Opinions On Merrick Hard Foods

[Cara]

I was just wondering if sny of you guys feed your dog Merrick Hard Dog food? What is your opinions on it? Is this food healthy, etc....Right now i feed my 16 month old Innova Evo but she doesnt seem to like it anymore.

[beckinwolf]

QUOTE (Cara @ Feb 7 2009, 03:33 PM)

I was just wondering if sny of you guys feed your dog Merrick Hard Dog food? What is your opinions on it? Is this food healthy, etc....Right now i feed my 16 month old Innova Evo but she doesnt seem to like it anymore.[/B]

Merrick's hard food is an approved food by Whole Dog Journal, and its also rated 5 stars on the dog food analysis website, so I'd say its a good food. They seem to have lots of good ingredients: fruits and veggies and a variety of proteins to choose from. Also, I would be careful with Evo. There's a member here who had some bloodwork done on her dog after he was on Evo and some of his levels were off. Evo has a lot of protein and fat, more than most of our little dogs can handle. Since they aren't working off the proteins and fats, they build up in the body, at least that's how I interpreted it.

[jmm]

I fed it for a while but ended up with stinky gas and more stool than normal.

[dwerten]

I do not like it as it has a rendering plant on the same premises as the food manufacturer so i steer clear of merrick anything

[Kissi's Mom]

I feed Merrick canned (New Zealand Summer Sausage) and Grammy's Pot Pie kibble. Kissi loves both. She has IBS and I have to be very careful what I feed her...she has done very well on both products. One of the things I also like about Merrick products is when/if you have a problem/question you can pick up the phone and talk with a real live person, and if that person does not have the answer to your question they will do their best to find the answer and call you back. I have been told that their ingredients are human grade even though I do not believe they advertise this. Also, if you call them about anything they always send you coupons for discounts or free products. We questioned ONE can several months ago and were sent a coupon for an entire case of the product (about $30 worth). They do seem to stand behind their products.

good luck,
Linda

[kathym]

I FEED BACI THE MERRICK GRAMMY'S POT PIE KIBBLE WITH HOME COOKED ORGANIC CHICKEN -BROWN RICE-PUMPKIN ETC. I TALKED TO THE STORE WHERE I BUY MY DOG FOOD PLUS MY VET AND THEY BOTH FEELL THAT ITS A GOOD FOOD .

[Cara]

Thank you for all your answers

[dwerten]

ask them if they have a rendering plant on the same premises? Also i found rat poop in my dogs vet food and i sent it to them and they sent me coupons as well. I am stuck with this vet food due to my dogs condition unfortunately but i was upset about it. I just know two dogs that had stomach cancer that ate only merrick food. The owner of Merrick is always lobbying to put rendering parts into the food legally but since the plant is there it is probably happening already. --Google it and see. I spread this as one of the yorkie ladies i know her dog ate this and had a softball size tumor in his stomach removed and he died a few months later as it was cancer. Another lady on a maltese group said her dog had several stomach tumors removed and all she fed was merrick. I cannot help but beleive it is tied to the food. The book foods pets die for goes over rendering plants and how they put diseased meat in dog food and Merrick is lobbying for this constantly and has both a pet food manufacturing company and a rendering plant he owns.



QUOTE (Kissi's Mom @ Feb 7 2009, 10:40 PM)

I feed Merrick canned (New Zealand Summer Sausage) and Grammy's Pot Pie kibble. Kissi loves both. She has IBS and I have to be very careful what I feed her...she has done very well on both products. One of the things I also like about Merrick products is when/if you have a problem/question you can pick up the phone and talk with a real live person, and if that person does not have the answer to your question they will do their best to find the answer and call you back. I have been told that their ingredients are human grade even though I do not believe they advertise this. Also, if you call them about anything they always send you coupons for discounts or free products. We questioned ONE can several months ago and were sent a coupon for an entire case of the product (about $30 worth). They do seem to stand behind their products.

good luck,
Linda[/B]

[Kissi's Mom]

[QUOTE]
ask them if they have a rendering plant on the same premises? Also i found rat poop in my dogs vet food and i sent it to them and they sent me coupons as well. I am stuck with this vet food due to my dogs condition unfortunately but i was upset about it. I just know two dogs that had stomach cancer that ate only merrick food. The owner of Merrick is always lobbying to put rendering parts into the food legally but since the plant is there it is probably happening already. --Google it and see. I spread this as one of the yorkie ladies i know her dog ate this and had a softball size tumor in his stomach removed and he died a few months later as it was cancer. Another lady on a maltese group said her dog had several stomach tumors removed and all she fed was merrick. I cannot help but beleive it is tied to the food. The book foods pets die for goes over rendering plants and how they put diseased meat in dog food and Merrick is lobbying for this constantly and has both a pet food manufacturing company and a rendering plant he owns.

Okay, I am confused. Did you find "rat poop" in Merrick food? Was it determined for sure that the "cancers" came from eating Merrick food, if so, then why is Merrick still in business??? I would certainly like to see documentation to support this claim. Also, are you saying that Merrick is putting things into their foods illegally?? To my knowledge, they had no recalls when so many of the other companies were having huge problems. I certainly do not want to feed anything to Kissi that will do her harm, but it looks to me like the only sure way to know what your dog is eating (or yourself for that matter) is to prepare everything yourself. Of course, if you don't "grow your own", you still have no way of knowing exactly what you are feeding. And even that could be a problem, unless you grow your own feed for your chickens, cattle, etc. Just look at the current peanut butter recall...that stuff was going to schools, hospitals, nursing homes, etc. I am not necessarily defending Merrick, if there is proof, not rumor, then I would love to see the documentation.
Linda

[dwerten]

Have you read the book foods pets die for which explains what a rendering plant is? I certainly would not want to find out with my dog about stomach cancer that is for sure but i find it odd two dogs eating merrick both have stomach tumors and he has a rendering plant on his land. Also if you google it there is information that he is lobbying for rendering parts to be put in his pet foods.

The food recall had nothing to do with rendering parts it was to do with the rice product so foods with the rice product from china were affected.

The rat poop was found in a vet food purina ha and when i called the company they said send it to us and i did and never heard back and they sent me coupons to buy more of their vet food. The food is white and there was a brown rat poop with little grey hairs coming out of it - they asked if it was a kibble from another food and i said with grey hairs coming out of it hardly. This can happen in human foods too as well. Disgusting but i am stuck with feeding this food due to health concerns and thousands of dollars later i have no choice.

This is why i am looking into home cooking and reading alot on it and on several nutrition groups as i do not trust pet food any longer after this whole recall stuff

How do you sue for stomach cancer that would be hard pressed to sue this company for that but if it occurs enough there can be a class action lawsuit.

below is the information on this company

http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=merri...amp;FORM=MSNH11

It is so hard to know what company to trust anymore but this one I do not trust at all - why is he lobbying to put the rendering stuff into his dog food? It is not illegal to use rendering parts in animal food either and why they do it and put meat by products in other dog foods. by products are all the parts not used in human consumption and can be diseased.