Melamine in Corn Gluten Linked to South African Pet Illnesses
The 29 cases of renal failure in South Africa has been linked to melamine in corn gluten used in pet food. Corn gluten is used extensively in the US.
Tests have confirmed that Vets Choice and Royal Canin dog and cat dry pet-food products contained corn gluten contaminated with melamine, says the manufacturer.
The contaminated corn gluten was delivered to Royal Canin by a South African third-party supplier and appears to have originated from China.
We were tracking cases of the South African pet deaths before and have heard rumors of corn gluten contamination.
At this point, we believe that all corn gluten should be considered at risk for contamination and should be tested by every pet food manufacturer and the FDA.
Please help us track all pet food that contains corn gluten in this Forums thread.
Update: 30 pets die from contaminated food. A stunning quote:
An independent pathologist, Professor Fred Reyers said the outbreak may not be an isolated incident. He believed there was sufficient evidence to suggest a link between this outbreak and a similar one in Cape Town as well as one in the United States.
EDITOR’S NOTE: It was a difficult decision (and we know that some will accuse us of sparking panic) but based on patterns of development and expansion of recall in the US, Itchmo has issued an email Safety Alert to pet parents out of abundance of caution. We believe all pet parents should be given the information to make informed judgements to form their own reactions. We believe it is not up to us to decide what you should or shouldn’t know.
(Thanks to Howl911)
April 19th, 2007 at 3:28 pm
Sue J,
Thanks for the good laugh. I needed that today :-)
I did something very similar last night when a piece of my rice cake fell on the floor and my pup went for it. I quickly grabbed it up and said: NOT FOR YOU as I took my 2nd bite. “?”
April 19th, 2007 at 3:29 pm
Donna,
I have to disagree with you about NB. The venison and green pea DRY cat food was also recalled. Even now on their website, NB says that this formula has “No Artificial Preservatives, Flavors, Colors, or Bleached Ingredients. Does not contain Corn, Soy, Wheat, Rice, Eggs, Dairy Products or Sunflower Oil.” (It’s near the bottom of the page)
Howl911 has listings for the ingredients of this food before and after the recall. As of April 12th, there was no rice in any form in the ingredient list. Even now, the rice protein is the only rice or rice derived ingredient.
Having said that, at least NB recalled their food. We still don’t know about the other companies that received the rice protein.
April 19th, 2007 at 3:31 pm
Thanks for the funny about the bread. It made me smile. I feel the same way protect my little ones at the moment worry about me later.
April 19th, 2007 at 3:31 pm
In regards to Monika’s comments about testing all GLUTENS, PROTEINS and CONCENTRATES, be they corn, wheat, rice, soy, vegetable or fish>
I too noticed in my web search how much of this comes from China. I also noticed a lot of FISH MEALs are imported from China and also wonder about the other MEAT MEALs. Perhaps more possible suspect contimanted pet food ingredients? I would suppose that melamine could be used to elevate protein levels in the imported fish meal or meat meal product as well.
April 19th, 2007 at 3:35 pm
“Dr. Hodgkins, if you read her publications, will tell you that she insists her clients feed NO DRY FOOD to their cats. She is convinced it CAUSES illness in our cats.
PLEASE - for your cats’ sake, do some reading:
www.felineoutreach.org
www.catnutrition.org
www.catinfo.org
www.yourdiabeticcat.com”
That is one vet’s opinion, you will find vets who disagree. We can all post links that prove our point and some will be truer info than others. I trust my own doctor and I trust my cats vet before I trust anything over the internet. If you can’t trust your doctor or vet, find one you can trust. Telling people they must feed this or that or doom will result gets annoyingly preachy. I think we have been over this before. It is fine to state this an opinion that your animals will do better eating such and such. But, you start adding inappropriate fear to the already present fear here by implying one will kill cats by feeding them any kind of dry. Again, one vet’s opinion vs. another.
April 19th, 2007 at 3:36 pm
[…] wrote: BREAKING NEWS: Melamine in Corn Gluten Linked to South African Pet Illnesses. First wheat gluten, then rice protein concentrate, now corn gluten. Please read the lastest […]
April 19th, 2007 at 3:38 pm
Lynette….no other cat food has made over offered over 80% of the protein from meat. She is right, that as a rule, dry cat food is insane. Far too heavy in carbs.
I will not get into any argument over wet vs. dry, but with the vast majority of cat owners already feeding wet food, the diseases have continued in cats at an alarming rate. So wet food is not the magic bullet either. Corn gluten meal has been abused as a protein source in cat food with it being high in protein and low in ash. I feel it is important for consumers to start doing some real learning too! But the online *nutrition information* is not always accurate either.
Right now I just hurt so bad for the pets at risk at the hand of corporate greed. Please know the science of advice, since that is where I’m coming from. There is a backwash of fear from *online advice* that is not warranted. There is enough legitimate fear already without adding to it.
April 19th, 2007 at 3:43 pm
I’m switching to grain free Nature’s Balance Duck and Potato. It’s an allergy formula, so they shouldn’t be able to add corn, wheat, rice, or any of their proteins, glutens, etc.
Personally, I’m not holding NB responsible, even though I have a dog now sick after eating the NB Venison. The rice protein was supplied to NB by Diamond. Even Diamond really isn’t to blame here, although it would have been nice for someone to test all these ingredients before dumping them in our pet food. The importer I do hold partially responsible as I believe THEY should have been testing this crap before selling it.
I ultimately hold China responsible, as I strongly suspect that this was intentional poisoning so they could get a better price for their crappy glutens and proteins. I believe we should ban ALL food and food products, including vitamins, herbs, etc., from China. No exceptions. We get enough tacky nick-nacks from them anyway.
April 19th, 2007 at 3:47 pm
“I ultimately hold China responsible, as I strongly suspect that this was intentional poisoning so they could get a better price for their crappy glutens and proteins. I believe we should ban ALL food and food products, including vitamins, herbs, etc., from China. No exceptions. We get enough tacky nick-nacks from them anyway.”
When production uses slave labor, shoddy products get produced.
April 19th, 2007 at 3:49 pm
Wow. Obviously we are all extremely frightened and unsure as to what to feed to keep our pets safe and healthy. As for me, I speak constantly with my vet trying to make the right decisions on foods. Our pets are family members and while yes, I am sure I am ingesting the poisons in pastas, desserts, breads, etc, I refuse to feed them to my pets!
I do not believe Evy is trying to sell her food through this venue. In fact, Evy is extremely knowledgable about pet foods having literally created foods from the ground up. I for one am glad to have the assurance from a real live human being that Kumpi is safe! In addition, I greatly appreciate Evy sharing her knowledge and helping me to learn and make what I hope are good choices.
April 19th, 2007 at 3:52 pm
Could we PLEASE STOP talking about Evy and that food, alright already, it’s great stuff, are you happy now? Just ENOUGH already.
And I HAVE emailed the webmaster.
April 19th, 2007 at 3:52 pm
I am very greatful for Evy’s presence here. I have taken it that she is here to educate and help us understand what is going. on. I haven’t taken it as her trying to sell or push Kumpi on anyone. I don’t see the CEO’s, founders or presidents of any other company’s here trying to help us all make sense of this horrific mess or gaurentteing that their products are safe. That they are made right here in the good old USA, that the ingredients are from right here in the USA. Nothing imported and no short cuts being taken to maximize profits. I personally only feel safe dealing with a company like Evy’s. I would be terrified to buy anything off a retail store shelf right now. If it weren’t for Evy and Kumpi I would be home cooking for mine right now. Thanks for loving and caring for us and our furry friends Evy and please don’t stop educating us on the what is really important here.
April 19th, 2007 at 3:53 pm
I truly believe that a product can speak by itself. Westie Rescue of Missouri has been feeding their Westies with skin issues and other health ailments Kumpi for nearly two years - many of our volunteers have now placed with personal pets on Kumpi. The remarkable difference it makes in these allergy prone little Westies is night and day. Please take time to visit our site and see what we are speaking of.
Westie Rescue of Missouri stands beside Kumpi and we have to say - while everyone is attacking its President, Ms. Serpa, its over some misguided information - not that main point here - Kumpi has not, nor will kill ANY of our pets due to Melamine or any other tainted gluten.
It makes our organization sleep very well at night.
THANK YOU KUMPI and Ms. Serpa for protecting and helping our rescues and personal pets.
Angie Jamison
Westie Rescue of Missouri
April 19th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
Lisa C:
Yes, NB has stated numerous times that they added the rice concentrates to ALL dry venison formulas toward the end of March. By law, they have up to 6 months to change ingredient lists (that includes web listings, btw). April 12 was maybe 2 weeks after the change - a far cry from 6 months.
Many manufacturers don’t employ enough full time web folks to keep their sites well updated, so it probably wasn’t on anyone’s high-priority to do list UNTIL NB realized that their AMERICAN supplier was importing the rice protein and that it was adulterated. At that point, NB did the right thing and immediately recalled the products and started updating their site. And even then, they were probably a bit distracted trying to get FACTS to publish, and the job was complicated by the huge influx of traffic they had to be recieving at that point. Trying to push an update out to a swamped server is no picnic.
Everyone acts like these screen grabs of ingredient lists are some huge “gotcha!” proving a huge consipracy. Puh-leeze! Web updates are a really low priority most places that don’t depend on a website for their entire business model. I should know: I’m a freelance web designer, and let me tell you, companies don’t want to pay for updates unless it’s a dire necessity! If that were NOT true, I’d have a bigger house, better car, and a lot less debt :)
Anyway, the lack of rice protein on bag labels and the website proves exactly NOTHING. The change was very recent; labelling and web content had not yet caught up; and a trusted supplier was actually buying from outside the US, which is something no purchaser would EVER be able to know without a mole in he supplier’s purchasing and accounting offices. All the testing in the works won’t tell you that rice was grown in China instead of Carolina. Unless you grow it yourself, harvest it yourself, process it yourself, bag it yourself, and distribute it door-to-door yourself, there’s just no way ANY manufacturer can be 100% certain of ANY ingredient. Period.
Let’s focus our anger in the right direction: unscupulous producers who are ILLEGALY ADULTERATING PRODUCTS. That these producers are located offshore makes fighting back more difficult, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. Crying that this pet food maker should have tested more, or crowing that at least MY food is safe (for now…) isn’t helpful. No manufacturer is going to have the resources or time to thoroughly test every single batch of every single ingredient they use, every single time for every known contaminant. That’s simply not feasible, people. Do you obtain independent testing for every apple, every head of lettuce, every pound of ground meat you buy before you feed it to your families? No, I thought not.
Pressure your elected representative to crack down on China, hard and fast. When their losses climb into the hundreds of millions, we’ll have their full attention and cooperation. And it will be a valuable object lesson to other producers who might be tempted to add “a little something” to make a quick buck. Be mad. Be vocal. But aim it in the right direction, please.
Love to all the pooches and kitties,
donna
April 19th, 2007 at 3:55 pm
Wheat - Rice &
HERE COMES THE CORN GUYS!!!!!
Tests have confirmed that Vets Choice and Royal Canin dog and cat dry pet-food products contained corn gluten contaminated with melamine, says the manufacturer.
April 19th, 2007 at 3:56 pm
Sorry, Evy, I can’t feed your foods to my cat. He has food allergies and needs to be kept away from foods that contain any grains. Have you thought about making some grain-less foods?
April 19th, 2007 at 3:56 pm
Evy I think it might be best if you refrained from posting your website or your company name in your posts as it is seen as a advertisement.
I will share my opinion with you, many dogs are allergic to corn and your food is full of it, I do not consider your food a super premium, I think its more of a bridge food much like natures balance. I live in Colorado, just like you and many of the boutique stores here that carry your food will tell their customers that is an affordable brand. It’s basically the low end of the lines they carry. You need to stop with your propaganda, your food isn’t horrible, it isn’t involved in the recall (yet) but it isn’t the holy grail.
April 19th, 2007 at 3:57 pm
Evy,
Using whole corn or not. Corn has no business in a cat’s diet period. They have NO dietary need for grains. Corn can be extremely hyperallergenic and can irritate IBD.
I agree with Lynette. I HAD a morbidly obese cat that ate dry food and he became diabetic. Within 2 weeks of a diet change to a low carb, grain free wet food he no longer needed insulin. He also started losing weight. *8* pounds in 2 years.
Diet is just not about carbs and grains either. Cats need moisture with their food, they will never drink enough water to compensate. They originated from desert animals and got most of their moisture from prey. You wonder why cats have chronic renal and urinary issues, perhaps because they are chronically dehydrated.
April 19th, 2007 at 4:01 pm
I’ve been feeding my dog, Maxx, KUMPI for 5 years. My cat Chip has been eating KumpiKat for longer than that. They’re happy,their coats are shiny, they have loads of energy, and after their recent physical, have never been healthier. I’ve given friends samples of both when they commented that their pet, dog or cat, was a finicky eater - kind of like a kid with brussel sprouts. They’ve switched to KUMPI and the pets actually look forward to meal time. I’ve fed Iams and FancyFeast before I bought KUMPI foods. In the long run, I think the KUMPI is actually cheaper and definitely more convenient. It’s delivered right to my door and the pets eat less than they did of the other foods. Every month Dayle, my dog before Maxx, used to eat more than her weight in food from the other companies. I’m guessing there was more fluff and filler to bulkk up the food. With the KUMPI, a bag would last at least 6 weeks. Not bad for a 65# greyhound-collie mix. She lost her life to a H-R driver - had nothing to do with her food. As long as I have pets, I’ll keep buying KUMPI - they make a real, healthy food; Chip and Maxx are all the proof I need.
April 19th, 2007 at 4:04 pm
there is NO corn or corn gluten meal in KumpiKat cat food
IF you would all stop misdirecting your comments about my product, I would happily refrain. But if you continue to make comments that give my product a bad name that are not ‘just’ I will post in rebuttal.
And please know, I am already doing a LOT of refraining.
:)
April 19th, 2007 at 4:05 pm
Uhhh who called the kumpi testimonial patrol? It’s great your pets are doing great but this isn’t helping us figure out what foods need to be avoided.
Evy please respect what this post is about and what we are trying to do. Perhaps you can put a stop to these posts.
April 19th, 2007 at 4:06 pm
Apollo’s Mom:
1> Mandatory country of origin labeling for all ingredients
2> All shipments from China tested in the US at the Chinese companies expense for inorganic nitrogen content, and have a USP standard for wheat, corn and rice protein to test against
3>call your government reps, call CNN, call FOXnews and call your locals.
4>call your vet’s office too and fax them some articles so that they have the right info to give to their other customers
do we agree?
oh, allmost forgot boycott Kumpi since they are so damn annoying!
April 19th, 2007 at 4:08 pm
Come on all,….
Anyone heard of who the other 4 companies are yet? I dont see the 4 companies who purchased the product coming forward like they should. They know who they are and we will find out. Let’s just hope it doesnt take 30 deaths for them to come forward.
April 19th, 2007 at 4:08 pm
I think its great that Kumpi is safe but what good does tht do anyone who doesn’t live in Colorado and needs to feed their cats tonight, I need something safe a nationally distributed to trust for the moment. I am hoping Merrick is the answer holding my breath. Would love to try Kumpi but being on the eat coast thats a little hard to do, in this time pressed situation.
April 19th, 2007 at 4:12 pm
Evy said: “I will not get into any argument over wet vs. dry, but with the vast majority of cat owners already feeding wet food, the diseases have continued in cats at an alarming rate. ”
Sorry, but that’s incorrect. The majority of pet owners feed dry food, not wet. Most that do feed wet feed wet and dry. Few feed wet only.
I don’t have the industry numbers in front of me, but I can track them down if you like. They show the VAST majority of pet food sales are dry food.
April 19th, 2007 at 4:13 pm
kellkell ~
I cannot help the fact that people who feed Kumpi products have been following this closely. My customers know me personally since I have valued being a personal type of company. What is wrong with their decision to defend me? Especially when I look up and read ‘boycott Kumpi since they are so damn annoying!’
I have dedicated nine years because I saw this pandemic coming. Don’t kill the messenger. I am not going to make that much money from this blog. You haven’t been around all of the blogs where I was the voice of reason, telling folks about the hike in the cost of ingredients last Oct/Nov and not to panic over their Canidae, etc. food since it was more than likely a formula change that caused their pet to not eat it with the same enthusiasm. I have spent hours NOT promoting my product line, but rather trying to help. You would need to go back through pages and pages of comments before having the right to indict me for ’selling’.
April 19th, 2007 at 4:15 pm
Nutro Max Hairball Formula Roasted Chicken for cats has corn gluten in it. I have contacted Nutro and told them of the corn gluten problem and told them I wanted to know where their corn gluten originated from. They took both day and evening phone numbers and said they would get back to me. I was transferred to corporate so this wasn’t just a customer service rep. They have been good at getting back to me in e-mails I must say. I had a feeling that corn gluten wasn’t far behind. Nutro Hairball formula doesn’t have any of the others just the corn gluten and ground rice. I am switching to Innova Evo which has no grains at all. They also get grain free Fancy Feast and one gets 1/2 jar of meat baby food.
April 19th, 2007 at 4:15 pm
Who is responsible… the FDA, the USDA, the companies that makes this stuff is to blame also (Sorry, Anon… they HAVE to take the blame as well); after all, why did they purchase foriegn, poorly-monitored glutens in the first place… to save the almighty dollar. That’s what all of this comes down to, folks. The poor ol’ American grain and corn farmer was run out of town on a rail quite a while back because it was cheaper to purchase foriegn products. Looks like it’s biting us in the a**, now, huh? I cannot BELIEVE that this melamine stuff is used in some places as FERTILIZER??? Absolutely, Steve, it’s in the human food stocks. How on earth can it not be? I love the idea of writing to your congressmans, sentators about this. I’d say also a permanent imbargo of all agricultural products from China is not a bad idea at this point, too. First wheat gluten, then rice protien, now corn gluten… what else is left? Never mind… don’t answer that… I’m too scared to find out. Anyhoo, sorry for the vent. It’s been building for a while :-). I just purchased Wellness CORE last night; Emily and Harry went nuts about it (Emily actually gorged herself a little too much and everything came back up… serves me right for turning my back for a minute!). Then I saw that some of their dog treats were recalled today! The same bloody thing that happened with the Dick Van Patten stuff we bought. I feel like we’re fighting a losing battle. :-(
April 19th, 2007 at 4:16 pm
(sorry… forgot to put may name in before I hit send!)
April 19th, 2007 at 4:16 pm
Here are the stats:
2003:
Dry dog food $5,485 million
Canned dog food $1,416 million
Dry cat food $2,416 million
Canned cat food $1,735 million
April 19th, 2007 at 4:23 pm
We free fee our cats dry food and each eats canned food 4 times a day for a total of one can wet food per day per cat. This is on veterinarian advice.
At this stage, I am continuing to feed Natural Balance canned food. I am very impressed at how quickly they began removing product from shelves, before knowing for certain there was a problem. Because they were so proactive while other companies are still out there hiding I’d rather feed canned food from a company who addressed the problem.
I have tried many different brands of “healthy foods” and they aren’t healthy if the pet won’t eat them. Merrick, Canidae, Wellness and MANY others are refused by my cats. The only one I haven’t tried was Fromm which my local store insists they’ll love. I bought a can and brought it home, but then I saw that it was a product of China in little bitty letters.
I have no plans to “boycott” anyone, but I will not feed any foods that contain rice protein concentrate, corn gluten or wheat gluten. Nor will I feed cat food containing any corn.
Thanks for all the great information here.
April 19th, 2007 at 4:23 pm
Evy Says:
April 19th, 2007 at 4:04 pm
there is NO corn or corn gluten meal in KumpiKat cat food
No corn in your cat food, but corn in your dog food. Corn is very hyperallergenic for dogs too.
Rice flour and Oatmeal (grains) in the cat food=inappropriate for obligatory carnivores.
April 19th, 2007 at 4:25 pm
I just wanted to just thank Itchmo for all the info. The associated press is a joke on this topic. Also, thank you to everyone how has taken the time to research the what/where/who of what is going on.
At this point, like many of you I fear this is only going to get bigger and bigger. And many more “quality” foods will be recalled. It’s just a matter of the powers that be getting their CYA set up before they issue the recalls.
It is absurd how slowly information is being released.
That being said, I’ve started the research and really believe I have no options but to cook my boys meals myself.
April 19th, 2007 at 4:26 pm
New recall - Blue Buffalo just issued a recall of their kitten food.
April 19th, 2007 at 4:30 pm
Someone just came and asked me because they had just bought new food for a dog that I recommended that they might look at Royal Canin Bulldog special breed. I checked the ingredients, soy isolate. Not sure, but it looks to me that soy isolate and soy protein concentrate could be in the same boat, just look at the manufaturers,
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April 19th, 2007 at 4:32 pm
IMPORTANT NOTICE
Voluntary Recall of Spa Select Kitten Dry Food
Dear Pet Parents:
The Blue Buffalo Company has undertaken a voluntary recall of one production run of our Spa Select Kitten dry food. The production code on the recalled product is:
“Best Used By Mar. 07 08 B.”
We have taken this action because the rice protein concentrate used for this run was obtained from Wilbur-Ellis, the same company who supplied this ingredient to Natural Balance. Test results received late last evening (4/18) indicated that this rice protein concentrate tested positive for melamine. This is the first and only time our manufacturing partner sourced an ingredient from Wilbur-Ellis, and we had no knowledge that they had imported the ingredients from China.
We have advised the FDA of this finding and will be working closely with them on this issue.
Of the 4,752 bags produced in this one run, we were able to prevent the majority from ever entering retail distribution. We are working closely with our retail partners to remove this product immediately and will be re-stocking the shelves with Spa Select Kitten dry food that was produced without any rice protein sourced from Wilbur-Ellis as soon as possible.
If you currently have a bag of Spa Select Kitten dry food, please check the code date and if it matches the one shown above discontinue use immediately and return it to the place of purchase for a full refund. If your cat has eaten any of the recalled food, please call your veterinarian immediately to discuss if there are any risks to your pet.
Should you have a specific question call our Customer Service Department at 1-800-919-2833 or email us at info@bluebuff.com. We understand your desire for immediate answers and we will be working to get back to you as quickly as we can.
No other Spa Select cat food or dog food, canned or dry, is included in this recall.
As a family owned company whose reason for being is to provide cats and dogs with the highest quality natural foods, we are extremely upset by this recall and can’t begin to apologize enough to our customers. From our perspective, it is unacceptable to produce even one bag of food with the potential to cause a pet to become ill, and we will further tighten our ingredient sourcing and quality assurance procedures as a result of this incident.
Sincerely,
Bill Bishop
President
The Blue Buffalo Company
April 19th, 2007 at 4:32 pm
Petistusa had a statement from Fromm on that matter, I can try and dig it up if you are interested.
April 19th, 2007 at 4:32 pm
For those who want to cook there food, you might want to check www.balanceit.com
The recipes are pricey but these are formulated for your specific pet and are created by board certified veterinary nutritionists.
April 19th, 2007 at 4:33 pm
CL:
Who makes Blue Buffalo? Do we know where they are located?
April 19th, 2007 at 4:33 pm
“Fromm which my local store insists they’ll love. I bought a can and brought it home, but then I saw that it was a product of China in little bitty letters.”
I always forget that brackets don’t work in this format.
April 19th, 2007 at 4:34 pm
I’ve read a few post on here on how people are so impressed with NB for recalling their product before they had “proof” etc. etc. All I can say is I am not and will never buy any NB product again. 2 reasons:
1. How handy no one new this rice crap had been added to their formula, but the website just happens to be updated once the issue a press release.
2. And much more important to me. In their press release on April 17th NB stated “over the last four days we have notified our distributors and retailers by phone and e-mail to immediately stop selling and return all recalled Venison dog foods and treats and the Venison dry cat food.”
Past 4 days? And yet no press release until April 17th? I feed my dog that crap during those 4 days! 4 days of feeding your pet poison could make all the difference between them living and dying. Some great company……
April 19th, 2007 at 4:35 pm
someone says
“I think its great that Kumpi is safe but what good does tht do anyone who doesn’t live in Colorado and needs to feed their cats tonight, I need something safe a nationally distributed to trust for the moment. I am hoping Merrick is the answer holding my breath. Would love to try Kumpi but being on the eat coast thats a little hard to do, in this time pressed situation.”
its not really a time-pressed situation, really. its been junk for years. funny thing about importing pet food ingredients from China is the Chinese have such little regard for pet ownership the government slaughters them in the streets enmasse. if your looking for something “safe”, well it probably aint at petsmart, or walmart, or any mart. I DONT WANT TO ADVERTISE FOR ANYONE IN PARTICULAR AND DISRUPT THE DELICATE SENSIBILITIES OF FELLOW POSTERS, BUT OPTIONS GROW NARROWER BY THE DAY. Melamine is the evil of today, but it is not the only junk that has ever gone into a bag of pet food. It just kills faster. I would love to post here a brand that I know of, that is readily available, to help someone out. But I quite frankly would not trust any of them enough. Except one. But you guys are sick of hearing about it.
April 19th, 2007 at 4:38 pm
Wow, would anyone have known before NB that rice protein concentrate had a problem? We were all checking labels for wheat gluten. I have more respect for Natural Balance than I do for Blue Buffalo who just now admitted to using Wilbur-Ellis rice protein concentrate.
April 19th, 2007 at 4:39 pm
Evy sorry to be so blunt but my cat has an allergy to grains you use in your food. WHOLE OR NOT. Not all animals have these allergies but some do. How bout just letting people make their own decisions now. You’ve achieved your MIND SHARE here at Itchmo. So how bout just giving it a rest a while?
You have to let the consumer be the ultimate decision maker. There is no need to HARD SELL anyone.
April 19th, 2007 at 4:47 pm
It’s so surprising to see how many foods whether ingredients or fully processed foods are imported from China. What are we sacrificing or
willing to risk to save a few dollars? Next time you go to the grocery
store read your labels to see where what you are buying was made.
Dill pickles, smoked oysters, things you would not imagine are imported
from China. It’s really shocking. Food handling and processing standards
in China are not the same as here in North America, and another thing
why the heck do these pet food companies support the economy in a country that clubs dogs to death as a cheap way to solve a problem that should be taken care of by educating, and also a country that has a
prolific cat and dog fur trade? These pet food manufacturers claim that they love pets, well why are they supporting China? $$$$$
Condolences to all that have lost their beloved companions……..thanks to itchmo, my six pack of dogs were saved from eating the NB Vension and Rice I had just purchased……( I had beleived that all ingredients other than the venision was domestic) :-/
April 19th, 2007 at 4:48 pm
http://www.bluebuff.com/
April 19th, 2007 at 4:49 pm
I don’t have respect for either of them. If you praise NB for making us aware of the problem in rice protein concentrate. Might as well praise Menu Foods too!
April 19th, 2007 at 4:52 pm
Uh… just a question… are people blaming the Chinese government for contaminating the product, or the company in China that produced it?
The government may be protecting its people, but that doesn’t mean that the Chinese government knew the company was doing it.
I know people are mad and that food production in China as well as manufacturing is a problem and they need to address the issue. But, let’s be clear about who is being accused of what, maybe?
April 19th, 2007 at 4:54 pm
Would I know if my cats were sick?
While I am now feeding them Innova, they ate Sensible Choice up until 3 weeks ago.
Sensible Choice, made by Royal Canin, has corn gluten.
April 19th, 2007 at 4:54 pm
Chad, I agree. I can not respect any company that puts their name on a product and have no idea what, or where the ingredients came from.