Homemade pet food. When my old dog was recovering from surgery, the vet said "I can sell you the prescription food, or you can cook up ground meat with whole kernel corn and some rice." I get one of those 1-lb tubes of frozen ground turkey ($1.29 at my shop), some rice and a box of frozen whole kernel corn. I brown the turkey in the bottom of a pot. I toss in about a cup of cooked rice and about a cup of the corn and let it cook until it's cooked all the way through. I stir fairly often to break the meat up into little pieces. The animals go mad for it.

You can add beef broth (or you can mix beef broth with cornstarch to make gravy), but I don't cause I'm lazy.

My cat's diet is unchanged: when it's canned food, it's Iams Chicken Entree and kibble. (It wasn't recalled). She eats mainly the dry kibble with a teaspoon or so of wet food or meat mixed in for flavor.

But to those worried about tainted pet food, I suggest - why not feed them real food? 50 years ago, cats and dogs ate table scraps, meat broth and rice, and the like. My cat is a fiend for chicken. I get split breast of chicken and debone it to get cheaper chicken breasts...then boil up the bones, which have plenty of meat scraps attached, and the resulting slurry of thick broth and chicken makes a great kibble gravy.

My sister, who is a vet tech, has scared us off of feeding table scraps with tales of doggie pancreatitis. I should call her and find out what she's feeding her pets these days.

Same stuff as usual. Nutro Max Small Bites (dry). Trader Joe's Dog Biscuits. She seems her usual self, which means she runs around like a lunatic for one hour and sleeps for 23 hours out of the day.

Sure, but I don't mean actual table scraps as in leftover fatty people food (I agree, bad news) - I just mean feeding your animals normal food, as what crush describes.

I noticed the old retired guy next door has been throwing out empty cans of off-brand corned beef hash rather than the usual Alpo.

Then again, he doesn't own a dog.

My mutt is a 58 lb 4 year old chow/lab mix. High energy, likes to dig, run and swim. His daily ration is 2 cups of Beneful, for vitamins, trace elements and dietary bulk. Over that, he gets an average of 8 to 12 oz. a day of fish, chicken or pork. I have a couple of crock pots, and I look for specials on whole chickens, Boston butt roasts, etc. and I stock up on frozen fish down at the freezer plant every couple of months. I still buy chickens at $0.79 to $0.99/lb, and butt roasts on sale at $0.99 to $1.09, pretty regularly. I throw a chicken or a butt roast in the crock pot every few days, and parcel it out. This boy loves fish, though, too, and I grill him a grouper fillet whenever I grill ours. And he gets Alpo dog biscuits as treats pretty regularly, plus chicken skins, giblets and some vegetable left overs from the table (rice, beans, peas), if there are any.

No fat on him, but you can't see rib bones, either. And his annual blood work is good. Wish I could say that, but then again, I'm not 4 years old (or 28 in human years), either.

We feed our guys this but it's only available in a limited area. We have seen a marked improvement in weight and energy since we moved them to it.

Lulu eats Nutro Natural Choice Small Bites (lamb and rice, I think) and I'm trying to switch the new dog from wet food (his preference) to dry food. I went to the pet supply place and they had cheery helpful signs up about foods that didn't contain wheat gluten. I forget what I picked up (Wellness, maybe) but it was $1.50 a can. The first night - I mixed a small amount of dry food in with the wet food and the dog ate around the dry food. HAHAHA. Last night he did the same thing again. I'm gradually cutting back the wet food and at some point the new dog is going to eat the dry food. (I tried to moisten some dry food with water for him and he was like, "Lady, I'm not eating that.")

So I posted that bit about the new dog and not eating dry food and we came in from a walk and he went over and ate some dry food.

Dogs learn quick not to fool with fluffy battle kittens.

If Rupert had his way, he would be eating pizza and brownies. Mine.

Oh, and sweaters.

recommendations on safe packaged foods?

In the immediate sense, this is dead easy:

Look at the ingredient list. If you see wheat gluten, put it back.

More generally, for dog food ingredient lists you want to see:
*Protein sources at the top of the list
*Protein sources that are as specific as possible. Not meat meal, not poultry meal, but turkey meal.
*Not by-products. Especially not vague, generic by-products ("meat by-products"). Also, not grain by-products, but rather whole grains.
*A fat or fat source near the top of the list.

Some brands that usually are fine, but you might want to look at the ingredient list just to make sure:
Innova
Canidae
Eagle Pack (at least some subtypes)
Natural Balance (at least some subtypes, but not all)
Tripett (which is just green tripe, and ho-leeee shit is it nasty smelling)

You probably won't be able to find Innova or Canidae at your local supermarket, PetSmart, or PetCo, and will have to see where they are. You'll probably also gulp at the price, but remember:

(1) You're paying for just food, not food and filler. The price you're paying for food content is not outrageous, it's just that you're used to paying for stuff that's 1/4 food.
(2) It being all real food means that you feed less.
(3) Eating less means crapping less.

DOGS SHOULD NOT EAT CHOCOLATE.

They don't have the enzymes to break down the theobromine, and it can cause them problems. Theobromine is a central nervous system stimulant, and because they can't break it down very well dogs can essentially OD on it fairly easily.

DOGS SHOULD NOT EAT CHOCOLATE

Oh man, you don't have to tell me that. We had a houseguest leave a fairly good-sized bar of dark chocolate out where Lucy (who weighs all of eleven pounds) could get it. As addle-pated as this guest was, at least she had the presence of mind to rush the dog to the vet. They were able to stabilize her fairly quickly, but it was closer than I care to think about.

My cats eat Hill's Science Diet, the dry stuff. I opened a new one today, their first day on Hill's Light (they are both rather porky) and they seem not to have noticed any difference.

They've never liked canned food, although they like the idea of it, and every time they hear the sound of a can being opened, they rush to the kitchen. All the canned food I bought for them when I first got them ended up being donated back to the Sancutary where they came from.

They also don't like scraps. I've never had cats before who didn't like bits of chicken skin, ham parings, slivers of cheese, etc but these girls really aren't bothered at all by what I eat. Which is nice. I can eat my dinner in peace without 'the look' - you know the one. The pleading eyes, the sad face, the 'I am starving' expression.

After calling the number for Science Diet when this first starting happening, I was pretty unhappy with how they answered my questions and how they treated me (they hung up without answering one of my questions right after I asked that).

I was able to discern that the dry cat food I feed my cats is made at Menu Foods. This is before any of the dried food had been recalled, but I'm pretty uncomfortable with anything from Menu Foods given home many foods were added to the list each day.

I ended up going here and talking for a while with them on what to look for in a cat food and what would be easy to for my cats to switch to eating. I was impressed with the amount of information they had - they called all of the cat food manufacturers and talked to them quite a bit to determine if they should still carry it. They've been posting to their website about it too, as well as updates on the recall.

Our cats refused to eat Innova (which is too bad, the ingredient list looked good) so we settled on Solid Gold. We ran it by our vet the next week and she did some research for us and said that it looked very good to her too.

After that, we found out they have a high crystal count again so we have them on prescription food, but I would go back to Solid Gold otherwise.

Oh, snap. I didn't realize that Science Diet dry food is under recall -- time to call the pet store where I bought the next bag before I inflict it on Aya. Meanwhile, chicken's actually kind of cheap, and she's overweight anyhow.

My dogs get Beneful kibble & Alpo canned and so far neither of those have been a problem. Occasionally I'll make my own but usually I'm too lazy.

Dogs and chocolate are bad, it is true, but Theo is here to tell you that a sneaky collie can eat an entire big plastic candy cane full of Hershey's Kisses and be none the worse for wear, while I, as Theo's human, can tell you that if you've never stood outside on Christmas morning trying to force hydrogen peroxide down the throat of an unrepentant and unenthusiastic collie dog to induce projectile vomiting, well, you've never lived.

Solid Gold here. Dry cat food, lamb flavor. It's amazing -- every morning when I feed the cat, the bag (which is not resealable) still smells like actual lamb meat.

Which means I've been craving gyros more often than is probably strictly necessary.

No wheat. All meat products listed by name on the label. The cat loves it. (I had her on the Newman's Own before, but I saw they were using some of the same suppliers or facilities as the tainted food -- plus we were looking for something that was slightly higher quality to see if that cut down the cat allergens in the house -- so that's why I switched.)

Also, a word of advice from my hairdresser: If you're feeding your dogs regular human food, CostCo chickens are probably OK. Getting lazy and feeding them Thai food leftovers? Not really that ok.

I feel bad about it... but my cat gets Dad's. Yes, the $6.99 for a bag the size of a buick brand.
It's the only thing any store within 10 miles of me carries that ISN'T Menu. And she freaking loves it. Like, goes crazy for it now. When she hears that food hitting her dish Mia will barrel through the house to get to it.

Contains no wheat, either. And, oddly, the ingredients seem better than Friskies, Meow Mix, and the other stuff I can get at the grocery, in terms of where meat products fall on the list v. fillers.

I have been feeding my cats Wellness from Old Mother Hubbard Brand since 2000.

Chicken-Leg Al generally gets Felidae dry food, but I've run out and the only decent cat food my local store carries is Iams dry, so that's what he's getting until I can get back to the city. He seems happy with it and doesn't spread it all over the floor as much as he does the Felidae (he's a scoop 5 bits, eat 2 kinda cat). He's generally not too fussed about wet food, although like essexjan's cats, he'll come tearing into the kitchen meowing if he hears a can opening. When I'm cooking he also gets bits of raw meat and the occasional tablespoon of canned (for human consumption) tuna. Of course, this means that whenever I'm at the cutting board he's right there, yowling away. I've tried explaining to him that he doesn't like onions, but he'll have none of it--he's convinced that there's a bit of chicken or beef hidden up there that the gods intended for him. For treats I used to buy him the strips of dried fish, but he's lost interest in those, so he gets the occasional dose of catnip instead.

This make-your-own pet food revival has got me interested, though. I'm getting a kitten-feeding lesson this afternoon from our local Patron Saint of Homeless Cats, so I think I'll ask her about it. I'll let y'all know what she says.

I feed my cat this stuff. It's expensive as hell, but he loves it, and it appears to be healthy. And totally unaffected by the recall.

We're still working through the Nutro Natural (both cats and dog) that we bought before the recall (and wasn't part of the recall). I'm not sure what we're going to do when we run out of it (will happen soon). Our local PetsMart employees are fairly knowledgeable and we'll pick their brains for some info as well as using the info from y'all.

Thanks for your feedback, everybody. I think we're gonna try cooking something for the dog this weekend and supplementing it with some Innova, just 'cause she likes the cruchies. The cat is another matter. He's 19 and has some lower GI issues, so we have to be careful as to what we feed him - hence the "low residue" dry food. He's got a vet appointment for next week, so we'll see what the vet says about possible substitutions for Eukanuba.