MORE pet food recalls: Natural Balance (4/17/07)

[AZBlue]

From itchmo:

BREAKING NEWS: Natural Balance Recall Expands to Canned Food and Treats
April 17th, 2007

Itchmo has confirmed with Natural Balance that their recall has expanded and now covers the following items for all dates:

* Venison and Brown Rice Treats for Dogs (New today)
* Venison and Brown Rice Canned Formula for Dogs (New today)
* Venison and Brown Rice Dry Food for Dogs (Reported Sunday)
* Venison and Green Pea Dry Food for Cats (Reported Sunday)

The problem stems from melamine found in the rice gluten used by Natural Balance. The ingredient was produced by a US vendor, according to Natural Balance.

More at:
http://www.itchmo.com/read/natural-balance-recall-expands-to-canned-food-and-treats_20070417

Please keep this floating on the first page if you can so everyone can see this. Thanks! :hi:

[Madspirit]

1. Kick...n/t

[demnan]

2. K&R

Goddamnit! I can't even enjoy watching my cats eat now because I'm so afraid of what I'm feeding them. I've ordered some books on the internet and I'm going to cook their food from now one.

[peacebird]

3. k&r

[MADem]

4. Christ, what a pain in the ass. I guess it's people food and vitamins henceforth. NT

[Raine]

5. No more pet food

ever again for any of my beloved little companions.

[in_cog_ni_to]

6. Here are the ingredients. There's no wheat gluten in it! This is a rice protein concentrate.

enison, Brown Rice, Ground Rice, Rice Bran, Venison Meal, Rice Protein Concentrate, Peas, Canola Oil, Tomato Pomace, Flaxseed, Natural Flavor, Potassium Chloride, Choline Chloride, Methionine, Inulin, Taurine, Natural Tocopherols, Vitamin E Supplement, Iron Proteinate, Zinc Proteinate, Copper Proteinate, Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, Potassium Iodide, Thiamine Mononitrate (Vitamin B-1), Manganese Proteinate, Manganous Oxide, Ascorbic Acid, Vitamin A Supplement, Biotin, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Manganese Sulfate, Sodium Selenite, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B-6), Vitamin B-12 Supplement, Riboflavin (Vitamin B-2), Vitamin D Supplement, Folic Acid (Vitamin B).


From the Natural Balance web site recall update:

The source of the melamine appears to be a rice protein concentrate, which was recently added to the dry venison formulas. Natural Balance does not use wheat gluten, which was associated with the previous melamine contamination.

None of Natural Balance’s other dry formulas, none of our other canned or roll products and none of our other treats are involved with this voluntary recall.

http://www.naturalbalanceinc.com/press_release.html

[Deb]

7. k&r

Thanks for posting this.

[Holly_Hobby]

8. Am I reading this correctly?

"The ingredient was produced by a US vendor"......we grow rice here? Or was the rice imported and just processed here?

[catchnrelease]

13. Not sure

if the rice in question was produced here or not. But California is one of the biggest rice producers in the world!

I've been feeding my cat and dog this brand and thinking we were safe, now am fishing thru the garbage looking for store receipts to see which variety of the dry dog food I got last time. (I dump the bag into a plastic bin when we open a new bag.) I have one can of the venison/rice dog food left, and I know I bought more than one. Now I'll be a wreck watching him for symptoms. At least the cat food is not the "bad" variety. So much for spending the extra money to get the good stuff!:mad:

[Holly_Hobby]

18. I had no idea CA grew rice

Learn something new every day!

If there's one positive aspect of this mess, it's that pet owners have woken up to the fact that the pet food companies have been deceiving them all along. I hope your pets will be ok. :hug:

[kestrel91316]

9. People REALLY need to stay away from ALL pet foods containing

wheat gluten for now. SERIOUSLY.

I have no idea why the hell this information is so slow coming out. They have known about the bad batch of gluten for two weeks or more.

On edit - I see this is about melamine in RICE PROTEIN CONCENTRATE. Gee, i wonder if we get THAT from China, too???

According to AVMA, this may not have anything to do with the menu Foods issue.......
http://avma.org/aa/breaking_news_070417.asp

[cmf]

10. Thanks for posting

This is the food my cat eats. Looks like a trip to the vet is in order since she has vomited a couple times recently. (Trying really hard not to freak out right now.) :scared:

[cascadiance]

14. This sucks now! I don't know what food to give my cat at the moment!

Earlier this week she was vomitting as much as four times a day. She's going through a phase where her hyperthyroidism is increasing, and either:

a) the drugs I give her for it need to be increased to keep her from vomitting, etc.

or

b) since I just switched from IAMS dry cat food that just ran out to newer brands, she started vomiting more, and I wondered if it was the newer cat food that was contaminated as opposed to her health condition that was causing her to vomit. I was worried that Trader Joes, where I bought the dry food from was repackaging the dry food from Menu foods as well as their wet foods too, and that this wasn't being pulled off the shelves.

My vet is now suggesting that I give her radioactive iodine treatment to correct her hyperactive thyroid condition for good so she doesn't have to take pills after doing some blood tests, etc. showing that her thyroid condition is out of whack now. Of course any time someone says I should "radiate" my cat, I get skeptical, but this treatment sounds like it gives good results, and then I'll hopefully not have to deal with the thorny question above in the future if she stops vomitting and doesn't need treatment.

I really wish this shit wasn't happening now, so I could feel a lot more confident about deciding on whether or not to give her this treatment or not!

[Beaverhausen]

11. AARRGGHH!! I feed my cats this brand, but not this variety

They really like this food and I don't want to try and switch right now- I'm going away this weekend.

But my girls seem to be Ok so I'm sticking with this brand for now...just not this flavor.

[AZBlue]

12. Kick for the evening crowd.

Thanks for all the earlier kicks!

[highplainsdem]

15. The rice protein concentrate was from China, according to USA Today.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/2007-04-17-premium-pet-food-recalled_N.htm

And it was sold to four other pet-food makers which are not being named by the CEO of the company that imported it.

[StarryNite]

16. Those sons of bitches..

no pun intended but damn that makes me mad when they have the information and won't pass it on just so sales won't drop. I wouldn't trust any commercial food at this time.

[tbyg52]

19. We should not be importing food of any sort from China

Our regulatory agencies may be pitiful at the moment, but at least they are *something*

[highplainsdem]

17. Kick