Premium Edge is voluntarily recalling two different formulas of its dry food for cats: Finicky Adult and Hairball. More details in the press release on their website.
The reason for this recall? Apparently, the cats affected suffered from thiamine deficiency. Pet food recalls are typically driven by contamination with toxins, not nutrient deficiencies, though earlier this year, Nutro had to recall several batches of cat food for sky-high levels of zinc.
Premium Edge’s parent company, Diamond Food, has had problems in the past with aflatoxin contamination in their dog foods; Diamond was also involved in the massive 2007 pet food recall. This review of Premium Edge food has a heart-breaking comment by a person whose cat died eating one of the recalled foods.
This is yet another demonstration that commercial pet food isn’t necessarily safe, much less complete and balanced nutrition for your cat.
For those of you feeling wary about Diamond Pet Food, you can view a fairly comprehensive list of brands they manufacture on their Wikipedia page. Some of them are big-name “natural” brands, like Natural Balance and Canidae.
I love the holistic pet food created by veterinarian Dr. Jane Bicks. (www.DogSmithNutrition.com) She has her own stand-alone manufacturing facility, so there is no worry about cross-contamination of equipment by other pet-food manufacturers using lower-quality ingredients. She makes the food in small batches and quality control tests every one.
She uses only human-grade ingredients, and no corn, wheat or soy products. No preservatives or dyes. The foods are fast-cooked to retain the maximum amount of nutrients, and she refuses to sell the product via stores because she doesn’t want it sitting on store shelves (because of the absence of preservatives). So you order it online through a registered agent, and it ships to your door! The best part is that she encourages customers to call into a monthly conference call she does and ask questions about the food. Can’t do that with Iams or Science Diet!
Each cup of food has 483 kcal/cup. Check whatever food you’re using now, because this is very nutritionally-dense food and most people find they need to feed much less of it to maintain their pets’ weights.
Hope this helps! I just love the products!
Catherine.
I don’t know if anyone other than spammers are reading this site at the moment, but Catherine’s comment above has been left, almost word-for-word, at other pet food/health blogs, such as this post on constipation, this post on the Mohawk & Hudson River Humane Society, and this post on a Dachshund blog. This is at best a hard sell and at worst targeted comment spamming. The information she’s left indicates she works directly either for Life’s Abundance, or for a company that sells it, which makes her personal recommendation suspect. I’d personally be very wary about this brand; if nothing else, its marketing methods seem less than savory.