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....