Posted on 04/12/2007 3:03:20 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
Grammy's Pot Pie needed a little more salt. So did the chicken thighs with peas, carrots and potatoes made by Fromm.
The pumpkin crumble dessert from Nutro smelled good and had plenty of ground cinnamon but having less than 100 calories per serving helped make up for its bland taste.
These recipes may sound good to you, but the food typically doesn't find its way to a dinner table. This fare - complete with slogans like "It's not dinner without dessert" - is for dogs and cats.
Recent pet-food recalls are driving pet owners to consider gourmet options. At the very least, experts say, pet owners are becoming more educated about what they're serving their animals. Those choices can be beneficial for a dog or cat, but they're likely to be more expensive and in some cases may not be worth the money.
"It's about being a smart consumer," said Dr. Sandi Sawchuk, a veterinarian for the past 27 years who works at the UW- Madison School of Veterinary Medicine. "The biggest problem we see is overfeeding. Obesity has become a huge problem because foods are really tasty."
The choices can be overwhelming and come at a time when there is extra concern over what is fed to pets.
In March, millions of containers of "cuts and gravy" style dog and cat food produced by Menu Foods were recalled because of tainted wheat gluten from China. It included dog food sold under 53 brands and cat food sold under 47 brands including Iams, Nutro and Eukanuba.
On Tuesday, Nutro announced it was recalling an additional 41 types of dog and cat foods sold in cans and pouches after Menu Foods informed the company that the wheat gluten from China had been used in the products. The recall did not affect the company's dry food, biscuits or treats, according to Nutro's Web site.
U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., is scheduled to hold a hearing today to examine the pet-food recalls. Kohl is chairman of the Agriculture Appropriations subcommittee, which has jurisdiction over the Food and Drug Administration and U.S. Department of Agriculture. Kohl has called Dr. Stephen F. Sundlof, director of the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine, to testify.
"I think there's going to be more," Ted O'Donnell, owner of the three MadCat Pet Supplies stores in Madison, said of the recalls. "We've dropped all Nutro brand products whether it contains wheat gluten or not."
O'Donnell, whose shops focus on holistic nutrition, has also dropped all Pet Guard products even though the products don't contain wheat gluten. The company has refused to disclose its relationship with Menu Foods, he said.
"We're trying to focus on the trust between us and our clients," O'Donnell said.
Pet owners can buy 40- pound bags of kibble for less than $25. But a walk down the pet food aisle of most stores reveals dozens of options in the can, pouch and bag.
At Mounds Pet Food Warehouse, the quest for more information about pet food is soaring. The company, with five stores in southern Wisconsin, has its own brand of dry dog and cat food and sold about 1 million pounds of the kibble last year.
"They're coming in with more of a thirst for knowledge and a curiosity for higher-end products," said Mark Baumgartner, marketing manager for the company, now based in Sun Prairie. "We're telling our customers not to panic."
Fromm Family Pet Foods, north of Milwaukee in Mequon, has been making pet food since 1904 and in 1949 introduced the concept of premium pet foods.
The Ozaukee County company, which employs about 40 people, makes dry dog food for Mounds and for other companies but is not part of the recall.
The company's Four-Star Bistro Entrees canned food is made in China but does not contain wheat gluten. It also is made in a factory that cans food for humans, something not allowed in this country. The beef, duck, chicken and tuna entrees are mixed with potatoes, carrots and peas and look like a stew from your grandmother's kitchen.
"The only thing that's different is it's a little bit bland because it doesn't have the sugar and salts," said Bryan Nieman, whose dad inherited the company from his grandmother, Irma Fromm, in 1984. "If you open it, it smells like food. It's a completely different sensation."
But the price can be steep.
Cat food ranges from $1.79 to $2 a can and the dog food from $2.67 to $3 per can. The average dog, according to the company, requires three- quarters of an ounce of the food for each pound of body weight. A 20-pound dog would need just over one 13-ounce can a day. That's about $20 a week.
"You get what you pay for," said Nieman, who has been getting about 40 e-mails a day and has seen traffic to the company's Web site quadruple since the recall. "They want to know about our products. I think (because of the recall) people will be more educated about what they're buying."
A more recent and growing pet-food trend is raw, frozen food.
In February, just a few weeks before the recall, Jeffrey Brill of Madison opened Paw Naturaw in Lake Mills. The company grinds fresh chicken, beef and bison along with vegetables to make raw food that is then frozen in 12-ounce tubes. The tubes range in price from $4.50 for chicken to $8.95 for bison.
"It's based on what animals would eat in the wild," Brill said. "It has all of the nutrients that are otherwise destroyed in the canning processes or heat process involved in cooking."
Sawchuk, a clinical instructor at UW-Madison who studies animal nutrition, said there is no single answer when recommending a food. She spent about 90 percent of her Wisconsin Public Radio show on Tuesday answering questions from callers throughout the state about food and the recall.
Experts recommend consumers consider the age and breed of the animal, its overall health and the consumer's budget when selecting a food.
Sawchuk feeds her two English bulldogs, Vana, 3, and Bulldozer, 4, a national brand of food that is specifically formulated for the breed. It contains high fiber but is low in calories.
"That food would not be appropriate for other dogs," Sawchuk said.
She has seen dogs do fine with inexpensive kibble while others have more health problems. She doesn't believe consumers have to pay top dollar to keep their pets healthy, but some expensive food can be more nutritional because of the higher-quality ingredients used. She also recommends, despite the recall, buying food from national brands because those companies are able to do more research, conduct long-term feeding trials and are closely monitored by the FDA.
"If you stay with a national brand, you probably won't go wrong," Sawchuk said. "Wheat gluten as a food ingredient is a safe product that in some cases is important in the manufacturing process. Some are going overboard thinking anything with wheat gluten is bad."
Since we eat balanced meals, such as local venison and fish, some chicken & pork, rice and lots of veggies, they're getting decent meals, too.
In fact, the dogs had kibble, leftover rice & turkey casserole and leftover steamed broccoli for dinner tonight. :)
I don't feed them this way because I'm some sort of pet freak who cooks for her pets; I do it because I'm cheap, and frankly, it's better for them. None of our four current pets are overweight, though their owner could stand to lose a few pounds, LOL!
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