Friskies canned food - anyone having trouble - need help

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Patti and Merlin

Patti and Merlin

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I was wondering if anyone feeding Friskies lo carb canned food has noticed their cats having any trouble. We've had several sick cats lately and the only common thing we can come up with is the Friskies food. 2 of our cats are elderly and it could be it's just them as one has CRF and an abdominal mass as it is. Both have quit eating and we've been encouraging them with all kinds of other foods - anything we can get them to eat. But then a 3rd younger kitty had a day of not wanting to eat at all and 2 other cats have been really picky lately when that is not their norm at all. Now one of our dogs is vomiting. He licks the cat food cans and has been eating the "leftover" cat food. It just seems so wierd that all our animals are getting sick within one week. Something doesn't seem right.

We keep all cleaning supplies locked up, my mothers pills aren't loose, and I've searched the house for anything that could be off. The cats don't go outside except in their "Cat Mahal".

Any input from anyone would be greatly appreciated!
 
fwiw, mine haven't been off the friskies at all. i've had a bit of vomit here and there for the last week or so but it's more of the hairball variety
 
My cats aren't vomiting but are not all that interested in eating. They were eating some Friskies Indoor Select Chicken - but now won't go near it. Fancy Feast they eat if they are famished, but it sits for a long time. I am trying to increase the Wellness/Merrick/other better grade foods just to see if that does anything. Oy..I sure hope that there isn't anything other than formula changing going on!

Hugs,
Ruthe and Miss Rugs
 
I'm sure you would have mentioned it , but any diarrhea or weight loss going around? or just not eating? It could be a bug of some sort, anybody have a temp?
 
OMG, Patti, I just wrote Purina TODAY asking if they changed their formula because all my cats are off their food too - and Jeddie has been back on insulin since the beginning of the month. Beau was on insulin for 9 days back in December and has lost a dramatic amount of weight (over 2 lbs) since the fall. And Jeddie vomited everything he ate one night last week.

Yes, 3 of my cats have other health issues, but for all five to come for food, sniff and walk away is very unusual. I feed 8 Friskies pate flavors and they will really only eat about 3 of them now.

Did you get different food? Now I'm even more worried - with the renal value issues you have discovered.
 
We've be buying the same 2 flavors for most of last year. The country style dinner and the turkey and giblets. Both clasic pate. I know it could just be coincidence but I'm going to try and call the Friskies company and find more out on Tuesday. Something just isn't right. Maybe it's just a certain "lot" number or "case" number that might be bad but to have 7 of our 9 animals be sick within the past 1-3 weeks is just too strange. I am not feeding the rest of the Friskies we have but am keeping it in case something more comes of this - more people start noticing anything.

None have had fevers - no weight loss. It all started as one day they were all their usual selves. Then they started being what we thought were "picky" eaters. Not finishing their food - not liking what we gave them altho before they scarfed it down. Then one by one they would quit eating. Nellie got diagnosed with CRF a month ago - 1 year ago she had perfectly normal BUN/creatinine. But I know she is 17yrs old. Then Lance got diagnosed this past week with renal failure but we know he has an abdominal mass so again could be coincidence. Then Simba quit eating - he's relatively healthy. These 3 have required subq fluids. The 4 yrs old cat quit eating for almost 2 days but is better but he eats FF now. Barney is usually perfectly healthy. 2 others have been picking at their food. And today Blue our dog - vomited all day and we've been letting him eat the leftover Friskies the others haven't wanted. It just is too strange to me.
The only common thing I can find between all is the food. Anyways - I just wanted to see if anyone else had had problems or at least maybe to give a shout out to just let other know what we've been going thru in case you start to notice something with your cats.
 
7 cats here - 6 civvies, 1 diet-controlled remission diabetic. All of them get 1/4 of a cat of Friskies twice a day - non-seafood for breakfast, seafood for dinner. The 2 leftover 1/4's either end up as Yittle's supplimental meals or more usually divided up among the 6 civvies when he gets his supplimental meals of Fancy Feast. I haven't noticed anything different with our cats - they're all eating as much of the various flavors as they usually do. We've had a throw-ups, but all of them either had a hairball in it, or the next time the cat threw up there was a hairball. I lost my cat fur brush and they're a bit shaggy this month until I can buy a replacement. We serve them pretty much every single low-carb flavor of Friskies, although the favourites are Poultry Platter, Country Style, Mariner's Choice, and Sea Captain.
 
Ohh, I hope you call Purina today! I've had 3 throw up incidents the last few days...I can't tell which civie it is, but we've been feeding them turkey and giblets and poultry platter pate. i've been feeding from these cases for the last 2 weeks or so, and just now the vomit started. they're still eating it, though. what's the deal??? :?:
 
Just this morning DH's two cats wouldn't eat the can of Friskies they share. I'll check to see what flavor it was. This is one of the first times they both wouldn't eat something!

Helen
 
OK, it may just be a coincidence, but I think not!

Remember almost a month ago, everyone was talking about how the cats weren't much liking the new "classic" Fancy feast? Ever since they started the new labels on the Fancy Feast cans, the cats have started turning their noses up at.

Well guess who makes the Friskies as well? The same company that makes Fancy Feast....PURINA!
I would be willing to be that they have changed some of the ingredients. And obviously not for the better.

I hope that's not what is making your kitties sick.
 
WEll, we use a lot of Friskies canned at the shelter, and while we get our share of not eating kitties due to stress, I havent noticed an abnormal number of picky eaters.. We get a bunch, but not more than usual.
 
I called Purina today. They say nothing has changed and they've had no other calls regarding any problems with Friskies. All I know is that I won't be feeding anymore of this in our house. I just can't chance it. We've switched to something else now and are still getting labs on Simba. He and Lance still aren't eating great but at least nibbling off/on. I've kept all the cans we bought in case something more should come up in the near future. All the information about what has been going on in our house was taken by the woman at Purina including the various numbers on the cans/the formulas we fed/where we bought them.
Here are the barcode numbers on the cans:
country style dinner: 0 50000 42324 8
on bottom of can is manufacturer number: 93521161 L13710821

turkey and giblets: 0 50000 42184 8
93451161 L34050124

They are sending us 2 free coupons for canned food and some for dry food - hmm - even tho I said we don't feed any dry. confused_cat

I am not trying to cause a big ruckus or panic or trouble. Really tho - all I wanted was just a heads up in case there is a problem like there was awhile back with other pet foods.

Please give all your pets lots of lovins and if you can spare a good thought that Lance and Simba will continue to improve - it would be greatly appreciated here.

xxx
 
My cats didn't eat alot of food today so I went to the pet store and picked up more Wellness, Tiki cat, Merrick and something called Call of the Wild or Taste of the Wild? The girl gave me a sample of a freeze dried chicken burger looking thing made by a company called Stella and Chewy's. Haven't given them any yet. Need to get them on something canned that the little blood suckers will eat first! Am thinking about picking up some raw to mix in to entice them.
 
Mine eat the GCF, which they call classic now. The labeling is a little different, and the ingredients are the same just worded differently. So far, so good.
 
The response to my emil from Purina:

Thank you for contacting Nestlé Purina PetCare Company.

We apologize for your experience with our products. The situation you encountered is an unusual occurrence and certainly not typical of our products. We appreciate you bringing your comments to our attention. They have been noted and are being reported to the appropriate individuals in our Company.

We are at a loss to explain why your cats are not enjoying the products anymore. Please know that there have been no changes in the formula, quality of ingredients or method of manufacturing these products.

We are very concerned about the situation you described and would appreciate your help in investigating this. If you still have any cans available that they refused to eat, we would appreciate your e-mailing us with the UPC codes and the information contained in the "Best If Used By" date box printed on the bottom of the cans. This information will aid our Quality Assurance department in determining where and when the products were manufactured. In addition, the information will be shared with the manufacturing plants.
Click to expand...

and they offered coupons... I will send them the UPC codes and best by dates and see what they say. I keep thinking "this is how the whole wheat gluten contamination thing started, I bet..."
 
I have been feeding all of my cats the special diet beef and chicken and the special diet turkey and giblets. I have had no problems but I checked the codes and they do not match. I hope they didn't switch formulas or start having problems like they did a year ago with China supplying some of the ingredients. Hmmm. WEll have to check back and see what everyone is saying.

David
 
I'm having problems too Patti, seems intermittent so it took me some time, but between occasional refusal of food on Leo's part and the vomit and nausea from him, I've got problems with Turkey and Giblets and Country Dinner here. Leo's a *very* healthy eater and I was shocked to see him off his food (Country Dinner) and even more shocked to see the vomit (Turkey and Giblets). I thought I had hepatitis all over again but I honestly have been terrified it's the food since he's gotten better. I took both flavors off the menu because of this, which happened about 2 weeks ago. I've recently had him refuse to eat Poultry Platter and Liver and Chicken.. again, sporadically, but with no vomiting. Cripes I sure hope this isn't as bad as it looks..
 
Meowzi does not have a healthy appetite, so I didn't think twice of it when she went off her food again this week. She got her usual mirtazapine dose on Sunday, but has only eaten when we spoon/hand-feed her, and has barely touched her food while we're at work. (It's not unusual for her to go a whole day without eating, till we get home, but it is a little unusual for her to do so within the first 24 hrs of mirtz - she can sometimes eat an extra oz of food on mirtz days). It has happened before though. I attributed this lack of mirtz effect this time to the pill being cut more than 2 weeks ago - it's the last quarter of four quarters, so I thought maybe it was less effective from exposure to air/light. And the pill itself is more than a year old.

Now that I think about it, she did throw up from a can of Friskies Sp Diet Salmon 2-3 weeks ago, and refused to eat Salmon the next day, so we threw out that particular can. DH had said maybe there was something wrong with *that* can.

Not sure what to think now. I'm not alarmed yet, but my antenna is up. Will be watching this thread for updates. Friskies Sp Diet is the only 'safe' (lower-phos) food that she'll willingly eat, so this news is somewhat troubling.

BTW we feed only Friskies Sp Diet Turkey and Giblets, and Sp Diet Salmon.
 
My cats are "off" of the Country Style Dinner, Special Diet T&G, SD Beef and Liver, Liver and Chicken. They are eating Mixed Grill ok and seem to have the least issues with SD Salmon, SD Beef and Chicken, Poultry Platter and Supreme Super.

Was friskies pate part of that recall a few years ago for the malimite? I thought not. I remember thinking I was feeding about the one canned food not effected, but I might be missrecollecting.

Does anyone know who makes Sophisticat food for PetSmart? They have the same names as the Friskies so I wonder if Purina makes it for them?
 
I agree with everyone! Somethings up with the friskies canned food. For the past 2 days Sophie has not been wanting to eat her canned food, but she will eat treats and anything else, Tonight i started to get really worried that she hasn't eaten so i tryed a meow mix wet food we had for our other cats and she is gobbling it up. I just stocked way up on friskies and now it looks like i'm going to have to find a new food for her to eat. But i'm soo glad shes eating again.
 
It must be a lot issue - because all 7 of mine are still eating it twice a day in a wide variety of flavors (just about every 8% carb or less flavor they sell except 1 or 2). Now Yittle likes to hold out for Fancy Feast - but he's spoiled, the rest are chowing it down like its heaven-sent.
 
Kind of late for this thread but all 8 of mine are off all their "favorites" that I've fed them for years. We are slowly running out of options....they don't like Merrick or Wellness either.

About a month ago everyone was sick and barfing for several days and I just thought it was a bug of some kind......hmmm. There still seems to be more than normal barfing going on still though.
 
I know I'm coming back late to this thread but if everyone who HAS had trouble with their cats called Purina - we might have some luck in getting those various lot numbers being tested. Or at least getting more attention. Or you can write to them too but the phone call would probably be better. It doesn't take much time either.
 
Oh great. I have 9 cats here - 1 diabetic and 8 civvies (3 are 16 week old foster kittens). They all eat Friskies Indoor Select twice per day and sometimes Fancy Feast. I have not had any problems with vomiting or not eating as described in previous posts. However, I want to say how frustrated I am with trying to find a cat food that is healthy, reasonably priced, and palatable to my cats. I have tried every single canned food at several pet stores - Merrick, Evo, Wellness, Newman's Organic, Organix, BG, California Naturals,Taste of the Wild etc etc I've also tried the several homemade diets (including the suggested ones on this site) and they don't like that at all. Most of them will literally walk away without even tasting this food.
Friskies is the only food they will consistently eat day after day. They also liked Fancy Feast Gourmet Turkey and Giblets and Gourmet Chicken until the new design. They will literally leave the food in the dish. They also like the Fancy Feast Elegent Medleys Chicken Florentine.

I hate feeding them manufactured food, especially made by a big corporation like Purina because I don't trust them.
I supplement their Friskies canned diet with roasted chicken (made by me) and an occasional raw egg yolk. I sometimes mix the homemade diet or a higher quality canned food with the Friskies.

I am very sorry to hear that some of you have sick kitties and suspect the food. That is so so sad. My thoughts and prayers are with all of you.
 
We feed a wide variety of brands and flavors but Friskies is one of our staples, just because it's cheap!

Our two cats (one diabetic, one civvie) still like it. In fact, they both just gobbled up a can of Mixed Grill! They actually like Friskies better than Merrick or Evo. :roll:
 
I feed both my cats canned Friskies, and Country style and Turkey and Giblets are two of their preferred flavors- I also feed them chicken and tuna, mixed grill, some salmon, and the special diet beef and chicken. I have not seen any difference in their eating habits or any more vomiting than the norm. They have both had good appetites lately, although they do go through intermittent periods where they seem to not finish the food in their bowls and after its been sitting for a few hours they don't want it anymore, they want a fresh can opened. But I haven't seen any of that lately, if anything they are both eating very well. Just thought I would add that to the data pool. I wonder if it could be a bad lot, as someone mentioned eariler.
 
Patti and Merlin said:
I know I'm coming back late to this thread but if everyone who HAS had trouble with their cats called Purina - we might have some luck in getting those various lot numbers being tested. Or at least getting more attention. Or you can write to them too but the phone call would probably be better. It doesn't take much time either.
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I'll be contacting them. I've got four cats here, and all of them are either vomiting, or have loose smelly stools, or no appetite and appear to have a tummy ache.

I feed them Friskies SD turkey and giblets, the regular turkey and giblets, poultry platter and liver and chicken (all classic pate flavors)

they seem to have had a problem with a can of Friskies SD turkey and giblets, and I'm really kicking myself because that can *looked* a bit odd to me, and I almost tossed it out, and now I wish I had!!!

the can had some black stuff on the lid, and was in the corner of the case. I think it may have been contaminated with something from the factory.

my cats and my daughter's cat are all looking better tonight, but I really think they got a bad can of Friskies. I'll be contacting them to report the problem.
 
mochas appreciation for FF turkey and giblets has diminished over the last week. She nibbles on it, enough to satisfy me, but she does not go at it like she used to. Today was a hard day to get her to eat. Tomorrow I will have to go to the store and find something else for her to eat up. The cans we have in the house do NOT match what numbers were posted here. I e mailed purina today, expressing my concerns over mochas lack of interest in the food since the label change. They have not e mailed me back yet.
 
my numbers do not match what was posted either.

But I have noticed my crew has not been interested in their usual "favorites" which I thought a little odd, but I thought maybe they were just getting tired of them. Not noticed much vomiting, but there have been a few constipated. Others mentioned loose stools?

Now I am not so sure.

Let me know if anything else happens with this PLEASE
 
Hmmm weird. All my kitties (4) eat Friskies, and have had no issues. Anyone have any young, healthy cats stop eating the Friskies? I know lots of people on here have older, sick kitties that they're treating.. especially on top of the diabetes. Wondering if it's most of the older cats that are having issues, or younger cats too. All 4 of mine are fine on it, and still eating just as much as usual.

Also wonder about the lot #'s, states/areas having issues, as well as specific flavors. My cats stopped eating country style awhile back.. along with one of the other ones I think. But they've always seemed to migrate to different flavors. Right now they LOVE Supreme Supper, and Chicken & Tuna. They've always liked the chicken & tuna though, I'm guessing because of the tuna. They're also eating Mixed Grill & Chicken & Liver ok. No special diet ones though.. none of my cats would ever touch those! Sometimes I wonder if it has to do with consistency too (as to which ones they like). They seem to like Poultry Platter too, but don't eat it with the gusto as the others. Some of them seem to have a more firm consistency.. like Poultry Platter.. just seems harder to squish into their dish than other flavors. Wonder if we zapped them all a bit w/ a hand blender so they're the same consistency, if they'd like them more equally.
 
Having trouble with FF

My kitty has also been walking away from the FF Gourmet Beef Feast he's been enjoying for nine months.

I have contacted the company. So we know now that they've received at least ten complaints. But I'll bet I get the same denial everyone else is getting. I don't trust Nestle.

Here's a thread about FF in the Community forum: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=8649

Question is -- what are the alternatives?
 
Alternatives to what? FF? There are a ton of low carb foods out there. & honestly, I don't think FF is all that cheap. So you can probably go to a larger can of higher quality wet food for not much of a difference in the price. Petsmart also has their brand of FF & Friskies.. Sophisticat. They label the flavors the same as FF & Friskies. The quality just isn't as good (if you call those good). ;-) May want to google some pet stores in your area too. I don't find that Petsmart or Petco carry all that great of food. I give props to Petco now though, because at least they have Wellness now. Although not cheap! Sometimes if you find a specialty/high quality pet store around you, you can find the better products at a lower price.
 
Hi,
I'm a newbie with one sugar kitty named Eukanubo and a civvie called Molly, and I just recently switched them from dry food to Friskies trying to control Euk's glucose readings. He hasn't had any trouble with the Mixed Grill, actually, they both have a very strong preference for it, don't care much for their chicken and tuna or their salmon varieties. I attributed this to the recent diet change, they do vomit a little but Molly has always have a vomiting problem, now Euk is having some hairball, but nothing I would consider alarming. So, it seems that at least the Mixed Grill is safe without problems, but I don't know if that's true elsewhere.
 
Now I'm not sure-- my civvie cat is still eating just fine but Curly who is usually a hogatha and keeps switching from bowl to bowl and kicking her off of her dinner is not eating since last night. Not sure if its the food or something else going on with him (see other post). Will keep watching.
 
I'm also a newbie. I have six cats and have always fed dry (Whiskas Wholesome Goodness). Blaze was just diagnosed diabetic and has been switched to Friskies canned, but so far I've only given him the chicken shreds or prime cuts. He doesn't seem to have any problems with them. Mike (civvie) is being treated for necrotic stomatitis and has required a softer diet lately because of mouth ulcers, so he's been eating Friskies as well (pate style). He does all right with the chicken, but he won't touch the seafood varieties. His brothers don't seem to mind eating them when he walks away, and no one's been barfing.

Jean and Blaze
 
I just wanted to address the issue about the age of kitties being sick. Yes some of mine were older. BUT one of mine was 4 yrs old and very healthy. He was sick for just 1 day. And then our dog got sick who is also healthy and he licked the cat food cans and was eating the leftover cat food. That is what got me wondering more about the other cats being sick due to the friskies. I still can't say for sure that is was the friskies but all I know is that now that they are all off if it - ours are doing better.
 
I agree with the lack of gusto regarding the Friskies lately. I have a number of cats, my youngest is 2 and most of them are healthy. They have recently been turning up their noses or leaving a large quantity of their foods - same flavors as normal. And even the dog is less willing to clean up after them. And of course, Chase has his presumed pancreatitis, fatty liver and DKA. He stopped eating a week ago Thursday and that cat never missed a meal. and whatever he could get from the rest of the cats Could be a coincidence, but I think I'll be looking for something else tomorrow when I go shopping
 
I know this is an old thread, but it was the first that came up and I've noticed a common thread (hence why it was the first to pop up on Google).

Kuno will only eat non-seafood unless she's starving. She also doesn't like a lot of the ones in gravies, which I rarely buy anyway. She likes Mixed Grill pate, but is probably bored of it. So we mix things up, or at least try. She HATES Supreme Supper, but she likes Turkey & Giblets.

Four times she has gotten nauseous. One time supposedly was from Mixed Grill (we weren't sure, it was just the flavor she turned up her nose at). The other three times were clearly - wait for it - Turkey & Giblets. Just tonight she was vomiting violently (most of it on the bed, two more on the bedroom floor,and four more on the living room floor), unable to keep anything down, even kibble. Fortunately I found a can of Mixed Grill in the drawer and she has been fine since eating that.

So clearly there is something wrong with Turkey & Giblets. It could be only certain lots. Since this thread is so old, there's no point in me comparing production codes. However, when my cat has been vomiting up the same flavor or ingredient 25% of the times she has eaten it, there is clearly something wrong with it.

For everyone that has fed cats T&G without apparent incident, maybe you have just been lucky. It only takes a handful of confirmed (or even suspected) cases of food poisoning for agencies to issue a recall, because the agencies know that just because 95% of the population haven't reported symptoms, it doesn't mean a food source isn't contaminated.

Unfortunately I threw the can away. I can't check the lot anyway now, but nor can I send it off to some lab to have it checked out now either. I have one can of T&G left unopened. I will give it a try one of these days once I'm sure Kuno is feeling better and when I can keep a close eye on her. For now, she is kneading my doughy belly, so she seems to have gotten whatever it was out of her system now.
 
I just found this old thread as well, because I’m running out of flavors of Friskies Pate to feed my cats and was doing some reasearch.

I have 1 diabetic and 1 civvie. First it was Mixed Grill, making them both vomit (about 6 months ago). Since then, the diabetic’s been fine on all flavors, but we’ve had to stop feeding the civvie Turkey & Giblets, and now Liver & Chicken. She hasn’t had any problems (yet) with the seafood varieties, but I don’t want to feed those to her all the time.

Not sure what to do. Is it the brand, or the type of protein? I found that Friskies was the best balance of low carb and price, and Jones has been doing well on it so I’d hate to switch, but it looks like we may be headed there.
 
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