Consider This Before Feeding Merrick

[Desiree]

Gary, you said one of your cats doesn't drink water at all. Have you tried getting a pet water fountain? I've noticed since we have been using one the past few years our cats drink a lot more water. I keep water in a couple of other dishes as well, but most of the water they drink is from the fountain. We have purified water with reverse osmosis and I think that makes a difference too. On the average, even though about half of their diet is wet food, my cats drink about 1/2 to 3/4 of a cup of water each, per day.

Mary K,  you're welcome. I know this isn't easy. If only we could give one quick zap with a magic wand to put an end to this pet food issue. But of course, it's not that simple.

However, I will say that with all the foods I've purchased through the years, unlike most, Merrick has real chunks of meat rather than ground up contents that can't be determined by the look or the smell. Despite my skeptism, those large chunks of meat and the way that my cats eat the food has been quite different from other foods. I don't see how they could produce a meaty looking product out of something made from garbage. At the same time, I don't have complete trust in any company. Maybe one day that will change.

I checked through all of my cans of Merrick and none of them have an Oct 07 09 date on them. If you decide to try the Merrick food and it makes you more comfortable, perhaps you can return them for dates that match those that I've used or other people here on the forum.  It's just a thought.

[T. Eric]

I found this info regarding Merrick and a recall they had not long ago.

http://www.fda.gov/cvm/Documents/HHEGoNatural.pdf

[garypen]

I've never heard the specifics of that recall. (I guess because it was of a different brand that Merrick manufactured, and not Merrick brand which is what I was searching for.) It's an awfully long document. But, what I can tell from it is that the dead pets had some elevated levels of minerals in their organs. Yet, the food was tested specifically for those minerals, and they were within spec. However, the BHA levels were 4x-13x to what they should be. (BHA is a chemical preservative.) That may have been the culprit?

As far as I can tell, they no longer use BHA in their dry food, according to their lists of ingredients. It appears they use Vitamin E and Ascorbic Acid, as do most "holistic" pet food companies nowadays. (Plus, they don't make dry cat food under the Merrick brand, anyway.) Also, the only other recal I found was for a specific canned dog food variety because of metal "kosher" tags from the raw chicken wings making their way into the finished product. (At least they were human-grade chickens.)

I think I do remember reading that Petcurean decided to switch to Menu to make their canned foods after this recall. Talk about the frying pan into the fire!!!

[garypen]

Desiree. Thanks. I've been thinking about getting a fountain. But, she seems to pee OK. So, I guess she gets enough water from the canned food.

[JJ]

On another forum Itchmo we have a post from 4luvofpets under A Question about Merrick's. In that section I have found an ingredient called Ethylenediamine Dihydriodide that this person found on the toxnet claiming it makes milk unfit for human consumption when given to cows so would this make it safe for our pets food and for them to be eating it? She posted this site to check out for full contents if anyone would want to read more about this Ethylenediamin stuff. It is: http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/search/r?dbs+hsdb:@term+@rn+@rel+5700-49-2 My dog loved the canned but took rest back to store. Now use Karma dry and Evangers wet.

[mgt818]

Is Ethylenediamine Dihydriodide  in their list of ingredients?

[garypen]

Yes. It is also in the following brands' pet foods:
ProPac
Newman's Own Organic
Natural Balance
Lick Your Chops
Flint River Ranch
Timberwolf Organics
and probably many others. (Didn't have time to check them all.)

Not to mention many, many brands of commercial cattle, horse, deer, and other animal feeds.

Its use seems to be fairly widespread.

[Cindy Nevarez]

Does anyone know what the purpose is for this ED additive to be in the food?

[garypen]

Source of Iodine.

[Cindy Nevarez]

Thanks...they shoulda asked me...I coulda told them an easier way to put in iodine.

[garypen]

Yes. I believe that some brands use calcium iodate. Even better, some brands use kelp.

[jenny]

Water is one of the reasons that canned food is recommended for cats:
•   When fed canned food (80% moisture)  with access to drinking water, cats obtain over 90% of their total water intake from the diet, whereas on dry food, 96% of the total water intake is obtained by drinking. The total free water intake (from food and drinking water) decreases when cats are fed dry food only, so that the water to dry matter intake ratio when fed on commercial dry foods varies from 2.0 to 2.8: 1 whereas on canned foods it varies from 3. 0 to 5.7: 1.  Thus for any given dry matter intake cats have a higher water turnover on canned than on dry foods.  (National Research Council [National Academy of Science] Nutrient Requirements of Cats).
•   Canned diets contain enough water that cats consuming them rarely need to drink.  Daily water needs, in milliliters, often are "guesstimated" as equal to the metabolizable energy requirement in kilocalories or approximately 60 ml/kg.  Once the diet is consumed, oxidation of nutrients produces an additional 10 to 13 grams of water for each 100 kcal of metabolizable energy.   Thus a 4 kg cat consuming a 240 kcal canned diet containing 78% moisture will consume 237 ml or 98% of its daily water need directly from the diet.  Thus the cat needs to drink less than 1 oz. of additional water per day whereas a cat consuming a 240 kcal dry diet needs to drink over 7 oz. of water per day.   This can be difficult because cats are not naturally big drinkers.  Feeding a canned diet containing 78% moisture virtually guarantees homeostatic control of water balance in the cat.

[garypen]

It's the MAIN reason.

[jenny]

Actually - protein seems to be the main reason in what I have read (for cats that is), with dry food being compared to cereal:
http://www.avma.org/publications/default.asp  (http://home.earthlink.net/~jacm2/id1.html)
•   One dietary factor that is receiving increased attention in obese cats is the role of CHO-dense (complex carb) diets. Cats housed exclusively indoors and consuming energy-dense, high-starch, dry foods are provided with more energy than they can effectively use. Any dietary CHO (complex carb) not used for energy is converted and stored as fat. Diets that are severely restricted for energy (eg, traditional low-fat, high-fiber, weight-loss diets) may result in weight loss, but it is often to the detriment of lean body mass.41,d Many of these diets contain high concentrations (> 15%) of insoluble fiber, which increases fecal bulk and volume, potentially increases fecal water loss (eg, increase risk of dehydration in cats not consuming an adequate quantity of water), and has detrimental effects on nutrient (eg, protein) digestibility.42,43 Ultimately, successful weight loss requires maintenance of lean body mass, because lean body mass is the major determinant of basal energy metabolism and is a major influence on whether weight is regained.44
•   Several investigators have evaluated the use of a high-protein, low-CHO diet (protein, 45% or higher; .......for weight loss in cats. In one study, weight reduction in cats on a high-protein, low-CHO diet was compared with that for cats fed a commercial hypoenergetic diet (protein, 34%; NFE (carb), 45%; energy, 2,600 kcal of ME/kg of food on an as-fed basis). Cats in both groups lost weight, but cats consuming the high-protein, low-CHO diet maintained lean body mass during weight loss. Additional studies are necessary, but this approach to inducing weight loss in cats makes metabolic and nutritional sense providing that they are fed appropriate amounts of food (ie, food is not available free choice).
•   Canned foods generally are best to provide a high-protein, low-CHO dietary combination. Most dry foods are energy dense and have greater CHO concentrations (CHO > 25% on a dry-matter [DM] basis), because starch is necessary to make the kibble. The typical nutrient characteristics of canned foods formulated for kittens are 45 to 55% protein (DM basis), 8 to 15% starch (DM basis), and 15 to 25% fat (DM basis) with little dietary fiber (< 1% [DM basis]). These characteristics are not far removed from that of the natural diet of cats (Appendix 1).

[garypen]

There are a number of high-protein, low-grain dry foods available.