June 5, 2008

(Pet Pulse Photo Illustration by Mike Lloyd)

BOULDER, Colo. -- One year after the largest pet food recall in U.S. history, one-third of dog and cat owners have less confidence in the safety of manufactured pet food, according to a USA Today Gallup Poll.

Whole Pets is a Boulder-based supplier of natural pet food and supplies. Customer relations representative Sarah Wadleigh fielded calls for the company during last year’s recall, providing nutrition information to concerned pet owners.

“It was unbelievable,” Wadleigh said. “The number of calls that came in, I would say 90 percent were from people who had lost an animal to kidney failure. It was so sad.

“Thank God we had herbals to help the animals recover if they weren’t too far along. A lot were lost by the time they found us.”

Pet food makers say they have increased their testing of raw and finished products, and have stepped up auditing of their suppliers. Nestle-Purina Pet Care no longer imports Chinese wheat gluten, which was the tainted ingredient in many of the recalled foods.

In the recall’s aftermath, pet food shelves remain thin. About 20 percent of the recalled products have not returned to the stores, and 10 percent have been discontinued.

The first step in owners switching to natural foods is breaking old habits, Wadleigh says.

“It’s just standard operating procedure to just go to the store and buy dog food, which is what I did years ago,” Wadleigh said. That, however, was before Wadleigh owned her two dogs, seven-year-old Ozzie and his baby sister, Lily.

“I’ve been feeding my dogs raw food for 20 years,” she said. “And they so benefited. When we made the switch, which I did with some hesitation I have to say, I was like, ‘I don’t know if I want to do this.’

“But I knew we had to do something because we lost our first dog when she was only 10 years old to cancer.”

Sarah’s last two dogs lived to age 16 with few health problems, which she attributes to their raw diet. She says she hopes Ozzie and Lily will have similar longevity.

“Ozzie gets a combination diet: raw meat, vegetables, fruits,” Wadleigh said. “He gets powdered greens every day.”

Many people that called her during the recall were concerned that transitioning their pets to a new food would be difficult, Wadleigh says.

“It can be but it isn’t always the case, though,” she said. “It depends on what other elements are involved in the food you’re feeding. If you’ve been feeding the same food for years on end, then chances are there should be a transition period.”

That transition period depends upon your pet. Veterinarians recommend blending the new and old food, increasing the amount of new food over time. Vets also suggest feeding pets smaller portions of the new food several times daily until they are used to it.

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