We live in a global ecomony. What that means for pet food is that ALL pet food manufacturers are buying some ingredients from inexpensive overseas suppliers. And, just about EVERY CAT FOOD manufacturer has had at least ONE recall in the last 5 years. That is a scary fact when you think about it. They have left out essential vitamins, they have added mineral at 10 times the recommended level, they have used ingredients that were laced with toxic ingredients. The most recent recall involved Salmonella contaminated meat.
How can we protect our pets? What can we feed that is safe? I am now recommending to my clients to chose at least 3 or more reputable pet food companies (that are not owned by the same parent company) and rotating foods. Specifically feed a different canned food every day if possible. Rotate from one SMALL bag of dry food to another brand. Consider rotating in a home made diet, or balanced raw diet. Just rotating flavors from the same company is not enough. Most of the recalls have included a large percentage of foods from the same company. For example, the last wellness cat food recall, ALL their canned cat food was lacking essential B vitamins except their 2 flavors of Wellness Core.
What does rotation do? It reduces the likelihood that you will be feeding an unsafe food over an extended period of time. The key is ROTATION and VARIETY. More on home made diets and raw alternative diets next time.
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Dr. Maureen Flatley
Fox Valley Cat Clinic
I have been told numerous times that it was bad to switch foods because the digestive system doesn't like the constant switch?
ReplyDeleteGreat question, Amber!
ReplyDeleteSome animals can have a difficult time switching foods if the diets are dissimilar. This is quite common in dogs, less common in cats. If your cat does have a sensitive system, chosing diets that have similar ingredients would decrease the risk of problems. Also, using a probiotic daily during a food change is a great help in preventing problems. In all food changes, so as slowly as necessary for your individual cat. Also remember that ALL food companies change their recipes on a regular basis without changing the label -so your cat may be more used to food changes than you realize!
I ill definitely have to look into this. I feed my boys (who are FIV+) a sensitive stomach food that doesn't have corn or wheat, and the meat is turkey to try to avoid the common reactions to chicken/beef/etc. One of them also gets an antacid daily because he throws up a lot (went from 4-5 times/week down to one). The only problem I've been finding is that many foods have corn/wheat even if the bag says just rice. I've only been able to find 2 brands (Petsmart) that are strictly no corn/wheat which are Authority and Purina One Beyond.
ReplyDeleteAny ideas?
Thanks!
I assume you are talking about dry food? If so, consider a grain free dry -like Nature's Variety's "Instinct" -and there are others companies that make grain-free as well. This IS a big change from a diet with higher carbohydrates, so I would recommend using a probiotic like FortiFlora daily with the new food. A gradual food change over 14 days would be best -everyday adding a bit more of the new and less of the old. Also consider feeding canned food only , as often the "sensitivity" is due to the dry food.
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