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  #1  
Old November 14th, 2006, 05:55 PM
amyk amyk is offline
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possible problem with kirkland?

so the boys are on kirkland brand dog food (from costco) and have been for at least 3 months or so. this is about their 3rd 40lb bag. buddy's gas problem seemed to be solved, so i was quite happy about this.

and then a week or two ago i opened them a new bag. buddy's gas problem sky-rocketed. worse than ever before. even his poos smelled a lot more (sorry if this is too much info ops: ).

bubba's poos have had some green in them (bile i assume) and he's had some softies (which is odd for him).

yesterday buddy started to have diarrhea in the evening. and it continued to this morning and he also vomited twice. so he hasnt gotten his regular food today. i cooked him some ground beef and rice mixture and he seems to be recovering. no more diarrhea or vomiting since this morning and he is keeping his rice/beef mixture down (i was a bit worried about this so i've been giving him really small portions every couple hours). and he doesnt have any gas.

i cant help but wonder if there's something wrong with this particular bag. all these problems seem to have happened after i opened this new bag.

~Amy
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  #2  
Old November 14th, 2006, 06:08 PM
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Does the food look or smell funny?
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  #3  
Old November 14th, 2006, 06:21 PM
amyk amyk is offline
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it looks/smells normal to me.

~Amy
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  #4  
Old November 14th, 2006, 06:28 PM
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Do you have an old bag lying around? Maybe they just changed the ingredients...
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  #5  
Old November 14th, 2006, 06:42 PM
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or it could be a coincidence... the only way to find out is get buddy back to normal and then try feeding him the kirkland food again. if he gets sick a 2nd time after eating, there's your answer... bring the food back!
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Old November 14th, 2006, 11:57 PM
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How's Buddy doing?
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  #7  
Old November 15th, 2006, 07:18 AM
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I used to buy Kirklands catfood from costco (that's why I got the membership ) but by about my third bag, not one of my five cats would even touch it So I put it in the backyard for the wildlife, and even they wouldn't touch it That was enough for me to stop buying it.
I switched to Petsmarts brand "Authority" and all my cats are doing great! Even my 18 year old guy "Lucky"has been doing amazing on it.
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  #8  
Old November 15th, 2006, 07:38 AM
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I've read about Kirkland dogfood here on the Forum,so I checked out the catfood and did not like the ingredients,but maybe the dogfood is better quality
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  #9  
Old November 15th, 2006, 10:26 AM
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My sister and I went to Costco at the weekend and of course I checked out the pet section (my favourite, after power tools). Ten Canadian bucks for a huge bag of Kirkland kibble. My heart raced as I flipped it over to read the ingredients, and sank as I saw the first ingredient - corn.
I think there's a good chance they changed the ingredients, Amyk. It is common practice in the food industry (I have this on good authority). They reduce the quality when sales are up and even improve it later if volumes drop. I guess all they have to do is fiddle with the knobs on the operating system and order in a few more truckloads of filler.
This food dance is exhausting. The more I read (thanks food gurus), the more I am drawn to raw.
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  #10  
Old November 15th, 2006, 12:41 PM
amyk amyk is offline
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well buddy is doing quite a bit better. he had a wet one this morning. but only pooped once so i guess it doesnt qualify as diarrhea. and he had a wet one last evening.

i checked the ingredients for the bag im feeding now, and a older bag. the ingredients are the same.

Quote:
I think there's a good chance they changed the ingredients, Amyk. It is common practice in the food industry (I have this on good authority). They reduce the quality when sales are up and even improve it later if volumes drop.


here's the ingredients. couldnt find them online so i'll type them myself.

Chicken and rice formula:

chicken, chicken meal, whole grain brown rice, cracked pearled barley, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and vitamin e), egg product, beet pulp, fish meal, flaxseed, natural flavour, brewers dried yeast, millet, carrots, peas, kelp, apples, dried skin milk, cranberry powder, potassium chloride, salt, choline chloride, rosemary extract, parsley flake, dried chicory root, glucosamine, vitamin e supplement, iron proteinate, zinc proteinate, copper proteinate, ferrous sulfate, zinc sulfate, copper sulfate, potassium iodide, thiamine mononitrate, manganese, manganese sulfate, sodium selenite, pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin b6), vitamin b12 supplement, menadione sodium bisulfite (source of vitamin k activity), riboflavin, vitamin d supplement, folic acid.

guaranteed analysis:
crude protein: 26% min.
crude fat : 16% min.
crude fiber : 4% max
moisture : 10% max
calcium : 1.0% min
phosphorus : 0.8% min
zinc : 200 mg/kg min.
selenium : 0.4 mg/kg min.
vitamin A : 15,000 IU/kg min.
vitamin E : 150 IU/kg min
omega-6 fatty acids: 2.5% min.
omega-3 fatty acids: 0.4% min.

363 kcal/cup

does anyone have any recommend food for our boys? we've tried evo, wellness, ca natural chicken, go natural.

maybe we should try canidae?

btw: im not willing to try wellness again because once i found some metal foil in a piece of their kibble.

~Amy
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  #11  
Old November 15th, 2006, 12:45 PM
amyk amyk is offline
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also, im a bit afraid to test the kirkland again on buddy once he's completely back to normal. that was horrible when he was sick (cleaning up after him, waking up at night every 1-2 hours). not sure if i want to take that chance!

also, could it be causes bubba's greenish poos? or is that unrelated?

~Amy
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  #12  
Old November 15th, 2006, 12:52 PM
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Really i think its the only way your going to know for sure is to get them doing good then retry them on it. If you switch and they get sick again, well then you wasted money on switching.
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  #13  
Old November 16th, 2006, 09:09 PM
x.l.r.8 x.l.r.8 is offline
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Have you changed treats, Riley had his first ever splat today, it was gross, we cold changed him to wellness (again) and he has never had a problem yet, however I dug out an old bag of puperronis to use them up and I regret it, there is nothing else it could have been, nothing else has changed, he had his supper and we jsut got back from a good walk and he had a normal poop again. So it was the 2 treats he got earlier, I'm sticking to my baked liver and cheap chicken treats and the occasional sausage left over from breakfast.
You may want to think what else they are having for treats. If that has changed or not. For a cheap brand I don't think the Kirland brand is bad at all, it sure beats the pants off Ol'roy.

Last edited by x.l.r.8; November 16th, 2006 at 09:14 PM.
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  #14  
Old November 16th, 2006, 09:17 PM
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Quote:
btw: im not willing to try wellness again because once i found some metal foil in a piece of their kibble.
that's pretty terrible
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  #15  
Old November 16th, 2006, 09:23 PM
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Did you tell wellness about the foil? Honestly it happens to all companies sooner or later. The best thing is if you tell them so they can investigate. To me it's not about finding something in the food or not (yeah, I know it's bad, but it happens), it's about how the company handles it when you tell them you did find something in the food. If they say "So?" then move on... If they send a courrier to come get the kibble to bring it to their lab and then send you a free bag, then think about it (has happened to me before).

Last edited by Prin; November 16th, 2006 at 09:28 PM.
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  #16  
Old November 17th, 2006, 09:11 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Prin View Post
To me it's not about finding something in the food or not (yeah, I know it's bad, but it happens), it's about how the company handles it when you tell them you did find something in the food. If they say "So?" then move on...
That was the response I got when I found a huge staple in a Nylabone edible bone. Nice, eh?
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  #17  
Old November 17th, 2006, 09:43 AM
amyk amyk is offline
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about the metal foil on the wellness kibble. the company asked me to mail them the kibble. i did. and then they wrote me a letter saying the mistake happened "during the packaging process" yet the metal went STRAIGHT through the piece of kibble. and then they gave me 3 $2 coupons for 40lb bags of wellness food. and the coupons expired after 1 month

since then i have not bought any wellness of old mother hubbard products

~Amy
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  #18  
Old November 17th, 2006, 02:58 PM
Prin Prin is offline
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Hmm... So for quality control issues, this is my new rating:
Nylabone = poor
Wellness = fair
Merrick = good
Milkbone (Kraft) = excellent

Milkbone was the one who sent a courrier to my house to pick up the cookie. They then gave me a 14KG box of milkbones free (back in the day when my doggies weren't allergic to much yet ). Merrick sent me triple my "problem item", even though there was nothing really wrong with it in the end.

We'll know how Tripett responds soon because I opened a can of green tripe and it was moldy blue...
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Old November 17th, 2006, 04:55 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by amyk View Post
about the metal foil on the wellness kibble. the company asked me to mail them the kibble. i did. and then they wrote me a letter saying the mistake happened "during the packaging process" yet the metal went STRAIGHT through the piece of kibble. and then they gave me 3 $2 coupons for 40lb bags of wellness food. and the coupons expired after 1 month

since then i have not bought any wellness of old mother hubbard products

~Amy

I hope they paid for the mail-in! 3 2$ coupons???? I would have been furious! I don't blame you for snubbing them (heck, just hearing the story makes me wanna snub 'em!!)
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Old November 17th, 2006, 04:56 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Prin View Post
We'll know how Tripett responds soon because I opened a can of green tripe and it was moldy blue...
as if green tripe wasn't gross enough on it's own
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  #21  
Old November 17th, 2006, 06:21 PM
Prin Prin is offline
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omg the stench from this can!! I've never smelled it so bad... But I have to keep it till monday in case they want it back.

Ooo maybe I should freeze it instead...
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  #22  
Old November 17th, 2006, 06:49 PM
amyk amyk is offline
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Quote:
I hope they paid for the mail-in! 3 2$ coupons???? I would have been furious! I don't blame you for snubbing them (heck, just hearing the story makes me wanna snub 'em!!)
oddly enough, postage cost me around $5 to mail the kibble to the states because i mailed it in a 'delivery conformation' evelope to make sure it was "lost in the mail". had i known i'd only be getting 3 $2 coupons, i could have just brought the whole bag back to the original store (super pet) and got a complete refund. but old mother hubbard wanting me to send the sample and my receipt, and the upc code to them

Quote:
omg the stench from this can!! I've never smelled it so bad... But I have to keep it till monday in case they want it back.

Ooo maybe I should freeze it instead...
if you freeze it, the mold or whatever the problem is might die. i dunno. so it wouldnt be testable for them. good luck!

~Amy
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  #23  
Old November 17th, 2006, 09:18 PM
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Have you checked the bag for an expiry date?

Diamond Pet Food is the maker of Kirkland pet food

you can try contacting them about the problem and see if their has been any change, you will need the serial number from the bag

http://www.diamondpet.com/
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