get it all off the shelves, despite being told that it was killing pets. “But Fluffy won’t eat anything else!” Well, Fluffy’s going to have to deal for a bit, or suffer organ failure.

Just the same companies, but different equipment/rooms/locations that would knock out generic fruit loops or brand name stuff. Same with pet food.

As for pet food, most generic brands are not the same as the higher priced brand stuff via the ingredients. Higher priced pet food *usually* has less filler junk and more meat…which is better for pets. Generic foods usually have more of the ‘junk’, instead of higher priced meats.

I know Purina is a ‘big brand’ but they were only minimally affected by the recall, our cats love the stuff and are healthy and happy.

When the recall came out, I was worried that Cat Chow would end up on the list, so I went to Itchmo. When I finished reading there, I was not only REALLY worried, I was REALLY pissed. You read down that list of recalled pet food names and it’s like “Precious Kitty” “Your Dear Pet” “Family Companion”–brand names to some faceless company, but actual FACTS for some people whose animals had DIED because of stupid corporate greed. I am a typical Hypocrite-American–you know, one of those folks who hates corporations, but buy from them anyway because I find it’s too hard to investigate every marshmallow and scrap of toilet-paper that comes into my house. But something about this was a line in the sand for me.

THEN I started investigating what goes into cat foods and why. Now, I made up my mind to ignore the most-extremist claims–roadkill, rendered pets, etc (some of it was like reading Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle” all over again)–but even the basic science was enough to change my thinking about cat food. I started reading up on raw diets, started transitioning them almost immediately, and finished making the jump about three weeks ago. I get my ground whole rabbit/chicken/turkey (with bones and organs) and the chicken hearts (for taurine) from http://www.hare-today.com, which is a farm in PA which raises animals for raw-feeding. They ship everything to my house frozen solid, and their service is great (/unsolicited plug). Then I just add fish oil, egg yolks, and vitamin B and E and some extra taurine, smush it all together–it looks like meatloaf mix!–and freeze it in baggies. It takes an hour a week, maybe, and though it’s a LITTLE more expensive, it’s not prohibitively so.

The results: absolutely positive. All three cats have more energy. Before the new diet, whenever Cass or Snick went near the designated poop-box, cats and humans alike fled the vicinity in anticipation of the horrifying OMGWTFBBQ!!1!!11!!!!! stinkybutt to come….now, that’s GONE. No more kitty-funk. (I’m now thinking of transitioning one of my roommates onto a raw diet, however.) They love the new food, though BadCat takes a little convincing once in a while–a capsule of salmon-oil opened over his bowl does the trick whenever he’s being picky.

There is one drawback. When we had dry food, we could free-feed, even though we were trying to stick to 2 meals a day. Now, for the 3 hours most immediately preceding any given meal, Snickers becomes MR. BUTTHEAD THE WONDER-KITTY, who (to hear him tell it) clearly has never been fed in his life, is starved and abused, and must act out his wrath by jumping on kitchen shelves, the top of bookcases, the toaster-oven….This lasts til he hears the ziploc bag being opened for dinnertime. Then: HAPPITAIL!!!!!

I’ve had a great experience with raw-feeding–there’s more stories on my blog, linked to my name above–and if you’re interested in looking into raw food for your cats, I’d recommend http://www.catnutrition.org for solid info. This recall was really a wake-up call for me.

She then got up, walked a few feet, and started to howl – the usual “oh god I’m going to throw up everywhere” sound for cats. It was her first time throwing up, so I tried not to make it worse for her – just waited for it and knew I’d have to clean it up wherever it landed. After she had finished, I looked at the damage, and noted she had thrown up far more than what was her dinner – alot of it was her breakfest, too. Before I knew it she started to throw up again, and there was even MORE food than the first time. I decided to put her in the bathroom, encase she had anymore to throw up, while I cleaned the carpet. After we finally got it under control, we opened the bathroom door to find she had not only thrown up more, but had diarreah. We rushed the litter box to her, and as soon as we set it down, she got into it and had diarreah again.

At this point I was in a panic. She continued to dry heave, not having anything more to throw up. It was around 7PM when we finally wrapped her in a blanket, put her in her kitty carrier and took her to an emergency animal clinic.

We stayed there until midnight, and no one saw us. There was a goat and a dog in surgery, and apparently that was keeping the doctor’s hands full. This was before the pet food recall was a big news item, so I guess they didn’t see her symptoms as anything to be concerned about.

The next day I took her to her usual vet, who galdly made time and saw us. Nala was given fluids and from what the vet could see, nothing else was wrong with her.

We’ve been lucky. I can’t be 100% sure if it had anything to do with the pet food recall, because none of the vets could tell me what it could of been that would cause her to be so sick, but I had Iams food with the codes and dates that matched the recall. By the time I learned of the recall I no longer had the packages from the food she ate that night so I couldn’t ever verify my suspisions. Luckily, probably because she is a kitten and so small, it seems as if her body purged everything that was harmful rather than absorbing it, cause she’s had no symptoms of what the other pets exposed have experienced. I still keep a close watch on her, but from what I can tell, she’s in great health.

We’ve since completely switched away from any brand made my Menu. She’s now 8 months old and eats Pet Promise – which she LOVES and I’d highly recommend to anyone. She especially likes the chicken, but that’s all this cat will eat is chicken flavored stuff. She’s a chicken only kitten

So I ordered the Feline Future packaged enzymes, amino acids, etc. which you add to raw turkey or chicken. The Overlord said “yuk” to begin with and I had to mix a tiny bit of it with his canned food, increasing by a smidge each meal. Now he yummers up the raw food and does a little dance in front of the fridge when he’s hungry. He’s a Maine Coon and weighs 23 pounds so he has a good appetite. We were buying premium cat food for him already, so we haven’t noted any increase in cost to feed him this way.

We’d noticed over this past winter that he had slowed down, was not as playful and rambunctious as he once was, but we figured that he’s now eight years old, etc. He also had constipation and horrible stinky butt.

Within a few days of eating the raw food his ornery came back. He’s runnning all over the house (literally) bouncing off the walls, which he finds fun. Six weeks later his coat glows when he’s in the sun. He looks as if he’s been polished. He’s very red, so you can really tell the difference between a dull coat and a shiny one. His fur is also very much softer. He’s no longer constipated and his stinky butt is so much better we often can’t tell if he’s laid down his daily load, or if he just widdled. So I can’t say enough about the raw food diet. It’s a bit more work than using the can opener, but you make up abouth 10 days supply and freeze it in small containers or baggies, using one a day.

Anyways. I would advise staying away from any grocery store brands for a while. If you are concerned about the brand you give your pet, two brands that I can guarantee will cause you NO problems are Eagle Pack and Merrick. They do not share their production facilities with any other companies and get all their ingredients from reliable sources. Both make cat and dog food, wet and dry, so you should be able to find something your pets will like. =) The only thing is, it’s hard to find people who carry those brands… so you’ll have to use a store locator.

eaglepack.com and merrickpetcare.com… woo =)

Now…

I can has a good diet?

Kthnxbai

But she does love some people food: Spaghetti, scrambled eggs and American cheez. She is trained to the sound of the toaster in hope for some little drip of melted butter that slides off the bagels.

My guys love Nutro and I haven’t been able to find any wet food that the boys will eat other than Nutro (my female will eat anything!). I will more than likely go back to buying it when it is back on the shelves. But Nutro really should be kissing my butt right now …

They were quick to recall the bad products — which is great — but they are not doing much in trying to save relationships which really surprises me. Isn’t spin marketing what America is all about?

SO kidding ;o)

U CAN HAS RECALL ALRTZ!

(sorry, couldn’t resist)

I’ve been considering putting him on a raw meat/bones diet (the one mentioned on the itchmo site) for quite some time, and fortunately I will have a source of contamination-free chicken if I do so. I want The Catburger to lose some weight, and getting rid of *all* grain in his food should help that. I had him on Innova Evo for a while — that’s Innova’s no-grain canned food — and OMG was there massive stinkybutt. Too much fish in the recipe. (: