whats wrong with france???

i just picked up a bag of royal canin hair and skin [ive stopped the innova]. for some reason the place had bags which were made in france instead of the US. on the bag it says 'ec permitted preservatives and anti oxidants'. they probably assume that people will think its just the same as the US version and that vague sentence will throw people off. i was determined to find out was these 'permited' things were so i looked at the other languages on the packet and found numbers relating to the ingredients. looked it up, fair enough it has BHA in it! i compared all the other ingredients to the US version and its completely different! what do i do with the bag? take it back? just give the bag to the cats? anyone got any idea why we seem to be getting cheap nasty bags of royal canin here? wait, i know the answer to that one.

 

:shock: I'd take it back telling them it's a fake version and show them a list of the American ingredients and demand a refund or an exchange for another brand.

 

i dont think its a fake version. this is what ive found out through searches so far. there are 2 versions. the french [with all the nasties in it] and the US one. the french one goes to all european countries. all pet foods here [well, most now after this debacle] are imported from north or south america. so it seems very unusual that we are getting french stock [since when did we stock ANYTHING from france?]. so although both versions are genuine, one forumlation is worse than the other.

the australian royal canin site claims that their dog food has no chemicals at all in it. i checked the french forumlation of dog food [assuming if the cat food has bha, the dog food will too] and from what i can see it has bha and propyl gallate in it as well. so if their dog food comes from france, they are making false claims.

i dont ever recall my previous bags of royal canin having bha in them. i used to get sensible 33 delivered to me until the delivery man started to become unreliable and dropped off some food in a big tub without the original bag. the food smelt funny, looked different to other bags and the cats didnt like it as much, so we stopped buying it. perhaps this has something to do with different forumlations??? who knows.

it makes me pretty angry that ive gone out of my way to buy a brand of food thats known for NOT using chemicals and i end up with a bag full of it. i wonder how many other brands have different forumlations for different countries?

p.s i can never win with cat food!!!! maybe i should of just stuck with innova and voice my opinion about backyard breeders everytime i go to get it to make me feel better.

 

ive just looked at the bag again and its well past the best before date too! its best before was in july, so none of the vitamin/mineral analysis is guaranteed and could have deteriorated. anger.. ANGER! :lol: :lol: :lol:
:m35:

 

Can you return it saying the bag has expired date? When did you purchase it? I'd complain to the manufacturing saying you are displeased and disappointed with inferior quality food and that you expected better from a name brand. They may be able to offer you freebies or replacement bags if you are lucky.

 

Just out of curiosity....why did you discontinue Innova? Sorry if you mentioned it before, i didn't catch it.

 

a. pepe kept eating too much of it so it was getting way too expensive.
b. i wanted a food with a much higher fatty acid content. poor pepes coat is getting so dry like and knotty. i want to find a solution other than clipping him.
c. the staff were really annoying. always telling me about their 'beautiful' puppies in stock. i had a little argument with them one day when they told me how one of the litters was created. the old fat lady who owns the place thinks shes so smart.

i got a reply back from australian royal canin. all their stock is french. they are also defending the use of bha!!! also, they say its perfectly legal for them to not disclose that there is bha in it. well, as far as i know australias laws means you have to clearly disclose every ingredient. another thing, so much for their 'our dog food contains no chemical preservatives' statement. did i mention false advertising is illegal too?

its not an expiry just a best before vene. its still edible but it can mean the vitamin and mineral levels are non existant [and the vitamin/mineral levels is the reason why i bought it]. but im returning it anyway just based on the fact that its french stock. its unopened, so if they refuse me then it just goes to show how bad RC really are, products, customer service and all.

anyways, no more RC for my cats. id suggest US folks boycott it too. who knows, your stock might change. sad thing is, if it did ever change, not many people will notice and continue to feed it to their pets. i guess this goes for all brands of food. check the label on every bag you get!

now what to do.... i bought this food for the higher fatty acid and vitamin content to help pepes coat. i see california natural and healthwise have a higher content. perhaps i should try another pets paradise to see if they have it? *comparing nutritional stuff right now*

 

Good advice Kyles, and thanks for the update! :qm1: Good luck finding a better food choice! :m10: Got any recent pics of Pepe and or Phoebe? :m7: :qm3:

 

no new pics yet. but i guarantee the camera will be out in force on xmas!

 

Wow, that's odd, thanks for pointing this out. We have never tried RC, and don't plan on it now. We steer clear of BHA and BHT, and only give Luna food/treats that use vitamin E-based preservatives (mixed tocopherols). Our local stores have just started carrying Newman's Own organic dry cat kibble, and I think we're going to give that a try next time. She currently gets a mixture of Blue Buffalo (for the cold-formed vitamin bits that they add) and Nutro Indoor Complete (for the taste... she loves it).