Blog Like You Mean It
I started this last night and my cousin and her parents came over tonight so I put some finishing touches on it.
Background…our poor little Onyx has been called an anteater and a needle nose since we brought her home. I, personally, don’t see the resemblance. LOL But I may be bias.
I have been reading on my dog forum and on other sites around the net that not only did Canidae change their dry formulas, but they also are now being manufactured or partially manufactured by Diamond.
We don’t feed this to our dogs any longer, but my mom feeds Mickey their canned food (that’s really all he’ll eat) and so I still try to keep up with the recalls and what’s going on in the pet food world.
This really concerns me because we lost two cats to the Diamond recall of 2006 and frankly, I just will never trust any brand made by Diamond again.
So I emailed Canidae…and here was my response from them.
http://www.canidae.com/new-formulas.html
Dear Heidi,Please click on the above link, we have updated our site to insure all your questions are answered about our newly improved formulas. Be sure to scroll all the way to the bottom of that page.
Due to overwhelming customer support and increased demand on our products, we have been faced with unique production capacity challenges. Our growing customer support and demand has pushed for increased capacity, therefore we have outsourced additional production from Diamond Pet Foods. Our customers demand and deserve no less than the highest quality safe ingredients, as well as state of the art consistent manufacturing. Outsourcing additional production from Diamond comes not without first carefully instating and accepting only the strictest testing protocols, as well as mandating stringent operating procedures to ensure the highest quality products possible at every level of production. We are very happy with this relationship and the high quality formulations we are able to bring to you. Expect Excellence!
Our quality of raw material as well as quality control has actually increased not decreased. Yes we have diversified our complex carbohydrates as rice continues to climb and high quality availability decreases. Our products are better than ever and more consistent. Yes we have cut costs on shipping rates as fuel continues to go through the roof. To ship pet food from one location is no longer cost effective. Our economy is facing some challenging times and we are being proactive in offering you the highest quality products, yet affordable enough for our consumers to purchase. We are not sure about other companies and their plans for change or their reasons in the past, however we feel we are being open and honest about our changes. We are getting alot of positive feedback from our customers that are actually feeding their pets our improved formulas.
We thank thank you for your comments, and hope your pets are able to receive the benefits of our products.
Personally, I still wouldn’t trust them. But that’s me and it’s really a personal preference.
Added 8/11/08.…many people have come to my blog to read this post so I thought I’d also include a list of foods that are made by Diamond. I copied this list from a dog forum I participate at and so I cannot account for it’s accuracy. But thought it was worth adding.
Like I said, I cannot account for the accuracy of this list. I hope that a food like Artemis is not made by Diamond, but I have no clue and cannot say. I’ll have to look into it.
Here’s a site that has a good list of many foods and their ingredients: The Best Dry Dog Foods
This was posted in my Epi-K9 list and it gives permission to cross post, so I thought I’d share.
As many of you already know, Xylitol, a natural sweetener, is very toxic to dogs, causing hypoglycema (low blood glucose) that can lead to depression, vomiting, seizures, and even death. Even a very small dosage can cause toxicity: 41 mg may cause hypoglycemia in a 100 lb dog, while a single stick of chewing gum may have two grams (2,000 mg) of Xylitol. See the following web sites for more info on Xylitol poisoning in dogs:
http://www.avma.org/onlnews/javma/sep04/040901c.asp
http://www.aspca.org/site/DocServer/Foss-Tox_Brief-Nov_VT_04.pdf
http://www.aspca.org/site/PageServer?pagename=pro_apcc_news082106
http://www.mainetoday.com/pets/dogslife/004476.html
Note that the sweeteners mannitol and sorbitol are NOT toxic to dogs.
I recently learned that there are a number of products marketed for dogs that contain Xylitol among their ingredients! Here is a list of the products that I found:
Advanced Dental Chews, made by Animal Dermatology Laboratories
http://www.calvetsupply.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=1062
C.E.T. AquaDent (drinking water additive) and Petrodex Breath Spray For Pets, made by Virbac Animal Health
http://www.medi-vet.com/detail.aspx~ID~3009
http://www.virbacpets.com/petrodex/product.php?pid=198
BreathaLyser Plus and AQuala (drinking water additives), made by imRex, Inc.
http://www.healthypets.com/brwaad1.html
http://www.petacular.com/products/Aquala-Dog.html
CurTail Pet Food Enzyme Drops (used to treat gas), made by AkPharma Inc
http://acatdog.com/detail.aspx?ID=25
I also saw xylitol listed as an ingredient in Dragons Teeth and Dragonette Dog Biscuits made by Solid Gold, but it was not among the ingredients listed on their web site, so I wrote to the company and they told me that they removed xylitol from their biscuits about eight months ago, which was good to hear.
I have written to each of the companies that manufacture these products. Only two of the four companies responded. Here are the responses I received:
imRex (BreathaLyser Plus and Aquala) claimed that there wasn’t enough Xylitol in their product to be concerned about, but then said that “the dog will drink a maximum of 0.05grms per day.” 0.05 grams is 50 mg, enough to potentially cause hypoglycemia in a 100 lb dog. That also doesn’t account for owners who might give more than the recommended amount, or spills that the dog might lap up. There’s simply no reason why a company should add a potentially toxic ingredient to products made for dogs, no matter how small the amount.
AkPharma (CurTail Pet Food Enzyme Drops) thanked me for contacting them and said, “We have never had a report of any such reactions in the 6 years that our product has been formulated with xylitol. Nonetheless, having seen the information that you sent, we are withholding sales until we investigate further.” I was very impressed with their response.
Neither Animal Dermatology Laboratories nor Virbac responded to my inquiry.
I would suggest contacting the companies that make these products and letting them know that you will not use their products, and will be warning others against them. If they hear from enough people, it should give them incentive to change their formulas.
It would also be helpful to let any company who carries these products know about the dangers. One company that I contacted has already decided to stop selling the product that they carried once they learned about the risks of xylitol. Again, if companies will not sell these products, the manufacturers will have to take action.
Here is the contact info for the companies that make these products:
Advanced Dental Chews
Advanced Animal Dental Laboratories, a division of Animal Dermatology Laboratories
P.O. Box 19097
Irvine, CA 92623
http://www.adlvet.com/
e-mail: adl
800-521-2525
C.E.T. AquaDent
Petrodex Breath Spray For Pets
Virbac Animal Health
3200 Meacham Blvd.
Fort Worth, TX 76137
http://www.virbacvet.com/
http://www.virbacpets.com/petrodex/product.php?pid=198
e-mail: mwalsh
800-338-3659
BreathaLyser Plus and Aquala – Dental Care Water Additives
imRex, Inc.
2 Pioneer Drive RR #5
Komoka, Ontario N0L 1R0
http://www.goimrex.com/
e-mail: romanowski
800-851-3819
CurTail Pet Food Enzyme Drops
AkPharma Inc. (note this company is already looking into changing their formula)
http://www.akpharma.com/curtail/curtail_index.html
Permission is given to cross-post this information to other lists.
Mary Straus
http://www.dogaware.com
Onibasu Link: http://onibasu.com/archives/kn/152034.html
