Not difficult and fairly cheap.

Ms. Weir seems to have unintentionally linked Natural Balance with the pet foods that have been listed as contaminated. At the very least, she vaguely indicts the brand for doing something -- over advertising, false advertising, being too posh and celebrity-laden -- I'm not quite sure (perhaps she's not either).

Just to clarify what this articles is saying, since I have three cans of Natural Balance in the cupboard, are we saying that Natural Balance IS or ISN'T one of the pet foods contaminated with melamine and other toxins? It WILL or it WON'T destroy an animal's liver?

Because, to paraphrase Lewis Black, it's 7 pm and I gotta feed my cats.

~AS~

I can't believe I spent so many years blithely pouring cheap food into my cats' dishes without thinking about what was in it. It was only after my cat Uma developed digestive issues that I thought hey, maybe I should read the ingredient list on the stuff. Uma stopped puking and put on a good pound after I switched my guys to foods (Wellness, Innova) without wheat or corn. I still worry about pet food contamination, though.

Yes, Natural Balance products have been recalled. You can get the product list here:

http://www.naturalbalanceinc.com/recall.html

If you're not sure about your pet's food, Itchmo.com is a blog that maintains a complete list.

http://www.itchmo.com/recalls.html

I encourage everyone to check the list. Many of the recent recalls were not widely reported in the press. When my cat's food was recalled, I only found out because of blogs like this one.

I know someone who eats the canned food--a person, and a Fromm's rep--who's suffered no ill effects. And it actually DOES look like the advertisements.

People need to educate themselves on what the markings on the pet food bags mean. For instance "with XXX" means that there is a miniscule amount of XXX ingredient in the food--not that it's actually made FROM that ingredient. It's easy enough to find online resources that will tell you what different food additives and the order of the ingredients mean.

As someone intensely involved in dog sports, I've paid very close attention to what my dogs eat (and their relative health) for years, and in general you do NOT want to buy from the grocery store! (A possible exception is Bil-Jac frozen, which many would avoid due to "beef by-products", though I personally feed it along with Fromm's). If you want to buy commercial dog food, buy from an independent feed store (they need your business!) and look for HUMAN GRADE ingredients! The first (and probably second) ingredient should ALWAYS be meat. Generally, high-grade dog foods don't use wheat or corn as their primary grain (usually barley or rice). You're going to want to avoid any gluten at this point. And honestly, you can feed some table scraps (dogs become DOGS due to their ability/willingness to scavenge from humans!) Training treats are usually some kind of cheese, or bits of meat.

My dogs generally get a mix of high-quality dry food with human-grade ingredients, wet food--again, high-quality--and a little yogurt or something on top. Contrary to popular belief, most dogs can take some variation in their diet, and I have never had a dog have a problem with an ABRUPT change of food as long as it was a high-quality, human-grade food (my elderly dog does not do well with raw beef bones, however, and usually gets diarrhea from those). They get raw chicken wings or beef bones occasionally, but raw to me is too much work and I don't have any allergy problems or other problems with my dogs that would justify it.

I've had 5 dogs over my life. #1 lived to be 16 eating mostly crap, #2 lived to be 17 eating high-quality food, and the current dogs are 12, 5, and 1. I believe that MOST of this is genetic (as it is, I believe, in humans) rather than environmental.

WRT cost of high-quality food, look closely at your dog. You should be able to feel ribs EASILY. Some breeds, you should be able to SEE ribs easily. Most of the dogs you see at AKC shows are too fat (Labs, Rotties, Bulldogs--that Bull Terrier who won Westminster a year or so back was WAYYYY too fat). There should be an obvious tuck-up (waist) on a dog. You may find that you need to feed less of a high-quality food, which will help with the cost.

Now, the safety of OUR food? That's another discussion altogether...

We expect everything to be cheap and plentiful. The idea that we are the world's breadbasket, that one can drive across states like Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa, and still we are importing GRAINS FER CHRISSAKES from China boggles the mind.

I'm sorry, I wouldn't trust the Chinese manufacturing practices any further than I could throw them. Yet we are inextricably tied to them in every aspect of our lives. Just try buying anything from a toothbrush to a computer without the Made in China label on the side. Our own manufacturing capacity is a shadow of its former self, all for the almighty dollar.

I don't have a problem with the meat byproducts--all the oddball stuff we don't want to eat. I'd rather feed them to cats and dogs (cooked to remove bacteria and whatnot) than throw them away, and as this article indicates, it doesn't cause problems.

The real problem is a country that is so fixated on price that we've lost track of quality. Does a houseful of cheap plastic crap and a bag of dog food that cost two dollars less really make us happy?

Many of the recent recalls were not widely reported in the press. When my cat's food was recalled, I only found out because of blogs like this one.

That's because the corporate American press is totally and utterly worthless. We know more about Britney Spears and her tedious meltdowns than we do about issues – like contaminated pet food – that impact millions of Americans' everyday lives.

We should grind up the press for pet food. It would be the first useful thing most of them have contributed to in their lives. I'd gladly feed my cat a can of Rupert Murdoch – cats need a lot of fat in their diet.