Also, if a cat has elevated thyroid readings, that can sometimes mask kidney disease so that is also where a urinalysis can be more helpful.

Core dry food by Wellness sounds better, as it is grain free. My cat didn’t like Wellness dry before all this started, but does like Innova/EVO, which is also grain free. He liked Wellness chicken formula canned food a lot, but I’m too nervous to feed him their canned food as it is made by Menu Foods. The company assures that they have quality control but…

I supplement his Innova/EVO dry food with a separate small dish of cooked, freshly ground beef, with its own juices. He doesn’t like chicken or fresh fish very much. I feed him 2 fresh portions of dry & cooked beef 2x a day.

Surprisingly, since these changes a few weeks ago, he’s lost a little weight — and he needed to — and he’s happy. Not begging for food but apparently healthy. His fur is softer, too. I’m still nervous about commercial food and wish to study some more about home cooking and nutrition and switch my 2 dogs and cat to complete home cooked within a few days. (Dogs on Wellness dry for now + cooked ground beef; no more Wellness canned, though they liked it.)

One of my dogs had a stubborn ear margin dermititis that wouldn’t respond to prescription ointment for the past couple of months. This diet has cleared it up for her in a short time.

They all love meal time even more than before — they await the cooking of the freshly ground beef patiently but without taking their eyes off the stove — and it’s a nice time for all 4 of us.

Thanks for sharing, I’ve been feeling so alone, like I’m going crazy trying to find something they all like. I’ve read quite a bit these last 2 wks. and to day I’m headed out to get a new dry from WELLNESS called “CORE” and also try some of their wet food. It’s gotten some good reviews. (Go to onlynaturalpet.com & click on “Wellness”, etc.)

Thanks…

;)

My favorite Peep activity is Peep jousting:
1. Take two Peeps and two toothpicks. Poke a toothpick into each Peep so that it looks like it’s holding the toothpick under its wing.
2. Set Peeps in the microwave, facing each other, a couple of inches apart. (You’ll probably want to put them on top of a paper towel for easier clean-up.)
3. Start up the microwave, and watch to see which Peep stabs the other first!

I’m in the process of transitioning my cats from their previous diets (Science Diet Indoor Adult for the younger one and Hills r/d for my tubby guys) to Natural Balance dry. I bought a sample size of that and started feeding it as a “treat” instead of the previous treats, which I threw away after the recall because they contained wheat gluten. They think it’s great because it’s being presented at the time and in the way that treats were being given. Now I’m gradually starting to mix it in to their previous diets. The fat guy and gal like it much better than the r/d, and are starting to eat around the r/d pellets.

I’m having a lot less luck with wet foods. So far, the younger cat, who previously was eating Pro Plan canned in the evenings, has rejected 5 flavors of Merrick, 3 flavors of Natural Balance, 2 flavors of Blue Buffalo, and Solid Gold. So he’s going to be eating dry for a while until I can find another brand I feel is worth trying. Not ideal, but at least I feel like he’ll be eating quality stuff.

The FDA doesn’t have the resources and only inspects high risk foods - evidently Wheat Gluten and what our pets eat just don’t matter so much:

http://www.usatoday.com/money/.....usat_N.htm

http://www.packagedfacts.com/p.....ices-c124/

Even without paying the thousands to ‘subscribe’, just from reading the abstracts one thing is obvious:

There’s a lot of ways we got manipulated into trusting people with our pets well being that simply do not deserve that trust.

Bill

ps - any idea where/how we might see these reports?

Apologies if I missed a discussion on this previously, but I haven’t seen this link posted: http://tinyurl.com/2dz6fu
It is the table of contents for a 360 page pet food industry report from 2002. Unfortunately, the hard copy is $2,250. Too bad. I think that this would be fascinating reading:
Competitive Profile: Doane Pet Care Enterprises
* Leader In Private Label
* Brief History
* Doane Sales And Scope
* Strength Based On Wal-Mart Partnership
* Other Private-Label And Co-Manufacturing Accounts
* Doane Pet Food Segments
* Branded Products
* Overview: Windy Hill

That might answer the questions about whose dry food is manufactured at Doane.

I did notice something I have questions about:
Labeling And Regulations
Guidelines
* Four Product Nomenclature Rules
* The “95%” Rule
* The “25%/Dinner” Rule
* The “3%/With” Rule
* The “Flavor” Rule

Do we know what these rules are? I’m guessing that they mean that 25% of a product must be made of something before it’s able to be called “dinner” and that 3% of the product must be a certain ingredient before they can say it is “with.” I’m not sure about the 95% or “Flavor” rules, though.