A few details on the recall

I just wanted to give a hand to Safeway foods. I just read an article that not only did they pull the recalled foods from their shelves the day before the recall list was announced  but they voluntarily recalled some of their own product also. After reading the stories about Walmart being so irresponsible during this crisis, I was thrilled to read this article about Safeway. I'm not even near a Safeway, but if I was, I'd shop there for 'people' food.

[linkhttp://biz.yahoo.com/bw/070316/20070316005830.html]http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/070316/20070316005830.html[/link]

What I also find sad is that these are all foods purchased by pet owners who also wish to save a buck...

 
There was a point in time when I fed my dogs crap foods...because I didn't know better. The SECOND I realized what I was doing, I stopped. I tried raw for a while, and then looked into premium foods upon finding out my senior bulldog was sensitive to raw chicken. I fed Canidae for a while. Didn't care for how my dogs did on it. Then I switched to Blue. I was happy with Blue....until I ended up with 5 dogs. Until October, I had two dogs. I had been planning on adopting a 3rd for a while, and I did. Food cost was no issue for me with 3 dogs, it was well within my budget. Then in December, I saved (purchased, rescued, whatever you want to call it) a sick puppy from a flea market to save it from a cruelty situation...most people here know the story. That was completely unplanned, and a big, ravenous puppy DID put a bit of a strain on my finances...but things were still do-able. I continued to feed Blue. THEN a few weeks ago, I ended up with my mother's sick, abused senior dog....and that put me over the edge.
 
Sorry, but not everyone CAN afford to feed super premium foods. I am not ashamed to admit that I am dirt poor. I'm a 19 year old newlywed with too many health problems to hold a real job, and my military husband doesn't make a ton of money. We try like heck. We pay the bills, and then every. other. penny. that we have goes into feeding and caring for our pets. I have not purchased a single thing for myself in god knows how long...I spend the money on my pets. I wear clothes that I've had since high school, drive an old beat up car, and eat ramen so that my pets can have the best I can afford to give them. Cutting corners and "saving a buck" are not issues for me because I'm cheap...they're issues because I'm poor.
 
I went from feeding Blue to feeding Maxximum Nutrition. No, I don't pretend that Maxximum's ingredients are nearly as good as the premium brands. But it isn't terrible, and I'm not feeding my dog crap. It's a decent, affordable food for someone with multiple dogs on a budget. I can either pay $40 for 30 pounds of Blue...or $26 for two 20 pound bags of Maxximum. That's a HUGE difference....and to be honest, my dogs do BETTER on Maxximum than they did on Blue. All of them. And that's pretty amazing, considering how sensitive my dogs can be to some foods. I still feed Blue or Three Dog Bakery for canned/wet food, still buy Pet Botanics Meat Rolls, and still supplement with raw/home cooked meals. But aying almost half as much for kibble is a BIG deal for me...it frees up alot of cash to be spent on OTHER things...supplements, meds, toys, and most importantly, replenishing my incredibly depleted vet fund.
 
So, as others have said, the value judgements you're passing over what people feed are ridiculous. Not everyone who feeds cheaper foods is an evil person who doesn't care about their dogs. And I'm sure of you asked the 4 out of my 5 dogs who are rescues...they'd tell you they'd much rather eat a slightly cheaper food to continue living in a decent, caring home with people who would do absolutely anything for them.
 

 
 If it becomes any more likely that dry food is affected, I'll be cooking all her food for a while.

 
Ugh, I might start doing that too. I think I might replace all of the canned I feed with home cooked for a while. [&o]

I've definitely started feeding my cat crock pot food! Fortunately I've got some cat supplements and extra taurine left over from when I was doign this before. He is not amused. He wants his kitty crack. Fortunately he also hunts so he won't be starving to death, but I hope he doesn't range from home too far looking for someone else to give him kitty crack, which has happened before. []

For Ben I've just switched to EVO RM and just use the tripe, fish, and beaver.

So, as others have said, the value judgements you're passing over what people feed are ridiculous. Not everyone who feeds cheaper foods is an evil person who doesn't care about their dogs.

 
And sometimes dogs just plain out do better on "lesser food".  Mine do.  I suspect that I actually spend a lot more on food with buying the bags of Purina one that i feed mine, and the home cooking i do for them than if i went striclty  super premium or probably even premium.  Mine get what they because  it works for them, not because i am cheap or trying to save a buck or don't know anything about nutrition and last but not least, i am not influenced in any form or fashion by TV or magazine ads.
 
This whole thing about food recall is down right scarey.  We don't know if we are being told the entire story or not....i hvae had anough expericnece with that in the past. ....e en tho a product is KNOWN to be a killer the company tries to down play it.

Regarding Nutro or any kibble, please phone or email FDA to find out more info. I read this message this morning

 
  I sent them an e-mail yesterday evening. All they did was send this link;   
Please go to [link>http://www.fda.gov/cvm/default.html]http://www.fda.gov/cvm/default.html[/link].   The page has information about a public meeting in Rockville Maryland on April 10th to discuss CVM's National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System. It also has links to the recalled pet food, so it wasn't really helpful at all.

Whoa -

http://www.petconnection.com/blog/2007/03/22/pet-food-recall-the-latest-numbers/

Ratsicles, I commend you for going above and beyond. That is a LOT of responsibility. I never said you were evil or that you didn't care for your dogs, or for anybody's dogs for that matter. Many people have taken this way too personally instead of thinking perhaps we are all on the edge, as someone else stated.
 
Are you trying to adopt any out? It sounds like more than anything you could use a little help as well.
 
I remember in between my freshman and sophomore year of college, I was painting houses to save money for the next school year. I was living on campus in a student apartment. They did not allow pets of any kind. Anyway, one day one of the guys I painted with ("crazy cat" we used to call him, mohawk and nipple rings, all kinds of wierd peircings), he told me about all of the cats he had. I think around 9 or 10 at the time. He kept talking about one of the cats not getting along with the rest of them and I declined his offer to help because I could not keep her in my on-campus apartment. Well, the next day at work he shows up with this scared little black cat in a cat carrier. He sets it down next to me and then walked away. He never showed up for work again. So, I really had no choice but to take her in. Of course I thought I would just help find a new home, but after the first night in my apartment, I knew I could not get rid of her. I tried as best as I could to not make it known that I had a cat. My RA lived in the same complex, though, so one day she knocks on the door and I thought, uh-oh this is it. She said, "I just want you to know that we all know you have a cat. She sits in the window and basks in the sun all day long. As long as you don't have any loud parties, you can keep her". I was thrilled. Two months later I moved off campus to my first real apartment, and adopted a 135lb purebred GSD from the local shelter. I was so poor, and I did not know any better either what to feed. Then as I got older I started to do more research (this was all before the internet existed like it is today, so there were no forums or anything) and then I realized that I should be feeding proper food. But, I could not even afford shampoo at the time. So, that statement I made about trying to save a buck comes from my own personal experience. I knew I could do better, but I couldn't at the time. Should I have not adopted these animals in the first place? No way in heck would I ever change anything. Those were some of the best years of my life.
 
Anyhow, that's my little story of AbbaNin, my little black kitty, that started it all. (Abba because she looked like she walked on her toes, like "Dancing Queen" and Nin for Nine Inch Nails, a hard-alternative band that I liked, and she had really sharp claws)!
 
Keep on keeping on.

Oh Kelly; that's horrible. And of course the numbers will keep growing.......[X(]

Those are "interesting" numbers.  I would like to know how they are verifying them.

Thanks jessies_mom for the info on calcium...anything else I should add..?

Well I don't know how to compare numbers like that to where I work,,,but I have been working this week ( at a vet clinic),,,,worrying that there will be tons of people with sick pets calling and coming in. So we have had a few tested because their owners know their cat ate the recalled foods...but only one cat is sick from our clinic so far...and we have a ton of patients.  In fact the cat that is sick has a sister that ate the same food threw up once or twice and wan't sick after that.   Now,,that said...I SURE HOPE WE DON'T GET ANY MORE SICK PETS....and I hope that if they were going to get sick that they are already,,,and not having symptoms showing up later.
Ratsicles...I give you a lot of credit for doing for your pets what you can.  I know when my kids were little we had two dogs also...had everything to feed them AND give them health care.  I bought food that was on sale,,,never even knew to not change the food because it might cause an upset.... but I cut out every coupon that went into the newspapers...and that is what my dogs ate. And guess what, the pitbull lived until about 16 yrs old and my Dane/Shepherd lived to about 12 yrs. old,,,a good age for the giant breed.
You are SO 100% right... if it comes to a good and loving home and premium food...the pets would take the good and loving home every day of the week!

Dyan, as always, my memory may be failing me, but as I recall, the Diamond recall started with just a few southern states, those in the distribution area of the affected plant.  More and more states were added and I *think* it became a national recall very shortly.  I remember sending out emails to folks I know in Ohio saying, you are probably not affected because you aren't in the distribution area, but just so you know.....

You know Glenda... I had soooo much stuff saved in my computer from that Diamond recall...that is all lost when I had to put Windows back in,,,darn. But I do know that I had first heard about December or so... I paid attention because Bubblegums breeder feeds her Danes Diamond..and I had to agree to feed it also in order to take Bubblegum.  You saw little bits of pieces about it in the newspaper and on the forums. Eventually the National News got it and it was all over all of the TV stations.     I think I remember kind of thinking that if it wasn't the Christmas holiday that it might have made it to the news a little quicker.
It was food that was produced in their Gaston S Carolina plant...and a lot of midwest states were in it, Ohio included!

Thanks jessies_mom for the info on calcium...anything else I should add..?

 
     I'm sorry, but I don't know how to repare a well-balanced homecooked diet for dogs which they can eat exclusively. Jessie gets a combination of kibble and homecooked and I prepare her cooked food according to a booklet by Monica Segal about enhancing commercial kibble. Since the cooked food isn't replacing more than a third of her daily calories I don't need to add other supplements except for the calcium.  If you start a new thread their are others more knowledgeable who can help, and Glenda has a recipe tweaked by a nutritionist she's glad to share.

jessies_mom....I am just using home cooked over kibble...Staying away from cans for a while...again thanks for the info