replacement for Innova cat food

[doghead]

My cats like Natural Balance and seem to do well on it. Canned. For dry, I use Solid Gold. I hear Lotus is good too, but have only used samples. I stopped with Innova due to all the recalls.

[Sonic_Spork]

When I hear about a recall, I don't automatically black-list the brand. I get online and read about it. Certain things are of more concern to me than others, I guess. First off, many of these recalls come about because a food was considered to be "contaminated" with salmonella when tested. Funny thing about that...it sounds awful to humans, because we are so wary of what it can do to us, but it's actually not a problem for cats. Cats can eat raw poultry, in fact it's great for them, and that is a huge risk for salmonella (as anyone who knows anything about food prep will tell you)...when there is a salmonella related recall, it doesn't mean the food is bad for your cat. It means that if you handle it and then don't realize YOU should wash your hands, then YOU could take ill from it possibly.

EDIT: I just remembered though...dry food slows digestion, which could possibly cause a salmonella infection to have the time it needs to make a cat sick. One reason salmonella shouldn't be a problem for your typical healthy cat on a WET diet is that their digestive system should move stuff through pretty quickly.

Interestingly though, most recalls I hear about lately have been dry and treats. I rarely hear about cans being recalled. Since I don't feed my cat dry, there is another reason it doesn't freak me out so much. And also, I've read on more than one website that discusses how superior wet food is...you shouldn't add water to dry, or mix dry into wet, because the dry food harbors loads of bacteria which then thrive once it sits in moisture in a dish. So...yeah. Ew.

But back to the matter of recalls and the reputation of companies...I'd rather trust a company that discovered a problem themselves and honestly came forward with a recall, than one that was caught by some outside source and was forced to make a recall to remedy the situation. So yeah, I'm gonna do my homework before I make a judgment...

The only info I can find about Wellness ever recalling canned cat food was back in 2011 there was a thiamine deficiency issue...

One thing I do is to try and feed my cat a variety of brands and types, insofar as he will eat them, to try and limit his intake of any particular questionable ingredient and give him a variety in his nutrition. (Also I buy more of particular premium brands when they are on sale because that stuff is expensive!)