[…]Itchmo: News For Dogs & Cats » Blog Archive » Natural Balance Recalls Food Due To Botulism Risk[…]

I would like to know if Natural Balance is now safe for pets?

Thanks for the links. I’ll check them out. If you find anything that’s venison and green pea, please let us know.

I wrote emails to several companies last night. Hopefully, one of them can create such a formula for highly alergic pets.

http://www.championpetfoods.com/

http://www.holisticblend.com/

Don’t know if this will help, but I found some canned venison and other game meats by Evangers.

http://www.evangersdogfood.com/dog/gamemeats.html

It would be a great thing if another company would come out with something to replace NB’s venison and green pea for allergic cats.

The only foods I’ve found are the Royal Canin ones, and Royal Canin has had their own recall problems. However, my brother uses one of their dog foods for an allergic German Shepard, and he’s had good luck with it.

http://www.royalcanin.us/vetdi.....eprod.html

July 23rd, 2007 at 5:25 pm

“How come at the FDA Hot Topics Pet Food Recall where is says updated July 23rd,there is no mention of the Natural Balance dog food recall.
The last entry is late May”

Bill, it’s because the FDA are a bunch of morons.

“How can we know what we are feeding our babies is safe?”

Shana,

I’m assuming you don’t have a special needs kitty, and therefore have limitied choices, but here goes (and I don’t mean to sound like a broken record):

1. You can improve your odds by NOT using food from companies that have EVER been involved in a recall. Even though a specific food has not been recalled, if other foods by that company have been recalled, then don’t use their food - any of it.

Here’s why. Within a PF company, the common denominator between their foods is the management team. Managers that creates quality standards for one food create quality standards for the other. The only difference is packaging and marketing hype.

2. You can improve your odds by not buying brands that are “made” by multi-national, publicly held corporations.

The customers of such companies are their stockholders and NOT pet owners who buy their food. Their top priority is the bottom line of their P&L statement, so they want to sell the cheapest food for the highest price. “High quality” and “healthful” are words used by their marketing departments.

3. You can improve your odds by avoiding companies that refuse to answer your questions with facts.

Call the company and ask them who makes their food, what is their testing protocol, how do they qualify their suppliers. Ask to speak to their quality assurance manager.

4. You can improve your odds by avoiding companies that delegate their manufacturing and quality assurance to contract companies.

Just to name a few, Menu Foods, American Nutrition, and Diamond are all contract companies that provide food to the BIG BRANDS. Apparently, contracts between the parties were not robust enough to prevent tainted ingredients or substituted ingredients from contaminating the brand.

Companies that are serious about food MAKE THEIR OWN. Let’s face it, not everyone should be in the pet food business.

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IMHO, there are no perfect foods. We can only try to manage the risk by being informed consumers.