[Kzunell]

OK this is getting out of control. OK nobody panic unless you live in South Africa. They have linked pet deaths in S. Africa to Royal Canin and another company. They traced it back to CORN GLUTEN. They haven't said where the corn gluten came from or how it got there yet. As far as anyone knows this is ONLY in South Africa. However I imagine that manufacturers are going to frantically be checking all the Grain ingredients in dog foods here in the US and abroad for Melamine. Hopefully our pet food suppliers are only using domestic suppliers now or at least well known supliers. I think that it might be better to not feed any food with any Glutens or Grain Protiens or Grain (By)products unless you first speak with the manufacturer and inquire how the source the above items.
If anyone knows some of the dog foods that do not contain any glutens/protiens/etc could you please list them...Thanks

http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2101493,00.html

Kelly and Amber

 

[cinderbay]

What is the source of this info? I cannot find it on the web yet.

As far as I know none of the Diamond brands have any of the glutens in them.

 

[Kzunell]

oops sorry i forgot to post the link so I added it at the top and right below.

http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2101493,00.html

Kelly and Amber

 

[BoatDog]

God, you're kidding right? (know you're not but can't believe this anymore!)

 

[Kayte85]

OMG! I feed pro plan and corn gluten is like the second ingredient in that stuff.
Should I not feed that for now?

 

[Kzunell]

Well there haven't been any problems yet with tainted corn gluten in the US that I am aware of.. I would find a food with no glutens or grain protiens or grain products added for now. But I might be a bit more paranoid than most. The problem we have is that we live in a world market and sometimes you never know where the products are coming from. I am thinking that the FDA needs to start checking every shipment of grain products into the US for melamine at this point.

Kelly and Amber

 

[YellowJakesMom]

First: Eagle Pack Holistic Selects formulas do not contain any glutens or extracted "proteins" from grains. Their regular formulas do contain whole ground corn and some have wheat products in them (I can't say for sure, we only feed Holistic Chicken and Rice)

To find a store: http://www.eaglepack.com/Pages/EP_WhereToBuy.html

Eagle uses their own plants to make the food as well, there is no outsourcing to other companies. The nutritionist on staff is very good at helping you choose a formula for your dog as well (there are a lot). It is close to $40 per 33lb bag.


Second: If there hasn't been a recall of your dog food, switching on the off chance it might be recalled is silly. Do we humans not eat spinach anymore because people died from contaminated spinach? Do we not eat ground beef? Plenty of people have died from e. coli in beef. What about Tylenol? Do we not use that anymore because it might contain poison? Teflon might cause cancer, so might plastic - do we not use those anymore?

If you limit yourself from everything that MIGHT be tainted, you'll starve - and so will your dog. Bottom line: do for your dog what you do for yourself, buy high-quality food. Might it be recalled? Yep, but we also might step in front of a car and get hit tomorrow - doesn't mean we shouldn't walk anymore or get the shakes when we think about venturing outside.

 

[Kzunell]

Its not the company that makes the food thats the problem. Somewhere something has contaminated some of the products used to increase protein levels in dog food. We know that at least with the rice protein and wheat gluten that they came from China. We don't know what companies are using the Chinese grain products and the companies themselves might not know either, because they are buying it from brokers and wholesalers. With the wheat gluten people that over reacted and stopped using any dog food with wheat gluten were very thankfull later when it was discovered that it wasn't just the foods made by Menu but also by other companies.
Knowing that only say 1% of the current rice protien is probably contaminated should you continue to use a dog food with rice protien? Knowing that some portion of the world Corn gluten is also contaminated should you continue to feed a food with corn gluten? Until they figure out what caused the whole problem it won't hurt to over react will it? Also it doesn't matter aabout the quality of the dog food as far as the contamination in that it is where they get the products that go in their food that matters and where those wholesalers and brokers get their sources.
We have reason to believe that the problem is in Chinese grain so avoiding grain products is a reasonable thing to do unless you know which companies don't use grain products from China and then you can use just use those companies.

Kelly and Amber

 

[imported_zoezoe]

As far as I know none of the Diamond brands have any of the glutens in them.

I know for sure the Kirkland DOES NOT. I have been keeping a close eye on their website. They are also on the list of people who get all their product from inside the US. They do package for NB, which does not.

 

[YellowJakesMom]

Also it doesn't matter aabout the quality of the dog food as far as the contamination in that it is where they get the products that go in their food that matters and where those wholesalers and brokers get their sources.
We have reason to believe that the problem is in Chinese grain so avoiding grain products is a reasonable thing to do unless you know which companies don't use grain products from China and then you can use just use those companies.

I would argue that point. Higher quality dog food uses higher quality ingredients, with more testing. Look at the food that has been recalled in the US - has any of it been a "super-premium" brand? (Old Roy treats, Grocery store brands, etc.) You've not seen Innova recalled, or Merrick, or any brand of that level.

Regardless, I still think changing food now due to a recall in Africa is absurd. I would bet money that pet food manufacturers are going back in their books and seeing where their protein sources came from when the contaminated food was made, and checking everything coming into their plants twice as well as usual in the wake of the Menu Foods recalls. This whole thread just seems so alarmist to me ???

 

[peanutsdad]

Once again, we use Flint River Ranch Fish & Chips. We get it shipped via UPS directly from the manufacturer. All their kibble is twice baked and use only human grade ingredients. Here is the ingredients list for the Fish & Chips: Trout, Potato, Course Ground Millet, Herring Meal, Oatmeal, Sweet Potato, Canola Oil (Preserved with Mixed Tocopherols), Flax Seed, Oat Bran, Natural Flavors, Blueberries, Cranberries, Rosemary, Grape Seed Oil, Menhaden Fish Meal, Granola, Ground Oats, Alfalfa Meal, Brewer’s Dried Yeast, Dried Eggs, Lecithin, Yucca Schidigera Extract, Choline Chloride, Zinc Sulfate, dl-Alpha Tocopherol Acetate, Zinc Amino Acid Complex, Selenium Supplement, Mixed Natural Tocopherols (Antioxidant), Niacin, Iron, Amino Acid Complex, Vitamin B-12 Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin A Acetate, Ascorbic Acid, Iron Sulfate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Manganese Amino Acid Complex, Thiamine Mononitrate, Manganous Oxide, Copper Amino Acid Complex, Copper Sulfate, Riboflavin Supplement, Folic Acid Supplement, Ethylenediamine Dihydriodide, D-Biotin Supplement, Vitamin D-3, Dried Bacillus Subtilis Fermentation Product, Dried Aspergillus Oryzae Fermentation Product. We find it costs us about thirty to forty dollars a month to feed all three dogs. In fact Keri is actually a distributor of Flint River Ranch food. If you want more info you can go to
http://www.frr.creekcottage.org/index.html
I know this sounds like a shameless plug, but I really like the results we've gotten, and our pups seem to thrive on the stuff.

 

[Kzunell]

The FDA in their news confrence today said that they were not checking incoming Corn Gluten for Melamine but that they might start checking it in the future.
I would find it highly unlikely that Melamine found in Corn Gluten in South Africa is not in some way related to the supplier/manufacturer that we got the wheat gluten and rice protien. As such it would seem that corn gluten imported into this country might very well have the same problem as that imported into S.A. If the corn gluten in south africa had a different problem it wouldn't have raised as big a concern. I think that most companies are going to start checking all grain products if it is economically feasible and if not they might just boycott all Chinese products going into their products. But appearently after the Wheat gluten contamination they didn't stop accepting imports from China so I am not sure about that.
On an even scarier note the FDA is trying to track down all the melamine products and it looks like some of it may have been fed to hogs/pigs that may have entered the human food chain. I don't think this is a problem and have no intention of not eating bacon or ham, but did find it an interesting side note and can't wait to see how this plays out.
One other reason for posting this is that some of Just labs members are from all over the world! We have members from all over so it wouldn't surprise me to learn we have members or at least visitors from South Africa as english is a major language there.

Kelly and Amber