Comments on: Del Monte To Increase Pet Food Prices

By: Lee

Lee — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 21:07:26 +0000

With the cost of human food maybe folks are starting to eat pet food. Better ingredient,lower cost…
Del Monte is not stupid.??????

By: John Bannan

John Bannan — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 05:31:44 +0000

We fed our 2 cats Meow Mix, which was a change from their privious cat food.
A few days later, 1 of the cats started throwing up. About a day later, the
other one started throwing up. The next morning, the first one was dead. We
brought the other one to the vet later. He was skin and bones, but getting better.
I called Del Monte, and they told me how well they controled their nutritous
Meow Mix cat food. Our cats are indoors cats. They didn’t eat anything else.
We know it could not have been anything else than Meow Mix that poisoned them.
We still have the bag and food left in it, and are planning on having it tested.
We bought it from Safeway, in Vallejo, California.

By: Kiki

Kiki — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 19:18:52 +0000

Pet food prices keep skyrocketing as the quality continues to become poorer & poorer. I wish we could see a comparison of ingredients in todays pet food to the same brand twenty or thirty years ago. Only then, I think the “bi-products” were better! Now all the meats in the supermarket for human consumption seem to have an “added 20% solution” - what the hell is that solution? let me guess - maybe salt, or high fructose corn syrup, or some onion & garlic, other preservatives - why is it there? to increase shelf live . . . to give flavor to a poor quality, flavorless meat . . . to increase the weight so the store & suppliers can make more money. The poor animals are lucky to even get any of that crappy meat we are sold - no they get the ears & snouts & entrails that would be thrown away, they get meat from “downed” animals that are too sick to stand up at auction & even ROAD KILL! Think back, 30-40 years ago, parts like chicken wings weren’t sold that much in stores (before some brillian person dreamed up hotwings, to use up that cheap meat) - I bet the old pet foods used more of things like chicken wings, necks, livers, gizzards, etc - while I think now beaks, chicken feathers, etc are “chicken bi-products”. I am disgusted by the whole stinking mess, but the standard grocery meats are so bad, I don’t even want to eat them, so what the heck do we feed our pets? My cats became extremely ill just prior to all the news breaking about the melamine in petfood. They are inside, vaccinated & were never sick like this before - they were vomiting blood & couldn’t eat - my vet didn’t know what to do except offer fluids. When the news first broke they thought it was poisoning. One cat had died. I read about treatments for poisoning & that charcoal might help as it binds toxic materials & then is excreted. Thinking it was probably a fairly safe option, I opened an activated charcoal capsule daily into my cats waterbowl where it floated on top like black greasy scum; I also offered plain water. The cats were all drawn to the charcoal water & walked around with black lips s, but gradually improved & I honestly think it saved their lives. Could I sue the pet food companies? How, the food cans were long gone & my vet couldn’t be sure it hadn’t been a virus. I was furious, but who has the time to prepare homemade food, or the knowledge to know if it is nutritious. I wish an animal food industry chemist with an entrepreunerial drive would market packets of ingredients that contain the vitamins, etc needed to which a pet owner could add that to their own fresh meat at home in proper proportions. I do animal rescue work & buy a lot of cat food & prices have doubled in the last couple years. I am DAMN mad about it too.I know gas prices have been high, but greed of executives & stock owners seems to know no end. Get real folks - its pet food - the pets don’t have pockets full of money & I’ve seen a huge increase in dumped animals in my small southern town since gas prices & everything else went up. The pets are often the first to go when the going gets tough. They are pitched like yesterdays garbage. That is the reality of higher food prices.

By: trudyjackson

trudyjackson — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 01:02:10 +0000

Who cares? And who would buy their junk anyway? Not Me.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 15:32:48 +0000

Jean and everyone, I think Jean is right some of the food or all of it was made by Menu food. Be carful about the puporoni treats. This food and treats stink because who knows what is in them. I lost my Muffin to lymphoma cancer at 7 years old in 2004. she ate Iams and science diet. My cat became ill later that year 11 years old and I lost him too. he ate science diet and then hills prescription food. we could not find out what happend to him. I am betting it was the food. the vet did test after test until he went down hill so far. My pup eats Eagle Pack hollistic canned and 1/2 my cooking. I am not real trusting of them at this point either. they are a small company and they don’t use wheat or glutens of any type. they are fillers everyone and not good for the dogs. call and ask where the company buys the ingredients if its over seas well they are getting it cheap. The bigger companies are doing it stay with a smaller company if you can’t cook. I am looking at www.honestkitchen.com the freezed dried fruits and veggies (human grade) to mix with my Amish chicken, wild caught salmon and my Laura’s vegatarian fed beef. No antibotics in any of my meat or homones. If any one has ideas please pass it along. they use to day no human food for our pets. well their food is crap so I do think most of ours is better. I would not feed my dog this garbage!

By: Pukanuba

Pukanuba — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 14:13:29 +0000

I wouldn’t buy anything from them anyway so I could care less.

However, I’m not silly enough to think that the price increase has anything to do with better ingredients. It has to do with their profit, as is usually the case. They probably aren’t selling as much as they did before the black days of 07 & the suits need the money to support their collection of Mercedes/Porsches & summer homes. We don’t want to take money away from them, do we? I’d give my opinion on that but it would never get through the cuss monitors.

By: G in INdiana

G in INdiana — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 12:55:42 +0000

The cost of ALL food is going up due to many reasons, fuel costs the most easily seen by all of us who drive. The cost of grains, often used as fillers in many foods, are rising due to the ethanol demand.
I don’t use this junk any way so it does not effect me.

By: Sharon

Sharon — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 12:16:15 +0000

They have to recoup their losses somehow. Wouldn’t want the executives to go without their big bonuses just because a few customers died.

By: jean

jean — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 06:01:23 +0000

Wasn’t Del Monte the company that had a huge warehouse on the East Coast filled with melamine tainted ingredients???

By: JJ

JJ — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 05:11:09 +0000

http://www.pupperoni.com Paid a visit there some of the ingredients in these pupperoni treats are: meat by-products (what rendering plant did they get that from I wonder), sugar, propylene glycol (also found or a component of anti-freeze) onion extract.

Onions contain the toxic ingredient thiosulphate. Pets affected by onion toxicity will develop haemolytic anemia, where the pet’s red blood cells burst while circulating in its body.

At first, pets affected by onion poisoning show gastroenteritis with vomiting and diarrhea. They will show no interest in food and will be dull and weak. The red pigment from the burst blood cells appears in an affected animal’s urine and it becomes breathless. The breathlessness occurs because the red blood cells that carry oxygen through the body are reduced in number.

The POISONING occurs a few days after the pet has eaten the onion.

above from http://aboutfacts.net listed under Poisons and Our Food

Why anyone would give any treat or food with onions in it is just asking for a slow poisoning of your pet. Hope this helps anyone thinking of feeding anything with onions in it whether it be commercial or home cooked.

By: badgerdog1887

badgerdog1887 — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 01:42:13 +0000

They’re following what the rest of the big pet food companies are doing. I have a friend who works for a large veterinary practice. The cost of certain prescription diets from some of the large companies have increased $5 to $6 per bag as sold to veterinarians. I won’t say which company or diet, but a 10# bag of one of the prescription cat diets is now $36.00 their cost!

Gee, Wally! They must be using that extra money to search for better, safer ingredients, huh?

By: Nancy G.

Nancy G. — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 00:29:03 +0000

I believe it’s the large bags of Meow Mix dry that say, in small print running up the side, not to feed it to animals intended for human consumption. Which tells you that various animal parts are in it that might cause the human version of Mad Cow, etc. Cow spinal cords, brain tissue, etc. No other dry cat food that I know of says this on the bags. Very scary. The only delMonte thing I use is the Pupperonis, but now that I think of it [and considering their rising cost], my pups will just have to find something else to beg/ bug me for.

By: kathy

kathy — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 23:45:12 +0000

Good! Maybe more people will quit feeding that c**p to their pets!

By: Sammie

Sammie — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 22:55:39 +0000

I recently fed my cat Meow Mix Gobilicious in a pouch. She immediately started to howl, hunch up and several hours later had vomiting and diarrhea. After contacting Del Monte, all I got was sarcasm and the offer of a few coupons. This happened Jan. 2008.

By: Ruth

Ruth — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 21:36:28 +0000

DelMonte can keep their Milk Bones. Started to make home-made milk bone treats after finding lots of black hairs of unkown orgin in the milk bones they sell. After calling and writing them, all I got was a lot of double talk from them and a coupon but no thanks……. At least now I know what the pets are eating.