Nutro Cat Food Recall
Certain varieties of Nutro dry cat food have been voluntarily recalled because of incorrect mineral levels that could make kitties sick. Return Nutro Natural Choice Complete Care and Nutro Max foods with expiration dates between May 12, 2010 and August 22, 2010 were affected.
The problematic food was all manufactured in the United States, but distributed all over the world. From the recall site:
Consumers who have purchased affected product should immediately discontinue feeding the product to their cats, and switch to another product with a balanced nutritional profile. While we have received no consumer complaints related to this issue, cat owners should monitor their cat for symptoms, including a reduction in appetite or refusal of food, weight loss, vomiting or diarrhea. If your cat is experiencing health issues or is pregnant, please contact your veterinarian.Consumers who have purchased product affected by this voluntary recall should return it to their retailer for a full refund or exchange for another NUTRO® dry cat food product. Cat owners who have more questions about the recall should call 1-800-833-5330 between the hours 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM CST.
Nutro Products Announces Voluntary Recall of Limited Range of Dry Cat Food Products [Recall Site]
(Photo: dcoetzee)
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Comments:
@TCama: Innova EVO. Best cat food on the market in my opinion. Grain-free, high protein, and my (picky) cats love it.
@serreca: Why does that food have "whole, raw fruits and vegetables that contain health promoting phytochemicals and micronutrients" in it? If I'm not mistaken cats are strictly carnivorous and don't need fruits and veggies to get nutrients (they all come from the meat they eat), and its also upsetting to their digestive system.
@Nate128: Well, I don't have the money or time to feed a raw diet, which would be ideal, but the EVO is the best commercial cat food I've found on the market.
My cats are healthy, shiny, energetic, and playful, and love the food.
For 2-3 months, I have been fighting some kind of skin disease on my 2 cats. At first, the vets thought it was ringworm... but when it kept getting worse (one of my cats seems to be chewing holes in herself) they started looking for other things. We have ruled out mites, fleas, feline Leukemia, FIV, the list goes on and on. I paid to have a skin biopsy done on one of my cats about a week ago and should have results in a few days. The vet says this should rule out a number of other things and may show if it is some kind of "food allergy."
I feed my cats MaxCat... and while I'm not exactly happy about the recall, I'm yelling "Eukreka" right now because we might finally be able to figure out what caused the problem in the first place.
I've already contacted Nutro about my problem to see if they've heard of any similar cases. I'll update when I hear back from them.
@Nate128: you are mistaken. Cats are more carnivorous omnivores. They primarily eat meat, but have domesticated to the point where they do need some vegetable matter in their system.
Thats why you have to be VERY careful what plants you have in your house as they will eat them if they feel like it.
@Jim Topoleski: This is true. I have seen many cats eat grass.
Liked I said, I did tons of research when we first adopted our cats, on the best foods, and EVO came out on top in my opinion. It is more expensive than, say, Purina, but well worth it to me.
We also feed EVO Light to our dog.
@arukian:
Switch to a food that doesn't have corn in it. Nutro Max typically has wheat of some sort which is a common food allergen. Nutro Natural Choice is their higher end line and will use rice instead of wheat or corn. Much better for their skin. Vets tend to look internally first for skin issues instead of food related solutions, in my experience (in the industry) a change in diet clears up a vast majority of the skin issues. When you favorite tool is a hammer all problems look like nails...
@serreca: Thanks. I have been looking for an alternative food for my cat - she eats Purina and it upsets her stomach. I am going to give this a try.
Would you happen to know if I have to ease her onto new food or can I just switch it up one day?
@t0ph: I'm not a vet or anything, but I love to read stuff about cats, and it seems like most experts recommend slowly mixing in the new food with the old. Like, for a week do 25% new food, 75% old, then the following week 50/50, and so forth.
With my cats, we did an immediate switch, though, and it didn't seem to adversely affect them. I hope yours will like the EVO.
As a side note, we actually mix the EVO with Innova Light Adult food, because one of our cats is on the portly side.
@serreca: It does depend on the cat. My female maine coon will actually get constipation from food switches, while my males (one a maine coon as well the other just a stray) have no problems with switches, and are not picky eaters in general.
Same with litter though, switching suddenly can be bad, and can result in a nice little present to step in and smell.
@serreca: @Jim Topoleski: The reason cats eat grass (or attempt to eat houseplants) is because it triggers a regurgitation process that is used to remove obstructions such as hairballs from their system. Cats do not have any enzymes in their system to break down plant matter, and when fed a diet that includes plants it will either pass through the digestive system without being absorbed or will cause complications.
Our cats started randomly puking a month or so ago. We had no idea what it was, I just checked our bag and the expiration date is May 11 2010. This could explain what has been happening with them.
I would recommend checking out Dr. Fox, who runs a syndicated column "Animal Doctor" at the Washington Post:
[www.washingtonpost.com]
he's got a lot to say about pet nutrition affecting animals' overall health, and advocates a cheap, homemade holistic recipe for cat and dog food at:
[www.twobitdog.com]
Wow, you didn't even need an excuse to post cats this time. Haha
@Nate128: Here's a common pet food myth. Cats are not "strictly" carnivorous in the sense that they ONLY eat meat. They are carnivorous in the sense that they MUST have meat in their diet. They need it because they cannot synthesize Taurine from non meat sources. However, cats DO eat plants in the wild. It helps with digestion.
Remember.... Pet food marketing reps are trying to sell you THEIR food, and will tell you whatever it takes to buy ONLY THEIR FOOD. A marketing rep or a website run by people with no credentials is NOT an appropriate source of information.
@t0ph: Always a good idea to ease into a new food. My cat has an iron stomach, but many don't. At a minimum, you want to do it over a week. At least 2 days of 25% new food, 2 days of 50% new food, 2 days of 75% new food. Slower than that is OK.
@Nate128: Not true. Cats can and do digest plant matter. I'd be interested in seeing your source for this information. I'll bet anything it isn't from any actual scientific veterinary research, but from a marketing rep.
@Glenn Gulley: However, corn is rarely an allergen. This is a common baseless allegation. Stats on corn digestibility and the rarity of it as an allergen are available in the Hand/Novotny Pocket Guide to Small Animal Clinical Nutrition. but hey... what do those vets know, anyway.
Check out the blood red eyes on the kitty second from the left. Gotta love redeye from the camera.
@sinfonian94: A better explanation would be that the camera is seeing infrared emissions from a demonic entity, since only one cat has red eyes
@Jim Topoleski: I have three cats and my youngest cat will eat any living thing I keep in the house.... potted plants, fresh flowers, my daughters gold fish..... he even got the hamster out of the cage once but I saved him....
@sinfonian94: I read that they ate it because they like it but it doesn't digest properly so they throw it up
Shit, there goes the one food my cat loves. I've bought him all the best organic and natural foods but he loves his junk food, and occasionally the dogs (I've talked to the vet about it, as long as it's not the sole source of food he'll be ok)
@missy070203: yep our stray boy will eat plastic bags if I dont hide them fast enough after coming home. And he LOVES bread... he can go through a hotdog bun bag and eat a whole bun like its no ones business.
But flowers are his favorite after wet food.
@sinfonian94: My dog had terrible skin problems and is now off all wheat and corn as much as possible. Skin trouble has mostly cleared up. Go figure.
Cats are obligate carnivores. They do not need plant matter in their diet. Just because they do eat something, doesn't mean it's good for them. And this information is not coming from pet food manufacturers, but rather from the veterinarians that I work with at a cat-only practice.
@Nate128: Yes, their strictly carnivorous, in that in the wild they only eat what they hunt.
However, just as all carnivores, there are nutrients they need from vegetable matter. In the wild, carnivores eat the stomach contents of their prey (usually herbivores) as well, getting those nutrients. Big cats can't digest grass, for example, but they can digest the partially-digested vegetation inside the antelope.
So our domestic kitties need the same nutrients, but with bagged food they don't get the whole "experience." They need some veggies, but the veggies have to be pulverized/processed a bit to be accessible for their systems.
@Laura Northrup: My parents' beagly mutt had ridiculous skin problems (i.e. no fur over 50% of her body, scabs everywhere, crustiness, constant itching--she was painful to look at). My parents were at wits end. They had been to doggie allergists, were giving shots (until Miss Bingo bit my mom during an injection session--that marked the end of the allergy shots, which had never been terribly effective).
After having tried many, many things (including a dog food switch to Eukanuba), they, on the advice of my mom's coworker, switched to Nutro Natural (the "middle" tier of Nutro food). It worked like a charm--she went from being this sad pile of icky dog that no one wanted to touch to a happy, vibrant doggie who lived out the rest of her years with just the occasional (very minor) skin flare up.
A couple of years ago, I got puppies, and they were starting to chew on their feet. We switched from the Puppy Chow the pound had started them on to Nutro Natural, and they stopped chewing pretty much immediately. We try not to give them corn, but they love popcorn so much (and we are not always the neatest popcorn eaters), and I have noticed that they get a little itchy when they have more than a little bit of corn. So maybe they're not allergic, but maybe they are, and it's worth it to me to feed them corn- and wheat-free food to avoid the heartaches of Miss Bingo, who was definitely allergic to corn/grass/human dander/everything imaginable, but removing corn seemed to do the trick.
My parents' cat had disgusting intestinal issues that caused more than a few nasty out-of-litterbox events, bloody stool, the works. The vet postulated that she has celiac disease (or something similar--she is officially undiagnosed, because my mom prefers to go the "so how would we treat that" route and skip painful, expensive tests, especially when the Doc isn't trying to rule between possible diagnoses) and set her on a new diet. He prescribed cat food (I hadn't even know that there was such a thing), and tried all sorts of stuff before my parents found a raw chicken diet for the kitty. It involved, in short, grinding up a whole chicken (bones and all!), adding some extra livers and hearts (or taurine pills from GNC, because Red Bull has made chicken hearts a rare commodity--gross, huh?) and serving it. They hated the work, and ended up finding a supplement pack that they could add to ground turkey, and she loves it. Her tummy issues are resolved, and she's starting to gain weight (she is an old kitty--18 I think, and had gotten down to 6 pounds). She has pretty much 0 plant matter in her diet, except when she poaches off houseplants.
I found that one of the bags I had was within the window. Petsmart was great about it. I switched to Natural Balance (another good brand), which my cats love, and still has good content in it.
What really bothers me is the Vets that get paid to endorse Science Diet. Which doesn't have the best ingredients.
@Jim Topoleski @t0ph: my little cat used to get the runs if I even thought about switching his food too quickly. So yeah, definitely depends on the cat...
@Jim Topoleski: Mine loved chick peas and tomato paste. If I opened a can of either, I HAD to give him some or there would be hell to pay. And despite his very delicate constitution, he never barfed from either of those. Almost anything else, and often on my bed, yes. But not from the chick peas or tomato paste.
He as a strange kitteh.
@sinfonian94: From the encyclopedia of animal science:
[books.google.com]
But apparently I'm getting information from "a marketing rep?" Yes, I happen to have marketing reps in my fridge. I just pull them out, add water, and then they grow to full size and start feeding me information that I can post on a consumer blog. Good eye for that kind of thing!
@Nate128: Because in the wild when they kill and eat an animal one of the first things they consume are the soft areas - stomach and such. This includes the contents of the stomach and other digestive areas. Cats also eat grass from time to time to mimic this.
@wndbread: Vets don't get paid to endorse Science Diet. And Natural Balance is OK for adult animals, but I would NEVER feed it to kittens or puppies. Extremely low levels of fat and protein for developing animals. No large breed formulas, no lifestaging. Natural Balance looks really good... if you have no understanding of animal nutrition.
@edwardso: Have you tried Chicken Soup for the Cat lover's Soul? Some of the premium firms, like Wellness (which my cats hate) or Eagle Pack have gone through changes in ownership - sometimes more than once. And my cats never liked Blue Buffalo, even when I was a BB rep and got free bags! Go figure.
@sinfonian94: Then - I've never understood why a vet would sell such a corn/cheap grain based food - unless they were getting some sort of kickback. What's the deal?
Whew, this isn't my kitty food.
I took Pig to the vet this morning to get her shots. She's not happy with me. She gets some hairballs and I try to brush her as much as I can. The vet said she looks pretty good and has lost a little weight (last time they said she was too fat). I had switched her to a low fat food called ProPac from Meow Mix. It stopped the vomiting too.
She gets some soft food three times a week too and likes that a lot. On days when she doesn't get it, she'll look at her food, then look at me and go, "Mrraaauuuuwwww?" like "What the fracking hell?! Where's the fish stuff?? Crap!"
@morlo: But this assumes that the other two kitties are absent of demonic possession, which we all know is an epistemological impossibility.
@Nate128: If you had actually read what you posted, you would have realized the VERY first paragraph disputed your claims that they where strict carnivores by pointing out that while their ancestors where, domesticated cats have evolved away from that somewhat (which is what I stated at the very beginning)
@Emily Burt: That idea has been disputed by environmental scientists for ages now. Wild cats don't need it, but domesticated cats have at this point after centuries of domestication (in fact cats are at this point more domesticated than dogs) become dependent on a certain amount of vegetation in their diet.
I am sorry but your friends are wrong, as most veterinarians tend to be. Just because they study pet medicine does in no way mean they know pet dietary concerns. In fact you will find often they have no clue sadly and give people wrong information.
@Jim Topoleski: I did read what I posted, thanks. Please tell me where it states that they "evolved away from that somewhat" as you say?
Just in case anyone is in the same boat as me ...
If you don't have the bag anymore, but still have food, the store might still give you your money back if you have a receipt as well. I did this with PetSmart and got a refund for the full price of the food.
My cat on the other hand doesn't quite like Blue Buffalo ... yet ...