Found hard black pieces in CN Dry cat food

[himimom1254]

I spoke with my vet yesterday and she suggested I contact the FDA myself and Senator Dick Durbin (I live in IL) as he has put forth a bill about pet food safety and tell them what I've found in the food and the how the company is not really very forthcoming...by the way, I never received the information from Natura to mail my food for testing.  What a surprise!

She told me not to panic, but get the Wellness and switch him over slowly over a week or so, keep the suspect food and possibly buy another bag to see if it looks the same as what I have. 

[garypen]

Sounds like a good vet! Most of them would just push Science Diet on you.

[garypen]

Garypen,
No, no not at all. They aren't "black specs". It's hard to explain, but you'll see when you get the food. The Indoor Health simply isn't uniform in color. But all the bags I've used have looked the same. I was just telling you so you wouldn't be surprised by the appearance.

I didn't think it was actually bad. I was just kidding about the whole black speck thing. I'm not too worried! 

[garypen]

Hi Gary - Thanks, but during the recall I tried enough food & saw enough reactions that I'm pretty certain on the allergies.

Too bad. I've never had cats with allergies. And, I've had a few cats in my lifetime. That must be so difficult to deal with.

How are the ingredients in Kumpi and Wysong, in terms of their allergies? Those seem to be some of the very few pet food alternatives left to you. Wysong Vitality looks like a decent complete formula. I didn't notice any fish or cranberries. (But, I'm hungover, so I coulda missed it.)  Their Anergen is a "limited-ingredient" formula, which seems good for allergic animals. But, it's not complete nutrition, protein-wise. You'd need to add some meat/protein source, perhaps the baby food.

[eternaljester81]

Garypen,
No, no not at all. They aren't "black specs". It's hard to explain, but you'll see when you get the food. The Indoor Health simply isn't uniform in color. But all the bags I've used have looked the same. I was just telling you so you wouldn't be surprised by the appearance.

I didn't think it was actually bad. I was just kidding about the whole black speck thing. I'm not too worried! 

That's cool! I was afraid you'd misinturpreted what I posted.

[Geff]

Hi Gary - Thanks, but during the recall I tried enough food & saw enough reactions that I'm pretty certain on the allergies.

Too bad. I've never had cats with allergies. And, I've had a few cats in my lifetime. That must be so difficult to deal with.

How are the ingredients in Kumpi and Wysong, in terms of their allergies? Those seem to be some of the very few pet food alternatives left to you. Wysong Vitality looks like a decent complete formula. I didn't notice any fish or cranberries. (But, I'm hungover, so I coulda missed it.)  Their Anergen is a "limited-ingredient" formula, which seems good for allergic animals. But, it's not complete nutrition, protein-wise. You'd need to add some meat/protein source, perhaps the baby food.

Kumpi uses fish (or at least did in April). I tried Wysong during the beginning of the recall. I don't remember the specifics at the moment, but something about them bothered me at the time. I THINK it was some misinformation on their website. I likely posted it in the blogs here back in April or May.

[Geff]

I'm feeling frustrated (surprise!). Today I went to the pet store where I 1st bought Cal Nat. There are 3 stores in the area that sell it, & of the 3 the owner of this store was the most supportive of our concerns here. I went looking for:

A. Any old stock of Cal Nat (I believe that all 2007 cat pull dates have a good chance of being safe; so far I've also heard no reports of cat pull dates through March of 2008 being contaminated)

B. Advice

The owner wasn't there. A young woman was working. While she said she had read some of what was on itchmo she had swallowed Natura's official statement hook line & sinker & really didn't want to hear anything I had to say.

This is the sort of ignorance we're fighting, & I actually believe that this person's heart was in the right place although I think she decided I was a crackpot.

They were also out of any bags before 5/18.

[lesliek]

I don't post here very often;but you should rethink the Gerber baby food.They have been bought out by Nestle/Purina. Most are now made in Costa Rica & Pakistan. There a woman on Itchmo whose husband works for them in CR & she said they use chemicals which are illegal here & the bananas etc go right down the road to Gerber.Try a different brand. Also stage 1 has no onions or garlic.

[Geff]

Leslie, Thanks for the info......................

When we discussed this in April, my vet was very clear with me that she hasn't had time to follow the food issues like she would want to because her practice is so busy. At least philosophically she is one of us.

[garypen]

Kumpi uses fish (or at least did in April). I tried Wysong during the beginning of the recall. I don't remember the specifics at the moment, but something about them bothered me at the time. I THINK it was some misinformation on their website. I likely posted it in the blogs here back in April or May.

I don't care for Wysong's arrogant and opinionated bashing of other companies, or those who disagree with their philosophy, on their website. But, if their formulas are tolerable for your cats, you should try them, no?

Their stuff seems to be readily available in the same types of stores that sell Natura, Wellness, and so on.

I don't remember much about Kumpi's formula's other than they are very grain-heavy, and the customers seem to have some weird, cult-like devotion to the company and its president.

[himimom1254]

I just wanted to let you know that yesterday I bought another bag of CN Chicken and Brown Rice dry to see if a different pull date would still reveal the "black chunks". 

The new bag is pull date 07/08/08 and it has "black chunks" and WHITE chunks now.  It's going back to the store today and Andy is slowly getting switched to Wellness Deboned Chicken and Rice.

I also emailed Senator Dick Durbin and will call the FDA today to report my findings.

Carol

[Davis]

Carol, take a sample out of the bag first.  And if you can, take some pictures of it and post them here.  That would really be appreciated.  Thanks!

[himimom1254]

Yes, I planned to keep some of it and I'll try to do pics, but probably won't have time today.  I'll do my best.  Have to get to work.

Carol