Soooooooo I guess chicken soup it is? LoL

I suggest looking at the Orijen website. Their products are excellent.

i prefer wellness over chicken soup. My cat has been eating it for 5 years and my yorkie has been eating it on and off since she was a baby. never had a problem with it. i don't feel that the amounts of garlic in it as sufficient enough to cause any harm, otherwise they would have lots of complaints about it. And the tomatoes don't seem to cause a problem either. both of these foods have tomatoes in them as do a few other brands. i'd rather have a tiny amount of garlic in the food i feed instead of corn/corn meal/corn gluten meal.

Honestly, I don't like Chicken Soup much because it is made by Diamond and they have their own problems... That doesn't mean it is a bad food, but it isn't my first choice. Or how about Canidae, Natural Balance, California Natural?

If you want to feed food with grain, go with this one if you are comfortable.:)
If you want to feed grainless, there is always Orijen and Nature's Variety.
I don't like grainless kibble because it is high protein and the dog needs more moisture and may not drink enough. If I were to feed grainless, it would be canned or I would add water to the kibble.

I probably should explain why I won't feed garlic at all. Even small amounts fed over a period of time have been shown to destroy hemoglobin and cause asthmatic attacks. Most dogs do fine with it but if I was going to feed garlic, I'd be getting RBCs checked and even if that isn't a big deal, I see no reason to take the chance. Rebecca Remilard (you can google her), Ellie's nutritionist also doesn't support feeding garlic because of this.

I was once a big proponent of EVO, and while I don't think it's "bad" - I would use caution - bc, oddly, it is one grain-free, higher-protein food that for *some* reason went for a higher fat content - and I've been tracking this trend (in my head) on YT where dogs experience nausea and/or diarrhea after trying EVO - finally, I noticed the fat content thing.

SO, if you want to go grain free - I'd probably recommend Natures Variety Instinct, or Orijen - and/or does Evangers have that option?

As for Chicken Soup (eh) - and comparing ingredients etc. - it's a good exercise - but just always consider the manufacturer and whether you agree with their practices and philosophies - bc if you were to compare say, Menu Foods to Diamond to Natures Variety......oooooooooooh, sugar......you'd have have a whole 'nother thread of opinions to gather there! :D

It sounds like you really want to make a wise choice - so I'd really consider the manufacturer, if it were me. If that does interest you, you might really dig Natures Variety.

Oddly enough, Nature's Variety canned (and only canned I think) is made at Menu. They are their manufacturers. I won't feed anything from Menu because they took too long to recall the poisoned food.:(

WHAT??????????? We should get MyFairLacy in on this bc she has a direct line to one of their reps. I know their raw is not from there - they are actually very upfront about where they get it - and Michele filled me in on that.

BUT, wow. Their canned is made at Menu? I'm calling them today. My blood is boiling. Why am I so mad about this? I feel like I'm personally injured! LOL!

She already knows.:)
They feel that Menu is a great company and none of their products were affected. They could have been though and you would think any good company would pull their food after one of the execs at Menu sold half of his stocks 3 weeks before the recall. Menu recalled things 3 weeks late as far as I know and now they are very quiet. I do not support them at all.

As far as Nature's Variety, it says it on their site.
I will copy and paste it.

http://www.naturesvariety.com/links/...om%20Sandy.pdf

Or you can go to naturesvariety.com, click on News and then go down to 3/19/07. Wellness's canned foods are also made there.:thumbdown

And here is the link about the stocks being sold but it is supposedly unrelated...not sure about that.

And when the special on how dog food is made was on a couple months ago, Menu declined to be interviewed about the recall.

Oh, NV just peed on my parade. I think the steam that came out of my ears just blew out my eardrums - so I won't hear a thing they have to say in response to my bitching at them on the phone today. Oh WELL! :p

SO, here are my recommendations for canned foods: *cricket sound* *cricket sound* *cricket sound*

LOL..I'm surprised you hadn't heard about this.

Nope - really hadn't. I don't know if it had been originally made elsewhere - then when they became more successful, transferred to Menu - and I just didn't notice (and I assumed their philosophy would forbid them to grab Menu's coat tails, dayum). I gave them the benefit of the doubt - and now I'm going to have to take that back, which I hate. I thought it was ONE company with whom I could sort of just relax a little, you know? And now they just jabbed me in the ribs.

Does this affect the NV raw in any way?

Nope, thankfully. JUST the canned. I had a loooooooooooong talk today with Jessica from NV on the phone. I knew ahead of time the raw wasn't in question. Still, I was upset about the canned. By the way, they make their raw on site, at their own facility - no outsourcing whatsoever. I just want to assure you of that. :)

As for the canned, they basically had 2 choices (as they saw it) - Menu, or overseas. What I did learn from Jessica is that *each* client (as in, NV is a client) tells Menu *exactly* what goes in the food in terms of ingredients AND where those ingredients are to come from. In other words, NV says "you are to use free range chicken from New Zealand, from this farmer; these supplements, from this company; these veggies, from this vendor" and so on. So, from what I understand, the reason NV's canned wasn't tainted is bc they still follow their philosophy - superior/premium/wholesome ingredients - they just have Menu put it together for them.

I did ask her "where does Evangers have theirs canned?" bc I don't think Evangers works w/ Menu - but she honestly didn't know. She was very helpful and put up with all of my soap-boxing - I'm sure I was a real pain in her arse, poor girl. But, I let her know that there are people who are upset that NV and Menu are shaking hands - and that, in our minds, the philosophies of those 2 businesses just don't gel.

To me, it's like mixing Lucky Charms with Kashi GoLean - I mean come on - what's the message, ya know?

She said it was a valid concern and she'd pass it up the food chain, but I'm sure it'll just be tomorrow's post-it on the bottom of someone's shoe. Oh well.