On May 5th, the horrible and upsetting news broke that Proctor & Gamble were purchasing the Natura Pet Food company. Word spread like wildfire online, and there weren’t too many dog parents that were happy about the announcement. Most were in agreement that Natura Pet food would not be the same once P&G took over.

From the Natura Pet web site:

Natura Announces Change In Ownership, But Not Philosophy or Commitment to Quality

You may have heard Natura expects to be acquired by The Procter and Gamble Company sometime in June 2010. By joining the P&G family of brands, our intent is that we will have more resources to raise awareness for the benefits of natural and holistic pet foods. Our hope is even more pets will then experience the benefits of Natura’s high-quality, super-premium brands.

P&G has assured us of their commitment to this business and to the people who have been our partners and our advocates over the years. We will continue to deliver the high quality products that have earned consumers’ trust.

For more than 20 years, Natura has dedicated itself to producing healthy, high-quality pet foods, and we will remain true to that philosophy. As we move forward with this change in ownership you can continue to find Natura pet foods at your local independent pet specialty retailers.

Thank you for your dedicated support and advocacy for Natura Pet foods. We have genuinely appreciated your support in the past and we hope we can count you among our valued customers in the future.

Sincerely,
Don Scott
President

My favorite is this line:

P&G has assured us of their commitment to this business and to the people who have been our partners and our advocates over the years. We will continue to deliver the high quality products that have earned consumers’ trust.

Okay, come on! Why on earth would a company that supposedly cared soooo much about pets in the past, believe the same company that destroyed other petfoods like Iams and Eukanuba? Do they think we are stupid? Or is it just that their definitions of “commitment” and “high quality” have changed?

The Natura president even released a video explaining their reasons for partnering with P&G
http://www.naturapet.com/video/don-video-c.swf

It’s laughable. They’re either delusional or plain just don’t care! I can’t imagine how they could think P&G has a commitment to excellence and animal well being. It’s truly a shame!

As soon as I heard the news, I thought, darn, okay, maybe I need to stock up on EVO kibble. I felt relieved that I just purchased a bag the previous day. But as I thought about it more, I became more and more worried.

What if even now, before the sale is even finalized, there was quality issues with Natura petfoods? How could I possibly trust a company that wants to be affiliated with such a poor pet food company. Yes, I totally understand a need to sell or find new partners, but come on, why would you pick the bottom of the bottom?

So, I returned the new bag I bought, and decided to make a clean break from them.

I have been trying to decide which route I am going to take with regards to my two ratties’ pet food. Thankfully, I only feed a small amount of kibble in the morning, their main meal is dinner when I feed commercial RAW (Bravo, Stella & Chewy)

I really would love to try Orijen, but my regular retailer doesn’t carry it, and it’s doubtful she will be able to in the near future. They manufacturer in such small amounts that they keep their retail options lower than most pet food companies. There are at least two other stores in my area that do carry Orijen, and I might look into them in the future.

In the meantime, I have a bag of Petcurean Go Natural on order from my local pet food store. No, I am not 100% convinced that this is the best brand, but I will give them a chance.

I have been using freeze dried Stella & Chewy for their AM meal, which they absolutely love, but it’s expensive. I also really would like to try Honest Kitchen dehydrated. Both are great options for when we travel!

I’ll post regular updates on how their food situation plays out.

Other Links:

• Our Dogs Online forum – P&G acquiring Natura
• Our Dogs Online – What do you feed?

Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University offers a print newsletter named “Your Dog.” They were giving away two issues for free to try, so I signed up.

I really enjoy reading the Whole Dog Journal, so I thought it might be similar. Unfortunately, it was not, and I canceled.

The main reason I canceled was an article from Feb’s newsletter called “Iams for Him, Ramen for Me” – an article that stated 65% of the dog owners surveyed would rather regularly eat ramen noodles before they would stop buying high quality dog food. So in which universe is Iams high quality pet food? I think I would rather the dog ate the ramen noodles than feed the poor thing Iams!

So, bottom line I have no need for a newsletter that thinks Iams is anything but a poor quality food.

My in-laws recently adopted a sweet cocker spaniel and they were feeding him Iams dog food. My sister-in-law was expressing how many times the poor guy was going poop. He would go outside, then a few minutes later, have an accident in the house. She was at her whit’s end!

He also was itching / licking his paws a lot and he had that horrible doggy smell. They kept giving him baths, with no change.

I did an ingredients search on Iams, and was horrified. Iams should be ashamed to actually call this garbage dog food.

Ingredients:
Chicken, Corn Meal, Chicken By-Product Meal, Ground Whole Grain Sorghum, Chicken Fat (preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of Vitamin E), Dried Beet Pulp, Chicken Meal, Chicken Flavor, Fish Oil (preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of Vitamin E), Dried Egg Product, Potassium Chloride, Brewers Dried Yeast, Salt, Caramel, Choline Chloride, Minerals (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Manganese Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Potassium Iodide, Cobalt Carbonate), Vitamins (Vitamin E Supplement, Ascorbic Acid, Vitamin A Acetate, Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Thiamine Mononitrate (source of vitamin B1), Vitamin B12 Supplement, Niacin, Riboflavin Supplement (source of vitamin B2), Inositol, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (source of vitamin B6), Vitamin D3 Supplement, Folic Acid), Calcium Carbonate, DL-Methionine, Rosemary Extract.

First off, chicken is listed. That might sound good to some people, but “chicken” contains about 70% water; the water has to be removed in processing. By the time it transforms into “dry” dog food, the actual amount of “chicken” is very little. And that is how they scam the consumer!

So, since chicken can’t be counted as a real ingredient, what’s next? hmm, corn meal. So, basically any dog that eats this food is getting corn meal as the main ingredient. Disgusting! (I won’t even mention the horrible chicken-by-parts yuck!) And that is why my inlaws dog smelled, pooped frequently, and had itchy paws. He probably had a bad reaction to the corn (as a lot of dogs do) and he wasn’t retaining any protein. He was pooping it out as soon as he ate it.

I explained this to her, and thankfully she was very open to my suggestions of changing his food. I suggested EVO and she found some at her local pet store.

I was amazed at her followup. She was transitioning her dog to the new food so he was getting half and half at first. Just by feeding him the little bit of EVO, she saw results IMMEDIATELY; he didn’t poop as much. His paw licking and dog smell also stopped. I was truly amazed!!! How exciting!

It really makes me sad (and angry) to think that there are still people out there that think they are buying a “premium” pet food when they buy Iams, Eukanuba, Science Diet, Hills, etc. Over and over, I hear and read comments that they are buying the “expensive food” at the vet’s office. blah! And the Vets are no better. Actually recommending this garbage!!

Well, at least ONE dog was saved from Iams! Read the ingredients! Go to dogfoodproject.com and learn about REAL premium food!

By coincidence, the same time I was researching new food choices for Mindy (and her weight loss challenge), the Menu Foods pet food recall was just hitting the news. So my online research into pet foods had an even greater importance.

What my research has taught me:

• I had already known that any pet food sold in grocery stores is sub quality, but I also learned that there are no true premium pet foods sold in any “big box pet stores” like Petco or Petsmart. I love my veterinarian dearly, but I do not trust her pet food recommendations. Regrettably, a lot of vets push the foods that can be sold at higher profit margins.

• Sadly there are many pet lovers that purchase sub-quality brands like Purina, Iams, Eukanuba, Science Diet, Alpo, Beneful, Pro Plan, etc. Product ingredients include questionable protein amounts, lower quality meats, meat by-products, corn, wheat, soy, unhealthy preservatives (BHA, ethoxyquin), hormones, Menadione (a vitamin K supplement), antibiotics, sweeteners, and dyes (just to name a few.) Family and friends rave about Purina and Iams, stating their pets are thriving and healthy. Yes, of course it is possible for a pet to live a long and happy life eating food of a lesser quality. Some humans smoke and live to be 90, and on the other hand, some strict vegetarians can develop cancer and other illnesses. There are no guarantees.

• Think about human vs pet grade ingredients. I watched the TV news story of an Ottawa woman who became sick after eating some of the recalled food. She was trying to coax her little dog to eat. In the TV news report, she said when she later spoke to Iams, they recommended that she never eat dog food. But why? If the pet food companies are asking us to trust them to create quality foods for our pets, shouldn’t that quality be high enough for human consumption? It doesn’t make sense.

• Pet food production is self regulated in the US. The FDA (in my opinion) does a deplorable job keeping humans safe, so even if pet foods were regulated, how trustworthy would they be anyhow? This is why pet owners must do the research on their own.

  It is up to the pet owner to carefully scrutinize all pet food companies and the products they sell. Even though Nutro Ultra dry food was not included in the recall, I started to doubt Nutro’s business ethics and practices. In the back of my mind, I never fully trusted that Nutro Ultra was the best brand of pet food to be feeding my Mindy, but just as many other pet owners thought, why fix what ain’t broke when she was thriving and healthy.

• When deciding on a pet food company, broaden your research. Don’t exclusively rely on the reviews from Amazon, Petco, or Petsmith. There is no way of knowing who added the reviews and if there was an ulterior motive or bias. Take time to read discussions on pet specific forums where real pet owners post about their experiences concerning not only pet foods but also the companies that manufacture and sell the products.

• It is not true that premium food is always a lot more expensive than non-premium food. In some instances, it is slightly more expensive to purchase a much higher quality food, but because the feeding guidelines are less, the net cost is actually less or equal.

I am sure the Menu Foods recall will eventually fade from our minds, just like the last Diamond Foods recall was forgotten. People will continue to feed their pets products from Nutro, Iams, Eukanuba, Science Diet, Alpo, Purina and other brands. But make no mistake, there will be future recalls and more pet deaths and illnesses. I am taking steps now because I am unwilling to take the chance that the next recall could affect my precious Mindy. By then it will be too late.

Interesting web resources:

• Dog Food Analysis – Is your pet’s food a 6 star food, or a 1 star food? Interesting, as the quality gets lower, the quantity of reviews gains. From 11 reviews in the 6 star category to 265 poor choices in the 1 star category.
• The Dog Food Project – Excellent advice, along with a terrific and informative discussion forum.
• All Dogs Gym
• FDA is MIA…