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Every once in awhile you hear news about a pet food product recall. Or, you might have come across an article or have heard about the less-than-savory ingredients, such as roadkill, that some companies use in pet food.

If you are concerned or curious about the safety of the brand of food your are feeding your pet but not sure where to start, read on for how to use some helpful web resources to easily get updates on pet food recalls and to make assessing your current pet food choice much easier.

Reasons for Pet Food Recalls

Reasons for pet food recalls include elevated levels of Vitamin D, which can potentially cause vomiting, loss of appetite, increased thirst, increased urination, excessive drooling and weight loss, according to kmbc.com, and microbial contamination, which can cause fever, infections and even death. For more about contamination and how to protect your pet and yourself, check out this helpful article at petful.com.

Pet Food Recall Information Websites

You can use https://www.petful.com/brands/ to search for a wide variety of pet food brands and get information about recent recalls as well as any recall history information, including reason for recall, and browse any comments left by visitors to the site about their experiences with that particular type of pet food.

We’re glad we came across this site, as we just recently switched to a different brand of dog food, which is more expensive than what we had been buying. Our dogs seemed to be enjoying it. However, after reading the report on this site, we are not entirely sure we feel good about continuing to feed this brand to our dogs. According to the site, the brand has had many complaints and requests for recalls by pet consumers. We will likely switch to something else as a result.

You can check your pet(s)’ brand(s) by clicking below or using the link above.

Search Pet Food Recall Information by Brand Name

You can also report any problems that you suspect you might have had with your dog food on the site’s problem report page.

Another site with information about pet food recalls is https://www.fda.gov/animalVeterinary/safetyhealth/recallswithdrawals/default.htm This site is the FDA’s archive list of pet food recalls.

Get Pet Food Recall Alerts

As mentioned above, pet food that hasn’t been prepared correctly by the company can cause all kinds of health problems, or even, God forbid, the heartbreaking loss of a pet. Those who want to make sure they stay in the know can also get email alerts about pet food recalls by signing up at: dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-recall-alerts/

Dog Food Recall Alerts

Dog food reviews and ingredients lists

Dogfoodadvisor.com also has extensive reviews of both dry and canned dog food. Just type in the brand you are searching for and you will receive a complete report, including list of ingredients (along with any controversial ingredients), and a rating with in depth explanation for that rating based on the health benefits or lack thereof of the dog food in question. For example, one dog food brand we checked is cited as containing garlic, and pork and bone meal.

“Next, garlic can be a controversial item. Although many favor the ingredient for its claimed health benefits, garlic has been linked to Heinz body anemia in dogs.^5″

“The sixth ingredient is pork and bone meal, a dry ‘rendered product from (pork) tissues, including bone, exclusive of any added blood, hair, hoof, horn, hide trimmings, manure, stomach and rumen contents’.^3″

Top ten dog food ingredients to watch out for

And, https://www.eatthis.com/bad-dog-food-ingredients/ has a list of Top Ten ingredients to watch out for in pet foods and why, including “Animal Fat,” which can actually contain “roadkill, dead zoo creatures, or even euthanized animals.”

Cat food reviews and ingredients

When it comes to cat food reviews, petfoodtalk.com/catfoodreviews/ has a star rating system, an analysis of the rating, a list of ingredients, a view of good and bad ingredients in the brand, and more. As with the dogadvisor site reviews for dog food, you can use the information, along with any posted comments from readers, to help decide whether you want to continue buying your current brand or switch to another one, which you can also evaluate if it’s listed on the site.

A to Z list of cat food ingredients and their descriptions

And, finally, bestcatfoodforcats.com/a-to-z-cat-food-ingredients-list/ has a very extensive but easy-to-understand alphabetized list of ingredients in cat food and descriptions of these ingredients. For example: Caramel Color should be avoided because:

“This is added coloring that alters the color of the food. Caramel alters the taste as it is sugar, but caramel color doesn’t alter the taste. It just affects the appearance. A chemical that is in the caramel color is a possible carcinogen at higher levels. There is no way of knowing how high the levels are by just looking at the ingredients list, making this a risky ingredient.”