Kirkland Cat Food Problem

Just got this in an e-mail this morning:

Hi Guys:

Our cats quit eating their Costco dry food. They just wouldn’t touch it. They kept coming to us and crying for food. I happened to sniff the bag of Costco cat food and it reeked of petroleum / chemical smell. We stopped feeding them that right away and bought something new at the animal shelter this morning. They are eating that food without problems.

The company that makes Costco cat and dog food was implicated in the scandal from a couple years ago in which many pets died of kidney problems. It was caused by manufacturers spiking their animal products with chemicals to make them appear to be high in protein. That was also when we found out that the Chinese were putting those chemicals in their baby’s milk formula so that they could make it more cheaply...

This might be an isolated incident, but check you cat and dog food and make sure it smells OK.

About 2 years ago we tried Costco Cat food an he wouldn't eat it. Thank goodness we didn't pursue it.

There is a long thread about this on TOB-- "Pet Food Problem." Post number 16 sums it up for me:
"Diamond/Kirkland brand pet foods have the best ingredient list of the foods we can get in Mexico. Sounds like one bad batch. I checked several pet food sites that normally report large area wide problems and found nothing. I will continue to feed it because I haven't seen a better dry food alternative."

I take care of two different groups of cats and another friend take care of another group of cats.  All three groups of cats hate this cat food.   Chinese poisoned pet food was years ago to be fair. Not sure this has anything to do with this cat food situation. I remember vividly as I lost two cats to it. I am a big Costco fan but not this product.

Z

Several people in the thread on TOB said their cats normally love this food but suddenly would not eat it. Costco took it back without question. Several people said they bought it again and the cats went back to eating it. That is what prompted the poster's comment about it being a batch problem and not a brand problem.

[quote="Lady Otter Latté"]Several people in the thread on TOB said their cats normally love this food but suddenly would not eat it. Costco took it back without question. Several people said they bought it again and the cats went back to eating it. That is what prompted the poster's comment about it being a batch problem and not a brand problem./quote]

How would a petroleum product get into the assembly line?

Nobody said the food contained a petroleum product. Some people used that word in trying to describe what it smelled like. Other people said it smelled rancid or weird or just "off."

Also remember that even when a product is marked "Made in U.S.A.," that doesn't mean the ingredients are not sourced from China or another country. I confirmed this about a year ago with a well known dog food company that marked their bags, "Made in U.S.A." with an American flag next to it.

The federal government has some very strict rules about when a product can say "Made in U.S.A."

I also recall when a few years ago, China had many deaths due to baby formula being laced with Melamine to make test reading show higher levels of Nitrogen. The product was traced back to a specific company and in short order the owner or manager was found to have been doing this intentionally to cut costs. After a quick trial and no decades of appeals, he was executed.

Just FYI