Sheba Quality Issue

fionasmom

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A few days ago I received a shipment of Sheba cuts from Chewy....see picture. I called them and they replaced it without even asking to see the pics.

The other day I found 2 very puffy swollen packages....is that botulism? I threw they out; the others from the same pack were not swollen. sheba food.JPG
sheba food.JPG
sheba food.JPG
 

kittenmittens84

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Eek...what were the dates on them? Were they all sealed or did they have punctures in them? Maybe the lids didn’t seal to the containers?
My cat likes the same food and none of the ones we’ve gotten (all from chewy) have had any issues.
 
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fionasmom

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Dates were current, meaning expiration was well in the future, and the lids appeared to be sealed.
 

LTS3

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The containers had those bugs in them?? :shocked: Did you contact Sheba with the pictures and lot / batch numbers of the packages?

Botulism is an illness caused by Clostridium botulinum.
 
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fionasmom

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LTS3 LTS3 excellent point and I did not think to contact Sheba directly after I contacted Chewy. However, in a couple of pics I did not post on TCS there is enough identification that Sheba should be able to figure out which batch this was. I just went to the Sheba website and lodged my complaint with both pics that I took One did have enough ID to answer all their questions.

As for botulism, if a clean package of Sheba were tightly puffed up, would you consider that to be a possibility for botulism? I am not talking about the squishiness that you get with the foil wrapper, but a drum tight puffiness.
 
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fionasmom

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Update: Mars contacted me via email asking for additional information such as where I store pet food, where I bought it and when.
 

She's a witch

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I got bugs from Chewy in my very first order from them :D around 2 years ago. Never again, though. Both Chewy and Dr Elsey stepped up.
 

mizzely

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I got bugs exactly like that in a shipment from Chewy also, but in American Journey cans. A can had burst and bugs moved in. Smelled awful. They refunded my entire order and I've never had another issue. Was about 2 years ago for me also
 

kittenmittens84

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Dates were current, meaning expiration was well in the future, and the lids appeared to be sealed.
Blech, that’s gross. Seems like it came from chewy shipping packaging or maybe from Sheba’s end (warehouse? idk how long they store things) since they were all sealed.
Swelling can be a sign of botulism, but it can also come from food that’s spoiled in a different way that produces gas, or QC mistakes that lead to overfilled packages, or changes in temp/pressure while shipping.
 

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Late reply.
From the pic it looks like there's larvae and bacteria on the outside of the containers, right? Botulism is anaerobic, if its dripping or you cans squeeze the puffiness out, it's probably an aerobic bacteria. Oxygen is poison to anaerobic bacteria

Room temperature meat products are vacuum sealed in an airtight containers, since meat rots very fast.
Can's are great for this purpose.
Foods like Sheba that come in flexible plastic 'cups' with foil glued on top aren't as resilient. If it get's pushed on the plastic flexes a little, the foil stretches and a tiny edge of foil gets unglues from the plastic (after all, the glue is meant to easily be pulled off). The gap maybe microscopic but enough to let bacteria in or the bacteria in there to grow, giving off gas as, making the container puff, which attracts blow flies. that lays its eggs in rotting meat. All because one twin pack got squeezed, crushed, dropped just enough to create a gap in the glue.

Id be surprised if it didn't happen in shipping or even when it was dropped at you door, all of this can happen in a couple of days at room temperature. Dozens-thousands of different bacteria would cause off gassing, no one could tell you what it is without gram staining and culturing.
 
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fionasmom

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Thanks so much for explaining all that. The Sheba is the favorite of a TNRed cat who lives at some apartments in the area; I feed her twice a day. She has turned her nose up at what I consider to be better food. The whole foil packaging (in that particular design) makes me nervous. Previous to this, I was in a large chain market and came across an employee removing all the Sheba that was puffed up after someone had brought it to their attention.

I have received lots of damaged Chewy packages from FedEx. It apparently is not anything that happens at the Chewy distribution centers unless they have first graders working there loading the orders.
 

IndyJones

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Thanks so much for explaining all that. The Sheba is the favorite of a TNRed cat who lives at some apartments in the area; I feed her twice a day. She has turned her nose up at what I consider to be better food. The whole foil packaging (in that particular design) makes me nervous. Previous to this, I was in a large chain market and came across an employee removing all the Sheba that was puffed up after someone had brought it to their attention.

I have received lots of damaged Chewy packages from FedEx. It apparently is not anything that happens at the Chewy distribution centers unless they have first graders working there loading the orders.
They very easily could have people working there with a first grade education. Often these wear houses are minimum wage positions and sometimes immigrants who barely understand English are employed as packers. I mean no offense to anyone who works as a packer or immigrants.
 

syzygycat

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Thanks so much for explaining all that. The Sheba is the favorite of a TNRed cat who lives at some apartments in the area; I feed her twice a day. She has turned her nose up at what I consider to be better food. The whole foil packaging (in that particular design) makes me nervous. Previous to this, I was in a large chain market and came across an employee removing all the Sheba that was puffed up after someone had brought it to their attention.

I have received lots of damaged Chewy packages from FedEx. It apparently is not anything that happens at the Chewy distribution centers unless they have first graders working there loading the orders.
I think Fed Ex assumes the package not marked fragile is cushioned/tough enough to be handled roughly. They are going to be tossing boxes quickly, stacking boxing with 50lb of litter on top of boxes with 50 packs of sheba. Blame fed ex for being rough, chewy for not padding fragile items. Either way, it's something that comes up on occasion when you order from large companies like chewy, amazon, walmart.
 

mazie

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I miss the days when you could buy Sheba in cans, like Fancy Feast. Canned cat food I believe is much safer than food sold in those plastic and foil containers. Does anyone know why Sheba stopped selling their product in cans? I loved the reusable lids they would include in the boxes. I kept a lot of those reusable plastic lids. When they stopped selling their product in cans, I wish that I would have kept all of those nice lids. The lids fit on Fancy Feast cans as well!
 

Babypinkweeb

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I miss the days when you could buy Sheba in cans, like Fancy Feast. Canned cat food I believe is much safer than food sold in those plastic and foil containers. Does anyone know why Sheba stopped selling their product in cans? I loved the reusable lids they would include in the boxes. I kept a lot of those reusable plastic lids. When they stopped selling their product in cans, I wish that I would have kept all of those nice lids. The lids fit on Fancy Feast cans as well!
Not sure if you still need them but you can buy silicone can lids on amazon! The ones I got can fit 3 common sizes of lids and are dishwashable.
 

syzygycat

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...Does anyone know why Sheba stopped selling their product in cans? I loved the reusable lids they would include in the boxes. I kept a lot of those reusable plastic lids. When they stopped selling their product in cans, I wish that I would have kept all of those nice lids. The lids fit on Fancy Feast cans as well!
You can get then plastic reusable lids that fit both small and large for $6 on amazon, you can also get a 3 pack and most dollar stores, its a very common product.
As for the discontinued sheba cans [rant]... Plastic cups are cheaper to make, the twin pack contains less food (2.6oz), and people pay more for them. Grocery store brands like Sheba are marketed to people who don't look at labels, two portion for 80¢ looks better than one can for 70¢. It's more money for Mars inc. Twelve years ago Id only buy 13oz cans, tiny 3oz seemed like a total rip off, now I think of 5.5oz cans are the largest size you see in grocery stores and not many of them.
 

IndyJones

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You can get then plastic reusable lids that fit both small and large for $6 on amazon, you can also get a 3 pack and most dollar stores, its a very common product.
As for the discontinued sheba cans [rant]... Plastic cups are cheaper to make, the twin pack contains less food (2.6oz), and people pay more for them. Grocery store brands like Sheba are marketed to people who don't look at labels, two portion for 80¢ looks better than one can for 70¢. It's more money for Mars inc. Twelve years ago Id only buy 13oz cans, tiny 3oz seemed like a total rip off, now I think of 5.5oz cans are the largest size you see in grocery stores and not many of them.

It all boils down to $$$ grocery store brands are bottom tier foods made by companies who care more about money than the actual product. Often the pet feed is just a subsidiary of the companies main focus, this is what happens when the big businesses buy out the little guys. Quality goes down to as low as it is allowed.

I still buy the little 3 Oz cans for Indy because she is so picky. She refuses to eat the same thing for more than a day or two so I was throwing food out all the time when I bought the 5 Oz cans.

I buy the performatrin ultra and sometimes BFF as a treat for her. They have lots of fish flavors which are Indy's favorite. She also has damage to her tear duct and when her nose gets plugged up she will only eat fish.
 
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