Pet Food..

Personally I would not feed our dog or cat Iams or Science Diet, nut free or not. I have contacted several premium brands to find out. We use Premium Edge and Chicken Soup brands, both made by Diamond. Canidae and Eagle Pack have also informed me that their foods are peanut/nut free. It was probably last fall when I checked with them. I believe Natural Balance is fine too-we use their biscuits.

A couple that are not safe: Wellness, Nutro (there are no nuts in any of the products now but they told me last fall they were still using up some peanut flour in their biscuits. Once it was gone none would have it. Their food is not too bad, nutritionally).

May I ask why not? is there something wrong with these foods? we have always used them-did you have a problem with the food itself, or was it a reaction issue?

Hi gw_mom3,

What did you find with Wellness? Does the facility process peanuts?

Thanks for any info you have.

this is the email I got from wellness/old mother hubbard:

Thank you for taking the time to write about Wellness products.

We do use peanuts in some of our products.

Thanks again for contacting us.

Heather Rowe
Representative
Consumer Affairs

000038096A

Originally Posted By: IowaMomMay I ask why not? is there something wrong with these foods? we have always used them-did you have a problem with the food itself, or was it a reaction issue? I've never had a problem with any regarding reactions. They are just low quality foods. Here is one site with info about dog foods and quality. The best foods contain meat as the first ingredient (not fresh but meal-fresh meat, once dehydrated, doesn't make up much of the formula) or in some cases several forms of meat in the top 5, and no wheat or soy. Also no by-products and no 'mystery' ingredients such as "poultry fat" which don't specify the source. Also no chemical preservatives. Some are grain free but the ones we use do have rice in them.

[url="http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com"]http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com[/url]

A lot of people have raised their dogs on Purina, Iams, Eukanuba, Science Diet, etc without any problems but we just choose not to. We saw a marked improvement in our dog's coat, eyes and stools (sorry! lol) after we switched from Puppy Chow to Chicken Soup for Puppies (we switched to Premium Edge when she was about 7 mos old).

Thanks for the information! I will definitely look into it! Those 2 are the ones that most of the veterinarians around here recommend, but I will be asking our vet about the ones that you have mentioned.

You're welcome. Keep in mind that most vets don't get any education on nutrition other than seminars by the companies that make the foods (thus they may be biased). This is why so many vets carry foods like Science Diet and Eukanuba. Those are typically the companies that cater to vets.

Our dog only eats food and treats by Natural Balance (Dick Van Patten's company). I tried switching our 12 year old cat but he refused, despite trying several "formulas" within the brand.

I totally agree about feeding the best brands for animals. We adopted our dog last August and the rescue group posts the brands they feel are appropriate. We came to Natural Balance because it was the only one available in a store. In my life before 2 kids, allergies, etc., I used to special order cat food - either shipped thru the mail or sent to a natural food store.

I am a little amazed that people are still buying pet food in the grocery store.

It's always best to check with your veterinarian. When your kids have allergies it's important to make sure your pets are healthy. My kids have dust allergies and I need to take my cats to the vet regularly to make sure there's nothing that causes problems in their fur. Ofter if they have microorganisms living there it gets bad for your kids. I even got cat insurance to make sure I can handle any extra costs if I need to.

I recommend the website by "dogtor j" who is a vet. Our pets are also getting severe food allergies. Most dogs do better on dogfood that doesn't contain wheat. There are no statistics on the number of dogs with peanut allergy but I have come across a number of them on the Internet. Seems our pets are getting food allergies from vaccinations, too.

The foods that the animals eat can cause allergic reactions in people evidently to their dander. On curezone.com, I came across a blog by a severely allergic woman who cleaned up her diet and her pet cats diets. Once she did that, she was no longer allergic to the cats.