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Pet Food Alternatives
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Posted by thorndncr 6 (My Page) on Thu, Apr 5, 07 at 22:35
| Hope this isn't entirely off-topic for this forum, but I'm fuming over the growing number of brands involved in the pet food recalls. Not only have companies lagged in releasing information, but the FDA has been disgustingly negligent. Even organizations like the ASPCA are being so very cautious not to point fingers. Accidents do happen, but there seems to be more concern for not pre-emptively damaging business than for the welfare of the animals potentially in danger, and this series of tempered reactions, animal tests(!), poor oversight, and complete lack of transparency is, in my eyes, criminal.
Sorry for the rant, but my cat doesn't want to hear it anymore. He's doing fine, as I very sincerely hope all of your companions are! As of yet, none of his foods are being recalled; however, I'm considering switching to homemade meals, at least until some changes are made in the industry.
Does anyone do this, and is there reliable information out there? As I understand it, the nutritional needs of cats are complex enough that I'm fearful of concocting my own recipes.
Many thanks in advance, and all the best to your furry companions! |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Pet Food Alternatives
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| A good friend of my family has developed an all natural organic pet food. She sells it and ships it frozen and raw. You can feed it raw or you can cook it. The recipe was developed by her mother a cat lover along with several pet nutrionists. there is much more information on the web site. You can call the number and ask questions too. Her business was primarily a hobby, helping people out with sick animals who needed a special diet. BUt I think the recent pet food scare has probably been good for her business. |
Here is a link that might be useful: natural organic pet food
RE: Pet Food Alternatives
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| I have dogs and don't know terribly much about cats, but this may help anyway. We buy a food called Innova made by Natura Pet. Their website is : http://www.naturapet.com/ and they also sell a variety of cat food products. While they do utilize some Menu Foods facilities (the manufacturer that has all these recalls happening), it is quite minimal, and every bag of pet food comes back to Natura for testing before it goes on the market. Their foods are also mainly (if not all) organic as far as I know. We've been *extremely* pleased with their products for our dogs and as such, have not worried a bit about our pets through this recall deal. The dog food we buy has no wheat gluten in it at all, and very few grain "fillers", which are often the source of those type of contaminations like the one going on now. Most of their products (for dogs at least) have some sort of meat as the 2 main ingredients. Compare this to other brands, and often the first ingreident is "corn" or some filler grain like that, which is really not that great for a dog's digestive system. One of our dogs has allergies, and Natura products are the only pet products we've found that do not give him a rash. Also, we adopted an older dog with arthritis, and since putting him on Natura products, his arthritis has improved and he is more limber and active. Anyway, I could go on and on...I am so pleased with this company. However, if you are sold on home made meals, google "BARF" and you can get some good information that way. Mainly it's "dog people" doing it, but I also know of some people BARFing with their cats. My husband and I did the BARF diet for our dogs for a while, but it was quite time consuming, and I found the worry of whether or not they were getting proper nutrition to be too much. They started losing weight on it. Plus, my little allergy dog started breaking out again on it. And beyond that, I like to buy free range chicken, and it's quite hard to find free range chicken necks and such! Anyway, I'd check out Natura products. |
I'll Shut Up Soon I Promise!
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Check out the philosophy page on Natura's site:
http://www.naturapet.com/about-natura/philosophy.asp As they state, they use all *human grade* food in their pet products. They go through 50 different quality control checks before being shipped to the market for consumers. No preservatives, additives, colors, etc. (No, I don't work for them or know anyone who does. I just feel like their products have saved my allergy dog from a life of rashes, cortizone shots, and itching and now I brag on them any chance I get!) |
RE: Pet Food Alternatives
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| I also went from store bought to organic and my dog is fed Wellness Weight Management for her tipsy tummy and allergies. It has been more than 6 months and it is working great. I also just started my cats on a mix on Wellness Senior and their salmon flavor. It is expensive but I don't have the time to make them real food and I am iffy about that also. The price is worth it to me. |
RE: Pet Food Alternatives
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| There are several homemade diets for pets out there. You are correct in that you have to be very careful about the nutrition content because you don't want to miss out on lots of vitamins and minerals that normally go into processed pet food. Just do a search for "RAW" or "BARF" diets. From what I've read and researched, the reason why some of the diets got recalled later than others is because the wheat protien was NOT from the distributor that was associated with the mass recall, however the protien was from china. |
RE: Pet Food Alternatives
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| You could check on the Kitchen Table forum, that's where I first heard about the recall. It's a dreadful thing, isn't it. There have been related recalls in South Africa and one in Australia. Well, so far. There's a huge mind-boggling article about it on Wikipedia. |
RE: Pet Food Alternatives
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| Look in your own larder. The plastic additive in the pet foods found its way into feed-lot pig food destined for human consumption. To date those pigs are quarantined.Think about all the thousands of products glutens find their way into. Sobering, isn't it? |
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