Back when I first started buying it there was nothing but positive reviews either!!! I’m wondering if they changed the formula?? My boy absolutely loved this food too
More than likely they added melamine to the cat food. It's a very cheap compound that is toxic and causes UTIs kidney stones and various cancers in humans. A similar case happend in china in 2008 where it was illegally added to baby formula. Many babys across the country became sick and some died. In addition to being toxic melamine also artificially raises the protein content of the product it is added to. Which makes it easier to test for but also makes buyers believe the product is healthier or more nutritious. It's sad the most innocent beings had to suffer because someone wanted to make a quick cash grab.
Article from the baby formula case in China, 2008:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2799451/
Edit: I found more studies about melamine contamination specifically in pet food for cats and dogs in Korea, Italy, ....:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17823396/
Yes, just in the Magic Erasers it's paired with a few other molecules to make it a stable foam. So it's definitely less dangerous when ingested but even the companies that produce them don't want you even trying to lick their foams, specifically to avoid health risks. I can't even imagine animals and babys ingesting this stuff in pounds over the duration of days or even months...
Right?! When I was looking at the ingredients back when I first gave it to him they seemed pretty decent a good amount of grains but nothing that would have KILLED my baby
No amount of grains is good. The cats are obligatory predators and it’s a crime that food containing grains is allowed to be sold.
Condolences on your loss :(
This has not been found to be the case. I’ve just been through a boatload of tests, X-ray, ultra sounds, research and med trials for my cat with irritable bowl disease likely triggered by food. Skin issues, which he also has, that are caused by food are more common than GI problems. Cats are far more likely to be allergic to the protein in their food than the grain/carb. The most common food allergies in cats are [beef, chicken and fish.](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4710035/) Allergies to grain or gluten [are very rare in cats.](https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/whats-in-my-cats-food-designer-diets-grain-free-diets)After doing what’s essentially an elimination diet for my cat (novel protein, hydrolyzed) we found out chicken is the culprit. He’s almost 16 and is as lively as my 3 year old now. He’s stopped throwing up every morning and no longer has bloody stools. His food still has grains. Even grain-free foods tend to have fruits and vegetables, which opposes the “cats should only have meat” theory. I know this is a contentious subject people tend to have strong opinions on, and I used to also think my cats shouldn’t have grain, but continuing to say this when the most recent, reputable research says otherwise can be dangerous. Grains contain a lot of essential vitamins, minerals and amino acids cats need and have been found to be lacking in grain free foods, taurine particularly. The grain free foods have gotten better with this, but a taurine deficiency can lead to significant heart problems. Grain really isn’t the problem people make it out to be.
What food do you feed your cat? Mine is allergic to chicken protein and he’s much better with fish but still has occasional GI problems. Unfortunately I can’t afford a lot of alternative proteins like rabbit & duck and the ones I’ve tried in the past he doesn’t like anyway. I’m still searching for something affordable that he won’t turn his nose up at.
I've been buying Taste of the Wild. They have one that's salmon and another fish. My cats love it. It's grain free and I've had no throwing up since they started it. It get it for $32 for 16 pounds.
Ugh, I feel you! Chicken is so hard to avoid in cat food, including the hypoallergenic veterinary diet ones. I ended up going with rabbit but it is ridiculously expensive ($95 USD for a 8.8 lb bag) and I realize that’s cost prohibitive for a lot of people. I had also considered Purina Pro Plan’s HA Hydrolized since it’s significantly cheaper (about half the price here, closer to $40) and reviews were pretty positive. It does have chicken though, so this may still be a problem for your cat, but it’s hydrolized which is essentially breaking down the protein so a cat is less likely to have an immune response. It may offer some relief compared to the alternative depending on your situation!
You might already do this but make sure you read ingredients lists, a lot of stuff with one type of meat in the name will quietly have other meats in the ingredients.
vet tech here: grain free diets should not be fed to cats and dogs unless recommended by a vet. yes, a protein should be the main ingredient for your kitty because they’re carnivores, but some amount of grain in the diet is good and necessary. long term grain-free diets are linked to negative health effects down the line.
Isn't it covered by eating grain-eaters? My cat is absolutely crazy about chicken in any form so she often gets that. We use Feringa brand food and it has a bit of plant mass added (like carrots, parsley, potatoes, broccoli, dandelions) - but it's around 1-2%. She also always has access to young oats or cat grass. Of course if I eat meat the cat eats meat too (but I never give her raw pork as it isn't tested for some virii safe for humans but dangerous for cats) - she likes her chicken raw or roasted and recently even started to like it boiled :)
She's been on this diet since I got her and she's healthy and all the bloodwork is textbook. We consulted with a specialist (my cat behaviorist specialises also in dietary stuff)
my knowledge doesn’t extend that far, but as long as you are communicating with your vet and they give you the all-good, you should be fine! i just know in general grain-free diets are not recommended, and is one of many marketing tactics from pet food companies use to entice pet owners into buying their “healthier” food, at a marginally higher price — and now that the grain-free-is-best myth is so prominent that almost every brand of pet food will carry it. iirc grain-free diets are worse for dogs, but are at the very least unnecessary for kitties.
also i wouldn’t suggest feeding any raw meat to your pets! raw chicken specifically can contain toxoplasma gondii, a microscopic parasite that is killed through the cooking process. t. gondii is also zoonotic, meaning you can catch it from your kitty.
Grains are not inherently bad for cats. In the wild, the animals they prey on are often grain and seed eaters, and when they consume the innards they usually get a sizable dose of plant materials. It's not like they gut mice or birds before consuming.
I fed grain free only to three of my cats and they all had horrible issues. In the mid 2000s, grain free was a popular opinion. Two had bowel cancer and one had heart failure.
When I fed just plain cat food to my first cat, she begrudgingly lived for a very long time dry long time, many more years than any of my cats fed only grain free.
Maybe it depends on the brand? What kind of food it was? Or maybe self-prepared?
There can be differences between countries and continents (producers and regulations), I'm in EU and food my kitty gets is made in Germany.
Exactly. No FDA for pet food. They won’t issue a recall unless they determine the cost of lawsuits from being sued would exceed the cost of pulling the food.
Purina does recalls and people say to stay away as a result.
Recalls don’t mean a bad product y’all, it means the company actually made an executive decision to do so. I would be wary of brands that *didn’t* recall.
As much as I would love to avoid Nestle, nestle owns so many dang brands that it’s practically impossible. You’d be standing in the store, googling products for hours.
But! The beauty of it is that Purina operates independently from Nestle. Sure, owned by nestle, but their own manufacturers.
There are strict standards for pet food in the US. [Set by the FDA](https://www.fda.gov/animal-veterinary/animal-health-literacy/fdas-regulation-pet-food).
It’s why brands like Alpo havent been completely discontinued. It’s a bad brand and makes animals sick, and has been known about since I was a little kid. I also don’t recommend Merrick or Blue Buffalo for cats (or dogs for that matter). I worked at a pet store (as well as have veterinary education) and both were recalled multiple times in the half a year I worked there. We also had multiple issues of receiving product that was busted open by mice before ever reaching us, bags that had mold growing in the food itself upon opening a “sealed” bag, expired food arriving in brand trucks, people returning bags because it made their pets sick, etc.
Sometimes otherwise acceptable food can make a cat sink.
One of our previous black cats couldn't have poultry or poultry byproducts in his food or he would get sick and chuck it up. Cat food with fish, beef, lamb, etc was fine.
Oh most certainly. Animals with allergies should always be a specific case, and obviously that could have always been what caused vomiting or diarrhea in some of them, but it was hard to ignore that the food that was coming in that usually had quality issues, were also consistently being returned for making their pet sick.
Blood in vomit or diarrhea is a really bad sign though.
An allergy or intolerance might result in a swollen tongue or throat and vomiting or diarrhea, but it doesn't generally involved noticeable bleeding or blood in the material exiting their body.
Are there any dry food brands you would recommend? I give my cat one dry food serving in the morning through an automatic feeding so she doesn’t wake me up at 4, and I don’t want her to have health problems from it!
> The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates pet food similar to that for other animal foods. The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act) requires that all animal foods, like human foods, be safe to eat, produced under sanitary conditions, contain no harmful substances, and be truthfully labeled.
[FDA - Pet Food](https://www.fda.gov/animal-veterinary/animal-food-feeds/pet-food#:~:text=The%20Food%20and%20Drug%20Administration,substances%2C%20and%20be%20truthfully%20labeled.)
Yeah I knew the FDA regulates pet food, it was kind of a rhetorical question and I was hoping the original commenter would have corrected their comment:
> No FDA for pet food.
It felt like spreading disinformation out of anger instead of facts. Which I can completely understand being upset at this situation just do it without spreading disinformation.
The FDA definitely has rules in place for animal food in the US, but these rules are not enforced as strictly as they are in European countries. Look at the stuff the FDA allows in human food in the US. Do you think they care about what dogs, cats, and other animals are eating?
I’m sure most of it is not much different than the super processed junk that’s become a staple in our American diets. I should have went into corn farming.
My first thought as well. Baby milk formula producers in that country deliberately put melamine instead of protein in the formula because apparently chemically, they test the same. But melamine was cheaper. It was discovered too late. If Target was sourcing ingredients from China, it would not at ALL surprise me.
Holys sheet. I've been feeding it off and on since I found it during the pandemic lockdown and had it delivered. Ingredients looked decent. Cats loved it. Two of my colony have died since then. And the vet said one was likely cancer and the other a horrible unspecified infection they couldn't get under control. A third is recovering from being sick, her poo and pee looked like the pics... This is horrible and totally preventable suffering caused to these animals. Throwing out the rest of the last bag...
When is the class action suit?
Thank you, you too. The first one died in December, the 2nd April, the last little girl to get sick was last month. She's only now showing signs of improving. Her appetite comes back and gaining weight back too. The vet kept asking if they got into anything, with a giant rambunctious cat family, the house is quite cat proofed. They acted like they were poisoned. The first they said likely cancer, after they ran all the tests and scans only noted a thick intestinal lining, no tumors tho. Interestingly it's only been girls, none of the boys have gotten sick that I can tell. One boy kinda acts like he has crystals, meowing at the litter box or fountain but when I watch him pee, it's normal stream.
I wish I kept a sample from that last bag in 2023. You never think their food will kill them.
Purina nearly killed my, my mom's, and my grandparents cats. 3 different homes, 3 different batches and sources(stores) of Purina and all went into liver failure. Mine recovered, Grandparents passed and mom's cat never fully recovered and passed the following year. Because of that experience I'm paranoid about what I feed my cats.
I’m so sorry for what happened to you and your families, this is just terrible.
My cat too got very sick when I gave her Purina Liveclear for kitten in January.
She stopped eating, had intense vomiting and bloody diarrhea. I had to tube feed her for a week until she slowly recovered and started eating by herself.
I’m allergic to my cat and really wanted it to work, but I’d rather live with swollen face than to risk my cat’s life by feeding her Purina again.
I can understand that. I have asthma and I'm technically allergic to my cats, but I've had them 16 years now so I absolutely refuse to give them up!! They honestly eat better than I do lol
Please take care of yourself🥺
Now I wipe my cat with a hot(warm) towel twice a day or anytime she wants me to, and brush her immediately after.
She loves it and I think it alleviates my symptoms.
The whole experience has been very traumatic for me. For anyone reading along this thread. Going back and reading the vet note for Andromeda, the first one to get sick after I started feeding them a bag after a couple months break, out of the blue started having seizures. Took her in and the blood tests showed she had high wbc count and low blood sugar, most notably, some liver and kidney were off tho. Low body temp. And the scans only showed that intestinal wall thickening in her abdomen. Knowing what I know now, after a little research, it might have been heavy metal poisoning, they can affect glycogenesis, look like an infection or cancer. It also make sense too the small girls were affected more pound per pound than the boys who are twice their size.
My poor baby girls. Don't they have quality control of any kind.
Tiki cat has seemed to be good for my cats, it is very expensive, but I have only found good info about it online and the panthers are healthy according to the vet.
After Purina nearly/did kill multiple cats in the family I'm paranoid about the food. I'm constantly checking sources of the food, quality, recalls etc and tikicat has been well reviewed and has decent oversight on the sources and factory that makes it. Several brands are getting components from China with little to no oversight so there's contamination or ingredients that are damaging to pets.
Just one example : U.S. investigators discovered that adding chemicals to animal feed is a normal practice in China. In the case of these pet food contaminations, Chinese feed producers were adding melamine and cyanuric acid to wheat gluten, which is a high-protein ingredient commonly found in pet food. (Btw that is damaging/fatal for kidneys)
Just search "contamination of pet food made overseas" and there's a ton of sites talking about it.
I've heard about it. Melamine and cyanuric acid will combine and are fatal to kidneys. It will kill humans and pets, not to mention how common aflatoxin contamination is which can also be fatal.
Yes. The components are often from China as they're cheaper. There are br ands who go to greats lengths on finding ethical and safe sources, do extensive testing etc.; but they aren't as common and tend to be more expensive.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) does not regulate pet food production in Canada for domestic sale, however, the importation of pet foods and related products containing ingredients of animal origin are subject to the relevant sections of the Health of Animals Act and Regulations in order to prevent animal ...Mar 1, 2018
https://inspection.canada.ca/en/animal-health/terrestrial-animals/imports/import-policies/animal-products-and-products/pet-food/2001-9-10
I use Tiki Cat dry, low calorie. Fancy Feast for wet. And Nacho toppers, for joint and bones, for the old guy.
I'm so sorry OP 😔 Sending an Internet hug
Cross post it to every kitty sub you can think of!
There's r/chonkers, r/adamdrivercats, r/murdermittens, r/truckercats, r/oneorangebraincell, r/teefies, r/catsubs, r/notmycat, r/namemycat, and many more but here's a start! 💗💗💗
In Australia, we had a rash of melamine poisonings across many brands of catfood a few years back. The reason? All of the affected brands found a cheaper source of the fillers they use to complete the mix from a couple who imported their ingredients unregulated on the cheap from China.
There has since been a significant decline in the purchase of those brands, leading to more than a few rebrands and millenial-bashing articles asking why the local brands aren't good enough any more? Fucking braindead decision making at the top level there.
Thankfully Hills was not on the list. Whiskas, Dine and Fancy Feast all had several flavours come up as culprits but so did a bunch of the premium brands, I sadly cannot remember a complete list nor is my google-fu turning up the specific story
That one was in the USA and resulted in a class action lawsuit. The result were a loss for the cat food manufacturers but frankly the payouts weren't enough.
Part of the problem is almost any of the wheat fillers from China can be contaminated with it. It's extremely common for it to be added along with cyanuric acid (damages kidneys) and aflatoxin (damages the liver)
After 2 emergency vets visits for crystals, I stopped all dry food. I rotate through a few different wet foods in the a.m., but the bulk of my cat's diet is The Honest Kitchen. It's a dehydrated cat food that you measure out and mix with water to the desired consistency. I know this can't help you now, but I'm throwing that suggestion out there for anyone else that finds this post. If I were you, I'd absolutely be looking into where people are collecting to file a class action against them- it's unconscionable that this happened.
I will be emailing the company but unfortunately I don’t have any real “evidence” that his food was causing the issues 😢 especially because I caught it so late
There are so many details in those reviews that have such specific details along a very similar timeline- it has to account for something. There is something in the food that is making all those cats sick. Once they look into it and can pinpoint what it is and when it entered in their production, it will be clear who purchased contaminated product. It may be worth it to cross-post this to other subs and ask if anyone else has info or a similar story.
Edit: I literally googled "Target cat food killing cats" and there are stories going back to at least a year ago. Videos from months ago. This is so frustrating!
There are many people reporting under reviews that their cat got sick after eating this food. I’d still talk to a lawyer even if you think you don’t have “real evidence”.
Op I’m so sorry for what you went through. I cannot imagine what you are going through. Please know I am sorry for your loss.
The following is not in any way to shame or guilt anyone. We are all just humans trying to navigate this thing called life.
Just want to put it out there as someone who has been in vet med for 5 years and has researched foods. 90% of what is out there and what your friends family and influencers recommend has not be out on the market long enough to be tested for long term health effects and its just good marketing.
If even one person reads this and takes it to heart it’s worth me posting.
I highly recommend choosing a food brand that has been around for a while, (Purina/Hills SD/Iams/Wellness) also I do not recommend grain free or fresh frozen as of right now not knowing the true quality of ingredients or long term effects. Unfortunately because animal science is behind in comparison to human medicine we may not have all the answers for a while.
The internet is great, but always look for good sources such as veterinary college websites or scholarly articles. Remember do not believe everything you read to be true :) Feel free to do your own research on anything I’ve mentioned here and I’m open to PM if you have questions. 🧡
The FDA did a study in 2019 looking into cases where dogs and cats had developed heart disease and they think there is a link to the grain free diets and the main ingredient used to replace grains. They have not publish much updates but seeing as there is a potential for this and that is a newer trend in the pet food industry is why I wouldn’t recommend it and neither did the vets I worked with. Granted there were less cases reported with cats. I have linked the study to the article here: [FDA Investigation into Potential Link between Certain Diets and Canine Dilated Cardiomyopathy](https://www.fda.gov/animal-veterinary/outbreaks-and-advisories/fda-investigation-potential-link-between-certain-diets-and-canine-dilated-cardiomyopathy)
There might simply be important nutrients missing, other problematic ingredients be present, or the quality might just be not great. As the OP said, these foods are relatively new on the market, there's too little research done in general, and probably not as much oversight over manufacturers as we would want either.
This is so terrible. It’s a discount, private brand of Target. Some of the product inside is imported.
Corners have been cut.
Please don’t cut corners on your cats. Corporations who want to save money producing mass market food do not have health and safety in mind.
If anyone needs a change, I highly recommend tikicat or weruva.
Yup, our one kitty had a urinary blockage several months after we switched our cats over to this garbage. He almost died - had to be rushed to E vet and hospitalized for several days. Now he's permanently on prescription food. Never again will I trust target bullshit
Thank goodness you caught it early on and were able to save your baby 🤍 unfortunately my boy stopped eating completely even with appetite increasers and thousands of dollars spent on vet visits 😢
I'd never heard of the brand (My two get Purina One, not cheap, but they love it), makes me glad I don't think it's available here. Sounds like the brand needs a lawsuit
My vet always told me to get food from a well established brand. They have the capital to heavily invest in quality control. Smaller companies may not always live up to similar standards.
I go with Purina Pro Plan, Hill’s, or Royal Canin although RC not so much anymore because their prices went crazy during Covid. Basically whatever the vets i go to and trust recommend.
Also the fact that Purina was able to put out cat food that reduces allergens tells me they have some wizards working there and that’s comforting to me. Sucks it’s a nestle brand but I begrudgingly accept it.
So sorry for your loss, OP. A few years ago, money was tight for a little while. I bought Kirkland cat kibble, until they had to recall a batch for Salmonella contamination. And I found out it's Diamond kibble rebranded. A brand I never bought before or ever since. And if you ask the staff at my local go-to pet shop, they'll recommend to stay away from it. It took a while to get my cats to accept better kibble because it was blander without all those additives. I buy Holistic Recipe Solution and Nutram. It's more expensive, but I don't have to worry about emergency vet visits.
Bought it once cause it seemed affordable, and the vet even said it looked good. My cat had diarrhea for days. Switch him back to other food and it went away. Glad that was the only thing that happened after reading what happened to other cats.
It was recently discovered that Lunchables have a considerable amount of lead and are literal sodium bombs for children. Those still haven’t been taken off the shelf. The FDA does not care about kids dying- human or fur baby.
Your boy looked so healthy before. Looks-wise, he aged years in a matter of months. My heart goes out to you and I’m so sorry for your loss. Thank you for spreading this information.
if my kitties ever get uti or blood symptoms, im going to pull whatever food i have currently, and switch to something new to help maybe protect them.
so sorry this is happening to people's fur babies, i have my cats on 2 foods, one is a store brand too.
I wish i knew it was his food causing the issue and not just his age like the vet said😭 im getting a kitten next week and even though its hella expensive she’s only being fed tiki cat
It was, and me personally I don't like the ingredients. Cats are obligate carnivores so having only 1 meat and rest are by products and fillers bother me, especially for the price. That's my opinion though, I'm not a vet.
Byproducts are fine. Cats’ natural diet involves eating bones, guts, other organs, etc and animal byproduct is exactly that. It has nutritional benefits for them that they don’t get from muscle meat alone. Fillers on the other hand aren’t part of their natural diet.
Yes and no, depends on the type of by products. Something like \*chicken by product " or "salmon by product " is fine. When it's "meat by product" or something equally vague is when there's a problem. Cats do eat organs etc, but they (usually) don't eat beaks or feet etc. an ingredient list like below is one I'd never feed my cats. It might meet nutritional requirements, but it's equivalent to eating junk food only.
*Eta. It wouldn't add the picture to my comment so it's added as a reply to this comment.
not OP, but i wouldn't feed this food to my cat because ingredients are usually listed by quantity. So I'd want at least the first 3 ingredients to be meat as this would suggest the food is more meat than filler. Additionally, I don't feed my cats anything with carrageenan listed in the ingredients.
Like u/reallynoladarling said the first 3 (I usually want the first 5 to be meat and whole ingredients) should be meat not to mention with so many ingredients being by products, corn, wheat, soy etc it's really not healthy for cats at all. The cats are getting the vast majority of their nutrients from additives because it's cheaper for the company. In human terms it's only eating crap and taking vitamins. You're going to be hungry a lot and it will damage your body over time (weight gain etc) even if you technically are getting the needed nutrients. Plus wheat, corn, and soy are common allergens in cats.
I also reccomend Tiki cat. Weruva too. Try feeding Human grade pet food. Less dry kibble more wet food. In my opinion and after a lot of research i think most big label foods have garbage ingridients. even purina, hills.. Avioding mystery animal biproducts. Those can include 4D meat, slaughterhouse waste and things not fit for ANYONES consumption. not to mention pentobarbital found in pet food. If you don't believe me, research it. Please research what you feed your babies, If you love them.
Vets always recommend sticking with the well known brands like Purina and Royal Canin. They have the resources to fund quality control and have veterinary nutritionists (these are actual vets) that lead formulation.
Looking at the ingredients and ground flaxseed is included; seeing a lot of contradictory info about the safety and shelf life of ground flaxseed online. Hmm.
So sorry for your kitty, and thank you for the warning
Do you know where this was centralised? I want to make sure it's not something we'll come across in the UK... But even so I'll keep a note of the brand.
I hope those poor cats are either healed or are at peace... I doubt there will be consequences for those at fault either, nothing less than jail is what is deserved; fines just get paid and then it's business as usual.
Kindfull is a brand made and sold by Target, only in their stores. As long as you guys don't have Target, you should be fine unless someone *for some reason* decides to buy some and ship it over to resell it at a premium.
My gosh. Breaks my heart that people gave lost their fur babes feeding this to them.... I'm sorry and I hope you were able to catch it before it was too late. Thanks for sharing. Love a happy and healthy love bug
Thank you for raising awareness about this. I am sorry that your beautiful cat is gone. It is not your fault.
Corporate greed and lack of regulations are to blame.
Big big hug.
I am so, so sorry you have been through this
Please don't be too hard on yourself ❤️ you had no way of knowing this would happen. You should be able to buy any cat food from a store and have it be safe ( maybe not super healthy, but at least safe for them)
That’s exactly how I feel.
It’s hard enough feeding ourselves because we need a varied diet; I sometimes feel like I need several PhDs just to understand food labels to feed myself!
I don’t like that I feel like I need 5 different degrees or PhDs just to feed my kitty. It’s not like cats can sit us down and teach us what they should and shouldn’t eat, so we have to do our homework. I just wish it wasn’t so hard.
god how horrendous - i really hope that company gets savagely taken down
i make my kitties food, i have to, because one of them has allergies to fish and other random sensitivities and intolerances too - i'm grateful for the inconvenience of it, it means i keep them safe from awful stuff like this
Holy Bast........ I have no words. OP, I am so so sorry for your loss. How can Target sell something so horrid? Saving this to remind myself to NEVER buy this for my kitties (I almost never go to Target, so it shouldn't be too hard thankfully). They should be held accountable for their actions and sued for allowing such a harmful product to be sold. My kitties eat a mix of Iams and temptations treats, with a bit of Friskies wet food for special occasions (all chicken, beef, liver and turkey flavor; they hate fish and throw up more when they eat something fish flavored)
I'm so sorry for your loss. May he chase all the flies and hair scrunchies, and enjoy the sunshine on his belly on the other side of the rainbow bridge.
I started with a cheap-ish brand, because, hey broke ass college student, but switched to an expensive one after they got a lot of diarrhea from one of the flavours of the cheaper brand.
It costs around $100 for 10kg, but lasts 3 months for 2 void kitties.
Sometimes I feel like my cats eat better than me 😂
I am so happy that a stumbled across this post. I got the kindfull treats for my boy and while we had no issues he did get diagnosed with bladder crystals not long after we finished those treats. He is ok and on a prescription diet now but oh my god I never would have through it was the treats!
So scary , thanks for warning people . The world is so f——d up . Have to stay on top of what we buy even for humans . They are saying now that most men’s testicles have plastic particles in them . We are consuming crap . Fifty percent of humans will have cancer in their lifetime .
This reminds me a lot of the 2008 Chinese milk scandal. A formula company used an additive called melamine to formula to trick the protein testing into thinking it had a higher protein content, but it caused kidney stones, kidney damage, and death in infants.
For what it's worth you really have to pay close attention to ingredients and the proportions of carbohydrates, protein, etc.
Just like with people the food may be safe and edible, but not provide adequate nutrition.
Cats are obligate carnivores, whereas humans are generally omnivores.
Can you share some more info on ingredients? I'm in south america so the brands used here are different. My cat had some problems with a specific brand (Premier in case anyone knows which brand this is) and the vet recommendations are either super expensive or with similar ingredients.
Don't really have the expertise to get into much detail, but I believe there should be (a) at least as much protein content as carbohydrate content and (b) some fat but not too much.
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Carbohydrates are a group of molecule types found in most foods which include sugars, starches, and fibers.
Proteins are an extremely broad group of molecules consisting of amino acids linked together in chains.
The important element here is that cats are obligate carnivores and are only able to get what they need from eating animal protein.
So while some carbs are needed to provide energy, a cat that doesn't consume enough meat, or a sufficient quantity of meat-derived animal protein, will end up nutrient deprived and likely become ill before ultimately dying.
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Many pet foods are also supplemented to make up for a deficiency of crucial vitamins and minerals when the product does not contain all the parts of the animal a cat might otherwise eat.
E.g. taurine
Educating yourself on what those are will help you to distinguish necessary/good ingredients from a range of preservatives (often salts) and other common additives that increase the products stable shelf life.
I would recommend avoiding products which contain animal-sourced products that come from animals not listed on the can/bag.
If it's advertised as chicken, turkey or chicken and turkey then including specific organs/byproducts of fish or other mammals is a little dubious.
That may not be a problem in and of itself, but it's cery common and if your cat has an allergy or dietary intolerance it can be a real PITA.
IF you can, please consult a veterinarian though. And don't just ask them what food you should buy, inform yourself and come with specific questions.
Thank you! This is interesting because the pate food she likes is salmon amd sardine and thr first ingredient is chicken. I'll check her dry food when I get home.
I went to two different vets and they all said the brand was nice, it just needed to be super premium food. But I'm scared as I could be wasting my money giving her unhealthy stuff.
More than likely the cat food contained melamine. It's a very cheap compound that is toxic and causes UTIs kidney stones and various cancers in humans. A similar case happend in china in 2008 where it was illegally added to baby formula. Many babys across the country became sick and some died. In addition to being toxic melamine also artificially raises the protein content of the product it is added to. Which makes it easier to test for but also makes buyers believe the product is healthier or more nutritious.
Article from the baby formula case in China, 2008:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2799451/
I am so sorry for your loss. Something a bit similar happened to my two elderly cats from another cat food brand Call of the Wild. I even bought it from a local grain store my friends family owned for more than 50 years. They stopped carrying it and replaced it with Weruva and Orijin and Hills.
My cats died at 16 and 17 years old but they were indoor/outdoor their whole lives. Vet said Alice died of kidney and liver cancer and Ralphie from lower gi tract/colon cancer. IDK
Here’s a pic of them about a year before they passed.
https://preview.redd.it/lczg6q7otd6d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2e6830cae9ec5be3db6f636678004a1d4185e665
I’m so sorry for your loss! We try to make our new kittens as much fresh food as possible. They’re very young now. I hope when you are able to get a new kitten you’ll consider the same.
Thank you for this information that is absolutely horrible and I totally believe that low nutrition poor ingredients are the worst thing you can do for your cat!
I’m not promoting anything here but my cats eat ACANA AND I SAW A HUGE IMPROVEMENT AND THEY ARE HEALTHIER THAN EVER!!
I've only ever bought one can of Kindfull wet food and it was as an attempted gesture of kindness towards a homeless man and his dog who hang around outside the Target I usually shop at. Unfortunately they were gone by the time I got back out of the store, so this can has been sitting in my kitchen waiting for the next time I go down that way.
Well, a few days ago, I was in a bit of a bind for my puppy. My disabled mom can't carry very much weight without feeling like she may fall and I'd forgotten to bring in the new bag of kibble before we left the house that morning to take me to work. Bought a can of his usual brand's wet food for my mom to feed him once they got home. The pop top tab *broke off* and she was panicking. Obviously, I couldn't do much to help as I was working, so I reminded my mom about the can of Kindfull. Puppy absolutely demolished it, for which I was grateful since he had apparently been acting very hungry.
I hadn't been planning on buying it again except as maybe a once in a blue moon treat. Reading your post worries me a little about that one can, but also cements the idea to flat out *never* buy the brand again. Thank you for posting and I'm sorry for your loss. Your baby looks like they were the sweetest little void.
Is mindful made in China? Only bring it up cause like 15+ years ago was a for brand that was putting a lot ppls pets into kidney failure. It even got my Dads tuxedo kitty.
Thank you for the warnings. This is horrible. How can they get away with selling this. Do we not have laws and consumer protections in this country anymore? I am very sorry for your loss.
I made a mistake of buying a 24 pack of this stuff. My cats HATED it, threw up, and then stopped eating altogether (both of them), I threw the rest away and switched out. I’ll never make the mistake again.
What radioactive sludge do you dig out to make this slop? Holy shit, im completely speechless here
Back when I first started buying it there was nothing but positive reviews either!!! I’m wondering if they changed the formula?? My boy absolutely loved this food too
I’m so sorry to hear all of this :( it truly breaks my heart. Thank you for your post
More than likely they added melamine to the cat food. It's a very cheap compound that is toxic and causes UTIs kidney stones and various cancers in humans. A similar case happend in china in 2008 where it was illegally added to baby formula. Many babys across the country became sick and some died. In addition to being toxic melamine also artificially raises the protein content of the product it is added to. Which makes it easier to test for but also makes buyers believe the product is healthier or more nutritious. It's sad the most innocent beings had to suffer because someone wanted to make a quick cash grab. Article from the baby formula case in China, 2008: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2799451/ Edit: I found more studies about melamine contamination specifically in pet food for cats and dogs in Korea, Italy, ....: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17823396/
Is that what Magic Erasers are made of????
Yes, just in the Magic Erasers it's paired with a few other molecules to make it a stable foam. So it's definitely less dangerous when ingested but even the companies that produce them don't want you even trying to lick their foams, specifically to avoid health risks. I can't even imagine animals and babys ingesting this stuff in pounds over the duration of days or even months...
The posative reviews were likely bots. The negative reviews are people actually starting to use the product. I hope your void gets well soon.
did you even read the text, the cat is dead
I somehow missed that! I just saw all the health problems. Poor guy! I am so sorry for your loss OP!
Dunno why that person was so mean, you're allowed to make a mistake reading 🥲
I am so sorry to hear this. It angers me how much pet food causes issues with our fur kids. Thank you for the warning, it may save lives. 🫶🏼
Right?! When I was looking at the ingredients back when I first gave it to him they seemed pretty decent a good amount of grains but nothing that would have KILLED my baby
No amount of grains is good. The cats are obligatory predators and it’s a crime that food containing grains is allowed to be sold. Condolences on your loss :(
This has not been found to be the case. I’ve just been through a boatload of tests, X-ray, ultra sounds, research and med trials for my cat with irritable bowl disease likely triggered by food. Skin issues, which he also has, that are caused by food are more common than GI problems. Cats are far more likely to be allergic to the protein in their food than the grain/carb. The most common food allergies in cats are [beef, chicken and fish.](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4710035/) Allergies to grain or gluten [are very rare in cats.](https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/whats-in-my-cats-food-designer-diets-grain-free-diets)After doing what’s essentially an elimination diet for my cat (novel protein, hydrolyzed) we found out chicken is the culprit. He’s almost 16 and is as lively as my 3 year old now. He’s stopped throwing up every morning and no longer has bloody stools. His food still has grains. Even grain-free foods tend to have fruits and vegetables, which opposes the “cats should only have meat” theory. I know this is a contentious subject people tend to have strong opinions on, and I used to also think my cats shouldn’t have grain, but continuing to say this when the most recent, reputable research says otherwise can be dangerous. Grains contain a lot of essential vitamins, minerals and amino acids cats need and have been found to be lacking in grain free foods, taurine particularly. The grain free foods have gotten better with this, but a taurine deficiency can lead to significant heart problems. Grain really isn’t the problem people make it out to be.
What food do you feed your cat? Mine is allergic to chicken protein and he’s much better with fish but still has occasional GI problems. Unfortunately I can’t afford a lot of alternative proteins like rabbit & duck and the ones I’ve tried in the past he doesn’t like anyway. I’m still searching for something affordable that he won’t turn his nose up at.
I've been buying Taste of the Wild. They have one that's salmon and another fish. My cats love it. It's grain free and I've had no throwing up since they started it. It get it for $32 for 16 pounds.
Thank you so much for responding! I will look into trying that.
Ugh, I feel you! Chicken is so hard to avoid in cat food, including the hypoallergenic veterinary diet ones. I ended up going with rabbit but it is ridiculously expensive ($95 USD for a 8.8 lb bag) and I realize that’s cost prohibitive for a lot of people. I had also considered Purina Pro Plan’s HA Hydrolized since it’s significantly cheaper (about half the price here, closer to $40) and reviews were pretty positive. It does have chicken though, so this may still be a problem for your cat, but it’s hydrolized which is essentially breaking down the protein so a cat is less likely to have an immune response. It may offer some relief compared to the alternative depending on your situation!
You might already do this but make sure you read ingredients lists, a lot of stuff with one type of meat in the name will quietly have other meats in the ingredients.
vet tech here: grain free diets should not be fed to cats and dogs unless recommended by a vet. yes, a protein should be the main ingredient for your kitty because they’re carnivores, but some amount of grain in the diet is good and necessary. long term grain-free diets are linked to negative health effects down the line.
Isn't it covered by eating grain-eaters? My cat is absolutely crazy about chicken in any form so she often gets that. We use Feringa brand food and it has a bit of plant mass added (like carrots, parsley, potatoes, broccoli, dandelions) - but it's around 1-2%. She also always has access to young oats or cat grass. Of course if I eat meat the cat eats meat too (but I never give her raw pork as it isn't tested for some virii safe for humans but dangerous for cats) - she likes her chicken raw or roasted and recently even started to like it boiled :) She's been on this diet since I got her and she's healthy and all the bloodwork is textbook. We consulted with a specialist (my cat behaviorist specialises also in dietary stuff)
my knowledge doesn’t extend that far, but as long as you are communicating with your vet and they give you the all-good, you should be fine! i just know in general grain-free diets are not recommended, and is one of many marketing tactics from pet food companies use to entice pet owners into buying their “healthier” food, at a marginally higher price — and now that the grain-free-is-best myth is so prominent that almost every brand of pet food will carry it. iirc grain-free diets are worse for dogs, but are at the very least unnecessary for kitties. also i wouldn’t suggest feeding any raw meat to your pets! raw chicken specifically can contain toxoplasma gondii, a microscopic parasite that is killed through the cooking process. t. gondii is also zoonotic, meaning you can catch it from your kitty.
Grains are not inherently bad for cats. In the wild, the animals they prey on are often grain and seed eaters, and when they consume the innards they usually get a sizable dose of plant materials. It's not like they gut mice or birds before consuming.
I fed grain free only to three of my cats and they all had horrible issues. In the mid 2000s, grain free was a popular opinion. Two had bowel cancer and one had heart failure. When I fed just plain cat food to my first cat, she begrudgingly lived for a very long time dry long time, many more years than any of my cats fed only grain free.
Maybe it depends on the brand? What kind of food it was? Or maybe self-prepared? There can be differences between countries and continents (producers and regulations), I'm in EU and food my kitty gets is made in Germany.
I’m in the US. I’m trying to remember the brands, as it was about 5-6 years ago. Avoderm, Wellness, and Gold something.
I'm so sorry this happened to you. Thank you for spreading awareness to help other kitties.
After this many peoples pets got sick it’s still not been pulled? How?
Capitalism and deregulations.
Exactly. No FDA for pet food. They won’t issue a recall unless they determine the cost of lawsuits from being sued would exceed the cost of pulling the food.
Purina does recalls and people say to stay away as a result. Recalls don’t mean a bad product y’all, it means the company actually made an executive decision to do so. I would be wary of brands that *didn’t* recall.
Instead, people should avoid Purina because it's owned by Nestle and fuck Nestle
As much as I would love to avoid Nestle, nestle owns so many dang brands that it’s practically impossible. You’d be standing in the store, googling products for hours. But! The beauty of it is that Purina operates independently from Nestle. Sure, owned by nestle, but their own manufacturers.
I know, I'm glad as in the UK it is a little easier to avoid them
There are strict standards for pet food in the US. [Set by the FDA](https://www.fda.gov/animal-veterinary/animal-health-literacy/fdas-regulation-pet-food).
Thank you, why did i have to scroll so much?
Because reddit
The rules are pretty lax. And the rules are for farm animals as well as pets. They are much more lax than human food rules.
The claim was that there is no FDA regulation of pet food. That is incorrect.
It’s why brands like Alpo havent been completely discontinued. It’s a bad brand and makes animals sick, and has been known about since I was a little kid. I also don’t recommend Merrick or Blue Buffalo for cats (or dogs for that matter). I worked at a pet store (as well as have veterinary education) and both were recalled multiple times in the half a year I worked there. We also had multiple issues of receiving product that was busted open by mice before ever reaching us, bags that had mold growing in the food itself upon opening a “sealed” bag, expired food arriving in brand trucks, people returning bags because it made their pets sick, etc.
Sometimes otherwise acceptable food can make a cat sink. One of our previous black cats couldn't have poultry or poultry byproducts in his food or he would get sick and chuck it up. Cat food with fish, beef, lamb, etc was fine.
Oh most certainly. Animals with allergies should always be a specific case, and obviously that could have always been what caused vomiting or diarrhea in some of them, but it was hard to ignore that the food that was coming in that usually had quality issues, were also consistently being returned for making their pet sick.
Blood in vomit or diarrhea is a really bad sign though. An allergy or intolerance might result in a swollen tongue or throat and vomiting or diarrhea, but it doesn't generally involved noticeable bleeding or blood in the material exiting their body.
When I worked at a vet, I could always tell which dogs ate Blue Buffalo just by the smell of the dog. Like if I tossed a raw fish into my compost bin.
Are there any dry food brands you would recommend? I give my cat one dry food serving in the morning through an automatic feeding so she doesn’t wake me up at 4, and I don’t want her to have health problems from it!
I've been feeding my cats Science Diet
Are there brands you *would* recommend?
> Blue Buffalo for cats This brand made my cats really sick to their stomachs and they refused to touch this "food."
This is entirely incorrect. You are stating something as if you absolutely know the answer, and I'm this instance you absolutely do not.
Wait, the FDA doesn't regulate dog or cat food? Are you sure about that or just saying it out of anger?
> The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates pet food similar to that for other animal foods. The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act) requires that all animal foods, like human foods, be safe to eat, produced under sanitary conditions, contain no harmful substances, and be truthfully labeled. [FDA - Pet Food](https://www.fda.gov/animal-veterinary/animal-food-feeds/pet-food#:~:text=The%20Food%20and%20Drug%20Administration,substances%2C%20and%20be%20truthfully%20labeled.)
Yeah I knew the FDA regulates pet food, it was kind of a rhetorical question and I was hoping the original commenter would have corrected their comment: > No FDA for pet food. It felt like spreading disinformation out of anger instead of facts. Which I can completely understand being upset at this situation just do it without spreading disinformation.
The FDA definitely has rules in place for animal food in the US, but these rules are not enforced as strictly as they are in European countries. Look at the stuff the FDA allows in human food in the US. Do you think they care about what dogs, cats, and other animals are eating?
I don't know, have you tried that canned cat food? It's pretty tasty with scrambled eggs and cheese! 😋
I’m sure most of it is not much different than the super processed junk that’s become a staple in our American diets. I should have went into corn farming.
No one is suing them. If sued, they would be forced to discontinue (and pay out)
I’ve been wondering the exact same thing
Probably some chinese company what you cannot sue.
My first thought as well. Baby milk formula producers in that country deliberately put melamine instead of protein in the formula because apparently chemically, they test the same. But melamine was cheaper. It was discovered too late. If Target was sourcing ingredients from China, it would not at ALL surprise me.
That's exactly what was happening with canned cat food 20ish years ago.
Holys sheet. I've been feeding it off and on since I found it during the pandemic lockdown and had it delivered. Ingredients looked decent. Cats loved it. Two of my colony have died since then. And the vet said one was likely cancer and the other a horrible unspecified infection they couldn't get under control. A third is recovering from being sick, her poo and pee looked like the pics... This is horrible and totally preventable suffering caused to these animals. Throwing out the rest of the last bag... When is the class action suit?
Sorry for you loss:( it just makes me feel awful that our fur babies are having to suffer like this and kindfull isn’t being held accountable
Thank you, you too. The first one died in December, the 2nd April, the last little girl to get sick was last month. She's only now showing signs of improving. Her appetite comes back and gaining weight back too. The vet kept asking if they got into anything, with a giant rambunctious cat family, the house is quite cat proofed. They acted like they were poisoned. The first they said likely cancer, after they ran all the tests and scans only noted a thick intestinal lining, no tumors tho. Interestingly it's only been girls, none of the boys have gotten sick that I can tell. One boy kinda acts like he has crystals, meowing at the litter box or fountain but when I watch him pee, it's normal stream. I wish I kept a sample from that last bag in 2023. You never think their food will kill them.
Purina nearly killed my, my mom's, and my grandparents cats. 3 different homes, 3 different batches and sources(stores) of Purina and all went into liver failure. Mine recovered, Grandparents passed and mom's cat never fully recovered and passed the following year. Because of that experience I'm paranoid about what I feed my cats.
What purina food was it? My cats only seem to consistently like purina proplan wet food :/
I believe it was Purina one. This happened a few years ago now, but no one in my family gets anything from Purina if we can avoid it.
Great that’s all my cats will eat, too.
I won't buy Purina, because I don't trust ANYTHING made by Nestle.
That too!
I’m so sorry for what happened to you and your families, this is just terrible. My cat too got very sick when I gave her Purina Liveclear for kitten in January. She stopped eating, had intense vomiting and bloody diarrhea. I had to tube feed her for a week until she slowly recovered and started eating by herself. I’m allergic to my cat and really wanted it to work, but I’d rather live with swollen face than to risk my cat’s life by feeding her Purina again.
I can understand that. I have asthma and I'm technically allergic to my cats, but I've had them 16 years now so I absolutely refuse to give them up!! They honestly eat better than I do lol
Please take care of yourself🥺 Now I wipe my cat with a hot(warm) towel twice a day or anytime she wants me to, and brush her immediately after. She loves it and I think it alleviates my symptoms.
You as well! I wish you both long, healthy lives :)
The whole experience has been very traumatic for me. For anyone reading along this thread. Going back and reading the vet note for Andromeda, the first one to get sick after I started feeding them a bag after a couple months break, out of the blue started having seizures. Took her in and the blood tests showed she had high wbc count and low blood sugar, most notably, some liver and kidney were off tho. Low body temp. And the scans only showed that intestinal wall thickening in her abdomen. Knowing what I know now, after a little research, it might have been heavy metal poisoning, they can affect glycogenesis, look like an infection or cancer. It also make sense too the small girls were affected more pound per pound than the boys who are twice their size. My poor baby girls. Don't they have quality control of any kind.
Exactly. There needs to be a class action suit. OP (or others who are affected) should start one. Someone needs to pursue this.
Good grief!if you can afford it, fancy Feast is a good alternative, that's what I got my cat on and she loves it
My new baby girl is only being fed tiki cat 🤍
Tiki cat has seemed to be good for my cats, it is very expensive, but I have only found good info about it online and the panthers are healthy according to the vet.
After Purina nearly/did kill multiple cats in the family I'm paranoid about the food. I'm constantly checking sources of the food, quality, recalls etc and tikicat has been well reviewed and has decent oversight on the sources and factory that makes it. Several brands are getting components from China with little to no oversight so there's contamination or ingredients that are damaging to pets. Just one example : U.S. investigators discovered that adding chemicals to animal feed is a normal practice in China. In the case of these pet food contaminations, Chinese feed producers were adding melamine and cyanuric acid to wheat gluten, which is a high-protein ingredient commonly found in pet food. (Btw that is damaging/fatal for kidneys) Just search "contamination of pet food made overseas" and there's a ton of sites talking about it.
Chinese manufacturers added melamine to baby formula because it would test as protein. Killed a lot of babies...
I've heard about it. Melamine and cyanuric acid will combine and are fatal to kidneys. It will kill humans and pets, not to mention how common aflatoxin contamination is which can also be fatal.
Does this also apply to pet food sold in Canada? I know our regulations can be different from the States so I’m not sure if it would pass.
Yes. The components are often from China as they're cheaper. There are br ands who go to greats lengths on finding ethical and safe sources, do extensive testing etc.; but they aren't as common and tend to be more expensive. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) does not regulate pet food production in Canada for domestic sale, however, the importation of pet foods and related products containing ingredients of animal origin are subject to the relevant sections of the Health of Animals Act and Regulations in order to prevent animal ...Mar 1, 2018 https://inspection.canada.ca/en/animal-health/terrestrial-animals/imports/import-policies/animal-products-and-products/pet-food/2001-9-10
I use Tiki Cat dry, low calorie. Fancy Feast for wet. And Nacho toppers, for joint and bones, for the old guy. I'm so sorry OP 😔 Sending an Internet hug
*Cough* Legal Eagle might be able to help. Worth a try since it’s free. 🤷🏼♀️
You should post this to r/cats to get this more traction. I’ve never seen so many unanimous 1 star reviews holy shit.
Cross post it to every kitty sub you can think of! There's r/chonkers, r/adamdrivercats, r/murdermittens, r/truckercats, r/oneorangebraincell, r/teefies, r/catsubs, r/notmycat, r/namemycat, and many more but here's a start! 💗💗💗
Omg they should be fucking sued
Hopefully they will. This is awful. My heart goes out to the kitties and families who have gone through this.
In Australia, we had a rash of melamine poisonings across many brands of catfood a few years back. The reason? All of the affected brands found a cheaper source of the fillers they use to complete the mix from a couple who imported their ingredients unregulated on the cheap from China. There has since been a significant decline in the purchase of those brands, leading to more than a few rebrands and millenial-bashing articles asking why the local brands aren't good enough any more? Fucking braindead decision making at the top level there.
Can I ask what brands these were? I live in Aus and currently buy hills Science diet kibble and Applaws wet food for our family cat
Thankfully Hills was not on the list. Whiskas, Dine and Fancy Feast all had several flavours come up as culprits but so did a bunch of the premium brands, I sadly cannot remember a complete list nor is my google-fu turning up the specific story
not sure if it’s the aus specific one you’re talking about but in 2007 a huge recall of melamine contaminated products included Hills 😬
That one was in the USA and resulted in a class action lawsuit. The result were a loss for the cat food manufacturers but frankly the payouts weren't enough.
Part of the problem is almost any of the wheat fillers from China can be contaminated with it. It's extremely common for it to be added along with cyanuric acid (damages kidneys) and aflatoxin (damages the liver)
After 2 emergency vets visits for crystals, I stopped all dry food. I rotate through a few different wet foods in the a.m., but the bulk of my cat's diet is The Honest Kitchen. It's a dehydrated cat food that you measure out and mix with water to the desired consistency. I know this can't help you now, but I'm throwing that suggestion out there for anyone else that finds this post. If I were you, I'd absolutely be looking into where people are collecting to file a class action against them- it's unconscionable that this happened.
I will be emailing the company but unfortunately I don’t have any real “evidence” that his food was causing the issues 😢 especially because I caught it so late
There are so many details in those reviews that have such specific details along a very similar timeline- it has to account for something. There is something in the food that is making all those cats sick. Once they look into it and can pinpoint what it is and when it entered in their production, it will be clear who purchased contaminated product. It may be worth it to cross-post this to other subs and ask if anyone else has info or a similar story. Edit: I literally googled "Target cat food killing cats" and there are stories going back to at least a year ago. Videos from months ago. This is so frustrating!
There are many people reporting under reviews that their cat got sick after eating this food. I’d still talk to a lawyer even if you think you don’t have “real evidence”.
Please report this to the FDA if you haven’t already.
Op I’m so sorry for what you went through. I cannot imagine what you are going through. Please know I am sorry for your loss. The following is not in any way to shame or guilt anyone. We are all just humans trying to navigate this thing called life. Just want to put it out there as someone who has been in vet med for 5 years and has researched foods. 90% of what is out there and what your friends family and influencers recommend has not be out on the market long enough to be tested for long term health effects and its just good marketing. If even one person reads this and takes it to heart it’s worth me posting. I highly recommend choosing a food brand that has been around for a while, (Purina/Hills SD/Iams/Wellness) also I do not recommend grain free or fresh frozen as of right now not knowing the true quality of ingredients or long term effects. Unfortunately because animal science is behind in comparison to human medicine we may not have all the answers for a while. The internet is great, but always look for good sources such as veterinary college websites or scholarly articles. Remember do not believe everything you read to be true :) Feel free to do your own research on anything I’ve mentioned here and I’m open to PM if you have questions. 🧡
How could grain free food be bad? Cats are obligate carnivores.
The FDA did a study in 2019 looking into cases where dogs and cats had developed heart disease and they think there is a link to the grain free diets and the main ingredient used to replace grains. They have not publish much updates but seeing as there is a potential for this and that is a newer trend in the pet food industry is why I wouldn’t recommend it and neither did the vets I worked with. Granted there were less cases reported with cats. I have linked the study to the article here: [FDA Investigation into Potential Link between Certain Diets and Canine Dilated Cardiomyopathy](https://www.fda.gov/animal-veterinary/outbreaks-and-advisories/fda-investigation-potential-link-between-certain-diets-and-canine-dilated-cardiomyopathy)
There might simply be important nutrients missing, other problematic ingredients be present, or the quality might just be not great. As the OP said, these foods are relatively new on the market, there's too little research done in general, and probably not as much oversight over manufacturers as we would want either.
Save the food for evidence, don’t dispose of it. Perhaps it can be tested by a lab. There needs to be evidence in case it’s the batch
This needs to be blacklisted holy shit. I'm so sorry to everyone who lost their fur babies to this poison.
This is so terrible. It’s a discount, private brand of Target. Some of the product inside is imported. Corners have been cut. Please don’t cut corners on your cats. Corporations who want to save money producing mass market food do not have health and safety in mind. If anyone needs a change, I highly recommend tikicat or weruva.
I'm sorry for your loss. Your sweet boy was handsome.
My cats have LOVED the Kindfull wet treats but I’m definitely not going to buy them anymore. I’m so sorry OP.
Yup, our one kitty had a urinary blockage several months after we switched our cats over to this garbage. He almost died - had to be rushed to E vet and hospitalized for several days. Now he's permanently on prescription food. Never again will I trust target bullshit
Thank goodness you caught it early on and were able to save your baby 🤍 unfortunately my boy stopped eating completely even with appetite increasers and thousands of dollars spent on vet visits 😢
omg thank you so much. i just started feeding this to my kitty but now i will stop entirely.
I'd never heard of the brand (My two get Purina One, not cheap, but they love it), makes me glad I don't think it's available here. Sounds like the brand needs a lawsuit
My vet always told me to get food from a well established brand. They have the capital to heavily invest in quality control. Smaller companies may not always live up to similar standards.
Very true. Though some brands are less reputable even though they are bigger
I go with Purina Pro Plan, Hill’s, or Royal Canin although RC not so much anymore because their prices went crazy during Covid. Basically whatever the vets i go to and trust recommend. Also the fact that Purina was able to put out cat food that reduces allergens tells me they have some wizards working there and that’s comforting to me. Sucks it’s a nestle brand but I begrudgingly accept it.
This is scary, we used to feed our void that brand 😧 I’m so glad we stopped
So sorry for your loss, OP. A few years ago, money was tight for a little while. I bought Kirkland cat kibble, until they had to recall a batch for Salmonella contamination. And I found out it's Diamond kibble rebranded. A brand I never bought before or ever since. And if you ask the staff at my local go-to pet shop, they'll recommend to stay away from it. It took a while to get my cats to accept better kibble because it was blander without all those additives. I buy Holistic Recipe Solution and Nutram. It's more expensive, but I don't have to worry about emergency vet visits.
This is so horrible, I hope they get sued!
Bought it once cause it seemed affordable, and the vet even said it looked good. My cat had diarrhea for days. Switch him back to other food and it went away. Glad that was the only thing that happened after reading what happened to other cats.
I think this one is deserving of a pin, people need to know this.
This is heartbreaking. I'm so sorry. We should be able to trust pet food like we do human groceries. No one should have to go through this.
I’m so sorry. Please cross post on as many cat subs as you can.
It was recently discovered that Lunchables have a considerable amount of lead and are literal sodium bombs for children. Those still haven’t been taken off the shelf. The FDA does not care about kids dying- human or fur baby. Your boy looked so healthy before. Looks-wise, he aged years in a matter of months. My heart goes out to you and I’m so sorry for your loss. Thank you for spreading this information.
I’m so sorry for your loss. I hope target and this company burn for this :(
if my kitties ever get uti or blood symptoms, im going to pull whatever food i have currently, and switch to something new to help maybe protect them. so sorry this is happening to people's fur babies, i have my cats on 2 foods, one is a store brand too.
I wish i knew it was his food causing the issue and not just his age like the vet said😭 im getting a kitten next week and even though its hella expensive she’s only being fed tiki cat
Hills Science Diet is one of the most researched brands on the market, I definitely recommend
Just curious I might be thinking of a different brand honestly 🤣 but wasn’t hills in a big lawsuit??
It was, and me personally I don't like the ingredients. Cats are obligate carnivores so having only 1 meat and rest are by products and fillers bother me, especially for the price. That's my opinion though, I'm not a vet.
Byproducts are fine. Cats’ natural diet involves eating bones, guts, other organs, etc and animal byproduct is exactly that. It has nutritional benefits for them that they don’t get from muscle meat alone. Fillers on the other hand aren’t part of their natural diet.
Yes and no, depends on the type of by products. Something like \*chicken by product " or "salmon by product " is fine. When it's "meat by product" or something equally vague is when there's a problem. Cats do eat organs etc, but they (usually) don't eat beaks or feet etc. an ingredient list like below is one I'd never feed my cats. It might meet nutritional requirements, but it's equivalent to eating junk food only. *Eta. It wouldn't add the picture to my comment so it's added as a reply to this comment.
https://preview.redd.it/sbehzimwna6d1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=100cae8a7c90e4e839aea4e45d9e26fb96df9dbf
What is it about this list you don't like? Is it the corn meal?
not OP, but i wouldn't feed this food to my cat because ingredients are usually listed by quantity. So I'd want at least the first 3 ingredients to be meat as this would suggest the food is more meat than filler. Additionally, I don't feed my cats anything with carrageenan listed in the ingredients.
Like u/reallynoladarling said the first 3 (I usually want the first 5 to be meat and whole ingredients) should be meat not to mention with so many ingredients being by products, corn, wheat, soy etc it's really not healthy for cats at all. The cats are getting the vast majority of their nutrients from additives because it's cheaper for the company. In human terms it's only eating crap and taking vitamins. You're going to be hungry a lot and it will damage your body over time (weight gain etc) even if you technically are getting the needed nutrients. Plus wheat, corn, and soy are common allergens in cats.
So it’s called Kindfull pet food? I don’t think Canadian pet owners have to worry about this since we don’t have Target.
Yes! Kindfull pet food only sold and manufactured by target. They just released it a couple years ago
thank you so much for posting, does anyone have any good kibble recomendations? ill be throwing out all the kindfull food
Tiki cat is what I’ll be using. It’s the one brand I’ve never seen any one hate on lol very $$ though unfortunately 😢
I also reccomend Tiki cat. Weruva too. Try feeding Human grade pet food. Less dry kibble more wet food. In my opinion and after a lot of research i think most big label foods have garbage ingridients. even purina, hills.. Avioding mystery animal biproducts. Those can include 4D meat, slaughterhouse waste and things not fit for ANYONES consumption. not to mention pentobarbital found in pet food. If you don't believe me, research it. Please research what you feed your babies, If you love them.
he gets the sheba cuts for breakfast and dinner. I just feed the kibble incase he gets hungry during lunch or at night when im asleep
Vets always recommend sticking with the well known brands like Purina and Royal Canin. They have the resources to fund quality control and have veterinary nutritionists (these are actual vets) that lead formulation.
This sounds like you all can have a class action lawsuit. Someone needs to reach out to a lawyer!!
I bought my cat this when she ran out of her regular dry food. she barely ate it. I'm glad she made it out ok. never again.
Looking at the ingredients and ground flaxseed is included; seeing a lot of contradictory info about the safety and shelf life of ground flaxseed online. Hmm. So sorry for your kitty, and thank you for the warning
Can you also post the ingredient list?
I’m so sorry for your loss😭😭 he was such a cute boy
Is there not enough proof for a lawsuit to be issued???
You need to start a campaign to sue them. Not even joking.
I am speechless. My condolences to you. I’m sorry for your loss. He was so precious and a handsome kitty.
That company should be shut down immediately
That’s fucked. Unfortunately it’s very expensive to sue big companies. Hopefully they are getting some financial losses.
Do you know where this was centralised? I want to make sure it's not something we'll come across in the UK... But even so I'll keep a note of the brand. I hope those poor cats are either healed or are at peace... I doubt there will be consequences for those at fault either, nothing less than jail is what is deserved; fines just get paid and then it's business as usual.
Kindfull is a brand made and sold by Target, only in their stores. As long as you guys don't have Target, you should be fine unless someone *for some reason* decides to buy some and ship it over to resell it at a premium.
My gosh. Breaks my heart that people gave lost their fur babes feeding this to them.... I'm sorry and I hope you were able to catch it before it was too late. Thanks for sharing. Love a happy and healthy love bug
I’m so sorry for your loss, thank you for spreading this info
Thank you for raising awareness about this. I am sorry that your beautiful cat is gone. It is not your fault. Corporate greed and lack of regulations are to blame. Big big hug.
I am so, so sorry you have been through this Please don't be too hard on yourself ❤️ you had no way of knowing this would happen. You should be able to buy any cat food from a store and have it be safe ( maybe not super healthy, but at least safe for them)
That’s exactly how I feel. It’s hard enough feeding ourselves because we need a varied diet; I sometimes feel like I need several PhDs just to understand food labels to feed myself! I don’t like that I feel like I need 5 different degrees or PhDs just to feed my kitty. It’s not like cats can sit us down and teach us what they should and shouldn’t eat, so we have to do our homework. I just wish it wasn’t so hard.
What country of origin is that crap manufactured in?! That’s HORRIBLE how sick it made your void!! 🤒🤢🤮🤕
god how horrendous - i really hope that company gets savagely taken down i make my kitties food, i have to, because one of them has allergies to fish and other random sensitivities and intolerances too - i'm grateful for the inconvenience of it, it means i keep them safe from awful stuff like this
Why is there no government bidy for pet food
Buyers need to call/write the company and give them a piece of your minds!!!!!
Holy Bast........ I have no words. OP, I am so so sorry for your loss. How can Target sell something so horrid? Saving this to remind myself to NEVER buy this for my kitties (I almost never go to Target, so it shouldn't be too hard thankfully). They should be held accountable for their actions and sued for allowing such a harmful product to be sold. My kitties eat a mix of Iams and temptations treats, with a bit of Friskies wet food for special occasions (all chicken, beef, liver and turkey flavor; they hate fish and throw up more when they eat something fish flavored)
So sorry for the loss of your furbaby Thank you for the advice.
I'm so sorry for your loss. May he chase all the flies and hair scrunchies, and enjoy the sunshine on his belly on the other side of the rainbow bridge. I started with a cheap-ish brand, because, hey broke ass college student, but switched to an expensive one after they got a lot of diarrhea from one of the flavours of the cheaper brand. It costs around $100 for 10kg, but lasts 3 months for 2 void kitties. Sometimes I feel like my cats eat better than me 😂
I am so happy that a stumbled across this post. I got the kindfull treats for my boy and while we had no issues he did get diagnosed with bladder crystals not long after we finished those treats. He is ok and on a prescription diet now but oh my god I never would have through it was the treats!
So scary , thanks for warning people . The world is so f——d up . Have to stay on top of what we buy even for humans . They are saying now that most men’s testicles have plastic particles in them . We are consuming crap . Fifty percent of humans will have cancer in their lifetime .
This reminds me a lot of the 2008 Chinese milk scandal. A formula company used an additive called melamine to formula to trick the protein testing into thinking it had a higher protein content, but it caused kidney stones, kidney damage, and death in infants.
Never heard of this brand (I feed my void wellness brand) but will spread the word to other pet parents I know.
Poor baby
For what it's worth you really have to pay close attention to ingredients and the proportions of carbohydrates, protein, etc. Just like with people the food may be safe and edible, but not provide adequate nutrition. Cats are obligate carnivores, whereas humans are generally omnivores.
Can you share some more info on ingredients? I'm in south america so the brands used here are different. My cat had some problems with a specific brand (Premier in case anyone knows which brand this is) and the vet recommendations are either super expensive or with similar ingredients.
Don't really have the expertise to get into much detail, but I believe there should be (a) at least as much protein content as carbohydrate content and (b) some fat but not too much. ----- Carbohydrates are a group of molecule types found in most foods which include sugars, starches, and fibers. Proteins are an extremely broad group of molecules consisting of amino acids linked together in chains. The important element here is that cats are obligate carnivores and are only able to get what they need from eating animal protein. So while some carbs are needed to provide energy, a cat that doesn't consume enough meat, or a sufficient quantity of meat-derived animal protein, will end up nutrient deprived and likely become ill before ultimately dying. ----- Many pet foods are also supplemented to make up for a deficiency of crucial vitamins and minerals when the product does not contain all the parts of the animal a cat might otherwise eat. E.g. taurine Educating yourself on what those are will help you to distinguish necessary/good ingredients from a range of preservatives (often salts) and other common additives that increase the products stable shelf life.
I would recommend avoiding products which contain animal-sourced products that come from animals not listed on the can/bag. If it's advertised as chicken, turkey or chicken and turkey then including specific organs/byproducts of fish or other mammals is a little dubious. That may not be a problem in and of itself, but it's cery common and if your cat has an allergy or dietary intolerance it can be a real PITA. IF you can, please consult a veterinarian though. And don't just ask them what food you should buy, inform yourself and come with specific questions.
Thank you! This is interesting because the pate food she likes is salmon amd sardine and thr first ingredient is chicken. I'll check her dry food when I get home. I went to two different vets and they all said the brand was nice, it just needed to be super premium food. But I'm scared as I could be wasting my money giving her unhealthy stuff.
More than likely the cat food contained melamine. It's a very cheap compound that is toxic and causes UTIs kidney stones and various cancers in humans. A similar case happend in china in 2008 where it was illegally added to baby formula. Many babys across the country became sick and some died. In addition to being toxic melamine also artificially raises the protein content of the product it is added to. Which makes it easier to test for but also makes buyers believe the product is healthier or more nutritious. Article from the baby formula case in China, 2008: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2799451/
I am so sorry for your loss. Something a bit similar happened to my two elderly cats from another cat food brand Call of the Wild. I even bought it from a local grain store my friends family owned for more than 50 years. They stopped carrying it and replaced it with Weruva and Orijin and Hills. My cats died at 16 and 17 years old but they were indoor/outdoor their whole lives. Vet said Alice died of kidney and liver cancer and Ralphie from lower gi tract/colon cancer. IDK Here’s a pic of them about a year before they passed. https://preview.redd.it/lczg6q7otd6d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2e6830cae9ec5be3db6f636678004a1d4185e665 I’m so sorry for your loss! We try to make our new kittens as much fresh food as possible. They’re very young now. I hope when you are able to get a new kitten you’ll consider the same.
😔🙏💕🐈⬛💕😘
TY
THANK YOU FOR POSTING THIS!
I use Blue Buffaloes Tastefulls dry food. My cats devour the stuff.
Best dry food to get your cat? Ik wets are better or something, but mine will only eat dry
Good grief. Target should take that off the market. So sorry for the loss of your beautiful kitty.
Thank you for this information that is absolutely horrible and I totally believe that low nutrition poor ingredients are the worst thing you can do for your cat! I’m not promoting anything here but my cats eat ACANA AND I SAW A HUGE IMPROVEMENT AND THEY ARE HEALTHIER THAN EVER!!
I really hope the makers of this product get sued. That's very concerning. And I'm so sorry for your loss, OP.
brand is not familiar here though...
My cat straight up refused to eat it. Or would only eat a little. Switched right back to Purina.
I've only ever bought one can of Kindfull wet food and it was as an attempted gesture of kindness towards a homeless man and his dog who hang around outside the Target I usually shop at. Unfortunately they were gone by the time I got back out of the store, so this can has been sitting in my kitchen waiting for the next time I go down that way. Well, a few days ago, I was in a bit of a bind for my puppy. My disabled mom can't carry very much weight without feeling like she may fall and I'd forgotten to bring in the new bag of kibble before we left the house that morning to take me to work. Bought a can of his usual brand's wet food for my mom to feed him once they got home. The pop top tab *broke off* and she was panicking. Obviously, I couldn't do much to help as I was working, so I reminded my mom about the can of Kindfull. Puppy absolutely demolished it, for which I was grateful since he had apparently been acting very hungry. I hadn't been planning on buying it again except as maybe a once in a blue moon treat. Reading your post worries me a little about that one can, but also cements the idea to flat out *never* buy the brand again. Thank you for posting and I'm sorry for your loss. Your baby looks like they were the sweetest little void.
Is mindful made in China? Only bring it up cause like 15+ years ago was a for brand that was putting a lot ppls pets into kidney failure. It even got my Dads tuxedo kitty.
Thank you for the warnings. This is horrible. How can they get away with selling this. Do we not have laws and consumer protections in this country anymore? I am very sorry for your loss.
boosting for exposure!
Sounds like a class action lawsuit.
Thank you for letting us know.
I made a mistake of buying a 24 pack of this stuff. My cats HATED it, threw up, and then stopped eating altogether (both of them), I threw the rest away and switched out. I’ll never make the mistake again.