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With Friday’s recall announcement from Diamond Foods including our Taste of the Wild, we had to do some scrambling on Saturday to get some new food in the house.
While we were researching foods, we discovered a dog food store relatively close to the house (ok, nothing is actually close) – a place called Moondoggies Natural Pet Foods. Here is a novel concept – an extremely knowledgeable person in the store who was more than happy to answer all of our crazy questions and put up with our paranoia when it comes to what we feed The Herd. We had always liked the store we had gone to down in Asheville, but that is nearly an hour from the house. This is so much more convenient and the assistance we received was outstanding.
Anyway, after much debate, we decided to try some of three foods – Orijen, Acana, and Fromm. Tonight, we tried the Fromm. Let’s get the reactions:
Queen Natasha says this smells a little different.
Rusty, who can be finicky about his food, had no problem diving in.
Not sure Frankie is a fair test - he has yet to meet a meal he did not like here at Chez Herd - including socks, dog beds, etc.
By the way, we learned something from this episode that many of you may know, but we figured we should share it anyway. We had always opened the bags of dog food and poured them into storage bins for easy handling. We have discovered that has several problems: (1) if you ever need to check the production code, you need to have the bag; (2) the bags are designed to keep the food fresh; and (3) the bin itself can become a carrier of disease if you ever have a food problem. Going forward, we will continue to use bins, but we will place the dog food bag inside the bin. We hope you learn from our mistake.
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A Kibble Jar
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Our Hu-Mom used to feed us Kirkland Signature chicken and rice, but about six months ago, she changed, and started buying “First Mate Chicken with Blueberries”, and me’n Ice both love it. It’s made in Canada, too. The Hu-Mom says because it doesn’t have any “filler”, it’s all “pure food”, there’s less clean-up necessary in the back yard, too, which is a good thing for ALL of us.
Stella has been eating Chicken Soup for the Dog for a couple of years. It was the only thing that was available to us, that was delivered and a reasonable price. I had just bought a new bag, binned it, and folded up the old bag for another use (good trash bags!) so I had the number handy and we weren’t included, but this is like the 3rd recall for Diamond in not very long, isn’t it. I think I will be looking for a change, too. Thanks for sharing info with us, not sure I want to give up my binning system but may do a little scrubbing now!
Jo
I hobes Yeu all found tasty foods to yeur liking!
Yeu haff all so taught us a lesson! The Mom habbs fought many times about the bag keeping the food fresher, but it is such a pain… We habbs naught eben fought about the need to keep the bag fur the tracking info!
Fank Yeu wif lubbs from Little Reufus
Hi Herd, We store our TOTW in a bin also but a few months ago we read about things becoming contaminated and that we should keep the food in the bag in the bin..we found this posted on our FB page and thought we would share here too..sorry.its a bit long for the blog but I wanted to make sure Hu-Dad saw it in case he doesn’t look at his FB anytime soon.
Taste of the Wild Pet Food
We know many of you store your ToTW in separate containers and throw away the bags once they’re opened, making it difficult to tell whether your food is affected by this recall.
If you purchased the bag after December 9th in any of the “blue” states on our map (found here: http://diamondpetrecall.com/recall-home) or if you purchased the bag from an online retailer, it is best to discard the food. Be sure to wash your hands after handling the food.
As always, our food is 100% satisfaction guaranteed. To get a refund or a coupon for a new bag, please fill out and send in the “Refund Request” form that can be downloaded from our website at: http://diamondpetrecall.com/refund-protocol. If you don’t have the production codes or best-before dates, include the retailer name and location and the amount you paid for the bag.
If you have any other questions, please contact us at 866-918-8756 any day between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. EST or visit http://diamondpetrecall.com/ for more information.
Queen Natasha is looking very pluckable there.
She is quite pluck able. However, you pluck her at your own risk as she is quite the “grumble bunny” about insults beneath her Highness’ status – like being plucked.
I have heard that about the bins too. My food stays in the bag. I might put Teddy’s in a bin though!
I was just going to switch to some fancy containers that fit in with our decor better then the bags! I think I’ll live with the bags in the closet. I didn’t even think of container contamination.
I have an extremely picky and grain intolerant husky mix. We usually feed him raw but sometimes kibble is easier and he eats it better at the moment. We tried TOTW but he broke out in a hot spot from it. We feed him NOW! Fresh brand from Petcurean. It was the only brand that he didn’t have an allergy too and he actually likes eating it. If The Herd turns there nose up to the three you’re trying, I’d recommend Now. It’s pricier than the TOTW though.
B & E vote for Acana- I was looking at Orijen but chose Acana since it is made by the same company, has a slightly lower price and lower protein level. Orijen is too “hot” for Eva.
It’s so scary when you hear about yet another recall. Glad you were able to get some god recommendations that the herd seems to approve.
Aren’t local pet supplies great? I’ve had great luck with mine.
Forums for information exchange, like this one, are great. I’m new to this one, hence the long post. I feed mainly canned/raw with kibble occasionally and change the protein source daily. I buy Nature’s Logic canned because there is more variety, venison, beef, lamb, duck, chicken and the vitamin/mineral supplements are not synthetic. Other brands like Hounds and Gatos, Evangers offer pheasant, rabbit, salmon and bison additionally. I also add coconut oil to their food for a variety of benefits. I read ingredients on everything and among the well known baddies like BGH, etc., avoid canola oil and carrageenan. At dogfoodchat.com you can read customer reviews on a long list of foods and get other information.
I think Jet had a good idea in that just like their feeding bowls, storage bins should be scrubbed clean every so often so as to keep them from building up mold, bacteria, etc. We also dump our dog food in a bin because it’s much easier for my dad (who has a handicap) to feed our dogs when I’m not here to do it. It’s also a good idea to start cutting out UPCs and Best By dates and the like from the bag in case of future recalls.
Great post. I hadn’t really considered not having the bag as possibly presenting a problem. Now I need to find a bin big enough to take the 25kg bag – at the moment I have to divide it into 2 bins! Glad you’ve found a more convenient store too. 🙂
Ours do love their TOTW, and my understanding is that their recall is a precautionary measure since they haven’t actually found any salmonella in it. It’s nice to see a company that will be proactive, which is another reason we like them. So far, our food isn’t in the bags that have been recalled and I’m crossing my fingers that we’ll be able to avoid switching! The last time we had to switch, it took us about a month to find something everybody would eat!
Can’t wait till to hear what the herd thought about Orijen. Kira loooooves the Fish and Sea veggies.
Well shoot. I also dump bags into a bin. Dang it. I switched to smaller bags for the freshness factor, as I noticed with big ones that the dogs seemed to eat less of their crunchy stuff (I give them raw too and chicken which makes my son roll his eyes but hey! they love it). And here it was probably putting it in the bin that made the food grow stale, not the amount in there? Dork me. Time for a bigger bin that I *can* fit a bag into then.
Sorry puppies!!
I’m going to have to look into those dog foods you guys are trying. Now that I am (finally) employed again, I can afford higher-quality food. And more chicken. 🙂
Did your advisor say anything about changing food abruptly? My vet says to change to new food gradually, over a week or so, but that is problematic in a recall situation. I use plain chicken and rice as a transition to avoid causing the dreaded diarrhea when I bring home foster dogs.
Nancy – we went for broke on this one and just changed. We actually rotate meals regularly (were using all four flavors of TOTW) and have had no problems. We find the diarrhea comes from changing different qualities more than ingredients.
P.S. – Chicken and rice is great for any stomach calming need. We also use pure pumpkin (NOT pumpkin pie filling) for stomach calming when needed. Wonder what would happen if you fed the new fosters a spoonful of pumpkin with each meal the first week?
GREAT idea! Definitely worth a try. Thanks so much.
Oh Dog! I didn’t know Taste of the Wild was also on the recall list! And I also dump the food into bins. Well, we’re gonna learn right along with you.
Thanks SO MUCH for this post today!
thanks for the reminder to scrub/disinfect my bins! I think I will be cutting out the upc/sku/best by date on the bag since I can’t fit the bag into my bins! Thanks for reminder about Acana-Orijens sister..I
may have to order for Maggie!
When we picked up our GSD Kuster the breeder recommended both Taste of the Wild and Fromm. We went with TOTW. Rusty’s recommendation may have helped; along with locations close to us that had sold.
Rusty says sorry for the mislead, but he loves his TOTW. Frustratingly, we hit our usual dog food review websites and TOTW was consistently top-ranked, which is why we bought it in the first place.
Our three greyhounds eat Acana Ranchlands and they love it. I also like that the bags are vacuum sealed for freshness. I never though about the bin getting contaminated! Good advice to leave it in the bag. There is a video of the Acana plant in Alberta on the net, showing the food being made which helped me decide on it too. Hope your pack finds something they love too!
Thanks for the tip of leaving the food in the bag. We don’t do that here, but mom got paranoid that our TOTW was now recalled and so was our 4Health that she is now cooking and feeding raw for us. How cool is that? Unfortunately the cats have already gone thru 2 bags of recalled foods and mom doesn’t want to look to see how many bags we have eaten. We have 6 bags in the garage that are all recalled. We just saw that she came home with 3 10lb bags of chicken quarters for us and she told dad that she got an awesome deal on them. Woooo!
We just SKHOOP from the bag –
My food is also on the list – well, my ‘brand’ is – we’ve pawed a message asking if we are part of it –
Hugz&Khysses,
Khyra