I boycotted Walmart long ago for a variety of other reason. This just adds to my confidence that they are not a retailer I ever want to shop at.

[tremendous]

You are doing such a tremendous service for everyone during all this!  Thanks so much!  I hope for all our sakes (and for our pets!) this all gets worked out soon. Hang in there!

Thanks so much Sylvia!  I'm sure those are all good brands, but unfortunately none of them are available around here. I'd love to try them but unfortunately it's just too expensive to order a bag, pay shipping, and then have the cats turn their noses up at it.  Even if they do like it, shipping often adds $4 or $5 a bag, and that's just too much for me to afford.    I did find a natural pet food store nearby that has samples, and I'm going to try out the Timberwolf Serengeti dry next, I think, since it is grain-free. I'm still debating the Blue Buffalo and Chicken Soup dry foods.  The recent recalls have me spooked, even though those foods are (for now) not on the recall list. I know my cats like these, and they are readily available here.

Feed a food that:
a. does not contain wheat gluten, corn gluten or Rice protein... for obvious reasons.
b. has an ingredient list you can understand and seems wholesome to you (may take some preliminary study)

You'll be fine if you do that... only "a" is absolutely necessary, but "b" will make for a healthier pet overall, not to mention more peace of mind for yourself.

Unfortunately, many of us THOUGHT we were doing that, and those products got recalled also. 

I've been feeding both Chicken Soup and Blue Buffalo canned to my cats, thinking they were better than the Science Diet and Iams I had been feeding.  This is all so disturbing to me.  I've already had the cats tested once, and can't keep doing this every time there is a recall.  God, I hate this.

Mike, you make good points and I appreciate your feedback.  I still, however, have no way of determining which companies are being truthful when they say they didn't know anything about those ingredients being added to their foods, and which are not.  I wish I knew who to trust, but at this point I don't.  I do see that the "self-contained" company isn't necessarily the way to go. I'll just have to keep looking and reading.

For what it's worth, I got a sample of Back To Basics dry foods, and my cats liked it quite a bit. Unfortunately, no one here carries it so I would have to order it directly. This adds $4 per bag to the cost, which is out of my budget.

It's looking like the only thing short of making my cats food myself is to find a company that makes their own foods in their own plant from ingredients that have NO connection to China in any way, shape, or form.  (And obviously need foods that contain no filler ingredients like glutens and rice proteins of any kind.)   Anyone know who might fit this bill for both dry and canned cat foods?  I don't feel like I can trust most of the companies I thought I could before, including Blue Buffalo and Chicken Soup.

I like you garypen!  LOL...you speak the truth!

Quite frankly, they don't care about #2. They only use them to get elected, so that they can serve #1.

Oh god...this just gets scarier by the minute.  I am at a loss as to who to trust.

This is beyond ridiculous.  I've gone out of my way to buy foods without things on an ever-growing list of ingredients, only to find that these companies don't even have to be TRUTHFUL on their freaking labels!  I don't know what to do now. I *just today* bought a bag of Chicken Soup dry food because it seemed like a company I could trust. Guess not.  This whole thing makes me SICK, and I'm pissed that the media hasn't taken off with this. 

Before I had my cats, when I started seeing spiders or bugs in my old house, I'd just grab the RAID and spray the hell out of the room in question (usually the basement).  Now that I have my 2 cats, this isn't an option so I need to find another alternative that is safe for them. Anyone have any solutions?

I'm fine with their other foods as long as they don't have any rice protien or glutens in them (the Hairball formula does, but Adult and Indoor do not.) Having said that though, my cats don't love it as much as they did at first so I think I am switching them to Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul.

Itchmo.com has info on this as well.  If you haven't already, eliminate any foods that list ANY glutens as an ingredient.

I've limited the foods I feed my cats to the companies who say they use ingredients from the U.S. only, though now I'm not sure if that means they use U.S .suppliers who might buy from China or not. This is just so complicated!

I got a sample, and am wondering what everyone thinks of them.