For those affected by the numerous recent Natura recalls, what have you been feeding?

[cemeteryroses]

I figured I'd start a thread for all of us displaced from the NEW Natura recall announced yesterday (6/18). Just to keep you guys up to date, California Natural, Innova, EVO, Healthwise, and Karma have total recalls on all dry food expiring before June 10, 2013.

I work in a pet food store, and when the first across-the-board dry food recall hit in April, I was all out of my CA Natural Grain Free and was living on Earthborn  Great Plains Feast samples until we were able to get it in.

I was SO looking forward to being able to buy CA Natural again, as my 14lb bag of Earthborn was empty enough to warrant getting more food. But NOPE, my precious food was recalled AGAIN ): 

What I have left of the Earthborn will last me about a week, but I'm hesitant about buying it again. It has Rosemary Extract, Yucca, and I just now realized it has Canola oil(which one of my babes is allergic to). I LOVED CA Natural's grain free cat formula because it was made with minimal ingredients, contained no possible neurological toxins, and was made with sunflower oil.

If anyone would like to aide me in finding a new food, please do so! Seriously, just yell out whatever brand you can think of!

What have you guys been feeding your kitties since the recalls? I'm at a total loss. Maybe we can help each other?

 

[cat person]

I would recommend any of the following: Wysongs Epigen 90 (http://www.wysong.net/products/epigen.php), Orijen (http://www.orijen.ca/products/cat-food/dry-cat-food/cat-kitten/ or http://www.orijen.ca/products/cat-food/dry-cat-food/six-fish-cat/) or Wellness Core (http://www.wellnesspetfood.com/product-details.aspx?pet=cat&pid=23).

Please note, I have only used the Wysongs Epigen 90 for my former pure Leptailurus serval not a pure domestic. Also, it was NOT his soul source of nutrition. I feed him whole live prey, so that food was just a "snack". Regarding the Orijen, that was the only other commercially available food, my former F3 Savannah could really digest, other then Evo's Chicken and Turkey Recipe. But, it was cheaper to feed him the Evo. Again, just like with the pure Serval, it was just used for a snack. Since, the F3 Savannah got whole live prey as well. When the F3 savannah was alive, there was supposed to be an issue with Evo being bought out by Proctor&Gamble. So, I tried different foods and found out, that he could digest the Wellness Core. But, he did not like the food and I switched back to Evo.

 

[vball91]

There were threads about this with the first recall. If I remember correctly, Precise Holistic and Petguard had the most similar formulas, but they are not as simple.

Have you considered switching to an all wet diet? Wet food is much better for cats for many reasons, and with all the recalls of dry food, if I were feeding any dry, I would seriously consider switching. Just my two cents.

As for dry foods, the two I would recommend are Wysong's Epigen 90 and Ziwipeak air-dried raw. Both are high animal protein, very low carbs for a dry food. They don't have the moisture a cat needs, so you're still relying upon them to drink enough water to battle the chronic dehydration that an all dry diet causes, but they're better than most dry foods.

 

[batrice]

I give up with california natural . cats have been on it for over 15- 20 years plus wet of course. But this is insane. Proctor and Gamble ruined them like they ruin everything else. What a sad day for our pets AGAIN!!! Most pet stores say since P&G took over its not a good thing.At first I did not believe them, BUT NOW I DO. So where does one turn just for a little good dry food now and then. I tried nutrisource but that has Tomato pomace. I s there anything out there that has never been recalled that is similar to california natural???

 

[Willowy]

I'm not sure how similar the ingredients are. But some foods that have good reviews and have not have recalls are: Dr Tim's, Fromm, and Annamaet. These are regular dry foods, some grain-free formulas, some not. For low-carb not-quite-regular-kibble, Wysong Epigen 90 and Ziwipeak are very good. All these brands seem fairly rare so you might have to order online. Or switch to canned .

 

[curlyqpgh]

My older, dfa, cat was on the EVO Chicken and Turkey. He's now on Young Again 50/22, which is low carb for a dry. We're working on transitioning, but it's a slow, painful process.

 

[cemeteryroses]

Thanks so much for all your replies! I'll have to start checking them out.

@vball91
My cats aren't strictly fed dry.  They get about a cup a day. The way I give them wet is just ridiculous: they get a few nuggets of freeze dried Stella and Chewy's raw food mixed in with their BFF or Weruva wet food, twice a day. They get extra water added to make it sort of a stew. The dry is more for them to munch on, they don't always finish the entire cup day to day. I haven't yet looked into how much I'm spending now vs how much it would cost to put them on 100% or raw though.

@Batrice

I know! My kitties have been on CA Natural literally since I brought them home two years ago. I didn't know about them being owned by P&G then. When I did find out, I decided to overlook it because my cats liked it so much and it seemed like a good food. I'd love to be able to find another company to give my business to, all of these recalls are ridiculous.

 

[mewlittle]

I figured I'd start a thread for all of us displaced from the NEW Natura recall announced yesterday (6/18). Just to keep you guys up to date, California Natural, Innova, EVO, Healthwise, and Karma have total recalls on all dry food expiring before June 10, 2013.

I work in a pet food store, and when the first across-the-board dry food recall hit in April, I was all out of my CA Natural Grain Free and was living on Earthborn  Great Plains Feast samples until we were able to get it in.

I was SO looking forward to being able to buy CA Natural again, as my 14lb bag of Earthborn was empty enough to warrant getting more food. But NOPE, my precious food was recalled AGAIN ): 

What I have left of the Earthborn will last me about a week, but I'm hesitant about buying it again. It has Rosemary Extract, Yucca, and I just now realized it has Canola oil(which one of my babes is allergic to). I LOVED CA Natural's grain free cat formula because it was made with minimal ingredients, contained no possible neurological toxins, and was made with sunflower oil.

If anyone would like to aide me in finding a new food, please do so! Seriously, just yell out whatever brand you can think of!

What have you guys been feeding your kitties since the recalls? I'm at a total loss. Maybe we can help each other?

you mean expiring 2014?

and what about nature variety instinct? i cant remamber if it has canola oil in it or not.

 

[mewlittle]

I give up with california natural . cats have been on it for over 15- 20 years plus wet of course. But this is insane. Proctor and Gamble ruined them like they ruin everything else. What a sad day for our pets AGAIN!!! Most pet stores say since P&G took over its not a good thing.At first I did not believe them, BUT NOW I DO. So where does one turn just for a little good dry food now and then. I tried nutrisource but that has Tomato pomace. I s there anything out there that has never been recalled that is similar to california natural???

allot of pet food has tomato in it saddly

 

[denice]

Every time Proctor Gamble has taken over a pet food they have ruined it.  IAMS at one time was an okay food, not great, but okay.  It was the best of the grocery store brands and then Proctor Gamble took it over.  Natura used to be a high end high quality food.  I fed California Natural for a number of years but then Proctor Gamble took over.  I wonder what pet food company they will take over and ruin next.

 

[maewkaew]

you mean expiring 2014?

and what about nature variety instinct? i cant remamber if it has canola oil in it or not.

 Nature's Variety Instinct doesn't have canola oil but it has flax seed oil.  So depends on whether the cat has a problem with that.   

 

[mewlittle]

 Nature's Variety Instinct doesn't have canola oil but it has flax seed oil.  So depends on whether the cat has a problem with that.   

I cant remember every ingredient in nature variety and i suggested it so the person can look into it

 

[maewkaew]

 Right,   I understood  what you meant and you made a good suggestion.    I actually feed some of the NVI myself and I remembered that it did have another kind of plant oil,  so I thought I would mention that.   It is only a tiny amount,    way down the ingredients list after the vitamins, taurine , etc.    

I cant remember every ingredient in nature variety and i suggested it so the person can look into it

 

[mewlittle]

I also feed diamond naturals ,chicken soup,solid gold indigo moon on the drys I used to have before grain it before they stopped making it.
For the wet chicken soup. Triumph. Soulistic and Kroger if I'm low on money
I stopped buying nature variety wet because I saw tomatoes in it :/

The only reason why I started diamond because I can find it in the store thats not from petco my cats can handle

 

[night wing]

I've seen a few references to tomato in this thread. I'm not sure if tomato is the same thing as tomato pomace. Some companies, like Young Again, put tomato pomace in their cat food recipes.

Tomato pomace is a fiber source (both soluble and insoluble fiber) and is non-digestible (which is the definition of a fiber). Fiber is essential for good health and the tomato pomace has a low pH which promotes digestion in any obligate carnivore and also promotes a healthy urinary tract.

 

[mewlittle]

I've seen a few references to tomato in this thread. I'm not sure if tomato is the same thing as tomato pomace. Some companies, like Young Again, put tomato pomace in their cat food recipes.

Tomato pomace is a fiber source (both soluble and insoluble fiber) and is non-digestible (which is the definition of a fiber). Fiber is essential for good health and the tomato pomace has a low pH which promotes digestion in any obligate carnivore and also promotes a healthy urinary tract.

Every time I feed my pets pet food with any kind of tomatoe in it it gives my pets heart trouble then I read somewhere if cat and dogs eat tomatoes it messes up there heart beat so I just avoid tomatoes all together

 

[night wing]

Every time I feed my pets pet food with any kind of tomatoe in it it gives my pets heart trouble then I read somewhere if cat and dogs eat tomatoes it messes up there heart beat so I just avoid tomatoes all together

I don't think tomatoes and tomato pomace are one and the same thing.

Tomato pomace is an inexpensive by-product of tomato manufacturing. Effectively, it is what is left over after processing tomatoes for juice, ketchup, soup, etc. It is sometimes used in pet and livestock food manufacturing as a source of dietary fiber, as well as B vitamins, Lycopene and (to a lesser extent) vitamin A. The primary component of tomato pomace is the tomato skin.

As an analogy, I'll give you an example with me being the subject.

I can eat peanuts whether they're raw or cooked. Peanuts which are unsalted, salted, honey roasted, give me no problems. It doesn't matter if the peanuts are in the husk, plain (no skin) or spanish (with skin). Again no problems. But, I'm allergic to peanut butter. It doesn't matter if the peanut butter is Peter Pan, Jif, Skippy or a specific store brand. If I eat peanut butter, within one or two minutes of time, I'm in distress health wise so I avoid peanut butter. My unscientific conclusion concerning myself, it's my genetic make up with regards to the ingredients and/or the percentage of ingredients which make up peanut butter.

So, I don't think pet food manufacturers are intentionally putting entire raw or cooked tomatoes into their cat food dry kibble. Only the tomato pomace (skin) for a source of fiber. Also, I haven't seen any percentage of tomato pomace which makes up their cat recipes when tomatoe pomace is listed an an ingredient. In other words, it could be 1.00%, 0.10% or 0.01% so there is really no way to know what the actual percentage is and how this percentage might affect a cat.

We've also had two cats. They've eaten commercial cat food which had tomato pomace in it. Our first cat, a lynx point siamese, lived 19 years, 6 months and 6 days before we had to put her to sleep because of the severe pain of arthritis. She wouldn't eat or drink anymore. Our other cat, a manx, he just had his 16th birthday on June 13th.

I'm not trying to cause a ruckus, but genetics in cats is just like genetics in humans when it comes to certain things in their diet. If I had to make a choice when it came to having my cat(s) consume a cat food which had tomato pomace or carrageean in it, I'd pick the the food which "didn't" have carrageean since carraggean is suspected of giving cats tumors.

 

[mewlittle]

I don't think tomatoes and tomato pomace are one and the same thing.

Tomato pomace is an inexpensive by-product of tomato manufacturing. Effectively, it is what is left over after processing tomatoes for juice, ketchup, soup, etc. It is sometimes used in pet and livestock food manufacturing as a source of dietary fiber, as well as B vitamins, Lycopene and (to a lesser extent) vitamin A. The primary component of tomato pomace is the tomato skin.

As an analogy, I'll give you an example with me being the subject.

I can eat peanuts whether they're raw or cooked. Peanuts which are unsalted, salted, honey roasted, give me no problems. It doesn't matter if the peanuts are in the husk, plain (no skin) or spanish (with skin). Again no problems. But, I'm allergic to peanut butter. It doesn't matter if the peanut butter is Peter Pan, Jif, Skippy or a specific store brand. If I eat peanut butter, within one or two minutes of time, I'm in distress health wise so I avoid peanut butter. My unscientific conclusion concerning myself, it's my genetic make up with regards to the ingredients and/or the percentage of ingredients which make up peanut butter.

So, I don't think pet food manufacturers are intentionally putting entire raw or cooked tomatoes into their cat food dry kibble. Only the tomato pomace (skin) for a source of fiber. Also, I haven't seen any percentage of tomato pomace which makes up their cat recipes when tomatoe pomace is listed an an ingredient. In other words, it could be 1.00%, 0.10% or 0.01% so there is really no way to know what the actual percentage is and how this percentage might affect a cat.

We've also had two cats. They've eaten commercial cat food which had tomato pomace in it. Our first cat, a lynx point siamese, lived 19 years, 6 months and 6 days before we had to put her to sleep because of the severe pain of arthritis. She wouldn't eat or drink anymore. Our other cat, a manx, he just had his 16th birthday on June 13th.

I'm not trying to cause a ruckus, but genetics in cats is just like genetics in humans when it comes to certain things in their diet. If I had to make a choice when it came to having my cat(s) consume a cat food which had tomato pomace or carrageean in it, I'd pick the the food which "didn't" have carrageean since carraggean is suspected of giving cats tumors.

What brands that don't have carrageenan in it?

And I prefer to avoid certain ingredients I'm not saying tomatoes shorten lives in cats but some of my cats seem to have a problem with brands with tomatoes in it etc so I just try to avoid it

 

[night wing]

Wet can cat food, some companies put carrageenan in them. As an example off the top of my head, Blue Buffalo has a line of wet can cat food and some recipes have carrageenan in them while some others of their's don't.

Their wet (can) Healthy Gourmet line has caraageenan in it while their wet (can) Feline Feast line does not contain carrageenan in it. As to what percentage of carrageenan is in Healthy Gourmet, I can't find that out since the percentage isn't listed.

Tomato pomace in dry cat food kibble. Nature's Variety's Instinct does not use tomato pomace in their line, but Young Again does put tomato pomace in their line. When speaking of kibble, both Nature's Variety Instinct and Young Again are considered very good cat kibble.

Just "food for thought".
 

 

[lizzieb]

I am gradually changing my Louie's dry/wet food from Kitten Life Stages Performatrin to  Merrick Purfect Bistro Grain Free Healthy Kitten? Love to hear some advise on my choice of food?? Not 100% sure if this was a good food brand or is there something else out there better for my little man??