My cat loves it.  He likes pretty much all of the varieties.  I was feeding it to him heavily for awhile, but took him down off of it a bit because I wanted him to eat less fish.  I wish they had a chicken product, but they don't.  Try Weruva as well--they make a similar product in Thailand and now make shredded chicken dishes.  Logan loves them also.

Amy

Gary and everyone:

I understand the hatred of Menu and can only hope that some good will come out of this process.  Still, now we see that while they were at fault, so were a lot of other companies and individual people.  Their reaction was certainly questionable at the outset and yet I wonder if American Nutrition isn't maybe worse for deliberately adding ingredients to its food products.  Don't know, nor am I trying to defend the horrible nature of this whole thing.

My actual idea that I am now pondering is, Natura appears to be trying pro-active measures right now.  I like the fact that they have kept people up to date, are trying to switch plants (supposedly) and now testing all of their food for melamine.  They also say on their website that their canned cat food was made in the South Dakota plant where there is no risk of cross-contamination.  SO.....despite a hatred of Menu, do you now feed the canned food, given that there is probably a greater degree of care and effort made to make sure it is safe?   
I have never fed any of Natura's canned foods, so it would be a totally new product for me.
But, maybe for the sake of the animals, it may be time to put aside the anger and feed them the products that seem to be safe--there are so few right now.

What do others think?

I received a prompt reply (the next day, which was a Sunday) from Bryan at Fromm Foods, regarding my last e-mail to him.  (see previous post)

Here it is:

I read the article you included with your email and I am well aware of
practices certain ingredient suppliers use in order to artificially enhance
their products.

All of our ingredient suppliers are regularly inspected by the FDA which
includes inspections of the food they are feeding to their livestock. If the
animal feed they were using was laced with melamine it would appear in the
FDA's routine tests.

Additionally all of the fish, beef, and poultry we use are inspected upon
arrival to our plant and are extensively tested for melamine and many other
things to ensure that they are 100% safe.

And finally once our products are produced they are inspected once again.
This is required by the FDA.

It is not possible to use US suppliers exclusively because not all of the
ingredients exist in large enough quantities to export to China. Remember we
only settle for the best quality ingredients available, we would not be
interested in 2nd rate beef from the US if we have choice beef available in
China. The choice beef in the US is given priority to US manufactures and
there is not enough left over for export to the Chinese market. This
fluctuates depending on demand, for example the majority of the chicken we
use is imported from the US for use in our products because we have an
abundance of chicken in the US.

We are absolutely NOT cutting down on costs using Chinese ingredients. We
buy our top quality ingredients at market price. If there was a difference
in quality between US tuna and Chinese tuna we would use the ingredient of
greater quality given we had the option to. Luckily in the realm we deal in
there really aren't any measurable differences in quality when dealing with
choice ingredients for the human food market. Once you start looking at pet
food grade ingredients the differences can be stark and quite scary as you
are reading about. The US has much better systems for regulating the pet
food industry compared to China, but even the US system for pet food pales
in comparison to the human food industry regulations in either the US or
China.

We would love to be producing our products here in the US, it is very
expensive for us to travel to China during the year to run our products and
it is very hard educating the average consumer about how our products are
made and with what quality ingredients especially with all the recent
headlines. I assure you we are actively looking for a plant in the US to
produce our products but until one exists we have to either stop making our
cans at all or produce them where our quality standards are met.

My family's company has always been ahead of the curve when it comes to
animal nutrition. We are one of the first companies in the world to be
producing canned dog food in a human food plant. Unfortunately this type of
forward thinking comes with many obstacles, and one of those obstacles is
finding quality human food plants that have the equipment and are willing to
produce food for the pet food market at their facility. We refuse to produce
our products in anything less than safest conditions with the highest
quality ingredients possible. My dad would not accept anything less since we
are not using our own equipment (unlike our dry food which we make at our
own plant with our equipment.) Frankly, pet food plants scare us and they
have for many many years. Unfortunately it took a catastrophe like the
current recall to send a wake-up call to pet owners but I think now things
can start to change for the better.

I admire your pursuit for information and I hope you are aware we are much
the same way. We do extensive research in all areas when making products.
This includes suppliers, processing facilities, and even the people we
decide to conduct business with.

My family is extremely proud of our 103 year old company and we wouldn't be
around today if it wasn't for my family's hard work and dedication to
providing the best products we possibly can while maintaining our integrity.

_End of e-mail


So, once again, I find that they are very upfront and willing to answer difficult questions.  Now, how does everyone feel after reading this?  I am curious if you feel comfortable feeding the wet food in particular, or have reservations.  My cat is still eating it, and loves the food, so I am at a crossroads when it comes to the ingredients being from China.

I would appreciate responses to the e-mail I received.

Amy

I have e-mailed Bryan Neiman with the article that has now been taken down.  In it, I ask very specifically how they know their ingredients are not subject to these chemicals and whether they are doing any testing for it.  I will let everyone know if I hear from him tomorrow.

Javas mom,  I am with you right now.  I went out last night and stocked up on the wet chicken , tuna and tuna and chicken varieties.  It seems to be a good option for now.  Mind you, I did cave and buy some Wellness canned as well, after talking to a rep and feeling a bit better about their current production.  That was another food that seemed to keep Logan healthy and doing well.  I will continue with the Fromm, like you, until I see a need to switch.  I really wish that Bryan Neiman would publicize their stance a bit more, because I think people might feel more comfortable and give them options for food, considering how bad things are.

I would encourage people to at least try the shredded chicken and see how different it looks from other pet food.

Ok, let me ask a difficult question.  With all of these recalls, and not knowing who to trust, what do we do?  Does one go back and feed a Menu food such as Nature's Variety or Wellness, knowing that they have not been involved at all in the recall, or do we still stay away despite other problems that Menu did not experience?  It may be a stupid question, but I am trying to find the lesser of evils here, given that feeding choices are slim and getting slimmer.

At this point, I am so frustrated with everything, that Fromm food is starting to look better, despite the China production.  At least they are manufacturing for sure in a human food plant and on their labels there is not evidence of ANY grain product, except potato starch.  Logan LOVES the shredded chicken dinner and it seems to agree with him.  Plus, their vitamins are sourced from the US.  I mean, what do you do with the state of things?  Their food appears to be a choice, even though it is not made here.

For you Fromm dry users, I do know that they manufacture their own dry.

Anyone else trying the canned now?

Symba and Trooper:

I wrote a horribly constructed sentence, depite being an English teacher   You didn't miss anything.  I just meant that I don't worry about the high protein because he eats dry food once a day, at night.  I know of no connection between protein and evening meals.  Carbs migh metabolize differently at night I would think, but have absolutely no scientific basis for that idea!

Hi

Logan is currently eating the last of his Raw Instinct mixed with Orijen now.  He likes it well enough, though not quite as well as the Raw Instinct.  I was impressed with the ingredient list, and since he only eats it at night, not too worried about the high protein.  I think I will stay with this, since I can't figure out who makes Raw Instinct for Nature's Variety.  I bought the Orijen from only4pets online like many have done.  Now, I live in New Jersey, and just to let you know, Mike's Feed in Riverdale will be carrying it.  I think he may be the only one in the tri-state area.  Maybe that will help someone close to me. 

I am now in the process of trying Tiki for my cat.  So far he loves the tuna and tilapia on rice.  If you go on the website, they give you pretty good info. about what ingredients are used and why.  I was comfortable in trying it, and when I looked at the food, it really seemed like real fish.  I am going to try some of the other varieties this week, so I'll let everyone know.  Be careful to read though, as a couple of the types contain corn flour (if you have corn issues).

Anyone else tried it?

I get the use of bone, but these pieces were really hard.  Should they be?  The grey thing I found really seemed to be gravel, or something gravel like.  I just never saw the bone in Evanger's, but I worry that the Artemis is a bit too hard or something for my cat to chomp on.  I might be overly concerned now, with everything showing up in food.

After seeing everyone's cuties, I figured I would introduce my boys.

The first is my dog, Tyler Clarke.  He is a toy poodle and will be 9 this August. He is a brat who runs the house and eats like a king, with his home-cooked diet.  He likes to lay on your lap and will let you know when you have made him mad.  Very, very spoiled  



Next we have Logan Daniel, who is my first cat ever.  We found him on the side of the road as we went to the mall in September.  He was 4-5 months old, full of mites, worms, LICE! and an upper respiratory infection.  Now, after living the good life, he is healthy, crazy and sweet as he can be.  He loves to follow you everywhere and acts more like a dog than a cat.  He is fascinated with Tyler, but knows to leave his big brother alone when he growls.



I love these guys and try to always do the best for them.  Thanks for letting me share.

Just wanted to let everyone know that I was starting to feed Artemis canned to my cat, since it is made by Evangers.  I stopped when I found hard fragments of what appeared to be bone if I had to guess, and I do believe that I found a piece of a greyish gravel at the bottom of a can.  Has anyone had any of these issues?  I am thinking that their quality control is not as good as Evangers has with theirs, since I have never experienced that with their brand food.  There shouldn't be anything that hard in a canned food, that I can't break it with a fork!

Java's mom:

How do you feel about the meat sources coming from there (although he said their chicken primarily comes from the US)?  Are you concerned about contamination of their beef with antibiotics and so forth?  Just wondering, because that is my only real nagging concern.  Bryan said everything is checked very carefully, but I wonder how they really know what is in their beef?   I would e-mail him again abou the ingredients, but he may block me one of these days   I agree that it looks like good food, and they have been very forthcoming with info.  Will you continue with their canned?

O.K., so here's the thing.  Fromm has had me in a confused state for weeks now.  I have been feeding my cat their canned foods, despite being produced in China.  I have e-mailed Bryan Neiman way too much, asking many questions about their products.  He made me comfortable with the manufacturing process over there that the company is using and has written me extensive e-mails.  Now, I am still uncomfortable with the fact that their meat and fish sources come from China (he was upfront to his credit about that).  They are human grade supposedly and the same meat and fish that the facility uses in their human food that they manufacture (someone mentioned Trader Joe's soups being made in the same place).  The thing is, that their list of ingredients is FAR shorter than any other canned cat food that I have used.  There are no ridiculous fruits and herbs, or grains, other than potato starch (so far that is safe), and they import pharmaceutical grade vitamins from the US.  I am telling you guys that the food looks fantastic, and has none of the crap that you can't identify in the other foods.  You could put it on some crackers and eat it I think (not that you want to).  STILL, I am not happy about it being made in China and the ingredients coming from there.  They are looking to come to the US when they can find a facility to make the products to their specs.  But, what do you do now?  All of the food produced here looks suspect right now, so if their food doesn't contain any grains or possible contaminents, and looks good, do you boycott it strictly because it comes from there?  Most of us are boycotting our own country's brands so.....I don't know.  He loves the food and I am definitely torn.