So, Nutro decided to “voluntarily” recall some of their cat food products but in the meantime, dogs are still sick and dying from their dog food.

They state the recall on the cat food was due to a mixup on the levels of two minerals:

Franklin, Tennessee (May 21, 2009) — Today, Nutro Products announced a voluntary recall of select varieties of NUTRO® NATURAL CHOICE® COMPLETE CARE® Dry Cat Foods and NUTRO® MAX® Cat Dry Foods with “Best If Used By Dates” between May 12, 2010 and August 22, 2010. The cat food is being voluntarily recalled in the United States and ten additional countries. This recall is due to incorrect levels of zinc and potassium in our finished product resulting from a production error by a US-based premix supplier.

Two mineral premixes were affected. One premix contained excessive levels of zinc and under-supplemented potassium. The second premix under-supplemented potassium. Both zinc and potassium are essential nutrients for cats and are added as nutritional supplements to NUTRO® dry cat food.

This issue was identified during an audit of our documentation from the supplier. An extensive review confirmed that only these two premixes were affected. This recall does not affect any NUTRO® dog food products, wet dog or cat food, or dog and cat treats.

Affected product was distributed to retail customers in all 50 states, as well as to customers in Canada, Mexico, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and Israel. We are working with all of our distributors and retail customers, in both the US and internationally, to ensure that the recalled products are not on store shelves. These products should not be sold or distributed further.

Consumers who have purchased affected product should immediately discontinue feeding the product to their cats, and switch to another product with a balanced nutritional profile. While we have received no consumer complaints related to this issue, cat owners should monitor their cat for symptoms, including a reduction in appetite or refusal of food, weight loss, vomiting or diarrhea. If your cat is experiencing health issues or is pregnant, please contact your veterinarian.

Consumers who have purchased product affected by this voluntary recall should return it to their retailer for a full refund or exchange for another NUTRO® dry cat food product. Cat owners who have more questions about the recall should call 1-800-833-5330 between the hours 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM CST

They stated that they received no consumer complaints related to this issue, ha! hmm, but did they receive complaints regarding other issues?

Why pet guardians are still trusting them is beyond me! It just makes me crazy and angry! I think the only way to really put them out of business is to just stop buying their products! Stop!!!!! Just stop!

It’s finally confirmed. Nutro Petfood (owned by Mars) has been making pets sick.

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2009/04/nutro_foia.html

When are people going to wake up and realize that these huge commercial petfood companies are not producing quality products?

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…

Mindy had her annual physical recently, and we were shocked to realize that she gained over 2 lbs since her last vet visit in late November! She is now over 17 lbs.

After we returned home, I thought about the real reason for her sudden weight gain. Besides the lack of outdoor exercise due to the cold weather, I think I was over feeding her. I didn’t measure her food, I just dumped a little in her bowl whenever it was empty.

Mindy is a strange eater. She will not eat unless we are with her, so we have two food bowls set up. One in the dining/kitchen area and one additional bowl downstairs in our family room. The majority of the time, she eats downstairs in the evening while we watch TV.

The vet suggested we slowly switch to a weight management recipe and it sounded like a good idea at the time, until I started to read the ingredients for weight management dog food. A carbohydrate is listed as a first ingredient, not a protein. This makes no sense to me.

So, I am going to research more online, and perhaps learn more about cooking food for her. Not the raw food movement, but perhaps homemade, or at least occasionally homemade.

Here are the links I have found that have been very helpful:

• The Dog Food Project – Identifying Better Products
• The QualityDogs Forum – Dog Food Choices
• The Pet Center – Natural Pet Foods
• The Pet Center – Overweight Dog or Cat
• Pet Food Comparison Wizard- Natura Pet and all of its petfoods are absolutely not recommended anymore, since the company was heartlessly purchased by Proctor & Gamble. No matter what they say, any Natura food will not be the same!
• Dog Food Analysis with dog food ratings

I think if we monitor her food intake and watch her snacks, she will do okay. I just hate to start her on weight management dry food if it will not be as healthy as regular adult food.

Gosh, it’s been a long time since I last wrote on the site. Shame on me!

I decided I needed to change Mindy’s food, so I decided on Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover’s Soul dog food. We just picked up a bag tonight, and I will be weening her from the Nutro Ultra dog food.

We didn’t dislike the Nutro Ultra and it is a fantastic good quality food, but I really liked that there were 4 different meats listed first in the ingredients, along with duck, salmon, and other good veggies and grains. So many have recommended this food, so I wanted to give her the best.

Well that is all for now. I hope to write a few more articles to get the blog up to date on what has happened in the last couple of months.

UPDATE (3/17/2006): I have decided to switch back to Nutro Ultra and leave the Chicken Soup food behind. Her food intake went down since I switched, and I am just not thrilled with Diamond Foods on the whole, since the whole recall situation. Yes, I realize that Chicken Soup was not affected by the recall, but the whole thing just left me feeling a bit worried.