Natural Balance Pulling Venison Formulas (Pet Food Firestorm!)

Itchmo ^ | Monday April 15, 2007 | Milwaukee_Guy

[Milwaukee_Guy]

Itchmo has confirmed an email from Natural Balance that they are removing two products from sale:

Venison and Brown Rice Dry Dog Formula Venison and Green Pea Dry Dog Cat Formula

These products do not contain wheat gluten. No deaths or serious illnesses have been reported and no recall warning has been issued. The warning applies only to products sold in the last week, according to Natural Balance.

"Please know that at this time we are removing this product from the shelves, as we have had some phone calls indicating gastric upset after eating this formula. At this time, we are unsure if this could just be a particular batch problem, or simply customers switching diets too fast. However, in the meantime while we are looking further into this matter, we are not recommending to feed this formula, and are suggesting to feed our Potato and Duck or Sweet Potato and Fish Dry Dog Formula."

[Milwaukee_Guy]

Notable here is that Natural Balance is a respected "organic" producer. Also the formula being pulled by the manufacturer is a -dry- pet food.

Why is this recall not on the FDA site or on the Natural Balance site?

[Milwaukee_Guy]

Date should read “Monday April 16, 2007."

Chronologically challenged.....

[dawn53]

The homepage of Natural Balance says nothing about this.

http://www.naturalbalanceinc.com/

We feed our dogs the Ultra Natural Balance kibble, and also use some of their canned. I think I fed them a can of the venison last week (but I guess this is talking about the dry Venison kibble.)

[ChromeDome]

My wife tried to buy some this weekend at PetCo. To PetCo’s credit, even though it was on the shelf Saturday, the cash register would not let the sale go through (and indicated a recall). By Sunday, PetCo had pulled it from the shelves.

[blam]

Thanks for the alert.

[Milwaukee_Guy]

Good work by PetCo. I had to go to Aldi’s with a printout so they would pull the Menu Foods junk they had piled high.

[NautiNurse]

The Science Diet Prescription m/d dry cat food is given for diabetic/pre-diabetic cats. In other words, the cats consuming the melamine contaminated food were already compromised animals.

[neodad]

Green Pea Dry Dog Cat Formula

I don't think my dog likes her cats with green peas.

[dawn53]

My husband just bought a bunch of the cans and a large bag of kibble late yesterday afternoon.

Was she only unable to buy that specific kibble? He brought home a bag of the Ultra kibble, plus a few cans. I just checked the cans and he did purchase Venison and Brown Rice canned food, as well as a couple other types of their canned.

[Ditter]

Now they have finally gotten around to pulling the food I feed my dogs. Grrrrr! The bag they are eating now was purchased several weeks ago when all of the other recalls were going on. I have not noticed any problems with my 3 dogs.

[Flavius]

FDA is struggling to ensure safety of imported food Deseret News, UT - Apr 14, 2007 China's chief food exports to the United States include shrimp, fish and apple juice, and China sells increasing amounts of food ingredients incorporated ...

[Milwaukee_Guy]

Put that bag aside until the smoke clears.

We are 4 weeks into this debacle and there are still revelations on a daily basis.

[ChromeDome]

Yes, she was only prevented from buying the specifically recalled DRY Venison and Brown Rice type. I’m not too worried about this particular recall. I think they pulled it due to abundance of caution.

[Milwaukee_Guy]

excerpted from,

http://www.canadafreepress.com/2007/cover041507.htm

Chemnutra, Wheat Gluten, Wal-Mart
Mystery clouds poison pet food animal deaths even as it jumps continental U.S.
By Judi McLeod
Sunday, April 15, 2007

The pet food poison scare has just jumped from North America to the Caribbean Islands.

Associated Press is reporting today that two dogs in Puerto Rico died of kidney failure after eating dog biscuits that were among the 100-plus brands of pet foods and treats contaminated with an industrial chemical, according to a veterinarians’ group.

The same Ol’Roy dog biscuits recalled from North American shelves last week, killed the two Puerto Rican dogs.

Amigo is the name of the supermarket chain where the poisoned dog biscuits were purchased. The chain is owned by a Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (nyse:WMT-news-people), according to Victor Collazo, chief of Puerto Rico’s Veterinary Medical Association.

[Ditter]

What should I feed them today?

[Milwaukee_Guy]

“I don’t think my dog likes her cats with green peas.”

I would prefer a Chardonnay or a Riesling.......

[IamConservative]

We are 4 weeks into this debacle and there are still revelations on a daily basis.

We had taken up making our own dog food prior to all this starting as we couldn't find anything packaged that didn't give our Boston Terrier horrible, room clearing gas.

There is just no way to know what you're getting in the bag or can at the moment. I feel for everyone fretting over this.

[dawn53]

FDA is struggling to ensure safety of imported food Deseret News, UT - Apr 14, 2007 China's chief food exports to the United States include shrimp, fish and apple juice, and China sells increasing amounts of food ingredients

I noticed this about a year ago. Check the shrimp in your local supermarket and most comes from Thailand or China. I live on the west coast of Florida, and it's darn near impossible to find local seafood. My husband and son do a good job of keeping us supplied with fish, but I tell them they need to put some shrimp nets on the sides of our boat (kidding, of course.)

[Milwaukee_Guy]

IMHO, Get those frozen tubes of ground chicken, turkey or beef and cook it up in a pan with some water to make a “gravy”.

It’s human grade food and cheap at $0.79 to $1.00 a pound.

Almost all dry foods are not being recalled. I would not buy or feed -anything- with wheat gluten in it however.

[Thrownatbirth]

Green Pea Dry Dog Cat Formula

Someone had a "Eureka!" moment in the lab.