They have lots of recipes that you make up with human food. Very easy. You purchace the recipes but if you use the Wal-Mart promotional coupon, it’s FREE.

You’ll need to add supplements. YOu can use human vitamins (they tell you what to get) or you can buy their powered supplements; one for dogs, another for cats.

I bought the one for cats. I wouldn’t buy the one for dogs because the very last ingredient is Menadione. I’m not convinced it’s safe to be in dog supplements. I’ve read tons of literature on it and I won’t use it for dogs. Cats are another matter.

That said, I phoned the company asking that they remove it from the dog supplement. She was very pleasant and took all the info I gave her and said she’d bring it up at today’s meeting. She also said if they heard from more people requesting that it be removed, well, that would help. So, if you would like to use their dog supplement but don’t want the Menadione please let them know. Consumers are listened to.

>WORKING ON SAVING THEIR SALES OUTLETS VIA VET CLINICS - MONEY GOING TO VETS WHO MAY HAVE HAD SOME OUT OF POCKET EXPENSES AND TO CLIENTS? I’M NOT SAYING HILL’S DOESN’T CARE ABOUT ANIMALS; IT JUST LOOKS TO ME AS IF THEY’RE TRYING TO PROTECT SALES.

Belive me, I’m not saying anything wrong about veterinarians because I’ve had excellent care from my local vet as well as from various departments at the Cornell University Hospital for Animals when I took an animal there for diagnostics, treatments, surgeries, and checkups over several years. I’ve always tried to give my animals the very best medical care.

But there is some total immersion training going on in some vet schools by pet food companies apparently and some conflict of interest about pet foods. I’m not saying that Hill’s is in Cornell or not because I don’t know. I’m speaking in general.

When a pet food company is teaching IN some vet colleges and the only brands an impressionable 20+ year old prospective vet is being exposed to by pet food experts (vets from the company) are their own brands, what brands do you think the future vet will recommend? I don’t care how intelligent the vet student is; it’s the immersion and exposure factor. IMHO, there is a huge conflict of interest here, folks. Perhaps a more balanced view needs to be presented.

Before the recalls, how many people here thought that Hill’s prepared their own food and assumed that since it was from a vet’s office (formulas being medically derived), that it had to be the very best food and DIDN’T EVEN GIVE A THOUGHT THAT IT WOULD APPEAR IN A RECALL BECAUSE HILL’S MANUFACTURED IT? I’m not going to debate whether it’s the best food or not for pets that are ill.

And, I’m not calling out just Hill’s for having a couple of contaminated products. I’m blaming all companies involved in the recall who did not insure that each and every one of the single ingredients THEY BOUGHT to use in THEIR FOOD was tested for safety each step along the way. I’m just saying that as consumers, we have to question and research and not accept at face value what “truth” we are told or assume to be true about products based on clever marketing campaigns.

Hill’s appears to be trying to smooth things over with the vets who are the ONLY sales outlet for their prescription line of foods.

Read how Hill’s does nutrition training at the vet colleges and how they offer seminars to practicing vets, according to Wikipedia. Huh? Anyone wondering what pet food brands will be recommended to you by your vet clinic?
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The info segregated by **** is from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hill‘s_Pet_Nutrition
…Today, Hill’s is the largest employer of veterinarians outside of academia. They sponsor many pet nutrition related veterinary school programs and hold seminars and training sessions on the subject of pet nutrition for practicing veterinarians. Their Prescription Diet line of foods is available from veterinarians throughout much of the world, and the Science Diet line of cat and dog foods are available in pet specialty stores and veterinary clinics. [END OF WIKIPEDIA QUOTE]
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I think my local vet is great. When my cat showed higher than normal kidney values, BUN and creatine, I was prescribed Hill’s Prescription Diet g/d canned and dry. (My cat was eating 9 Lives canned made by DelMonte, not on recall to date, although DelMonte recalled other products the same weekend of Mar. 30, but I switched to be safe.) I gladly bought the recommended Hill’s foods for my cat, assuming they were made/manufactured by Hill’s and would help my cat. The cat didn’t care for the food, and when more recalls broke and a type of Hill’s Science Diet canned was recalled, I told my vet that I was not going to feed my cat the Hill’s Prescription Diet g/d canned nor the Hill’s Prescription Diet g/d dry bagged food because I did not trust ANY product in Hill’s two lines of food. The Hill’s Prescription foods I bought were NOT on the recall list, thank goodness. But, based on my pressing and pressing the DelMonte Foods customer service rep and receiving scripted, evasive answers about their ingredients (see my other posts under the DelMonte thread), I told her that I knew that more recalls were going to break soon, not just on wet food, but dry as well. This was on Friday, March 30, mid-afternoon. My vet said, “It’s only the Hill’s Science Diet Savory Cuts canned that was recalled, not anything in the Prescription Diet line. All of the other canned and all of the dry food is safe. Why don’t you hang on the bag for a while?”

I no more than arrived home from the vet’s and got settled and an hour or so later heard the announcement that Hill’s Prescription Diet m/d dry bagged food was recalled. On my next visit, which was earlier this week, I returned the bagged Prescription Diet food. No thanks. I’ve lost faith in a company that is selling foods through vet offices that is not even manufactured by them.

I’m not saying anything about my vet’s skills. I’m just saying how blindly vets can be over what they’ve heard/learned, even though they know otherwise. My own vet told me that there were foods on the market lower in protein than Hill’s. I’m wondering why other brands were not mentioned if there were other brands lower in protein, and therefore, better for my cat by putting less stress on his kidneys… And in case she is reading this blog and can figure out who I am from my situation, I want her to know that I highly respect her skills in treating my animals, but I no longer accept things just because someone tells me.

In the future manufacturing of foods, I would like to see more extensive labeling on the packages or at least access to more information via a brochure or the web: countries of origin of individual ingredients, place of manufacture, and name of manufacturer, among other safeguards. All of this co-pack/private label protection/keep-the sources-hidden fiasco that we’ve seen has made this entire situation more difficult to track and has delayed revelations. I hope the entire pet food industry is turned upside down and must become accountable for insuring the safety and standards of its respective products from the procurement of the first individual ingredient all the way to the end of the manufacturing process, now that at least some degree of transparency has been gained.

BTW, does anyone know who the manufacturer (Brand) is of ALDI’s Shep dog biscuits? (The name of the grocery store is ALDI. It sells private label foods.) A relative is feeding her dog this brand.

Justice needs to be served for these Corporate crimes. Up to and including prison sentences.

Anyhow, keep talking about this some folks still haven’t got the word.

Why are they still reporting only a small number of deaths? Why can’t the FDA recall a product? When I made my report to the FDA I could not get a copy or the report or number the rep told me they were overwhelmed with the number of complaints! Really, how about re-staffing important agencies like the FDA!

I would like a warning label on any food product that has any additive purchased outside of the USA….plus, why are we buying food products from China, last time I checked we had plenty of farmers who knew how to grow wheat. Lets stop shipping those jobs overseas as well.

Yes, I am writing to everyone I can think of. Yes, I am telling everyone I can about what happened to my dog but it’s still amazing how many people think it’s only a few pets.

First, lets get the numbers right! Hopefully Sen. Durbin and his call to action will finally set the story straight. This should scare everyone into action, I don’t understand why it has not.
Greer H.

I stumbled across this site (I believe on howl911). It’s a march, nationwide, on April 28, protesting this debacle. Here’s the site:
http://keepourpetssafe.braveho.....march.html

(Sorry, can’t figure out how to link here)
ANYWAY, I figured by sharing this here, it’ll get more attention. SO many people are checking this site, let’s make this big news and make this protest huge! It’s in response to the recalls, so I’m sure all of us can be on board. AS they say on their website:
Why we march…
We are marching in memory of our pets that have lost their lives, we are marching in memory of those pets that are fighting for their lives, we march as pet owners, dog lovers, cat lovers and average citizens that are tired of the lowered safety standards for goods coming in to this country.