Sunday, April 1, 2007

No April Fools-More on Cat Food Recall

So I'm very distressed, again, about how this recall is playing out. Now Purina Foods is involved. Yes, I know its Alpo, a dog food, but its made Mom once again take a closer look at what she had been feeding me lately. For a while, I had been really liking the ProPlan Kitten canned food (both flaked and classic). But since our PetCo can't seem to keep in the variety I like, here lately, I've been enjoying Fancy Feast (both Elegant Medleys and the flaked varieties). Both ProPlan and Fancy Feast are made by Purina. Upon closer inspection, Mom discovered wheat gluten in all of them! Can you imagine? And she thought they were safer. And now Purina has pulled some food because of bad wheat gluten. Why are cats eating wheat gluten? Its a protein, sure, but we've never eaten such a thing before humans starting feeding it to us. The good news is the Natural Balance crunchies I've been eating all week (and like) does not contain wheat gluten, and has what appears to be high quality ingredients.

There are several excellent sites Mom has been exploring on the recall and the topic of what to feed cats. One she found from Avram at New Cat City (an excellent site by the way), called PetSitUSA, they have a page of foods not on the recall, and discuss what quality control information they know about the foods. Chey also found this page, and put a link to it on her site. PetSitUSA only link to the Fancy Feast and ProPlan websites, which if you go there, and dig a little, you will find the ingredients of most of the varieties contain wheat gluten. In fact, most in Mom's cupboard do right now.

But, not all Fancy Feast flavors contain wheat gluten. As she searched around some more, she found a page that lists the Fancy Feast flavors that are free of wheat gluten (are are below 10% carbs). They include:
  • Tender Beef Feast (brown label color)
  • Tender Beef & Liver Feast (magenta)
  • Tender Beef & Chicken Feast (red)
  • Gourmet Chicken Feast (dark pink...be careful, this looks just like another chicken variety with gluten!)
  • Turkey & Giblets Feast (olive green)
  • Tender Liver & Chicken Feast (orange)
  • Chopped Grill Feast (kelly green)
  • Flaked Fish & Shrimp Feast (true blue)
  • Savory Salmon Feast (orange)
  • Flaked Ocean Fish Feast (pink)
  • Tuna and Oceanfish Feast in Aspic (teal label)
This page also makes an interesting point of saying "*Remember that it is a good idea to limit serving fish to just a few times a week", do you think it is because of the mercury? The Flaked Fish and Shrimp Feast is the only one we currently have.

Mom has been looking long and hard at the homemade catfood recipe posted at Artsy Catsy. It seems pretty straight forward, and tasty. While reading this recipe, Mom also discovered CatNutrition.org. Here, you can learn to make raw catfood, basically building a mouse in a plate. Mom's not sure she is willing to go that far. She's not even sure about the ArtsyCatsy recipe, as she is not sure should could maintain making cat food. But she sure is thinking about it.

Me, I just want something good and nutritious to eat. And I want to play April Fools....

10 comments:

Dragonheart, Merlin, Devi, and Chloe said...

Sorry to hear about all the trouble finding a good food for you Tara! I am very glad that I have healthy food here in Germany. I know my mom worries about what she'll feed me when we move back to Canada. I need some wet food because of my Sphynx metabolism and since we cats need taurine in our diets, my mom isn't convinced that cooking food for me herself is a great idea.

Daisy said...

This whole pet food business is very confusing and upsetting. I hope you find something good to eat that you like.

Lux said...

My mom's with you and Artsy Catsy. She's ordered that book by a vet about natural remedies.

Lilly Lu, Iris and Maxwell Mufsa Millon said...

my mom agrees wiff you but she said she just don't have the time to make home made cat food for Lilly Lu and iris I only eat scipion food that not been on the list. In her seach she found blue bufflo also know as blue spa sleclet. We luff it and it made wiff homo pathic remdes and it furry nummy.

Iris and Lilly Lu

Kimo and Sabi said...

We are tired of all this pet food recall! We are gonna go huntin' and get our own food! (April fools!)

HRH Yao-Lin said...

Hey Tara, cute picture, you look like you are about to do something mischievous!

As far as making cat food is concerned, my slave is in a similar quandry. Whilst I would insist that she makes my food from scratch, I understand she has to go out to work to bring home the money to buy me toys. It is a predicament indeed - she may not have the time to make it from scratch and she isn't sure where to get the ingredients from!I simply insist on having steak and chicken and fish cooked for me regularly, along with expensive biscuits and wet food. I wish we had royal chefs, you know! What's good enough for the Queen Mother is more than good enough for us and she lived until 100!

HRH Yao-Lin said...

Hey Tara and thanks for the response on my blog. I have looked at the cat nutrition web site before and found it extremely interesting and informative. I will go over and have a look at the artsy catsy website because i think if my slave found something that looked relatively straightforward she would start making our food from scratch. She does feed us raw meat from the butchers occasionally and has a friend who recommended buying rabbit from the butchers too! As it is so close to Easter, I don't think thats a good idea at the moment but who knows, maybe in future? MOL xx

Anonymous said...

Oh my this is very very very disturbing!
Mommie JUST went out and got us a whole bunch of yummy chicken and beef FANCY FEEST
aaaaak!
She will have to get her glasses and read our cans and compare.

we do have plenty of the gourmet chicken feast that seems to be okay.
Maybe we will just stick with that...

Thank you and so sorry this has been a headache for us too :-(
I need a nap.

~Princess

Jake and Bathsheba said...

This is very distressing. Ever since I was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism last summer, I've been getting Fancy Feast so Mom can hide pill pieces in it. I REALLY like the fishy flavors and Mom gives them to me almost once every day or two. Uh, oh.

And there was even a problem with one type of Hill's prescription food, and Bathsheba eats Hill's science diet dry.

My vet tried to get me interested in some canned food that was very expensive and specially sold to vets. I'm not a very picky eater, but I didn't really care for it.

Maybe Mom should just make us plain chicken. I love that!

My big sister Precious ate dry Purina Cat Chow all her life, and she lived to be 19.

~Jake

Tiki, Kirby, and StanLee said...

It's too scary to even know what to eat. We've been eating dry NB too and Solid Gold Kat N Flocken (we like it better than NB). Both seem to be good foods. No wheat gluten. We threw out everything with wheat gluten. We haven't found a new wet food that we like, but we keep trying stuff. Mommy & daddy are happy that at least we eat the new dry, so no one is going hungry. Thanks for keeping us all updated.