Nutro Pet Food Illnesses & Deaths Reported

[Joeyjoejoe]

Yikes! My kittens are eating Nutro Max Cat (dry) for kittens. They are half way through the bag and show no ill effects. In fact, lately they are more active (between the hours of 1am to 5am) than ever before! When will I ever get a good night sleep?

I guess I'll be stopping by the pet food store tonight! Thanks for the heads up!

[sugarcatmom]

Originally Posted by Joeyjoejoe

Yikes! My kittens are eating Nutro Max Cat (dry) for kittens.

Are you feeding them any canned food at all? If not, it would be a really really good idea to pick some up while you're at the store. In fact, with 2 male kittens, they shouldn't be eating ANY kibble. The lack of moisture in dry food exponentially increases the chances of urinary tract blockage in male cats. http://www.catinfo.org/

(sorry to hijack from the Nutro issue)

[Joeyjoejoe]

Originally Posted by sugarcatmom

Are you feeding them any canned food at all? If not, it would be a really really good idea to pick some up while you're at the store. In fact, with 2 male kittens, they shouldn't be eating ANY kibble. The lack of moisture in dry food exponentially increases the chances of urinary tract blockage in male cats. http://www.catinfo.org/

(sorry to hijack from the Nutro issue)

Sorry for continuing the hijack, but...

My cats will smell the wet food, but won't eat it. Tried multiple brands, same story. After reading the article, I can see that I may have done some things improperly... For example, I probably gave up too early and I leave the food out all day.

I have read conflicting info that kittens tend to snack all day rather than eat at specific times. So is leaving food out 24/7 better for kittens? At 4 months, should they have been trained to eat at specific times instead? Right now, my kittens never seem to gorge themselves. They'll just eat a little bit every 2 hours. If anything they are under weight. Food just isn't a big motivator for them.

Tonight, I'll pick up Wellness dry food for kittens and a few cans of Wellness wet food as well. I'll even pick up some parmasan cheese as the article suggests. Who knows... nothing I tried has worked so far.

I doubt I'll ever do the raw food... I can barely cook for myself.

[sugarcatmom]

Originally Posted by Joeyjoejoe

My cats will smell the wet food, but won't eat it. Tried multiple brands, same story. After reading the article, I can see that I may have done some things improperly... For example, I probably gave up too early and I leave the food out all day.

It can take a while to convince cats that a new food is actually edible. They tend to be very suspicious of unfamiliar smells and textures and tastes (a defense mechanism to avoid accidently eating something toxic). There are a few ways to overcome this: one is to merely leave a tablespoon of the new food next to their usual food and let them get accustomed to the smell for a few days (refresh the canned a couple times a day - but it truly is fine to leave it out). Then slowly decrease the amount of old food left out while increasing the new. You should eventually see evidence of nibbling on the canned.

Another option is to pulverize their favourite dry food and sprinkle it on top of the wet. This combines the familiar with the unfamiliar and hopefully they make the transfer that this new stuff is also okay.

Or, mixing it with something stinky that the kittens find irresistible, such as tuna juice or plain meat baby food (no onions - chicken usually works great) helps overcome some suspiciousness. Powdered treats like freeze-dried chicken or salmon (Halo Liv-a-Littles or Real Food Toppers for example) sprinkled on the canned are another trick.

So ya, don't give up! This is probably the single most important thing you can do for the health of your kitties.

Originally Posted by Joeyjoejoe

I have read conflicting info that kittens tend to snack all day rather than eat at specific times. So is leaving food out 24/7 better for kittens? At 4 months, should they have been trained to eat at specific times instead? Right now, my kittens never seem to gorge themselves. They'll just eat a little bit every 2 hours.

I would leave the food out for them, just make it canned instead of dry. It's a more natural feeding pattern for them to snack frequently. And like I said, although most people don't realize this, there is nothing wrong with putting down a meal of canned food and leaving it out for them to eat over the course of a day. Then put down a fresh meal at dinner time. Contrary to popular belief, it won't spoil in that amount of time.

Originally Posted by Joeyjoejoe

I doubt I'll ever do the raw food... I can barely cook for myself.

I hear ya. Not only do I not cook (thank goodness for hubby!), but I'm a vegetarian, so making raw from scratch isn't at the top of my list either. However, you can buy pre-packaged frozen raw food at some of the better pet food stores. Not all are created equal (Nature's Variety is a decent one that is widely available) and you still have to do some research on the ingredients, but for the most part it's as easy as opening up a can. Just something to think about in the future.

Anyway, good luck with the transition, and feel free to start a new thread on the topic to let us know how it goes.

[Joeyjoejoe]

Okay, I promise this will be the last off topic post...

I have to first transition them from the Nutro to the Wellness. I don't think that'll be too much of a problem, they have had multiple varieties of dry food in the past with no problems.

I bought a few cans of the Wellness wet as well, but won't introduce that just right away. Maybe in a week or two.

I'll post again after the trying the switch.

[brandikiss]

Sickening! Obviously there's a cover up here. I would not feed my dog that . I feel so sorry for the owners of the pets. And what makes it worse is how it's like no one is listening to them. I believe it is the Nutro food.

What I don't understand is people going out and buying a brand that had been recalled before. I would Never trust the brand again. When I was researching dog food for my dog, I had advice from a friend who worked at a pet store and she mentioned Nutro, I told her, isn't Nutro one of the pet foods that was recalled? She said yes but it is safe now.
Why on earth would I trust that it is safe now? I'm sooooooo glad I didn't buy it and that I didn't trust it, now there are new illnesses and deaths. How sad!

[kathryn]

Originally Posted by brandikiss

What I don't understand is people going out and buying a brand that had been recalled before. I would Never trust the brand again.

It isn't always the companies fault. Blue Buffalo was recalled, but it was because the plant was adding in junk without their permission, and hid it behind their backs really well. As soon as Blue found out, they immediately terminated their contract with a plant and got a new company to make their food for them with a better reputation.

So it doesn't always apply.

[ancientgirl]

Originally Posted by brandikiss

Sickening! Obviously there's a cover up here. I would not feed my dog that . I feel so sorry for the owners of the pets. And what makes it worse is how it's like no one is listening to them. I believe it is the Nutro food.

What I don't understand is people going out and buying a brand that had been recalled before. I would Never trust the brand again. When I was researching dog food for my dog, I had advice from a friend who worked at a pet store and she mentioned Nutro, I told her, isn't Nutro one of the pet foods that was recalled? She said yes but it is safe now.
Why on earth would I trust that it is safe now? I'm sooooooo glad I didn't buy it and that I didn't trust it, now there are new illnesses and deaths. How sad!

That's one of the big problems I have in asking a store employee about food. They really don't know, they just work there and sell the stuff. When I got my Vlad as a kitty it was after the big recall, and I asked the woman at the pet store to point me to a brand that hadn't been recalled. She pointed me to Nutro. I come to find out about a month later it had been on the recall list!

Then just last month with all this new stuff going on I recommended to some guy buying food at the pet store to buy Wellness, and that there was some suspicion on Nutro. Can you believe the store clerk argued about it? He said that it was all just a smear campaign by someone on the internet and that Nutro already came out with a statement blah blah blah.

Well thankfully the one guy kept the Wellness in his basket.

People working at these stores are there doing their job, selling. Most of them have no clue what's good or not.

[Sabine]

Guys - I don't trust most VETS when it comes to nutritional advice let alone a petstore employee ! !
All you can do is EDUCATE yourselves and apply your own knowledge. It's not that hard. There's a LOT of good information out there.

[rivers]

I am one of those consumers who just wants the RIGHT food for their dog. But it is really difficult to choose a brand when the dog food companies are all about marketing and lies. Including the top brand foods, they are just as guilty for making money out of the confused consumer, and pushing their prices up.

I find myself totally confused when buying food, with shelves and shelves of holistic choices all ranging from cheaper to very expensive, small bags to just a little more for double the price, pretty puppy faces staring at me, or MY breed staring at me for a lot cheaper. What do I choose? The one with all great photos of the veggies that I want to eat, but find out later that beet pulp is not good, or the one with my dog on the bag, claiming it is the best for me because it is breed specific. BS all of it!

I do research, but 3 years later I am still hopping from one brand to the next, trying to find the one that my dog loves and that I am happy with.

Wellness, she would rather have starved than eat that stuff, Solid Gold worked when was a puppy, but soon she stopped eating that too, needed a change in flavour, I went for Made in Canada, worked for a while, but realised it wasn't good enough when you got down to the food analysis. Tried cheap food, Cesar, she loves it, obviously, but I know it is not right for her because it is too cheap and no way can that be right food for her, despite all their marketing and glossy brochures and how excellent they say their food is.

So now I'm heading out to buy a bag of Innova, why? because I saw a lady at the vet who's dog had a shiny coat, and she told me it was Innova. My vet recommended Iams, my groomer said food shouldn't matter, it is the daily brushing that makes the difference!

Who do I trust? Who do I go to get the right info? The internet? Breeders who recommend brands like Purina? Forums with people and opionions? The food store? My vet? My groomer?

And that is why some people stick to a bag of what ever their dog likes.

There, that is where I am now.

[Sabine]

I gave up and started feeding raw. My dogs never felt better.
The cheap dogfoods the dogs love because they are enhanced with artificial flavors to a point, where no dog can resist. Lots of them are sprayed with restaurant grease for 'added palatability'. Not to mention the sugar that's poured into it, to make it 'addictive'. Leave all of that out and the food would probably taste like a bad batch of cardboard that's been rotting away in some damp basement. Even though, holistic brands are no guarantee either, they ARE better because of their ingredients. Looking at those cheap foods and knowing, that they still are cheap in spite of the low production costs (~ 7% ) - that pretty much gives you a pretty good idea about their quality.

[rivers]

I am seriously considering going RAW.

[brandikiss]

Wow Ancient Girl... that's pretty messed up. If there is even a chance that it could be true, the pet store employee should not argue about it. And I believe it is true, I'm just saying in the employee's mind... did he/she not have a conscience?

[ancientgirl]

What makes me really angry is, he knew it HAD been reported as a recalled item. Then he argued it was a smear campaign. I was pointing the one guy to a food that is actually better in quality. At that point the employee should have just said:

"Well yes, there is some issue about this being recalled, but if you don't feel comfortable with it, Wellness is a high quality food that has never been recalled."

He didn't do that, he wanted to sell the guy the Nutro. And not long ago I was at Petco and there was a Hills display with a guy giving out information. He had charts and lots of displays about pet health blah blah blah. He was also giving out goodie bags with a free little sample bag of Science diet, a measuring cup and a couple of toys. LOL, I gladly took the goodie bag, kept the measuring cup and the toys and threw the food away.