suspicious about wet food

weldrwomn

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Ok, So I feed Marcie a pouch of Meow Mix wet food in the morning and then some dry Brandon Farms Organic Food in the evening. With this latest brouhaha about wet food, I decided to look and see where the Meow mix wet food was made...it is made in Thailand of all places


I just don't think that I really want to feed Meow Mix wet food to her anymore. I am considering substituting human food instead like chicken or beef or ? I just don't know how to go about it or if it is a good idea.


should the food be raw or cooked? Will the dry food add enough vitamins and minerals so that I don't need to supplement the human food? Any input is good input
 

sharky

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my brain is fried but I will pm you later
 
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weldrwomn

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Ok, so I guess that I am being paranoid, but I can't even get an answer about nutrition from my vet...will someone please help me with this????
 

sharky

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No I wont say paranoid .... as I beleive we all are right now... MY VET is actually saying not to GIVE ANY CANNED food right now ... I have to give a little and other than a few fav I am being ultra selective in what they get
 

urbantigers

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I wouldn't have thought the fact that the food is made in Thailand means anything - a lot of food in Europe is produced in Thailand. I think giving up all canned food because of this food recall is unnecessary and while I can understand the panic I think we need to remember that the recall relates to a contaminated ingredient in food produced at a specific plant(s). It isn't something intrinsic to wet food. To me the benefits of wet food far outweigh any risk. Doing it yourself is fine but it's hard to get a home made diet balanced so you need to do your research first. I'm sure someone else will be able to advise you on that
 

claire1973

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Hiya

Well my vet advises against any sort of wet food, but to use dry food!

I have posted about this before and people have advised me about vet "sales pitching" for manufactures dry fod they sell.

However his lordship simply refuses to eat dry food so I do a mixture of both

I do however spoil him and buy his favourite "wet" food which is a gourmet brand and is made in the uk

Not sure if this helps or not

Claire
xxxxxxxxxxx
 

jellybella

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Originally Posted by urbantigers

I wouldn't have thought the fact that the food is made in Thailand means anything - a lot of food in Europe is produced in Thailand. I think giving up all canned food because of this food recall is unnecessary and while I can understand the panic I think we need to remember that the recall relates to a contaminated ingredient in food produced at a specific plant(s). It isn't something intrinsic to wet food. To me the benefits of wet food far outweigh any risk. Doing it yourself is fine but it's hard to get a home made diet balanced so you need to do your research first. I'm sure someone else will be able to advise you on that

I don't think you have to worry about Thailand, when I think of Thailand I think of a place that has fresh, cheap, plentiful seafood. Makes sense that you would want to make cat food there, especially something so fish heavy like the meow mix.
 

gingersmom

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My cats are both eating MM wet in the evenings and are quite healthy.

Key words: DON'T PANIC.
 

sharky

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Originally Posted by GingersMom

My cats are both eating MM wet in the evenings and are quite healthy.

Key words: DON'T PANIC.
DOnt panic ... humm I think all of us could use that
 

gingersmom

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Originally Posted by sharky

DOnt panic ... humm I think all of us could use that
I stole it from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
 

jcat

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Originally Posted by JellyBella


I don't think you have to worry about Thailand, when I think of Thailand I think of a place that has fresh, cheap, plentiful seafood. Makes sense that you would want to make cat food there, especially something so fish heavy like the meow mix.
A lot of fish-based or chicken-based cat foods are made in Thailand, including ones considered "ultra-premium".
 

yosemite

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Am I allowed to take off my mod hat for a minute and say how tired I am of this whole pet food problem, all the over-reaction, panic, etc.?

OK - rant over, mod hat back on.

I have not stopped feeding wet food to our kitties - they just don't eat any of the recalled brands. I strongly believe in wet food versus dry food.

A few months ago we had people getting sick (and I'm not sure but there may have been deaths due to immune deficient systems) on lettuce and spinach, some juices - we didn't panic as much over that as we are over the pet foods.

Nobody wants to feed something that's going to harm their cat, but I would wager a bet that a lot of foods were recalled more to err on the side of caution.
 

moggiegirl

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One thing that bothers me is that a lot of vets have come on the news urging pet owners to feed dry food instead of wet food because of this recall issue. Why don't they just say, "Avoid the recalled brands" or "Avoid canned foods containing chunks and gravy" There was one interview with a vet in which the news person asked, "What if someone's pet just doesn't like dry food?" The doctor responded by suggesting moistening dry food with chicken broth. Big mistake. Doesn't she realize that getting dry food moist creates a breeding ground for bacteria? If you check out this site by Dr Lisa Pierson www.catinfo.org you'll learn that wet food rules whether you're feeding raw meat or canned. If you're going to do homemade, raw is much better for them. It has more nutrients and cats really do need the moisture which would be depleted if you cooked the meat. If you're feeding raw as more than just an occasional meal or a treat which is 10% of your cat's diet it is very important to create a complete and balanced recipe. You can buy supplements to add to the raw meat so you can easily create a balanced and easy recipe. I have been feeding Rosie this diet from www.felineinstincts.com and she likes it. I've been using a combination of chicken which I grind in a food processor and ground turkey but it's a good idea to leave some chunks of meat if your cat will eat them for dental health. If you don't want to do the work, a high quality canned diet is good but you may want to feed something better than Meow Mix. Fish shouldn't be fed as a main diet. Just choose a canned food that is not on the recall list and you should be fine, but consider that this disaster is also a lesson to teach us that many cat foods are very poorly made so you might want to avoid the mainstream brands which are so mass produced that the quality is sacrificed. I personally, although I admit I've made a radical decision have decided to avoid companies that have had any connection at all to the recall, even though they have many "safe" non-recalled brands because my feeling is "how long can we trust these other brands? If it happened once it may happen again, perhaps next time with dry food (another reason you should never use this reason to avoid wet food). I'm going with Wellness, Foster and Smith, Innova Evo, Merrick, Organix, and the last of the Pet Gold which I hear is going out of business but they also are not on the recall list. I also feed Feline Instincts raw as about 50% of Rosie's diet. I made the batch on the weekends, freeze in snack sized zip lock bags, thaw one out a day, soak bag in a bowl of hot water to warm to room temp and then put in a bowl and sprinkle a little liver powder on it that Feline Instincts sells to increase palatablity. In the beginning you might mix it with the Meow Mix and gradually decrease it if your cat won't accept the raw diet right away. My cat Spotty on the other hand doesn't eat raw so he gets canned and Innova dry in limited quantities.
 

sharky

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Originally Posted by Yosemite

Am I allowed to take off my mod hat for a minute and say how tired I am of this whole pet food problem, all the over-reaction, panic, etc.?

OK - rant over, mod hat back on.

I have not stopped feeding wet food to our kitties - they just don't eat any of the recalled brands. I strongly believe in wet food versus dry food.

A few months ago we had people getting sick (and I'm not sure but there may have been deaths due to immune deficient systems) on lettuce and spinach, some juices - we didn't panic as much over that as we are over the pet foods.

Nobody wants to feed something that's going to harm their cat, but I would wager a bet that a lot of foods were recalled more to err on the side of caution.
VERY well done


I am not feeding canned food at all but mine dont much care for the non MENU made stuff and my vet is advicing no canned right now .... OH and I do have two with immune issues so yeah I am OVERLY CAUTIOUS....
 

gingersmom

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Originally Posted by moggiegirl

One thing that bothers me is that a lot of vets have come on the news urging pet owners to feed dry food instead of wet food because of this recall issue. Why don't they just say, "Avoid the recalled brands" or "Avoid canned foods containing chunks and gravy"
From what I've seen, vets don't ever recommend wet food unless your cat is geriatric and has no teeth or it is needed for additional water intake due to health issues.

Vets don't seem to believe in wet food, otherwise. So I'm honestly not surprised by that reaction.
 

moggiegirl

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Originally Posted by GingersMom

From what I've seen, vets don't ever recommend wet food unless your cat is geriatric and has no teeth or it is needed for additional water intake due to health issues.

Vets don't seem to believe in wet food, otherwise. So I'm honestly not surprised by that reaction.
This is why I am not going to feed my cats what the vets tell me to unless there is a medical problem requiring a prescription diet and there is no alternative. When will vets take the time to study carnivore nutrition for a change?
 

beandip

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Everyone has made some good points. I'll try to add in my 2 cents w/o getting too far off track...

The Meow Mix/Thailand issue doesn't concern me too much. I'm personally not too fond of it for daily feeding, mainly because it's a lot of fish, and secondly because it wouldn't be cost effective for me to feed 8 cats with it. It does have decent ingredients, though. I wouldn't let the Thailand thing get in the way of feeding it.

I worked very hard to transition all 8 of my cats to a completely canned / raw diet, just prior to the recall. They had me at my wits end a few times...but I just really wanted them off the dry food, so I did. I'm not feeding any of the recalled brands, however avoiding MENU foods is sort of like trying to stay dry in a rainstorm w/no umbrella. From the foods that moggiegirl mentioned, I'm fairly sure that even Wellness, Innova, and Organix are all made in a MENU plant. I'm not sure about the other 2 brands.
It worries me that 95% of canned food in the USA is all made by the same company, but I can't bear the thought of going back to dry...so I'm not.
 

sharky

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Originally Posted by moggiegirl

This is why I am not going to feed my cats what the vets tell me to unless there is a medical problem requiring a prescription diet and there is no alternative. When will vets take the time to study carnivore nutrition for a change?
Some schools now do ... but it is not likely all will every as they are learning to treat not prevent illness...
 
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