Merrick Canned Cat Food

[lacy]

Garypen and everyone,
Let me know if you hear ANYTHING bad about this company. I just started using the cans today and all three cats love it. I called them today are they were very nice. They said all of their ingredients are USDA sourced. She couldnt pinpoint where all of it comes from, but did say they made sure their suppliers didnt outsource to china. So thats good.     Thanks goodness for this website and all the other ones out there. I wouldn't know what to feed if it wasnt for them!!

[garypen]

You know I will!

BTW, when researching Merrick, I discovered they had a recall last year due to metal tags being found in a chicken formula for dogs. As it turns out, it was due their supplier not informing them that the chickens had metal "kosher"  id tags.

On one hand, it shows a possible shortcoming in their inspection procedures of their raw materials. (Although, they did catch it before most of the cans went out during the final inspections.)

But, on the other hand, it means that they do indeed use "human grade" chickens. So, I am hopeful that all of their poultry meat is like that, and not "4D" rendered carcasses.

[Cindy Nevarez]

Just the usual that we talked about before on the old blog a couple of weeks ago (you might find it in the archives) that Merrick senior owns a rendering plant next store, and that we can't get any more info about it, other than he 'petitioned' to be allowed to use downed animals in the food.

[Cindy Nevarez]

Oh yeah...I forgot about that one...

[lacy]

Well guys, I just found out that they had a recall back in 2003. It wasnt Merrick, but a pet food they made for Go Natural. It caused Liver Failure and deaths in Animals. There was no known cause. So Go Natural pulled their food from Merrick and are having it made somewhere else. That made me REALLY sad. I really like this food. I think I would feel better if they would have found a cause for the organ failure, so they could fix it. I really want to keep using this food and the cats like it. What do you guys think??

[reddancer]

That is kind of disturbing, however we have no idea what was in the Go Natural food. It could have been one of the ingredients was tainted with something... who knows what....
Was this a problem with dry or wet food?
Since Merrick's food wasn't affected, this doesn't worry me too much, plus it happened 4 years ago, and I would *hope* that Merrick learned from this incident and has better quality controls. The key word is *hope*.

Oh and by the way Go Natural has their wet food made by Menu foods now.

[garypen]

Oh and by the way Go Natural has their wet food made by Menu foods now.

Oh yeah. Wise decision.

[gyngham2]

This is regarding Merrick in general. I have a 21/2 yr. old westie with allergy problems but he does well on Merrick canned which I give sparingly. I have now switched to Merrick dry as well as Calif. Natural for the time being. I was a Natural Balance fan but they never answered my phone calls or emails about the Venison fomula which was recalled.  My dog ate that garbage for almost 2 years and has experienced extreme lethargy.  Two trips to the vet and he is okay but I am a nervous wreck.   Extremely cautious here and very grateful for this website as well as itchmo.com for the updates.

Mia

[Goingcrazy]

I have been using Merrick also since March 24th.  Flavor are hit or miss only have tried Southern delight they hated it.
Surf N' Turf one likes it one day and hates i the next and vica versa
California Roll only one will touch and still she is not nuts about it
New England Boil was a big hit for a while but know they are fussy with it also.

I am sorta nervous about the product because one can of the same flavor with be soupy the next more pate type, or I have had some only half full.

Not sure what to go to if i decide to quit using this. was thinking about Felidae but now i see people are saying each cna of that has the same issues.  Also the Felidae dry gave my one cat runny stool now she won't touch it and theo othr cat tried to eat it twice and threw it up, think it has to do with the kelp

[garypen]

I haven't noticed any inconsistencies with the... uh... consistency. I was seeing it with Evangers and Felidae. But, the Merrick has had the same look, feel, and amount, from can to can. Of course, there are differences in the different varieties. (I've tried the Pot Pie, Thanksgiving, and Turducken) But, within each variety, it has been very consistent.

I also see and feel real chuncks of poultry meat. It doesn't seem rendered to me. I will have too trust them until I hear or see something that proves otherwise.

[jean s]

I've had concerns about Merrick, too. It does seem that there's a father/ son difference here. If the food didn't look and smell so good, I'd believe the worst. My cat will only eat the Ocean flavor, so I've realized it's the fishiness she likes. I don't want to feed her so much fish though, so I've found she will eat some home cooked chicken if I blend it with a bit of mackeral or sardine (packed in water with no salt. This might be an option for those who want to home cook, but their fussy cats won't eat home cooked--and get us out of the problem of trying to find a food to trust!

[Mary K]

Hi, Guys, I finally broke open one of those cans of Merrick I have been looking at. (I ran out of my "batch" home-made recipe yesterday AM.) Reluctantly, I gave my 3 cats some Merrick's Turducken. One cat took a lick and walked away (my dry-food lover). One looked at it and quickly walked away. The 3rd one, who usually eats anything, ate a small amount and then walked away. We are talking early AM hungry kitty time, here!
I quickly snatched up what I had put down and gave baby food. Later on that day I made my recipe from Pitcairn's book called Feline Feast. I used organic brown rice for the grain, only I halved the amount. I added one organic carrot. After blenderizing my recipe, I compared it to the Merrick's Turducken on a plate and I could not tell the difference. It was exactly the same consistency, color and look. Well, ok, mine did look a little bit better. And my cats loved what I made and completely devoured it! Maybe I should go into the cat food business!   

[lacy]

Mary K
Can you please post that recipe!!

[Cindy Nevarez]

    LOL!  I love it!

[garypen]

Maybe I should go into the cat food business!   

I'd buy it.