Merrick

I really like the ingredients in the lamb canned Merrick.  My dog loves it.  I'm confused by the last post.  Are you saying Merrick uses by products?  The last thing I want to do is feed Jake anything with by products in it. 
 
I know Nutro isn't a top quality food, but it's not horrible either.  What do you think of the Nutro canned lamb.  I'm giving him the Nutro kibble lamb.  It's either Merrick lamb or Nutro lamb.  Which would you use?

ORIGINAL: Shelley75

I really like the ingredients in the lamb canned Merrick.  My dog loves it.  I'm confused by the last post.  Are you saying Merrick uses by products?  The last thing I want to do is feed Jake anything with by products in it. 

Wait, are you saying you're more concerned with by-products than the possiblity of shipping staples or other dangerous objects in his food? This company has had major problems with foreign objects being in their food on multiple occasions. I just don't understand why anyone would risk it. [&:]

My sister found a small ball of what looked like aluminum foil in Natural Balance canned duck and potatoe last week.  She called the company and they sent her a free case of food.  They didn't say they were going to look into the problem or anything, just sent her a free case.  I think it can happen with any food.  There was something on the news recently that a razor (or razor blade) was found in someone's breakfast sandwhich at McDonald's. 

The only company that I've heard of this sort of thing happening multiple times is Merrick. They definitely have quality control issues...

I purchased a couple of cases of Evanger's, last year, and had a problem with foreign FOOD (not scary stuff, just different FOOD, nothing dangerous to a healthy dog) in the cans.

Stuff happens. It really does. When it's repeatedly happening, and it's dangerous OBJECTS (not food, but hunks of metal and plastic that could potentially seriously injure a pet) that are found, it's a problem, IMO.

ORIGINAL: Misskiwi67

Is there more than one plant making Merricks? Is it possible that one plant has issues, and the plant distributing to Jojo does not? I know Merricks outsources their production, so it would make sense for them to have more than one plant making their food. The highest cost of producing food is actually the shipping.

They have one plant that makes the treats and one plant that makes the food.  Both are in Texas. 

I'm not denying anything.  I'm not saying you didn't find a construction staple in your can of food Willow, but I am saying that every food company has had their problems, Eagle Pack, Diamond, Eukanuba, Nutro, and now Canidae.  Why isn't anyone ripping on Natural Balance - you know they pay Diamond's plants to make their food.  And we all know what happened with Diamond.  Oh, but we forgave them, haven't we. 

There are lots and lots of people that feed Merrick that have never had a problem, including myself.  If someone wants to feed a good quality that you had a problem with, warn them that you've had a problem, but don't tell them it's a bad food.

Joey had constipation problems with Canidae and Innova.  I'm not going around telling people they're bad foods because I've had a problem with them.

And honestly, I don't believe that a nail was found in that bag of treats.  Does anyone have proof that that poster wasn't just trying to get attention and put the nail in herself.  Oh, but that couldn't be a possibility, nooooo. 

But we tell people all the time on this forum that they didn't try the food long enough when their dog has digestive problems on Innova.  Or that they didn't give "homecooking" or "raw" enough time.  Those people are wrong. 

Hold on, I never said it was a bad food as far as ingredients.  BUT, considering what I've found and what I've read others have found, no I don't think it's worth the risk.  I would hardly compare constipation issues to finding an object that could potentially kill a dog if eaten.  And, just for the record I've had many bowel issues and things like that with foods over the years and never took issue with the company. 
 
And, I do believe he/she found a nail, I found a metal object  why would I doubt someone else?? 
 
All I can say is, if you feed especially the cans where stuff can hide to please check it before you feed it to Jojo. I wouldn't want him to ingest something.  Just because you haven't had a problem doesn't mean you won't.  I used it for some time before I saw anything. 
 
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Personally, I now check all canned foods carefully before feeding. Reading threads like this one has made me aware of all the potentially dangerous objects that can end up in food. I would notice a foreign object in kibble, but it might "hide" in wet food.

I don't dump and feed, I pick through. The fact that something foreign might be in food that's commercially prepared, is a risk we ALL take when we feed commercial. No one is perfect.

There's only three readily available canned foods Ben can eat and Merrick makes several flavors. That is huge when we travel, which happens a lot. The Wingaling and Thigh dinners are terrific to transition rescues to whole foods when I'm too busy to crock pot recipes myself (like now, with the whole kitchen taken over by lambing stuff). I just turn it out and turn it over a few times with the fork - I'm mixing in supplements, tripe, and kibble anyway.

I almost fed a spoiled batch of Innova to my dogs - it was an invisible problem, or nearly so - someone with very good smell caught it and called my distributor, who was a good friend, and she called me before I fed it out. Innova replaced everything with sincere apologies and an explanation that the food had simply left with insufficient preservatives. A dog actually got sick from that but it doesn't stop me from using EVO today. Stuff happens.

I don't know about all that with the meat processing and whatever. I'm setting up a way to get cull livestock directly from the farms and offer it to raw feeders locally. Seems like a good way to make sure good meat doesn't go to waste. I see nothing malevelent in the comment quoted, nor in the association of the two businesses - heck, that's how dog food got started, as a by product of the "knacker"'s business. And that was darn good food too. It's when the cereal companies got involved that dog food went into the toilet nutritionally. [sm=banghead002.gif]

There is a difference between a dog not doing well on a food and a dog ingesting a shipping staple or a chunk of plastic.  If your dog doesn't do well on Innova, yes, it makes it a bad choice for that particular dog.  If foreign objects repeatedly show up in a food, I question the QC of the company and steer clear of that line of food.  Yes, other companies have had problems, but they are isolated incidents and corrected quickly.
 
When Lori was asking about a food that has a great reputation and is on the WDJ list of recommended foods, I told her what I know about the town that the company is located in.  As it turns out the food isn't produced in Midland Michigan, but, Midland is basically a toxic waste dump and I'd not trust a danged thing that is grown around there  Good old Dow Chemical has dumped tons of crap into the air and the water and soil, including dioxins into the drinking water, and based on that, my knee jerk reaction was to warn her about the location.  She then did further research and discovered that the factory is elsewhere......but, based on what I know about that town, no matter how great the food is, I wouldn't risk feeding it if it were being produced there.....
 
There are some risks that I consider unacceptable.  And too, I flat out don't have time to dig through every can of food I happen to feed.

ORIGINAL: glenmar

There is a difference between a dog not doing well on a food and a dog ingesting a shipping staple or a chunk of plastic.  If your dog doesn't do well on Innova, yes, it makes it a bad choice for that particular dog.  If foreign objects repeatedly show up in a food, I question the QC of the company and steer clear of that line of food.  Yes, other companies have had problems, but they are isolated incidents and corrected quickly.

When Lori was asking about a food that has a great reputation and is on the WDJ list of recommended foods, I told her what I know about the town that the company is located in.  As it turns out the food isn't produced in Midland Michigan, but, Midland is basically a toxic waste dump and I'd not trust a danged thing that is grown around there  Good old Dow Chemical has dumped tons of crap into the air and the water and soil, including dioxins into the drinking water, and based on that, my knee jerk reaction was to warn her about the location.  She then did further research and discovered that the factory is elsewhere......but, based on what I know about that town, no matter how great the food is, I wouldn't risk feeding it if it were being produced there.....

There are some risks that I consider unacceptable.  And too, I flat out don't have time to dig through every can of food I happen to feed.

Repeatedly?  Willowchow is the only person I have heard say that there was anything found in Merrick food-dry or canned.  Again I have 20 plus clients that carry Merrick food and our company has close to 500.  Not a one of them has said that they have found wierd items in their food.  Seriously, how do you know that poster with the nail in her training treats hadn't read Willow's other posts and decided to make a big fuss.

Someone just posted that they found a wierd object in a Natural Balance can.  Oh noooo, better stop feeding Natural Balance.  Oh yah that's right, we only hold that punishment to Merrick, Duh.

So, there are nails in their products, but that poster must be lying?

ORIGINAL: jojo the pogo

We distribute the 2 largest "body part" dog treat companies, Redbarn and Merrick.  Both have had nails found in their body part products... Again, just about every "body part" treat company has had a few foriegn products in their treats.

ORIGINAL: jojo the pogo

And honestly, I don't believe that a nail was found in that bag of treats.

Repeatedly?  Willowchow is the only person I have heard say that there was anything found in Merrick food-dry or canned.  Again I have 20 plus clients that carry Merrick food and our company has close to 500.  Not a one of them has said that they have found wierd items in their food.  Seriously, how do you know that poster with the nail in her training treats hadn't read Willow's other posts and decided to make a big fuss. Someone just posted that they found a wierd object in a Natural Balance can.  Oh noooo, better stop feeding Natural Balance.  Oh yah that's right, we only hold that punishment to Merrick, Duh.

I agree with you jojo, is there actually any evidence that this is true and not just internet paranoia like all those beneful warnings that came out a couple weeks ago that were bogus? I mean with human stuff, it almost always is a hoax when things are found in food packaging. Was there an investigation? And why the neck would there be rusty nails and staples in the bagging area of a plant? Are they stapeling their list of future hoaxes together while they work?

It could be true, but doesn't seem likely. Does anyone have any real evidence, like mainstream media stories with actual evidence of plant inspection, etc.? (not some looney's web page or blog)

I do know things can get into cans, bottles, packages.  When i was pregnant and sick 24/7  we were drinking pepsi from a 2 liter bottle.  i had just poured my 2ed glass and taken  sip, and there in my glass was a big fat worm that looked like a big ole cutworm.  i gagged and threw up, threw up some more and drink coke today!
 
Anway, hubby took the glass and the bottle of coke back to the grocery store, we got a call from pepsi reps and they brought out 4  of the 2liter bottles of pepsi, which hubby poured out after the guy left.
 
Not long ago our local chain of grocery stores had a recall on their brand of babyfood (H.E.B.) because of glass found in jars in houston, Corpus, and i forget which other town.  AND the reports all seem to hit at once, not like someone read about it and suddenly found glass in their baby food.  how it got there, nobody knows.  Never did see a follow up on it. 
 
However, i do think a lot of reports are bogus, just people trying to colledt a few bucks from manufacture.  problems is, how do you know for sure which are bogus and which are true?

ORIGINAL: Shelley75

I didn't know that about Merrick.  I thought it was a good quality food.  I'm currently feeding natural balance duck and potato canned, but I'm having second thoughts about it. 

NB is a far better food than Merrick.