Canidae Pet Foods Reviews
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About Canidae Pet Foods
CANIDAE is pet food made by pet people. We use the same ingredients we want for our own pets to make our foods. From working hard to form relationships with the farmers and ranchers that supply ingredients, to opening our own facility to cook the food—we’re dedicated to providing the best nutrition possible for the beloved dogs and cats that enrich our lives in so many ways. Sensitivities, picky dogs, multi-pet households, or healthy food on a budget, CANIDAE has your solution!
Visit canidae.com- High-protein formulas
- Grain-free options
- Meat or fish as first ingredients
- Pricey
- Few sensitive diet options
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Reviewed Sept. 30, 2008
A statement from Canidae:
We apologize to all who have voiced their concerns with our new formulation. Canidae distributed letters to retailers, breeders, updated packaging, and provided in-store signage, however it appears that this message did not reach all of our customers.
The new formulation, with increased levels of meat protein, lowered carbohydrates, and an increased overall complex carbohydrate quality, provides the most nutritious, all natural, palatable products. Canidae never uses soy, corn, wheat, by-products, grain fractions, or fillers in our food.
If you believe your pet has experienced challenges related to the new formula we suggest feeding smaller portions multiple times a day. Adding warm water can decrease the chance of pets eating too quickly and not chewing thoroughly. Its not unusual for pets to experience some digestive issues when transitioning, but if your problems persist, contact your veterinarian to rule out any underlying health concerns. For more tips, visit canidae.com/transitioningfromorig.html.
Due to increased commodity costs, weve changed our packaging sizes, reducing the overall weight by approximately 3-5 pounds per bag. The new sizes are more consistent with other brands and allow for easier handling.
We are committed to bringing quality products to pet owners and in June that commitment led us to Diamonds manufacturing facility. Diamond facilities have rigorous quality control processes, utilizing a 141-point ingredient test protocol. All products are subject to a 10-point final product safety review and Canidae has also implemented hourly testing to confirm quality and product safety in our onsite laboratory. All Canidae products meet or exceed AAFCO nutrient profiles in USDA and FDA approved facilities.
At Canidae, we are committed to providing you and your pets the highest standard of excellence for product quality, palatability, and customer satisfaction. Please call 800-398-1600 or visit www.canidae.com to let us know what we can do to serve you better.
Canidae
Scott Whipple and John Gordon
Owners
PO Box 3610
San Luis Obispo, CA 93403
Reviewed Sept. 29, 2008
Change of formula for Canidae All Life Stages dogfood.
Canidae has made all of the typical excuses (better for the dogs, etc. - literal crap!) Runny stools from my two young purebred dogs, previously perfectly healthy, have put an immediate halt to their using Canidae products. This is exactly what Iams did to change a previoulsy good food to a horrible grocery store food. Shame on you Canidae!! We expected more from you.
Reviewed Sept. 29, 2008
I switched my 2 year old dog to Canadae several months ago (from another brand of food). The dog did very well on the first bag. I was happy with it, the dog liked it. When I bought the second bag, I noticed the food looked different, lighter in color. I didn't think much about it but shortly after eating from the new bag the dogs stools got progressively soft, then mushy, very yellow in color and shortly developed explosive diarrhea. He had awful flatus. He also seemed to be eating a lot of grass and drinking too much water.
In the morning he would wake me up (he sleeps in the bedroom with the door closed) and really run to the water bowl and drink huge amounts. I took him to the vet. The vet thought he must have eaten something he shouldn't have, like garbage. But I never saw him near the garbage. He was put on antibiotics and anti-diarrea medication. His stools got a little better.
After the medication ran out he became worse again and then started scratching non stop head to tail and chewing on his legs and feet. Another trip to the vet. This time the vet thought he had possibly colitis and allergies. He received a prednisone shot. The doctor said if it was colitis it should improve with the prednisone. There was very little improvement. I could not pick up any of stool with a ****** *******, it was so bad. I decided to change dog food just in case he was allergic to something in the food. This dog never had allergies before (but I know they can develop at any time).
I changed brands, switched to Merrick Wilderness Blend. The dog began to improve quickly. He stopped scratching and itching, his stools are normal, he's back to his old self. I did not know about the switch of formula by Canadae until I heard about the problems dogs were having on an email list. The problems were the same as my dog had. I just thought he was having problems with the food, not that the food was making many dogs sick. This is unacceptable.
I had two vet trips costing me over $300. My dog was very sick and I was afraid to leave him alone for any length of time because of the loose stools. He was lethargic. I have no doubt in my mind that he would have continuted to be sick and would have been going to the vet trying to help him get better, had I not changed his diet to another brand of food. I hope that the company finds out what the problem is with this dog food.
Reviewed Sept. 29, 2008
I was introduced to Canidae about 4 years ago by the company representative. At that time I was working at local pet store that carried Canidae, and she informed me of how great the product was. I started feeding the Chicken and Rice formula to both of my Boxers. They did fantastic and they both have sensitive stomachs.
However the last 2 bags that I purchased have been causing them to have very loose stool and they have been vomiting after they eat. I knew some thing had changed, the food looked different and it had a very unpleasant smell to it, each bag that I bought was the same way. The last trip that I took to get their food I spoke to an associate at the store and he informed me of the changes that had taken place with the company and the products.
They were cheaper ingredients to cut costs. I am NO LONGER feeding my dogs your dog food. Cutting corners to save money is loosing you customers, and causing dogs to become unhealthy!!! Its sad that such a good trustworthy food/ company has become what it is.
The last 2 bags that I purchased have been causing them to have very loose stool and they have been vomiting after they eat. I knew some thing had changed, the food looked different and it had a very unpleasant smell to it, each bag that I bought was the same way.
Reviewed Sept. 28, 2008
We had been feeding our dogs Canidae for all life stages for approx. 2 1/2 years with no problems. About Mid July our older dog (10yrs old) began having severe gastrol problems, vomiting and horrible stools. We took her the the local animal hospital were told that she was severly dehytrated and needed to be hopitalized for re-hydraytion. At the same time our daughter-in-law called us and told us about the formula change for Canidae and their merger with Diamond. She warned that she had read several horror stories about dogs with the same symptoms that Sadie had and urged us to change their dog food to Innova.
Within two weeks we had weined both of our dogs off of Canidae and for Zoey we were in time for her health but for Sadie it was too late and the damage to her kidneys was fatal. We believe that the new formula was too rich for her digestive system and she developed renal failure from vomiting and severe diahrrea....the vet that treated her would not confirm our theory but gave it a lot of weight and suggested we file a report with Consumer Affairs. In spite of spending almost $2,000 to save our pet we lost a beloved member of the family.
I think it was completley irresponsible of Canidae to make such a signifigant change to their food without informing it's customers thereby, giving them a chance to make an informed decision about whether they wanted to continue to use this product. Our hearts are heavy with our lose that didn't have to be.
Reviewed Sept. 27, 2008
Our dog had been on Canidae ALS and was doing fine. The last time we went to purchase the bag, our dog began vomiting the first bowlfull and got very sick. Research on it told us of the formula change, and since we had no food left from the old bag, we bought another brand. Will not ever trust this company again.
Reviewed Sept. 27, 2008
I have been using Canidae for the past four years. I loved it. My dogs did fantastic on the OLD FORMULA. I read about the change in food and I was lucky (I thought) that I still had two large bags of the old dog food. I have four labs and one weimeraner. I started with mixing 1/4 new to 3/4 old dog food. Right from the start ALL the dogs started getting watery stools. Soon the stools were the worst form of diarrhea with ALL the dogs. I kepted thinking it would change and it did not.
After four weeks, things getting worse even with the slow transition, I decided enough of this. The most I got to was 1/2 to 1/2. I could not put my dogs thru this anymore. I can only image what would have happened if I went to all the new formula. Four weeks is more then enough time for the so called transition of the dog food.
I had talked to someone at Canidae when I heard about the change. I got the song and dance about how great this new formula is and would be so much better. I loved the old formula that is why I tried to stick it out. As I said after FOUR weeks I never got to feeding them all the new formula. People, this formula is BAD, the transition does not work. I will never use Canidae again. I feel terrible that I waited as long as I did before I switched foods.
To have such fast results from terrible diarrhea that had this aweful color and smell to normal poops it two days just by switching dogs foods tells me that there is a major problem with the food. I talk to the store where I got the Canidae, at first they said there were no complants. I talked to the manager and she said yes there have been a number of problems with the new formula.
Reviewed Sept. 26, 2008
My 6 month old Great Dane had eaten Canidae ALS his entire life. Great Danes are very sensitive dogs because of how fast they grow, so we loved that Canidae had low protein levels and was made with such healthful ingredients - he did amazing on it, until they changed the formula.
For three weeks, beginning around Labor Day weekend, he had disgusting loose stools, a bit of vomitting, and a terrible lack of energy. He even developed a sinus infection and had to go on antibiotics. We thought that the symptoms were caused by the sickness, but now think it was likely all caused by the Canidae!
After three weeks of constant vet visits and cleaning up digusting stools from the back yard, gross nasal discharge, and stumbling upon this website, we swtiched him to Wellness Super 5 Mix. He made an IMMEDIATE recovery. His stools became normal again, his sinus issues went away, and he has the energy of a normal puppy now, instead of just sleeping all the time!
I am absolutely disgusted and disheartened that a company as well respected as Canidae would stoop to such tactics to save money. I think Canidae should be held responsible for the vet bills and replacing the food - I had to throw away an almost full 35 lb bag of food because I simply could not risk killing my dog to save money! I will NEVER buy Canidae again, and I hope that pet food stores stop carrying it! Canidae clearly has no conscience for the well being of animals. It took this website to alert me to the issues, so Canidae saying they alerted vets, breeders, and pet stores is hardly accurate!
Reviewed Sept. 25, 2008
I have been feeding my two dogs Canidae for years now and I am on my second bag of the new formula. After feeding the first bag of the new formula, my dogs began vomiting and having diarrhea. Eventually their stools firmed and there was less vomiting.
However, my male dog began scratching and licking his feet and pads. He is also still vomiting occasionally. I am extremely worried after reading all of these complaints and Im changing their food today.
Reviewed Sept. 23, 2008
My terrior mix has been on Canidae Lamb Meal since he was 9 months old. He is now 1 1/2 years old and we are experiencing problems. He has a lot of gas, his stool is yellow and very loose. He is not at all active. When we were on the old formula he was fine.
When I was changing over to the new formula and giving 1/2 & 1/2 etc he was ok. We are 1/2 way threw the new formula bag and I am not going to give him any more. I thing he is not doing well on it. Is Canidae useing Chineese contaminated grains? or proteins which are contaiminated? Thank you
Reviewed Sept. 23, 2008
I too, felt I had found the perfect dog food for my Westie over one year ago. Although I had to drive about 30 miles round trip to purchase it, it was well worth my time and gas to ensure my pet's good health. When he started passing offensive gas, vomiting and having projectile diarrhea, I figured he'd gotten into something he shouldn't have and began fixing him boiled chicken and rice.
After a day of no vomiting and regular stools, I mixed some of his Canidae ALS dry food in with the chicken and rice to gradually transition him back to his regular diet. Three hours after doing this, he vomitted his food up and began with diarrhea again. Once again, I replaced his meal with rice and chicken and have had no problems since taking Canidae out of his diet.
Curious if it was the Canidae making him sick, I stumbled on this web site and printed off 69 pages of complaints all sounding like mine. Canidae should be held accountable for not only the food cost but the vet bills and the pain and suffering of all these dogs. How dare they get away with this by issuing a simple explanation of how they assumed the consumers were aware of the changes. Why would you mess with perfection?
I am going to the pet store this afternoon and will NEVER buy Canidae again. What a shame they couldn't leave well enough alone. My Westie was sick for three days with vomitting, diarrhea and gas. Would not eat the Canidae
Reviewed Sept. 21, 2008
I'm trying to transition him over to a new food, but not really having much success. I'm annoyed with Canidae and action should be taken against this company for not giving appropriate warnings and for the impact this has clearly had on so many dogs! I asked my pet food store and they said they were not informed of the formula change and when they called Canidae, they were told there was no change. EVENTUALLY on a later call to the manufacturer, they admitted there was a change! How irresponsible for a company to do this! I will NEVER buy Canidae again. They're obviously more concerned about their bottom line than providing a high-quality product and at what expense??? Dogs are CLEARLY getting very sick on this food and they don't care! How disgusting! It's unacceptable!
Reviewed Sept. 21, 2008
I researched dog foods and ingredients to a great extent before choosing Canidae three years ago for my two Rhodesian Ridgebacks. I was very pleased to feed such a high-quality food to my dogs, and I evangelized to every dog owner I knew the virtues of Canidae and many of them began feeding it. The company seemed to do everything right and to truly be ethical and focused on the quality of the food and maximizing dogs' health.
I think I speak for most of the Canidae customers I know when I say that I would gladly have paid more for the original formula All Life Stanges if it had become necessary for the company to charge more to cover increased costs. A very honest letter to customers, or at least retailers, explaining the need for that would have played out MUCH better than an integrity-compromising quick switch to arguably cheaper/lower value ingredients. That would perhaps have permitted me to still have faith Canidae and to continue to my dogs.
I became aware of the switch fairly quickly, and was able to switch to a different brand before having to subject my dog to potential bad effects. Whether or not the new food is lower quality or causing problems is not even the main issue to me. The primary issue, the egregious thing, is the underhanded, sneaky in my opinion, way that Canidae made this quick change. They were definitely not forthcoming or honest about it. And anyone who is the least bit knowledgeable about dog nutrition knows that even if you are switching your dog to the best food in the world, you must make a gradual switch to the new food or you will most likely cause upset to your dog's digestive system. By being so covert about the change, and so quickly replacing the old one, Canidae made it virtually impossible for most dog owners to switch over to the new food in the gradual way that is proper and healthy.
Regardless of whether the new food will continue to cause issues or not, the way this all was handled is enough. I no longer trust or respect Canidae and I can no longer recommend their products to my friends for their dogs. I am very sad and disappointed that Canidae chose this way to conduct their business.
Reviewed Sept. 21, 2008
I learned that Canidae changed their All Life Stages dry dog food formula without notifying the public. I understand they outsourced manufacturing of the product to Diamond. Since then my 2 Shetland Sheepdogs have been experiencing vomiting, loose stools, and now both have severe itching on their bodies, mostly on their paws. Canidae was negligent in not informing the public of a change to their dog food formula.
One dog had to be treated by our vet for intestinal upset. Shot of Pepcid and shot of fluids so he won't become dehydrated due to excessive vomiting. Needed to get X-rays done to determine if anything was physically wrong. Xrays were negative.
Total cost $400.
Reviewed Sept. 21, 2008
Since, according to the vet this is a problem that has been seen in several dogs...this product should be lookoed at more closely. thank you
Reviewed Sept. 20, 2008
The claim in the letter above from Canidae is not completely true, at least not for our store. I am so saddend to hear my customers tell me how sick their dogs have been since they opened the new improved bag of food. I hope those dogs affected by the change can find a new natural pet food and get well soon.
Reviewed Sept. 18, 2008
However, the pet store where I buy my food recently removed Canidae from their shelves after their own dog and the dogs of several clients who also fed Canidae nearly died after experiencing many of the same symptoms others have complained of here. Maybe it's not the food, but I am switching to Eagle Pack (which is pretty much like the old Canidae formula) until something definitive comes out of all this. There are too many similarities between the complaints for me to be comfortable continuing to feed Canidae at present. It looks like most of the problems started after they modified their formula a couple of months ago. Maybe that's the problem.
Reviewed Sept. 18, 2008
I returned the food and the pet store had ONE bag of the old formula so I bought it! Within two days, the gas had stopped and gradually his stool has returned to normal. I am searching for a new brand. I called and spoke with a rep at Canidae and she told me that they had had complaints like this from other customers and that they were looking into adding an enzyme to help prevent this. I just wish they had kept making the old formula. I will not buy Canidae once this bag is gone.
Reviewed Sept. 17, 2008
I did switch over from the old to the new Canidae ALS slowly. My dogs got sick &/or were reluctant to eat. One lost a bunch of weight (which he is putting back on nicely after I cut the Canidae out completely) & one showed allergy symptoms that we did not see last summer on the old ALS but did see the summer before when he was on a different kibble. I had complete faith in Canidae & always promoted it as a great food made by a company with integrity...Not anymore.
I will NEVER feed Canidae again but I did keep 1/2 a bag of the new formula in case it is found there is something wrong with the food...Which I strongly suspect. Shame on Canidae for selling out on us & our beloved fur friends.
Reviewed Sept. 17, 2008
Ive been feeding Canidae to my 4 dogs for approximately 3 years. Several weeks ago, I purchased a bag of ALS from my local feed store as I usually do. I was advised by the clerk that Canidae changed the formula and the bag size now I can buy 35 lbs for the price I used to buy 40 lbs. I really wasnt happy about that and the fact that there was no advance notice provided by Canidae so I could gradually change over the foods, but I went ahead and bought it anyway. I trusted Canidae.
Shortly after I started feeding my kids ALS new formula (2x per day), two of my dogs developed yellow, VERY stinky, loose stools and diarrhea. I thought that it would eventually clear up as they adjusted to the new formula, but that never happened. Instead, these same two dogs also started waking up in the middle of the night vomiting. This went on for several weeks. Unfortunately, it didnt even dawn on me that the new formula could be causing these changes, until I found a kernel of corn mixed in with the ALS new formula. Now, how could that be, I thought. This is supposed to be a no corn formula.
This drove me to doing research on the internet, where I found many, many dogs have issues with the new formula. And I read about the outsourcing to Diamond.. probably producing Canidae right next to a line of food that contains corn. I am a volunteer with Cairn Terrier rescue and have been very loyal to Canidae. I cant tell you how many times, especially during all the dog food recalls, that I have recommended people to feed their dogs Canidae. Again, I trusted Canidae. Now, many of them, as do I, are feeding other foods.
The Canidae was thrown out and my dogs are now eating Blue Buffalo. Their stools look great and the vomiting immediately ceased. Yes, Im paying a little more, but am getting a true quality product for my money. Why Canidae fixed what wasnt broke, Ill never know. I feel betrayed and let down by Canidae. A real shame.
Reviewed Sept. 16, 2008
I've been using Canidae for over 10 years. I use it for all rescues that I get as well. I haven't had any issues with it, and have had ZERO issues with it regarding the new formulation. There are over 30 people in my area using the new Canidae food, and, except for one allergic dog that had problems transitioning to the new lamb and rice (who is subsequently doing fine on the all life stages), we are VERY happy with it.
Reviewed Sept. 16, 2008
I've been using Canidae ALS with my six year old Shetland Sheepdog for about 5 months now with no problems. I heard about the change in the formula, but really I had no problems. Time has passed and I've been keeping a close eye on Chloe's health. When I started using the food I took pictures of her as a reference on how she started out. Every month I've been snapping pictures. Not to mention I have been checking her stools each day. Never once have I had anything bad to say about the food. Chloe's stools are smaller, less smelly, and firm. Her coat is really starting to gloss and thicken up and her skin is less dry than it was before.
Reviewed Sept. 16, 2008
I have a yellow lab who has a sensitive tummy. I researched and tried many different dog foods for my lab, and his body seemed to fit perfectly with Canidae dog food. For two years, his fur was silky, he didn't have bad breath, and his stools were absolutely normal. I was very happy with the food that is until the new and not improved dog food.
Sadly, I bought the food thinking everything was normal until I opened the bag. I noticed the food was larger in size had more of a yellow color. I was confused, but I was stupid and thought nothing of it because the bag was exactly the same. The bag did not have a sticker indicating the new change in formula. I gave my lab the food, and I noticed he started to eat extremely fast. My dog would never touch his breakfast until I was sitting down and I was eating my breakfast. I also noticed he wanted more and more of the food. So I increased his food by a half cup, but that still didn't seem to fill him up. I noticed that he started to have gas and bad breath, which he never had before. He had loose, yellow stools, and went more frequently than normal. He started to want to eat grass, which he never did before.
Finally, my brain figured out that the food had to be the issue because that was the only change in our routine. I went to my favorite pet store, and they informed me that indeed Canidae did change the formula to save money because like everything in our economy things are getting more expensive to produce. This made me so angry and sad, because I love my dog and I would have happily paid for the increase in production price, but unfortunately I and the rest of the consumers of Canidae didn't have that option. They chose to go the cheap way and instead they have lost my business and I hope many many more consumers. I am now slowly switching my dog to a different dog food, that is twice the price of Canidae which I am happy to pay. I hope this new food will work for my dog.
Reviewed Sept. 16, 2008
After running low on my last bag of Canidae All Life Stages I went to the store to get another bag. I was a bit confused as the weights seemed to have changed and the package was a little brighter in color. Well, this prompted me to check out Canidae's web site to see what they had to say. That is when I learned about the new formula and after a little research I found an amazingly large amount of complaints. I also learned that Canidae recommend that I mix my old food with the new to aid in the transition from the old to the new. Well, that presented another problem since there was no old formula food left to mix with. Not only that, but the new bag that I purchased mentioned nothing about the transition and mixing the old and new together.
Well, after seeing so many negative comments and having already opened the new bag with no other alternative, I thought I'd give Canidae the benefit of the doubt and at least try it out. My dog didn't seem to get the runny stools that others have experienced (at least I didn't notice since we live in the woods) but I did notice an overall lack of energy and enthusiasm from my dog. I felt that I would stick it out at least for a couple weeks and see how she would do on the new formula. She started to get her energy back after a week or so but then began to lose clumps of fur and lost her shiny coat.
I decided to do a little more research and ended up on this site. After seeing the problems everyone here has had and the way that Canidae has treated their customers I am done with them. What a shame as I was so happy with the quality of the old formula and wholeheartedly recommended Canidae to everyone I knew that had dogs. Now it's back to the drawing board to find a suitable replacement food. I am quite disappointed.
Monetarily I am out a half eaten bag of food and the 'free' bag I would have received after purchasing my twelfth bag. Not to mention having to constantly vacuum my house and brush my dog and wonder if she would improve on the new formula after a couple of weeks transition time.
Reviewed Sept. 15, 2008
Results are very good, no complaints, just wanted to voice the other side of things.
Reviewed Sept. 14, 2008
At first, her stool was just really mushy and yellow and she was having noticably more gas. Then it started becoming liquid, yellow diarrhea 3-4 times a day with maybe a mushy, yellow stool one time a day. She also started eating less and drinking a ton of water. Both my husband and I thought that maybe she was just drinking too much water and that over-hydration might have been the cause for her diarrhea. It never really occured to me that she wasn't tolerating the food and that all of our problems were related to this new formula change until today, when I heard her howling and found that she had an accident in her kennel and that there was diarrhea all over. She has NEVER done that before and only then did it occur to me that all of these problems started about a month ago when she started eating the new formula.
Historically, Siberian Huskies don't eat a lot for their size so I suppose that is why I wasn't too worried about her intake amount, but the loose, watery stool has had me worried for awhile and I was about ready to take her to the vet when I read about all of these similiar issues regarding the food. Now, I am convinced that this is the cause and immediately switched her to a bag of puppy food my vet had given me at our first visit. Not only did she devour this food the instant it hit her bowl a few minutes ago, something she had NEVER done with the new formula, she also didn't spend 5 minutes at the water dish.
I also mentioned her coat problems and after reading about other people's experiences I am feeling really stupid that I didn't connect the dots sooner. Around the same time of the formula switch her coat started looking greasy and ratty. Before, it had always been really soft and silky with no hint of this greasiness and coarseness that we were now seeing. Being a first time Husky owner I thought that maybe this was just how their coat looked when they were shedding in the summer so I tried to make it look better with regular baths, conditioning treatments, and brushings. Nothing worked and now, as I read about everyone elses experiences, it makes perfect sense that this all started at the same time as the formula change.
I am very upset about the consequences my 5 month old puppy had to endure until I woke up and finally realized what was going on. I am glad I didn't spend an additional $100 at the vet trying to find a cause for all of these problems. I knew it probably wasn't due to intestinal worms since we had just had a negative intestinal worm test (standard puppy procedure for first time visits to a new vet and she had been on a heart worm medicine that had a de-wormer in it) done right before we started feeding the new formula CANIDAE. So, being stupid, I just thought maybe she was just drinking too much water.
So we not only had emotional and physical consequences but also economic despite not having a vet bill. Since it cost over $40 for the bag and of course, I bought the biggest bag, and beacuse she wasn't eating very much I still have about half the bag left and no way to be reimbursed for it since I store the food in an air-tight bin and don't keep the bag or the receipt.
Reviewed Sept. 14, 2008
Hello, I have been using Candiae Chicken & Rice for two years now with no matter. Since Candiae has changed there food my dogs have been so sick. The amount of stools are crazy thick yellow slime and the smellest gas ever. I have 5 dogs and ever single one of them is sick from this food!
I am know switching to Eagle and will never go back to Candiae they just lost my business for ever and its alot of business feeding 3 large dogs and 2 small dogs.
Reviewed Sept. 14, 2008
After hearing about people having a problem with the new formula, I called Canidae & spoke to a lady there. She gave me what sounded like a written speech. I explained to her that one of my GSDs has EPI & has done very well on ALS for 3 years. She assured me this new formula was better & even suggested I try the Platinum formula for my EPI girl. Sent me a coupon & I ordered it from my dealer. Haven't tried it yet & will return it for a refund. Not taking any more chances.
I DID the change over, all dog/cat people know that for Petes sake. What an insult that is. Also, my dealer was NOT notified the change.
I have been feeding ALS to both of my GSDs for 3 years & had been more than happy with it. More than a few have used it also & now are having some major problems with this new stuff.
Now I have a EPI dog who is reacting to the feed after only 4 feedings. My male, who is very healthy, has refused his meals twice in the last week. This is a dog who inhales his food & lives for meal time.
Both dogs have gas & tummy pain with soft yellow stools. What could this be??? Of course it's the new & Improved Canidae! I'm not a happy camper at all.
We EPIer's have enough to deal with without having to find yet another food to feed our dogs.
I have contacted all my friends/family who have fed ALS for years & advised them to stop NOW! BTW, several of these folk are breeders.
When I asked why fix something that isn't broke I was told you never advance without change. That may be true in most cases but not in this one for sure.
Shame on you Canidae & I hope you go out of business! You've lost at least 100 dogs that I know of myself.
Ecomomic damages are nill as I SHOULD get a full refund. I'm not here to ask for money. I just want to tell folk what Canidae is doing to our furbabies.
Physical damages: Who knows with my EPI girl at this point? I pray I stopped it in enough time to prevent further damage to her system.
Reviewed Sept. 13, 2008
When we bought our puppy we spent a lot of time looking at different breeds to make sure we bought the best breed that fit our family. We also made sure that the food we fed her would be the best too. Our breeder has always used Canidae,so we continued to use this as well. She did awesome on the original formula. We again as everyone else here were not aware that the formula changed. My 16 month old puppy has experienced in the last month, severe itching to the point that she has missing fur, vomiting the yellow frothy mess and her fur is not soft - feels greasy and rough and the yellow,stinky mushy ****.
After reading the other dog owners results, Canidae should again make sure that the ingredients are safe and the manufacturing plant is safe. Please don't ignore the signs...there are too many and something is not right. If you care so much about pets, don't ignore this.
I just took my dog to the vet last night, so my expense has been minimal compared to the others, but after $79 dollars at the vet and over 1/2 a $40 dollar bag of food left, I'm going to immediately remove her from eating Canidae today.
Reviewed Sept. 13, 2008
I found a great food Taste of the Wild Venison and Bison and all of my guys have improved and the runs are gone and their coats are great. They even stopped picking at their food and now are playing and happy guys I have no clue what I will do if Taste of the Wild changes its formula , my guys will even eat it dry not something they would do with canidae.
Reviewed Sept. 13, 2008
This company needs to get right with its loyal customers. Many report that if they in fact did get a response, the company representative was rude and condescending. They suggest that people may be making the mistake of taking the food from its original bag and storing it in a fashion that somehow compromises freshness/safety. It's hard to believe that so many would do that. Indeed, most report consequences with the animal within the first few feedings when the product was new and just out of the bag, so this suggestion is ludicrous. Workers at the local pet store confirm reports of many complaints. Luckily, my Scottie has about 1 pound of the old Canidae remaining and we've already proactively purchased another brand.
Reviewed Sept. 13, 2008
I have already made a complaint on 8/31/08. However, I would like to make another as I have had further trouble with the new formula dog food.
I decided to give the food a chance instead of switching because of the diarrhea and vomiting from the first bag. I fed three more bags (11 dogs ate from these) and the stool did firm up for some and for others there would be some days with firm stool of a light color and some days a soft sticky stool. Yesterday I opened a fourth bag and today the trouble started full force again.
The 9 month old female I had to take to the vet the last time had yellow, watery diarrhea by this afternoon (every hour). The other 5 nine month old dogs had yellow pies and straining. The 5 old dogs so far seem unaffected, except for one who has vomited at least twice. This does not surprise me, because I am aware that it is young dogs who are the more severely affected by toxins when there is a dog food problem.
Three of the bags have identical lot numbers or whatever they are called, and the food in those bags appeared to be the same color, a lighter color than the old formula. The bag I opened yesterday differs in some of the numbers and is a darker color than the other three. Did they tweak the formula again??? Is the food not being produced consistently the same from batch to batch??? I'm not an expert therefore I am not sure what the difference in color indicates, except that I don't think it is anything good.
This afternoon I purchased a different brand of dog food and for dinner mixed 25% of it to 75% Canidae (except for the sickest one who had rice and broth). Everyone cleaned their plate except the super intelligent sibe, who carefully picked out every single grain of the new food and left every single grain of the Canidae.
I do intend to contact the FDA. I have all of my bags and I will be supplying them with the bag lot numbers. I would suggest that anyone who is still feeding the food or has switched and still has their bags in possession hold on to them just in case this is more than a matter of Diamond being unable to produce consistent food from batch to batch. I will also be keeping a sample of the food from this bag.
Normally I would be providing this information to Canidae, but since they did not reply to my first email several weeks ago I will not be contacting them again.
Reviewed Sept. 12, 2008
After reading the complaints (32 just this month) on this board, I realized I was just about to open up a bag of the new formula of Canidae all stages dog food. I called the Canidae to ask what was going on and they claimed that the complaints on this board had been unconfirmed and might be posted by competitors trying to smear them. They claimed that they have not heard from any veterinarians with definitive diagnoses or any proof that their food was causing dogs to become ill. They suggested I start transitioning my dog right away. After mixing my remaining old formulation with some of the new formulation, I decided I did not want to take the chance of making my sweet little black pug sick.
I threw everything away and bought a bag of IAMS LAMB AND RICE FORMULA (in the red bag) at my mom's suggestion. I fed him a bowl last night and this morning without any transition. He is doing great, even had a normal bowel movement this morning and he loves it! I just wanted to thank all of those who posted on this site and let you know that you all saved me and my dog a lot of misery. I am calling the pet store in which I bought the food to make sure they know there is a problem and that they alert customers in the future.
Loss of $30 worth of dog food.
Reviewed Sept. 12, 2008
I purchased the new larger size bag of Canidae Dog food for dogs Labeled Puppies to Adult. I have been using this product for approximately 8 months and I have been saving the bar codes to get a free bag after collecting 12 months worth of food. I opened the above new bag and poured it into my dog food bin with the remaining same brand left from prior bag. I had noticed a major difference in the color of the food as it was far lighter that the previous bag. Upon feeding both my puppy and my 2.5 year old adult dog with the above food, my adult 2.5 year old dog began the have loose stool, then projectile diarrhea, complete loss of appetite, and refused to drink any water.
Within two days, my sweet guy lost control in both front and rear legs and his body began to curl up into a fetal position. I rushed my lethargic and very sick dog to my veterinarians office and the vet had to give him intervenous in his back because he was highly dehydrated. He had a fever, an inflamed intestine and was very sick and weak. The vet had do perform an internal, give him an antidiarrheal shot, an antibiotic shot and 15 days of antibiotics and 15 days of antidiarrheal pills. I had to give him those pills every 24 hours without missing. I had to lose a day of pay to stay home with my buddy to see if he was either going to make it or die. I was just sick over it! The vet charged me $100.00 for the evening emergency visit and another $180.00 for all of the above performed on my dog.
I'm very upset with [Canidae]. I have paid approximately $45.00 per bag of food and though I was getting a very good, safe and healthy product for my dogs. How could [they] not inform people [of the] changed recipe. I almost lost a great friend and I also lost a great deal of money and time and suffering to save him! I've thanked the Lord that I was able to save my sweet guy Blue! He's all I have. I will never use product again and as a consumer will pass the word on about my horrible experience. I feel that everyone that experienced what I experienced should get together in trying be reimbursed for any expenses for their losses and also mean possible loss of our dear pets lives as well if any by this company!
Reviewed Sept. 12, 2008
My three large dogs, Doberman, Rottweiler, and Shepherd/Siberian Husky became ill after eating from a new bag of their CANIDAE Lamb & Rice & CANIDAE PLATINUM dog food last week. Explosive runny stools. I checked the internet for other complaints, and yes there was allot of complaints with the same symptoms. They have been on CANIDAE for almost a year now for I was told it was the best...It may have been but now it is not...they say they changed their formula...I don't think so, I like others think the dog food is tainted with something. I am going to have my bags tested.
I contacted CANIDAE, by phone, email, it has been 3 days and they didn't respond to me. I hope they can't sleep at night & I wonder what they feed their dogs. I then checked the internet for any complaints on their dog food they were on a year ago....NUTRO Natural Choice Lamb & Rice and I was shocked...numerous dogs and cats are seriously sick or dying from this pet food. I called the FDA of Minnesota and reported I felt my bag of CANIDAE dog food was contaminated or tainted with something. I gave her all the information and I gave her this websites of the complaints. She was going to have someone check into it.... EVERYONE NEEDS TO CONTACT THEIR STATE FDA ASAP! They don't go out looking for complaints, you have to advise them!
I am cooking for my dogs right now and they seem to be doing okay for now. Expense this far is dog food and my cleanup and search time from all this mess and their suffering!
Reviewed Sept. 12, 2008
I opened 6 cans of food for a second meal of the day and found what looked like string but once dry appears to be cardboard I also found what appears to be a fairly large 3/4 x 1/4 inche piece of packing tape in the food when I was placing it on the dinner plate for the pups.
I still have 2.5 cases unused. called and no care attitude by canidae customer service. I have lost much sleep over this.
Reviewed Sept. 11, 2008
We have had Sadie on Canidae since she was a puppy. It took us until she was about 4 months old to even find a food that would keep her stools hard. We'd switch foods and they would stay hard for a few days then turn runny again - quite the opposite of most people who do sudden food changes. Finally we tried Canidae ALS and the stools have been good every since. She was offically diagnosed with IBD at 4.5 months old and def. suffers from food intolerances. Then about 2 months ago, Sadie came to visit me and she was ******* yellow again! I got so mad at my boyfriend accusing him of buying petstore food and feeding it to her (he always complained about how he had to go to a special store to get her food).
Even when he showed me the food he brought with him I didn't believe it was Canidae because it looked so different. Come to find out, they had a formula switch and Sadie never adjusted. She had always been a little rashy baby but after the Canidae switch she got huge pumps on her head that spread down her neck and she had red scaly patches on her skin. We took her to the vet where she was said to have pyoderma and was put on antibiotics and shampoos. She continued to have incredibly loose, yellow colored stools ( I assume from the new coloring in the food) and her gas got a lot worse. Her hair began to fall out around her face and her skin began to smell.
We just switched her to Kumpi food after talking extensively with their nutritionist and founder. We've already seen the stool firm up and her rash is getting better! I am so upset at Canidae. Why take such a good product and go and do this to it? It worked great the way it was - and [they] went and ruined it and hurt a lot of dogs in the process. I am never going back to corporate dog food again and will never use another Canidae product the rest of my life.
Reviewed Sept. 11, 2008
I have been feeding my two dogs Canidae Lamb & Rice for the last two years without incident. Two weeks ago I bought a new bag and found that the kibbles were more of a yellowish color rather than the usual brown and were also larger. After a few days, my dogs' stool was yellow and loose. This week both dogs began vomiting. This caused us to wonder if the dog food was the problem so we checked on the Internet. Sure enough many other pet owners experienced the same symptoms. We disposed of the remaining dog food immediately and plan to switch to Eagle Pack.
Other than the weight and color, there was no indication on the packaging that the formula was changed. We counted on Canidae to provide a healthy food for our pets and were seriously let down. I'm glad we caught this in time before our dogs suffered worse symptoms and will never buy or recommend Canidae products.
$28.88 for the 15lb bag of food. No vet bills yet but the well being of our beloved pets has been compromised.
Reviewed Sept. 11, 2008
I started using Canidae about 2 or 3 years ago. Another dog food company had abruptly changed ingredients and my dogs would no longer eat it, and one got an ear infection.
I spent a lot of time researching brands and settled on Canidae. My dogs LOVED it. I didn't do the traditional gradual change over, and my dogs experienced no problems. Everything has been great. I even worked for a pet store that sold a LOT of Canidae, and can count on one hand the number of individual dogs it didn't work out for. Our store sold over 80 of the 40# bags a week! That's feeding a lot of dogs.
Well a few months ago I got the first of the new bags. I wasn't happy about the price but it was my first time buying from that particular store so I thought they just were higher priced. Then I noticed the 5# smaller bags.More money for less food doesn't make me happy.
When I got home, I noticed the new ingredients. Now, I KNOW ingredients, the pet store I worked in required me to know this stuff as we had a high number of clients with allergy dogs. I wasn't impressed, took a deep breath, and put it in their bowls. Only one dog finished his dinner that night. Out of 5!
It only got worse, and my allergy dog began digging at himself and got greasy skin and hair. I immediately knew it had to be the food and emailed Canidae. Their response was that the food is now better. I might have bought their explaination if I didn't already know so much about dog food.
I went to the store and they told me that Canidae had again raised prices, forcing them to raise prices. $45 for a 35# bag is way too steep for me! She said other customers were complaining as well, and that Canidae wasn't selling very well.
After looking at every brand of food in the store, I was forced to go with Diamond Natural. I just can't afford to spend more on dog food.
I loved Canidae, my dogs looked so good on it. They look ok now, but not like they used to. I'm realy disappointed.
Reviewed Sept. 10, 2008
The newest formulation of Canidae Lamb and Rice is acutely toxic to dogs. Like all the people whose stories are below my dog ate Canidae for as long as I owned him until I bought a bag of their new formula last month. Within 24 hours he began vomitting up to 5 time a day and his stools became runny.
Canidae had not labeled their new formula on the bag so I had no idea it was new until I went online to the Canidae website. Once I learned it was new formula, I took my dog off of this food and gave him some Blue Buffallo lamb and rice. He stopped vomitting and his stools firmed up within 24 hours. He is still not 100% but I pray he heals up soon.
Please!!! call the FDA now if you have a problem 1-888-463-6332. File a complaint and they will investigate. I have already contacted the FDA but if more people call it will certainly drive this into the spotlight. Don't just write a letter on this website, do something to stop this company from poisoning your dog. Keep your used bag of poison. We may need it to put these people out of business.
Reviewed Sept. 10, 2008
We had sang the praises of Canidae ALS for over 2 years. We adopted a dog from a shelter that arrived with diarrhea and horrible coat condition and odor. We could not find a food that agreed with her until we tried Canidae ALS. That is all we fed her and when we added a new puppy, we eventually transitioned him to Canidae ALS.
Their coats were gorgeous, they smelled great and never an ear or skin problem. Almost never a digestive issue and they always passed small stools. Until the NEW formula that is. Non stop gas, itching and worse was the gigantic mountains of yellow mushy stool that we picked up for 2 months along with unexplained vomiting. Our female also began to eat out of the litter box, something she had NEVER done prior to the new Canidae ALS formula. The male pooped in his crate and on our rugs several times which is out of the ordinary for him.
If Canidae had made their new grain free formulas available when they improved their other formulas, We probably would have tried one and may have stayed a Canidae customer. We most certainly were not going to try another of the improved formulas after seing what the improved ALS did to our dogs.
In all fairness to Canidae, our retailer WAS aware of the switch and we were able to do the slow transition. It did not matter in our case as our dogs were still not tolerating the new formula after alost 2 months of being on it.
Reviewed Sept. 9, 2008
I have tried each of their foods (ALS, Chicken & Rice, Lamb & Rice and Platinum) on my dogs and the only formula that gave my dogs any problem was the Lamb & Rice. My dogs LOVE the taste and have better skin, coats and overall health than ever!
I am posting this because I know there are complaints out there, yet no one is willing to write anything about how wonderful the changes are. If you actually look at the ingredients in their new formulas, you will notice that the health benefits to dogs outweighs any complaint on this site. I did alot of research on the ingredients and this is what I found...
Brown Rice: Least damaged rice because only the outermost layer, the hull, is removed, avoiding the unnecessary loss of nutrients. Contains manganese which produces energy from protein and carbohydrates and is involved in the synthesis of fatty acids, which are important for a healthy nervous system and in the production of cholesterol which is used by the body to produce sex hormones. Brown rice also helps to prevent colon cancer with its Fiber and Selenium.
White Rice: Helps to prevent cancer. Strengthens the digestive tract.
Rice Bran: Help the body fight harmful molecules known as free radicals.
Peas: Tonifies the spleen-pancreas and stomach. Harmonizes digestion. (Interesting fact: used to treat spasms, vomiting, hiccups, belching, coughing, constipation, carbuncles and boils).
Potatoes: Rich in vitamin C, the B-complex vitamins and has good doses of the minerals Iron, Calcium, manganese, magnesium and phosphorus. Great as a digestive remedy! Considered a good liver remedy and can be helpful for gallstones and other gallbladder problems.
Oatmeal and Cracked Pearl Barley: Reduces levels of blood glucose, insulin & triglycerides. Reduces risk of coronary disease.
Millet: Cuts cancer risk by decreasing the toxicity of certain bile acids. Reduces LDL (bad? cholesterol) levels without lowering HDL (good? cholesterol) levels. Makes pets less likely to develop colorectal, stomach and endometrial cancers & heart disease. Slows starch digestion, which may help diabetics avoid steep rises in blood sugar levels following meals.
Tomato Pomace: Reduces gastric acid secretion (this is a great digestive aid). Helps to reduce stool volume and odor.
Papaya: Rich source of antioxidant nutrients, such as carotenes, vitamin C and flavonoids; the B vitamins, folate and pantothenic acid; and the minerals potassium and magnesium; and fiber. Protects against heart disease, promotes digestive health, has various anti-inflammatory effects, supports the immune system and promotes lung and respiratory health. Controls premature ageing as well as assisting in the increase of male fertility.
Pineapple: Loaded with Vitamins and minerals, such as calcium, potassium, fiber and Vitamin C. Low in fat and cholesterol. Strengthens bones and connective tissue. Contains bromelain, which has been found to help suppress coughs and loosen mucus. Aids in digestion. Helps rid the body of stones. Is a diuretic & diaphoretic. Soothes gastric irritability.
This company still uses ingredients from the USA ONLY!!! Their ingredients are still ALL NATURAL and they are one of the only companies out there that are willing to tell us who is manufacturing their food for them.
Last but not least, if you think about the change of carbs (from rice alone to the addition of essential carbs)you would notice that if you add water to any carb, what happens.....the moisture is absorbed. Don't you think obviously that diahrreah would not be caused by the carbs? I know that in their Lamb & Rice formula, they added Fresh Lamb Meat. Because the food is tastier now the dogs are eating it faster than they did before. When I over eat, I know I have digestive upset....that is the same for dogs.
In closing, if you complain, make sure you know your facts first! I for one am very satisfied with their formulation change and will continue to buy their foods for my current and any future animals I adopt as well as recommend them to everyone I know!
Reviewed Sept. 9, 2008
My 8.5 yr old black lab has been on Candidae her entire life, from puppy food, to lamb and rice to now platinum for seniors which she's been on for at least 5 yrs. Over the past three weeks, she has had an unknown but severe allergic reaction which ultimately required intravenous cortisone to improve and she is still incredibly itchy and uncomfortable. In fact we have an appt with the vet today to get longer acting cortisone shot. This morning, my lab, who normally eats everything, refused to eat her food. I have never seen this from her before, even when she's been sick, she'd still eat, albiet a bit slower and less enthusiastically.
I quickly deduced that she was not off her food as she acted otherwise completely normal and ate all the biscuits I could give. I promptly called my pet food store to report I thought something must be wrong with my dogs Candidae. They immediately informed me that they've been receiving many complaints about Candidae over the past few days and that there had been a change in formulas. Immediately it all made sense, the allergies, the gassiness and now her flat out refusal to eat. I promptly switched her over to another brand of food and she ate with gusto (I would have loved to have mixed it in gradually but there was no way I was going to force her to eat that Candidae after her reaction to it).
It's clear that this new formula has some major issues. I never received any notice that there were changes in the formula and no warning that this could happen.
My dog suffereed for 3 weeks with a severe allergic reaction, and we spent $100 on a vet visit and countless more time and energy trying to diagnose her allergy issue. Also wasted $25 on bag of dog food which now has to be thrown out.
Reviewed Sept. 9, 2008
I sent the following email to Canidae after noticing that my dogs were not doing well on the new formula. We had successfully been feeding this brand of food for 16 months before the formula change.
Message: I just wanted to let you know personally that I will be changing foods after seeing your new formula and who is manufacturing your product. I did a lot of research on foods when before we rescued our two great danes and your product came well recommended. We have been SUPER happy over the past year and have recommended your product to numerous other dane owners! However I'm very disappointed by your decision to outsource your manufacturing to Diamond. I'm also not pleased with the new look and formula of the food. The green color is off putting and the dryness of the kibble makes it look like any other store brand rather than a premium kibble. That is all just looks and opinion though. My dogs have experienced an increase in gas and looser stools on the new formula. So, now I have had to do my research all over again and will be switching to Eagle Pack which still is manufactured in their own facility and controls their ingredients. I just wanted to let you know why I'm switching and why a lot of people I know are switching rather than just being a number on a sales report. I think you may find that the demand that you could not meet in your old facility will no longer be an issue when everyone switches over rather than feeding something made in a Diamond facility. I wish you would have considered who feeds your food and the demands for quality that we have for our pets
We have successfully switched to Eagle Pack with wonderful results.
Reviewed Sept. 9, 2008
I have bought Canidae for the past 5yrs never having any problems until now....bought a new formula bag on Friday and did transition the new bag with the old formula. Within hours my 2 dogs that are fed Canidae (I have four) were vomiting and suffering from explosive yellow diarrhea....my 12 yr old came very close to dying.
Reviewed Sept. 8, 2008
I had used canidae als for well over a year because of the reviews I seen on the internet and my dog did great on it until aug My two babies starting throwing up with stinky diareah I looked up the company online and found that that had changed the formula without telling people so I emailed the company and here was there response:
Our quality of raw material as well as quality control has actually increased not decreased. Yes we have diversified our complex carbohydrates as rice continues to climb and high quality availability decreases. Our products are better than ever and more consistent. Our economy is facing some challenging times and we are being proactive in offering you the highest quality products, yet affordable enough for our consumers to purchase. We are not sure about other companies and their plans for change or their reasons in the past, however we feel we are being open and honest about our changes. We are getting a lot of positive feedback from our customers that are actually feeding their pets our improved formulas.
"We thank you for your comments, and hope your pets continue to receive the benefits of CANIDAE Pet Foods."
no concern at all for our pets I changed To taste of the wild and the problems went away overnight and my dogs love it I say good buy Canidae you have lost me my daughter and everyone I can tell
Reviewed Sept. 8, 2008
Back in August, I also made a complaint regarding Canidae. I consider myself to be extremely educated when it comes to dog food and companies. Those of you who think its Diamonds fault is not an accurate allegation. Canidae is only using Diamonds facility. Diamond does not formulate Canidae brand. Canidae does. In my honest opinion, I think there is something wrong with the ingredients. Diamond is not providing Canidaes ingredients. I dont think Ive ever read about so many complaints RE: one dog food since the recall. Can Canidae continue to ignore its consumers? This is reprehensible.
Reviewed Sept. 8, 2008
Canidae was reccomended to me by the breeder of my daughters new puppy. (I feed my dogs Eagle Pack) We were given a supply by the breeder and then bought a bag of our own. The new bag caused diarreah imeadiately. The puppy did not look good I called the vet and the breeder. I thought he was going to die, my kids were crying. I thought he had gotten a virus so did the vet we did antibiotics for 10 days and put him on I/D. We did stools samples thinking worms maybe..came back neg. 4 times.
Still thinking it was something else and not the food we assumed it was giardia and again tested .. negitive! Now I was making hamburger and rice for him, he weight loss was horrendus. I was at wits end, then I decieded to change him over to Eagle Pack thinking it could'nt hurt more than whats going on. Within 2 days his stool was normal , no blasting ,no vomiting ,he didn't look like he was going to pop.He was a playful pup again. It took about 3 weeks to figure this out, how dare Canidae do this to our family. He is now 6 months old and smaller than he should be but I think he'll catch up to his litter mates who didn't suffer as much as he did.
Vet bills over 500.00. Bag of food I threw away 42.50. Not to mention the pain and suffering this pup went through.
Reviewed Sept. 7, 2008
I have used Canidae for close to a year now, on my small breed dogs, and all have done very well until they switched the formula. Unfortunatly I had 2 litters of pomeranians at the time of the change. One litter was 7 weeks old, the other 5 weeks old. I had been giving them moistened kibble from about 4 weeks of age. I had 2 of the older pups suddenly go into hypoglycemia and dehydration and couldn't revive them, they also had diarrhea and had quit eating. They both died within 24 hours.
About a week later my younger litter started having problems. The runt of that litter especially. They used to all run to eat the sofened kibble, and about the same time all stopped eating. I spent many sleepless nights pumping them full of liquids. I had 2 more pups in this liter with hypoglycemia. I was able to bring them out of it, but after 12 days it was all to much for the smallest one, and he died in my hands trying to give him one last meal of puppy formula.
I like the others suspected everything except the dog food because I had learned to trust it. Once I figured it out, and switched, my older dogs have also recovered.
I also believe
it caused the little poms mother's milk to dry up about the same time they stopped eating and started getting sick. She was lifeless and weak looking. I cooked them all chicken to entice them to eat. I also have a King Charles Spaniel, that has been pregnant through this whole thing, and am very concerned about her little unborn pups. I had to switch the food cold turkey, and for the most part, most have improved. I'm sure the puppies were just not strong enough to take it, with me feeding it to them plus receiving it through the mother's milk. It was particulary hard to loose the older ones, who were already weaned. At that age they are usually happy and healthy, and ready to go to their forever homes.
So I lost a total of 3 registered Pomeranain puppies, and could have lost much more if I had not been alerted to the food issues. I feel that it could have been all prevented if I had known. I expect to see a full recall soon, so that won't happen to other unsuspecting breeders that go the extra mile to purchase what they believe to be a top brand dog food.
Reviewed Sept. 7, 2008
I had known about the formulation change but in reading the ingredients, thought it would work well. It didn't. I have since pulled my dogs off the Canidae and it took a couple of my dogs over a month to recover their stomachs but now they are doing fantastic. I will never use Canidae again.
Reviewed Sept. 6, 2008
Although I had heard that Canidae was changing their formula, I decided to switch my puppy to this brand because I was happy with the product ingredient line as compared to the iams dog food I had been sent home with. We started on the old formula and it worked out well for my pup. Before I knew it, I could only find the new formula on the shelves. I wanted to switch with a ratio of 2 or more of the old to 1 of the new but could only switch with my one remaining bag of old formula. I did this very slowly over the course of 3 weeks, slowly mixing in more. COntinuously, my puppy had runny poops, diahrhea accidents in his crate and vomiting. After a few weeks of this, I finally decided to make a switch over to raw prey model diet and from day 2, we were back to solid stools and no vomitting.
45 dollars in food that caused problems requiring many extra hours of care and cleaning.
Reviewed Sept. 6, 2008
My dogs had extreme diarrhea within 24 hours of eating this garbage and became dehydrated. They're trying to kill our animals for the sake of the almighty dollar.It took me along time in my life to finally have dogs for my children who are now teenager's. We've all fallen madly in love with them, trusted the food that's on the market to keep them healthy and we now have a company switching formulas to fill their wallets and the hell with our pets. Canadae better hope there are no pets that end up dying because of it. If there'e ever a law suit I'll be first in line!
Reviewed Sept. 5, 2008
My dogs had been switched to Canidae dog food because the old food I had fed for 14 years was discontinued in my area. I started feeding the Canidae with good results UNTIL they changed the formula. I was unaware of any ingredient change, but realized the food looked different. I was assured by a Canidae rep that the food was okay, but there was no mention of the formula change.
Right after starting my dogs on what I now know WAS the new formula, all the ones eating it (I have 5 dogs, 4 were eating the Canidae and one is on another hypoallergenic food from a different company)started having very yellow diarrhea and occasional vomiting of a yellow frothy type.
I work in a veterinary clinic, and I took in stool sample, all of which were negative for bacteria or parasites. I thought my dogs had picked up something. I treated them all with antibiotics and anti-diarrheal meds. Nothing woked. I had been fighting the diarrhea for a motnth when another breeder friend sent me the notices about other people having the same experiences with their dogs on the new formula.
Now, it has clicked with me that the problems are being caused by the Canidae. I have been showing purebred dogs (Rough and Smooth Collies) for 18 years and been a breeder for 9 years. Because of my experience and my job working in a veterinary hospital, I am fully aware of how to gradually swith dog foods. I was unaware that the formula had changed, and after a month, the dogs should have been adjusted anyway. Not happening.
I went out yesterday and bought Avo-Derm brand and started switching my dogs over. Just overnight with only a small amount of the Avo-Derm mixed with the Canidae my older retired champion girl, who had the worst diarrhea has shown an improvement in her stool.
When i heard that Canidae had switched to Diamond as their manufacturing source, that just gave me shudders. My dogs are first and foremost, beloved family members, and secondly, they are valuable show dogs and breeding animals. I WILL NOT risk their health by feedng them a poor quality dog food. I will never buy, or recommend Canidae ever again. My cats eat the Felidae cat food, and even though they have not been negatively affected (yet) I will be switching them to another brand of cat food. Canidae did not need to fix something that was not broken. They had a responsibility to their consumers to let us know of the formula change, which they neglected to do. Their decision to use Diamond to manufacture their food was a very poor decision due to Diamond's well deserved bad reputation and past history.
I spent 4 weeks trying to diagnose the problems my dogs were having with my veterinarians. Even with my employee discount at work, I spent around $200 in medicines and tests.
Reviewed Sept. 5, 2008
Per the suggestion of our local pet supply store, I started my Yorkie on Canidae All Life Stage - Chicken and Rice Formula dry food 1.5 years ago (my dog was 1 year old at the time). When we started to use the last bag purchased, our dog became hesitant to eat the food. After struggling through half the bag (6.6 lb bag) he began to vomit and have severe diarrhea. Within a day, his vomit and stool was full of blood and we rushed him to the vet. After 3 days of being hooked up intravenously to keep him alive, the vet still could not figure out the cause of the problem. He was tested for possible blockage and pancreatitis.
We nursed him back to good health with fresh vegetables, fruits, yogurt, chicken broth and Gatorade. Not suspecting the Canidae food, after he got better, we tried to get him to continue to eat it, to which he ran from the food bowl.
After discussing this with the owner of the pet store, I now know that the food was most likely the problem. I would like to know if anyone knows when this formula was changed and what markings should I be looking for on the bag that may indicate that the product that I have is the New Formula. Regardless, I would not recommend this brand of food to anyone.
Vet bill = $950
Reviewed Sept. 4, 2008
I recently ran out of dog food and purchased a new bad, the same brand Canidae. After eating this food, the same evening, my dog became very ill throwing up in the middle of the night. She also three up that day, and the day after. And wouldn't touch her food, the Canidae. I now find they switched tyheir formula without alerting the public, and see many other people have experienced the same problems as me with Canidae dog food.
My dog is now staggering when she walks. I have taken her to the vet twice withing two days. They asked me if she ingested any poison or something she shouldn't have. I now realize this Canidae dog food has made her not only ill, but may have cause nurological damage.
My dog is now tird, off balance, and seems to be out of it a little. The vomiting improved as soon as I took her off the Canidae doig food, but the balnce probelem has not, she is still off balance. THis has never happened to her before. She's only two years old.
Reviewed Sept. 4, 2008
The change in the Canidae formula has casued my own dog and many lcient's dogs under my care to experience gastric problems, and I am concerned. I'd like to see some resolution of this, as Canidae was one of the best foods available until this change.
Jus to describe my own dog? Severe, mucusy diarrhea, like I have never seen in his life. And no - I did not transition too fast. I did only 1/3 Canidae to 2/3 his regular diet. It was awful. I will no longer be recommending this food until some amendments are made.
Reviewed Sept. 4, 2008
3 weeks ago I purchased Canidae dry food for my 2 bassett hounds only later to find out they had changed the formula recently - now my dogs have constant Diarrhea and need to go out every 2-3 hours - I bought food from this company for 3 years with no problems - now it has turned into a horrible problem since the formula change. These people need to be held accountable for this proble.
Reviewed Sept. 4, 2008
I have been feeding Canidae Dog food for about 3 years now , I moved to Upper Michigan 16 years ago and had problems finding GOOD Dog food in this area I am 43 years old and have been showing dogs since the age of 7 I have been raising Miniature dachshunds , Whippets and I do aussie rescue .
at this time I have 14 dogs in my home several different breeds due to rescue , I came upon Canidae as I said about 3 years ago and fed and was doing very well with it , I fed most of the dogs the all stage formula and the whippets were on the lamb and rice formula ,
about a month back (early august ) I purchased 2 bags of all stage and a bag of lamb and rice , I opened the lamb and rice and it was light in color and a different shape so I was alarmed wouldn't feed that night called Canidae in the morning , the women I spoke to told me that they had changed their formula and the color was due to the slow cooking process and they had real lamb now and lowered the Rice content , I felt safe to feed after talking to the women on the phone , I fed everyone right away , within HOURS all my dogs not just one or two but all had severe diarreah some looked ill feeling depressed no energy so I gave everyone a dose of Immodium let there tummys rest and the next day the same thing ,
I fasted everyone for 24 hours then again started same thing , I had horrible messes and very sick dogs all live in the house mind you . I called Candidae back and the women I talked to then was not helpful nor polite , she said you have something going on with your dogs it is not our food . and no one has complained except for you being the first one . I took stool samples in to vet NOTHING no paristites no Giardia nothing but very upset stomachs .
I went to the feed store and my dealer told me to try Fromms Gold Adult Holistic , I did and I am here to tell you everything is back to normal my dogs coats are getting back to nomal stools are back to normal , I have NEVER in all the years and changes of food ever encountered this problem. I will never use another Canidae product again
Reviewed Sept. 4, 2008
I have fed Canidae for 12.5 years and have always been extreemly happy with it until now, my dogs have always thrived on it. Now the formula has been changed and I certainly will not sing the same praise. The Company Rep.I spoke to recently said they were not lessening the quality only Diversifying the Carbohydrates and that it was an improvement I am now on my second bag of the new improved formula and all my dogs are chewing on themselves and have HOLES at the base of their tales!!!! THIS HAS NEVER HAPPENED IN 12.5 years!!!! I AM SOOO angry!
The Rep was rude at the recent San Diego Wags 4 Wishes event and even went so far as to call me the evil one because I dared to ask her why they had changed their formula, lessened the bag size by 5 pounds and increased the price all at the same time? This seemed reasonable questioning to me. I have recommended this food to my puppy people and training clients for years and will never do so again. When I also asked the Rep. where the food was being manufactured, she told me that she did not know. This seems very unlikely to me!
My dogs are all miserable. They have all been chewing on themselves and have bitten holes into their coats at the base of their tails and are even bleeding. My older dog has explosive dihareea! I find it very unlikely that there would be any other cause as all of my currrent dogs have been raised their entire live's of 3 - 7 and 12.5 years on this one formula. I have been a loyal customer for 12.5 years to this company but now I am forced to look for a new food. I am now shopping for a new company that cares more about the dogs than their bottom line!
Reviewed Sept. 3, 2008
I recently changed to Canidae Lamb and Rice dry dog food for my 2 working German Shepherds Dog. Both of my dogs have loose yellowish stools and have vomited a few times over the last few days. Until I was pointed to the Consumer Reviews, it didn't dawn on me that it might be the dog food. Neither dog is eating on a regular schedule which is VERY rare. I'm taking them off this food immediately!
My dogs are working search and rescue dogs. We are scheduled to attend a class that will cost about $1000 in just two weeks and possibly certify one of them. I am praying that their loose stools and eating habits improve and do not affect their performance at this event or it will be money wasted!
Reviewed Sept. 3, 2008
I have a cocker with allergies. We almost had her put down because we could not stand to see her suffer. When we found the Canidae Dog food, it was our last resort. IT WORKED. She stopped scratching. We have fed that food for over a year and good results. My daughter moved home with her two dogs and to make sure my dog didnt get their food by mistake, she switched to Canidae also.
These last two bags of the food was different. We did not know about the formula change until today when we went to buy another bag. We wer talking to the sales lady and telling her about the problems we are having with our dogs. My dog has been scratching more and more, my daughters dog has gotten skin bumps that appear and then burst. She never even had a skin problem before and all the dogs have diarreha.
We thought it was strange when we filled their bowl about a month ago and none of them wanted to eat. But we didnt think much of it. As they did start to eat it. But then the diarreha started and the yellow vomit. We just didnt put it all togeather and now feel terrible to know for the last month we have been poisening our dogs. We will never use Canidae again. Hopefully they will like the new food and it will work out for them.
We also just found that Canidae has another new formula that isnt in stores yet. It is called Grain Free Formula with no grains at all. I dont know how much it will be...but It makes me wonder if they just tood the old formula...made smaller bags but kept the price the same and added the grains..and now they are comeing out with this grain free formula and I bet it will be much more money then the older formula. I wouldnt buy another thing from them ever.
Reviewed Sept. 3, 2008
Bandit began vomiting his entire dinner almost every evening. They get Red Barn rolls for breakfast which they all ate as usual. I stopped feeding it. I found your site and realized I was not alone in this problem. I heard, but not offically, that the company was sold to Diamond dog food.
Reviewed Sept. 3, 2008
I have emailed The Whole Dog Journal and asked them to remove Canidae from their recommended list for dry dog food. When the dog food scare of 2007 occured my supplier couldn't keep Canidae on their shelves because it was such a good product. Shame on you Canidae for changing your product to increase profit when you had already increased your market share and shame on you for blaming the retailers for not doing what was your responsibility to inform the public about the change in formula.
Reviewed Sept. 2, 2008
I switched to Felidae Platnium canned after the pet food recll in 2007.
I too spent painstaking hours researching all the various foods for ingredients and nutritional analysis and we tried many. We didn't get to transition because our Iams was recalled. I settled on Felidae and have fed canned only since late April 07. I order from Pet Food Direct as my local specialty pet stores were having a horrible time getting the food and I kept running out. PFD had the large cans in stock. Last month, I received a case of Platnium. I opened a can and immediately noticed the look, smell and consistency of thh food was different.
I fed it, the cats sniffed it and walked away. For 2 days they would not touch it. I called PFD and they readily agreed to replace it. They sent another case but it was the same lot # as the previous. I called Canidae and they were actually very nice. They inisisted the canned formulas had not changed but perhaps the batch had been cooked a little differently. I was able to find the Felidae canned Chicken and Rice at one pet store and bought that. They readily lapped it up.
My plan was to wait a month until that other batch was exhausted and then go back to the Platnium. When the pet store ran out of the C&R I ordered a case form PFD. Well, that too is different. It fell out of the can like soup and they again, will not eat it. My last communication with Canidae received a response of "I am sorry to hear you feel that way, can I be of assistance?"
These companies, all of them need to be held more accountable. Something is definitely different about the canned cat foods and no one seems to have an answer, or won't offer one. I have switched to Nutro.
The senior does have rice gluten but the regualar adult chk and rice does not. I know they had issues too but we tried so many food last year, and transitioned all of them slowly. Wellness gave them diarhea for days, Innova same thing (regular and Evo-they exploded), Natural Balance didn't go over well as per palpability.
Reviewed Sept. 2, 2008
The owner of the pet supply store told me today that Canidae had changed the formula and this was probably the problem. He suggested a smaller volume of food and the addition of pumpkin to firm up the stool.
Research on the Internet revealed that many other dogs are enduring the same problem as mine and confirmed that the formula change without notice that a transition period was needed is the cause of the problem.
My puppy is in distress. I am as well, considering the mess that has to be cleaned up constantly, not to mention the lack of sleep.
I intend to switch to a different food immediately. I see no reason to transition for a week or ten days - why should I continue to feed my dog something that is making her ill?
The economic damage is small, but physical distress inflicted on my puppy cannot be quantified.
Reviewed Sept. 2, 2008
My dogs have been eating Canidae for about 2 years with no problems.In mid July I bought a bag of Canidae Platinum dog food, the usual, but when I opened the bag there was a horrible odor; can;t quite put my finger on the smell, but it was kind of like a gas/plastic smell, like when you burn rubber with your car tires. The color of the food was different also.
I immediatly called the place I bought it from, the said Canidae had changed it's formula and they think they got a bad batch because they were getting other complaints as well. I brought it back, they exchanged for a bag of the 'old' formula.
When I got this last bag in August, I noticed the normal pullt ab was gone from the bag, and the food was lighter in color. My dogs have had problems aver since, they are having diarrhea, and something strange- they are always hungry. My dogs have never gotten into the garbage, even as puppies, but lately they keep trying to raid the garbage, the pantry, anything for food- and they don't want their dog food.
I have 2 90lb dogs and for them to walk away from a full bowl of dog food is unheard of. I am switching over to a different brand of food, I am hoping that this batch of food did not permanently harm them. I can't believe Canidae would not put a warning on the bag about the switch. I don't know what's different, but it's not good since obviuosly a lot of people are having the same trouble.
Reviewed Sept. 2, 2008
I have been feeding Canidae All Life Stages for a couple of years now. I knew about the new formula for the better in my opinion. And mixed my last bag with a new bag half and half. Once that was gone they started on the new formula. I have been showing and breeding Yorkshire Terriers for over 20 years and know they do have easy to upset digestive systems. However I did not have any issue's with the switch thus far as the newer formula has not been out very long.
I loved the new consistancy in color and the smell to me was more appealing. I was hesitant like everyone else to get this new food as I was extremely please with the old food formula. I was assured with Canidae if thier was any issue's which they did not think I would have, I could take the food back to where I bought it and get a FULL refund! They even went one better and sent me a coupon for one free 5 lb. bag.
All I can say is right now I am happy. And Canidae did everything they could to make me feel good about the change and listened to all my hesitations. After all when your feeding AKC Champions with babies you surely do not want any upsets! Until I have an issue I will contintue to feed Canidae. Oh and I was not please with the new bag style and voiced my opinion, they are working on an even better solution then previously on opening thier bags. It is in the works and it is all about improvments for them. For now all is good. And I hope it stays that way!
Reviewed Sept. 1, 2008
I have fed Canidae All Life Stages dog food to my American Pit Bull Terriers for over 2 years now. I had originally switched to that brand because it was becoming too expensive to feed what I'd been feeding prior to that. When Canidae announced that it was changing the ingredients of their formulas (especially in the wake of all the dog food recalls), I sat up and took notice, but suspended judgement for the time being. When the size of the bag decreased while the price stayed the same, I was unhappy, but rolled with it.
When I heard the rumor they were letting Diamond do their manufacturing, I was alarmed, but still wanted to give the new food a chance. However, after going through two large bags of the new formula, my dogs' digestive problems can no longer be attributed to adjusting to the new formula. They should be done adjusting by now.
There is simply something wrong with this new Canidae. I am officially done with this brand. I've switched my dogs back to the more expensive (but more reliable) brand that we were feeding before. I think the next time a brand I'm feeding makes a significant change under the guise of improvement, I'll be switching my dogs to a homemade raw diet.
Reviewed Sept. 1, 2008
I have a 11 month old dashouhd who was doing fine until Canidae dog food was recommended. He was playful and would come to me when I called him. After just two days on canidae dog food his behavior changed, he started to look very ill with glassy eyes and stayed thirsty all the time. The second day he had severe stomach problems consisting of awfful smelling watery stools. I thought he was drinking too much water and decreased his drinking and he started throwing up this yellow vomit. He was very irritable and whinny and then had enormous fluctuations between energy and severe lethargic behavior.
I didn't want to believe that it was his food but it was the canidae. I am afraid to try any other dog food until his stomach heals. For now I am feeding him prepared chicken, peas, rice and whole grain foods that I cook myself. This scare was enough for me.
Reviewed Sept. 1, 2008
I had two airedales that where not eating due to stress of a girl being in heat. Usually when this happens , I get a couple cans of the Canidae Chicken and Rice formula to add into the food to entice them to eat. As soon as I fed them the canned food-for 24hours later they had the diarhea so bad, they where spraying the walls. It was very bad. I waited a few days just thinking they might have gotten themselves nervous, fed them again the canned food, sure enough, diarhea. I have always used the Cannidae canned food and never had a problem. Now I see what the deal is and will not use this product again.
Reviewed Aug. 31, 2008
We have promoted the use of Canidae for appx 18 years . starting in CA , where it first started in San Luis Obispo ....We had a veterinary practice there and do here now in Maine as well. There is nothing here in Northern Maine to purchase other than the grocery brands, We often over the years introduced clients to above average foods/Holistic and at the top of the list WAS Canidae. We use it ourselves ( used) but apprx 3 months ago the food was completely changed,
To date I have thrown away at least 200 dollars in food..The new 40 lb smelled as though it was exposed to a Chemical bath..the canned food had of all things soy bean in it Whole Soy Beans..not suppose to be there..the Lamb and Rice had chunks of processed fat the that were not digestable as they were overprocessed and and resembled rubber. I re-orded canned food, the same mess. Our own 4 dogs became ill, vomiting and another with watery stool. Food problems that cause illness take many days to get over. Many people end up with dogs in a veterinay hospital. Something changed in that company....they need to be held accountable.
The least they could do is apologize to all of us that have used and recommended the food for so long, now having to deal with sick animals , loss of money, and a very RUDE company. Many people are very confused with having spent so much more money on a higher end food and found that the dogs got sick..worse yet Canidae could not care less. It's a food with cheap ingredients( Salmon is replaced by whatever fish they can get) It is not the Canidae we have known. I doubt that it ever will be again.
Reviewed Aug. 31, 2008
I switched to Canidae All Life Stages at the end of 2005 after the Diamond aflatoxin recall. I'm still waiting for Diamond to pay my claim for the veterinary bills for testing of six dogs who ate contaminated food. I have been very pleased with Canidae, moreso than any other kibble I have previously fed. It's quite unusual to find a kibble that 11 very different dogs ALL do well on.
Unfortunately, that has all changed. A couple of weeks ago I purchased 5 bags of Canidae All Life Stages. I noticed that one of the bags was smaller, sealed differently, and when I opened it (last) that it was lighter in color. It worried me somewhat but having had such a good experience with the food I was not overly concerned. Almost immediately after I started feeding out of the bag an eight month old female became ill with watery diarrhea and severe vomiting. A lengthy (and costly) veterinary visit ended up with a diagnosis of dietary indiscretion.
Over the course of the next week I continued to scrape up yellow pudding and watch dogs who had formerly cleaned their plates with gusto pick at and walk away from their food. Some of the old dogs with firm yellow **** to start had intermittent diarrhea and vomiting. Finally, yesterday I could no longer deny to myself that there was something wrong with my dog food and I began my internet search, which is how I ended up here. I will be leaving Canidae as soon as I finish my current supply. If not for the involvement of Diamond coinciding with this food change I would be willing to stick with the food a while longer to see what happens.
While I have read that Canidae is only outsourcing production to Diamond and has not been bought out by them, that alone is enough for me. After filing a Freedom of Information request in 2006 with the FDA and reading the investigator's reports on Diamond, there is no way any of my dogs will eat a food manufactured in any of their facilities. I find it suspect that the bettering of Canidae's formulation coincides with the outsourcing of production to Diamond.
Reviewed Aug. 31, 2008
I tried the new formulas early on, having used Canidae in the past. I used it previously because of the clean ingredients list (no grains but rice, short list of ingredients). THe new forrumlas have been terrible and affect my dogs (Boxers) like cheap grocery store food. The added grains cause gas, soft, very smelly stools and some of the dogs, diahrrea. SInce I avoid corn wheat and barley and limit oatmeal, this food is no long satisfactory for my use (and apparently for many others as well.) THe addition of cheap grains lowers the quality of the food substanially, and affects dogs negatively as dogs are not designed to eat grains.
THis is strict a move to cheapen manufacturing costs, despite what Canidae says about the change. THey are losing customers by the droves and many are breeders who's reach goes beyond their own kennel to that of puppy buyers and breeder education. Canidae has shot itself in the foot by *fixing* a top notch formula that didn't need fixing. It doesn't sound like they are accepting consumer feedback as well.
Vet bills for stool & blood checks, clean up expenses due to bad stools.
Reviewed Aug. 31, 2008
I was feeding one of the recalled dog foods,which caused my dog to have bad digestive issues,when I switched to canidea, she was back to being happy no more loose stools or vomiting, and then a couple of months ago she all of a sudden had loose stools & refused to eat it, after a little research I found out about the formula change,
I immedietly changed her food, she ate like a horse,
now why on earth would you mess with a good thing, between the recall and canidae formula change has cost me over 4000.00,and the pain it has cost my poor dog who has no choice but to eat what I feed her, shame on you canidea and using a diamond facility your just adding insult to injury.
Reviewed Aug. 30, 2008
My dog, a little over a year of age, got sick: throwing up, yellow very loose stools. Horrible experience, she was throwing up what look to be bowel movements, than went to spit, foaming at the mouth. Gave her rice and chicken for a few days and she was better. Put her back on her CANIDAE dog food and things got worse. It was an endless cycle.
I thought she was getting into something. Never once did I consider the food, for I thought I was buying a premium dog food and protecting my dog from getting sick from her food. My brother-in-law who unfortunately lost a dog to the bad food a year ago, told me its the food. My response was, no it is not. I spend a lot more to protect my dog and have her on a premium food. Unfortunately he was right and I was wrong. I went on the computer to see if I could find a coupon for CANIDAE, and to my suprise, I found a lot of recent post's about what happened to other's dog because of CANIDAE. I was shocked.
I immediately called my pet food supplier who at that time had only one complaint. He recommended that I switch foods and offered to give me samples of 4 different foods. Thus, I switched her to a diffrent food immediately. The throwing up, yellow bowel movements stopped within a day.
I then called CANIDAE customer relations and got the rudest response ever. The woman was crude and rude! I told her what happened to my dog and asked why it was'nt on the package. Afterall, if they had a new and improved formula, one would think that they would want to advertise/market it. But no, to make this short and sweet, it was all my dogs fault that she got sick. They tested the food for over 6 months and my dog was the unusual one.
Because I was getting upset, I told her that I was not calling to place blame, I was calling to get my money back for the product I purchased from them under their 100% guarantee (as written on the package) and inform them of what happened to my dog under the improved formula and she told me that they could not give me a refund. Now, I was mad! I told her that I realize that she is doing her job, however, the company had a duty to warn consumers that the formula has been changed.
And she told me that they had passed out stickers to the distrubuters and it was up to them to label the packages. Basically, the company did all they could. I was shocked! I told her it was the company's responsibility to warn the consumer before the new formula was packaged, and they could have had new packaging made up stating it was a new and improved formula; and she said it was'nt their problem, they did what they could, my dog was the unsual dog. I was recommended this food by a dog trainer. I will never use one product of CANIDAE again!
Personaly, what they cost my 4 children in tears/worry about their dog plus the money to get the dog better I hope the company goes out of business. If they don't I think all of us involved should file a class action lawsuit against them.
By the way, I called my vet to inform him of what was going on with CANIDAE. It turned out that he had 5 other dog owners calling him with the same symptoms who all had their dogs on CANIDAE. When I went back to the pet store to purchase another small packet of a different dog food, the owner told me that he has had approximately 17 complaints since I spoke with him less than a week ago. But, CANIDAE will still say my dog is the unsual one!
The consequences is that CANIDAE is not a pet loving company as professed, they sickened my dog and made my children live a horrible month thinking that their beloved dog may die. The economic damage is insignificant because my dog lived and I paid what I had to in order for her to live. The damage is being done by CANIDAE and every pet food company like them. They should be closed down so that no other pet will suffer!
Reviewed Aug. 30, 2008
Providing the best food for my three dogs is very important to me. Upon the advise of other dog owners with the same desire, I chose Canidae. I've been feeding my three dogs Canidae Chicken and Rice dog food for over a year and a half with great results.
Like others are describing, I brought home a new bag of food and quickly noticed the easy opening bag was no longer easy opening. The ingenious peel open flap was no longer part of the bag. Didn't think much of it other than it must cost a few extra pennies to use that style, so I chalked it up to cost saving on Canidae's part. As soon as I opened the bag, I noticed the product was not the same, it had changed from a brown color to a lighter, almost yellow color and smelled different. Again, wow they've really made some changes.
Within a full day of feeding, I noticed that the dogs stool had become yellow in color with a very strong. Day two, stools became more yellow and turned to Isaiah with lots of strong gas. At this point I was alarmed because it was all three dogs. I took another look at the food bag and all labeling was the same as always before, no hint of a formula change. I then went to the Canidae web site and learned that the formula had been changed and to switch the dogs over to it gradually. Great, no warning of the change and I had none of the previous food left, that's why I bought the new bag. I struggled with this for 2-3 weeks with no improvement as the Canidae site said it should take only a few days to resolve itself. Well, it never did.
I emailed Canidae to there suggestion email address and also their US Sales email address and they haven't even bothered to return my email. Very, Very Rude.
I've taken my dogs off this food and will never use it again. My dogs are slowly getting better, but still not right yet.
At this point, we're only out $30 for the cost of the food. Hopefully no future vet bills, but the dogs are not fully recovered yet.
Reviewed Aug. 30, 2008
I am a Dobermann breeder and Naturopathic dietary consultant for pets. I have been feeding my dogs Canidae for approx 7 years. The new Canidae formula is not going to be for every dog and the new product line does contain a very different ingredient list that would cause a digestive upset if not introduced slowly. It also contains ingredients that are higher up on the list of possible allergens. Most, of my dogs handled the switch over OK, but not all did. However I was advised months in advance that the product was going to change, and when I chose to introduce the new product formula I anticipated that maybe not all my dogs would agree with it.
The problems most are experiencing on this product is that they did not get the opportunity to blend the old food with the new formula and it caused GI upset. The new formula was so significantly different then the old one that it is the same as switching brands. Most people know that they need to give about a week to switch over to a new food, but many of the dogs on this list didn't get that opportunity. Once the bowels become inflamed it is a downward spiral.
Although I am personally not happy with the new formula, the actual product is not the cause for most incidences listed here. The fault would lie with the retailers who failed to inform you that the food would be changing. Because the company well-informed their retailers and provided new product info several months before the actual change. I wouldn't stick-up for a company that was in fault, but I did receive the product literature in the mail, so it was made clear to me that the food was changing.
Consumers tend to get comfortable with a brand of food and fail to check-up on the ingredients. It is our responsibility to read the label and check products before we introduce them to our pets because even a small change can cause huge problems for some pets with dietary allergies. Food companies do not inform you of small changes, however something as simple as the introduction of a yeast product can flare-up a dog with allergies. were the same.
Is the new food better? It seems most owners do not see the proof in their pets and are going to leave Canidae brand foods. The bigger problem is that almost all the large pet food companies have started boosting their proteins and claiming to be grain free. Mind you, grain free doesn't mean carb free and the new higher protein levels are not necessarily meat derived. The major change is the introduction of potato flour and peas in a majority of pet foods.
These particular ingredients were previously void from pet foods and it is likely that most pets will have a sluggish adjustment period to the new food, and not all dogs will tolerate these new widespread additives. I will say however that the soft pasty yellow stool will become firm and the output will decrease if the pet is given enough time to adjust. It is best to decrease the daily ration by about 20% for the first week to allow for metabolic differences. A lower feed ration would be a benefit that can perhaps offset the recent price increases.
For the moment I am still feeding Canidae to most of my dogs, however I will have to change brands for the dogs that are not tolerating the added peas in the new Canidae formula. The new 35# bag is compact and easy to maneuver, however it is very hard to get the bag top open without the use of a sharp instruments to cut your way through the bag. All and all, I wonder why Canidae decided to change their product when their previous motto was to be consistent. Consumers were not complaining, so why mess with a good thing?
Reviewed Aug. 30, 2008
I have been feeding Canidae (Lamb & Rice Formula) to my dogs (4 )and Felidae to my cat for about a year now. I switched from Eagle Pack Holistic, when the price of that rose a bit high. The last bag of Canidae that I purchased, I noticed the packaging was different. A few days after opening that bag, my labrador started having loose stools of an odd color of yellow. My PBGV and my Lab both started vomiting alot of bile in the mornings.
It never occured to me that it could be the Canidae, until I mentioned to the manager of the Pet Supply Store that I use, and she told me that EVERYONE is complaining of the same thing! I also show my PBGVs, and low and behold, they are blowing coat terribly, which has NEVER happened, as they are not a breed that sheds! Entry fees have been paid for an upcoming show, and I doubt it will even be worth attending.
Reviewed Aug. 29, 2008
We have fed our Goldens Canidae for 8 months. When the company switched the formula, we were very careful to gradually introduce the new food to them (over a period of 3 weeks). We noticed immediate changes in the girls, but gave them a month to get evened back out. Our yard turned brown, the dogs had very loose stools, they had horrible gas, got very itchy & our younger girl developed horrible double ear infections. We switched them to a higher quality food & treated the ear infections. We are now avoiding grains for our younger dog, as she seems to have a mild allergy to Gluten.
I contacted the Canidae company about these issues & got a very rude response. It was assumed that I was a novice & hadn't transitioned them to the food properly. I assure you I am not a novice, I am a certified Dog Obedience Instructor/behavior & nutrition consultant. We now have 60 pounds of food that cannot be used. It had been poured into the storage bin & bags disposed of. I am very disgusted at this company.
Reviewed Aug. 29, 2008
I have used Canidae large breed and also the senior/overweight formulas for years and have recommended Canidae many times to others who have dogs with sensitive stomachs or who are having food allergies, etc...have been a very loyal and happy customer. Just purchased a new bag of Canidae (old packaging - no sign of a new formula!) and my Borzoi, age 7, was immediately ill, with diarhhea numerous times day and night, lethergy, and - finally - when I walked right past her holding a Big Mac, my girl didn't even perk her ears up, I knew something was very wrong.
After having heard a Canidae 'rumor' I looked online, and the symptoms were right on. No doubt, no other diet or environmental changes, etc... Changing a dog food formula with no warning, no label change and no in-store signage is absolutely irresponsible. As I've now been told, the new formulas are much richer with differing ingredients, and from new sources. Were this a baby or child food product, this switcheroo would not be tolerated. I can only suggest to others what I have done: go back to the retailer where you purchased the new Canidae food, and explain the problems your dog has experienced, and why you will no longer purchase Canidae.
The manager of Pet Supplies Plus in Wheaton was wonderfully responsive, calling Canidae and later calling me back to confirm the formula change with no notice - in new packaging as well as old - what the differences were, what the health complaints had been (numerous), and what to do to get my dog back on track. If Canidae as a company isn't willing to inform their loyal customers of a major change, we can only assume the best way to reach them is through their retailers. Hit them where the money is.
Reviewed Aug. 29, 2008
I have fed Cadidae for several years now and have always found it to be an excellent food. My last bag has now caused diarrhea, some bloody stools as well and I was just going to call my vet for an appointment today. Thanks to the All-Breed Kennel Club that I belong to, I received information about this food. I can't believe that these changes were made without the consumer's knowledge. The rest of my bag is now in the garbage and both dogs on water only today and then cooked food.
I will be taking both dogs to the vet in any case to let her know about this information and to have the stools tested. I not only won't be buying Canidae again; I will no longer be recommending it to anyone I know. Shame on Canidae. I hope that the drop in sales will finally wake these people up. Why change a wonderful food and cause all our dogs to have to suffer as a result.
The loss of the bag of food is just incidental. The discomfort of my dogs is the paramount issue. Yes, I will have vet bills as a consequence. At least my dogs will no longer be suffering as a result of this awful food.
Reviewed Aug. 29, 2008
I too was a long time advocate of this dog food . My dogs both got loose stools right after the Transition, yes I knew about the change & wanted to give the new formula a try after all it is CANIDAE, It has to be something in the new formula for this many dogs to be having the same problems with or without a transition.
It is funny how a product can go from being one of the top in the market to one that so many people are having problems with all in my opinion for the MIGHTY DOLLAR. I will never use recommend any product made by Diamond or made in any of the Diamond facilities. I have now switched to Merrick BG ( grain free ) the day after I started the transition my dogs stools started firming up they are now doing fine
Reviewed Aug. 28, 2008
About a month ago, a 9 month old Beardie puppy had been returned by someone to her breeder and was the perfect fit for this family. Her breeder sent at least a week and a half worth of Canidae chicken and rice kibble. When that supply ran low, I purchased a 15 pound bag and began feeding her from that approximately two weeks ago. Within a few days she developed soft stools and began vomiting yellow bile. Nothing had changed other than opening the new bag of food with the following number: CCC0702B11XDS 10.51
When the puppy developed those symptoms, I took her and the two males to the vet because I did not suspect her food and thought they might have a virus. Antibiotics were prescribed and administered as was a round of Panacur for all three. That bill was over $200. Throughout these past two weeks, the puppy continued to have soft stools. Today we went back to the vet for a variety of tests to rule out some unlikely but possible causes for her discomfort. Today's bill was over $400.
This afternoon I found several posts from people whose dogs were also on Canidae (some on chicken and rice, others on the lamb formula) and experiencing the same problems as my puppy. The few people who posted in favor of Canidae did not specify whether their dogs were still on the old formula. Had the rest of us been able to have the old formula which worked so well we would not be posting on this forum. I have emailed Canidae expressing my concerns and asking do they still manufacture their products in their own factory or have they hired another manufacturer and are thus not in a position to do much about quality control.
Reviewed Aug. 28, 2008
I have used Canidae All Life Stages for about 5 years now. I have a kennel of Champion show dogs, as well as some elderly spayed housepets. All the same breed which happens to be collies. I have had tremendous sucess with Canidae. The company DID notify people that the food was going to be changing . There was lots of info about it on their website well in advance & they advised people to do the change gradually. If you study/compare the old with the new formula you will see that the new formula is actually an improvement over the old one.
My own dogs have all handled the change with no problems. I have used 12 bags of the new formula to date with absolutely no issues - in fact they love the stuff. I also have a small boarding kennel and have seen that many dogs owned by pet families do not keep them all that healthy , not enough exercise, grooming, quality of food, over vaccination , using flea/tick chemicals with abandon, etc. etc . In some cases the dog getting sick might be soemthing other then the dog food. I know many other people using the new Canidae with no issues. Some dogs cannot toleratge even a slight change in their diets. I believe this company still has the dogs best interest in what they are doing.
Reviewed Aug. 28, 2008
Have used Canidae for years, dogs doing very well until the surprise change in formula. All 4 had runny, stinky stools. My 8 month old Samoyed is still having severe problems, even though she has not been fed Canidae for 10 days and is back on her old food, Eagle Pak Holistic Anchovey and Sardine. I have been unsuccessful using pumpkin, oatmeal and yogert in trying to get her digestive system back in order. I'm afraid she has sustained permanent damage.
Canidae was RUDE and blamed me for not doing a gradual change (hard to do with no notice) Also lied and stated that only a very few dogs had problems.
Reviewed Aug. 27, 2008
I purchased a bag of Canidae Lamb and Rice about 3 weeks ago. I did know that there would be a formula change, so I allowed a week for gradually introducing the new food by mixing it with the old. My dog has had yellow stools, not wanting to finish her food (unusual for a bulldog), her feet have become red around her toes, she has horrible gas, sort of sluggish and her folds on her skin have become itchy and inflamed, she was waking up during the night restless and needing to go out (which she had not done since she was a puppy) I switched her to Taste of the Wild yesterday.
I did not gradually mix this time because why would I mix a new food in with something that was already making my dog ill? Overnight she now has normal bowel movements, a lot less gas, she slept through the night, she finished the bowl of new food completely. She has not been scratching as much today and I hope that will decrease even more. I e-mailed Canidae last night and they responded back by saying if I sent my UPC code in that they would send me a coupon for a new bag. Why would I want another bag of this stuff? I already have a 40 pound doorstop. I then called them.
A lady who felt the need to tell me she has 16 dogs...no bulldogs, proceeded to tell me that very few dogs were having problems. She asked me who in the world told me to put my bulldog on the Lamb and Rice Formula. I told her that one of Canidae's reps told me that was the one that I should use. She then tried to tell me that I had not allowed enough time for a gradual change. When I told her I did it for a week and since then have given the food two more weeks to change and we are still having all of the problems. She told me that my dog (that she has never met) did not have excessive gas, I told the lady the dog did have excessive gas and bowel movements for her (the dog). She then said that the food could not possibly have anything to do with the skin problems.
She must have thought that she was speaking to a four year old and that I would just trust everthing that she said. The ONLY change that my indoor dog has had is the food so it does not take a whiz to figure out that the new problems are due to the food. Even if they told me that they would give me the old formula for free for the rest of my dog's life, I would not take it. My faith in them is gone. I cannot believe that they treat customers as if we are stupid and do not see the wool that they are trying to pull over our eyes. I was their biggest cheerleader...but no more. We have seen the man behind the curtain! Canidae, you should be ashamed.
Reviewed Aug. 27, 2008
I have been feeding Canidea dry dog food for several years and have been pleased with it BUT. They changed the food for whaterver reason and now my dogs are having issues. Loose ****, odd color of the ****( just does not look right)stomach upset coats no longer looking good ,. I could go on but!!!!
Their reason for changing the food ( Rice etc) just does not justify risking the health of the animals
Because my dogs no longer are doing good on the food I am having to change to another food. WHy did they have to fix something that was not broken.. Whatever reasoning they give to the public does not make sence. They changed the formula and manufactures I wonder why. I feel they have lost the care for the animals for the biggest nightmare Their profit
Reviewed Aug. 27, 2008
After the dog food scare last year, I was glad that my two dogs were on Canidae dog food. My breeder started them and I just continued with the food they were used to. However, in July this year my youngest Labrador retriever got severe diarrhea. We assumed it could just be something she picked up and had the vet check her stool and the sample came back clean.
I tried to control the diarrhea for about 1 months. So, we thought perhaps a food allergy and fixed her ground beef and rice and slowly moved her to a new dog food. When I was at the pet store the worker told me that Canidae recently changed their formula (my girls were on the chicken & rice Canidae dry food) and said that Canidae added more to it.
I didnt think much of this at the time but my second Labrador retriever, who was still eating the Canidae chicken & rice started getting severe diarrhea as well. Ive made a call to my vet to see if there was some kind of virus or flu going around but they havent had any reported cases recently. This is when I started to suspect the Canidae dog food. I've contacted my dog breeder and she also knows of other breeders that have been having problems with their dogs on this food. Poor marketing by Canidae! I couldn't believe that Canidae would change their formula so drastically that my poor girls would get sick.
Both of my dogs had severe diarrhea that had to be controlled. Costs not only include the loss of money from having to through out a brand new bag of Canidae dog food but of replacing it with a reputable dog food. Also, the cost of the vet for checking the dogs stool and the damage of uncontrollable diarrhea in my home and in my yard. The stress on me and my dogs was unnecessary as Canidae could have warned its consumers that dogs might have to be weened onto a completely new product disguised in old packaging.
Reviewed Aug. 26, 2008
Recently I switched to your old formula for all dogs (chicken & rice) not knowing that you were being bought out by Diamond foods. I saw an improvement in my dog on the old formula, last week I started the new formula well let me tell you I could not be more disappointed in a product. First off hes loosing fur like you wouldnt believe, an excessive amount and would not be considered normal seasonal shedding. Then a small welt formed 2 days after the switch, but I continued to feed him the same food. Well what a mistake that was he is itchy all over. Welts on his face and body some of witch he has torn open.
I have since contacted the FDA, the BBB and Canidae. Canidae told the FDA they warned it's consumers about a reaction to the new formula. Please contact the FDA with your complaint if we want anything to happen
Reviewed Aug. 26, 2008
After Nutro had major issues with its production I was forced to find a new food for my Golden Retriever. After researching a better food for my GR (and one that I could get locally) I switched her to Canidae ALS in April, 2008. I was extremely happy with how she loved it and how it made her coat shine. The recent bag that I bought looked a tad different and I was told that they changed the packaging. Little did I know that they compromised the entire food product and affected the health of my dog (and my carpets as she could not deal with the diahrea). God only knows how her little insides must have hurt so much)She is not out of the wood yet but is recovering on homemade chicken and rice and a gradual introduction to yet another brand of dog food (Holistic Blend)
I am not really sure what is going on here but I will never buy or recommend Canidae ever again...
Reviewed Aug. 26, 2008
I have been feeding my dogs Canidae dog food for 3 years. My latest bag of food looked different, but I didn't think much of it. My dogs, both mixed breed rescues, seemed to dislike the food after one feeding. My daschund mix seemed to be effected the most by the formula change. She began vomiting and had absolutely no interest in eating the food.
I didn't put two and two together until I decided to go on Canidae's website to see why the food looked different. To my complete dismay, they had changed the formula and didn't bother informing ANYONE! I asked the pet supply store if they knew about the formula change and they stated they weren't informed until people started returning the bags of food.
I then realized that my terrier mix's allergies re-emerged, both dogs were licking their paws, their stool was a funny color and quite a bit softer than usual, their coats were dull, and they had less energy than usual, which is quite noticeable in a feisty terrier. I started reading all these complaints on this website and my fury grew.
I do not know how this company can get away with changing a dog food formula and not inform their consumers. I also cannot believe they are trying to pass this change off as a good thing. They diversified their carbohydrates? Translation: brown rice is too expensive so we started using cheaper ingredients.
None of us started feeding our dogs Canidae because it was inexpensive. We fed it to our dogs because it was good for them. I can promise you that it did not increase the palatibility either, both dogs hated it. I also cannot believe that their website would suggest that you withhold food from your dog for one day. You shouldn't have to do that to get your dog to eat. Who has a bag of the old formula laying around anyway? I don't open the new bag until the old one is gone.
I have switched my dogs to Innova Adult Dog Food and they LOVE it. I have already noticed a difference in their energy level and, keep your fingers crossed, no vomiting for a few days. Shame on Canidae for changing it's formula and not informing anyone. I hope this company has to pay for messing with our babies!!!
Reviewed Aug. 26, 2008
I didn't give it much thought, having changed brands with minimal or no transition period in the past, and no G.I. issues, it never occurred to me nor did it say on the package of the new formula that a transition of 7 days with the old formula should be done to avoid upset stomach!! The Canidae website, however, tells you this.... who on earth would suspect such an issue until it's too late?? I only checked the website yesterday (8/25/08) after dealing with a houseful of sick dogs for near 10 days.
Within 24 hours of feeding all 3 dogs the new formula, my 18mos. old lab/pit proceeded to vomit continously and had several bouts of severe diarrhea. There was no question, just looking at him you knew he was in distress. I did not feed or water him for 24hrs., did a bland diet of I/D per the vet's recommendation and still he was not coming around, the diarrhea continued. Took him in for xrays, bloodwork, fecal check, and all came back negative. Did subcutaneous IV fluids, cerenia, metronidazole, sucralfate and pepcid, as well as no food/water (npo) for another 24hrs., back on bland diet for 2 days. Started introducing a very tiny amount of the Canidae dry (never once suspecting it was the culprit) and our troubles started all over again!!
Meanwhile, my 7 yr old newfoundland who is typically a garbage gut, came down with severe diarrhea also and you could tell he did not feel good at all. Again, npo, bland diet, fortiflora probiotics were added, and still both dogs seem to feel better but both have a funky orangy/soft stool that is not consistent or normal for either dog. Tried the Canidae for a 3rd time with my pit/lab and again diarrhea. He is on bland diet again and I will NOT be giving him canidae.
My 12yr. old shepard did not experience G.I. issues but she did experience a sudden onset of K-9 vestibular disease, similar to vertigo. Yes, that could happen anyway with a senior dog but honestly, it's a little bit coincidental for me!
Meanwhile, I've incurred veterinary expenses, on top of having to have to purchase the Science Diet I/D and yesterday I purchased a 35# bag of Beneful. They were on Beneful and doing great before I opted to change them to Canidae. I thought I was doing a good thing! I submitted my situation to CAnidae but have not heard from them.
Reviewed Aug. 26, 2008
been feeding this brand for 6 years now...recommended it to everyone. now my dog wont finish a serving..and my cats wont eat the cat version. they had been sick starting a couple months ago but now wont eat at all.
Reviewed Aug. 25, 2008
I had been buying Canidae All Life Stages for my bulldog and my pit bull. I had purchased the new formula two weeks ago today. My English Bulldog ended up with yellow soft stools, and after a week ended up with hives and sores on her face. My pit bull has a lump on her leg all of a sudden.
Canidae is the only thing in the house that's changed! They are strictly indoor dogs, that only go outside to walk around the neighborhood to potty! The haven't gotten into anything, other than this new formula of Canidae! They had a clean bill of Health on July 7th!
Reviewed Aug. 22, 2008
I purchased a bag of Canidae's Dry Lamb and Rice Formula, as well as 6 cans of Canidae's Wet Lamb and Rice Formula approximately 3 weeks ago. When I fed my English Bull Terrier a bowl of mixed dry and wet food, and a few hours after consumtion my dog became extremely sick to her stomach, vomiting several times into the night and had nasty bowel movements.
The next day she refused to eat a fresh bowl, and I just assumed she had eaten something that must have upset her stomach. However, she continued to refuse to eat on her next scheduled meal, and that was when I realized that she did in fact have an appetite, but for anything other than her Canidae.
I took the dog food back to the store where I had purchased it assuming I had just gotten a bad batch - no one at the pet store mentioned to me that the product had changed, but they did refund my money. I went to a different store to get another bag/cans in hopes that the first batch I had was just a bad one - but to my surprise, my dog refused to touch it.
I contacted my breeder who placed my dog, and told her the problems I was having with Canidae. She mentioned that the company had changed their formula and that all of her dogs were experiencing the same effects. She told me to change the food and recommended California Natural as a good alternative. I had no idea they had changed their product since there was no mention of it on the food I purchased, and no one at the pet store told me. I contacted both pet stores to inform them what I had learned and both places were shocked and said they never knew either!
I sent Canidae an email regarding my experience and a representative responded in an email by saying, Please visit our webpage to insure all of your questions are answered. Also, be sure to click on CANIDAE Transition Guidelines for more information I feel you will find very helpful.
TRANSITIONAL GUIDELINES?! WHAT A SHOCKING RESPONSE! How do they expect us to slowly introduce the new formula when we were not informed of a change. Had I read on the package that the formula had changed I certainly would have followed the guidelines. Canidae can bite me.
Reviewed Aug. 21, 2008
I was a devoted customer of Canidae's ALS dog food. About 3 weeks ago, I opened a new bag of Lamb and Rice for my 1 1/2 year old lab mix. She experienced very soft stools that continued to get worse as the week went by and she also began vomiting. She has a very sensitive digestive tract and has had problems in the past with her tummy so I took her to the vet and she began a round of antibiotics. She had spent a week at doggie day care and I just assumed they accidentally fed her something they shouldn't have. I never once suspected the food.
The vet put her on canned i/d to help her get back to normal. She was having a bad reaction to something in the i/d and was spitting up bile a few times a day so I have been cooking chicken and rice (the spitting up bile stopped) and trying to introduce a new food with no luck. I am so angry that this has happened as she was doing just fine on the old formula. She lost about 4 lbs. during all of this and being a fairly young dog, she didn't have it to lose. Could a change in formula cause all of this?
Cost of unused food. Vet visit plus meds and cost of cooking for her! I now spend my days on the computer reading forums and investigating new foods. She is still not well.
Reviewed Aug. 20, 2008
I have fed Canidae for over 5 years and was comfortable with my choice, especially during all the pet food recalls--until I ordered my last bag--which was the new formula. I could not figure out why my 10 year old Boxer was gaining weight, was horribly gassy, and pooped more than ever. I found out that Canidae had changed the formula, without telling anyone!
When I called to express my displeasure, I was told that the changes are minimal and should not affect your dog. Needless to say, I will never purchase their products nor will I ever encourage anyone else to do so. I now feed Barking at the Moon which is a bit more expensive but Dugga is beginning to lose the extra weight and is much more pleasant to be around.
Reviewed Aug. 19, 2008
I hear about the change in Feb and switched to OriJen.
Hope everyone babies recovery!!!
Reviewed Aug. 19, 2008
New food and or changed formula's need to be introduced to animals slowly. I was not given this option by Canidae when I ran out of the old All Stages Life Dry Dog Food and purchased a new bag of the new formula (no warning label) with none of the old to mix in.
That is the problem I'm having with my four dogs, 2 of which are 12 years old. Granted, the changes may be an added benefit to their new formula but it's NOT a benefit if they don't notify their consumers that there has been quite an extensive change (15 OR MORE additional items) to their recipe. Meanwhile, I've had to deal with 4 dogs who have been vomiting and have bloody diarrhea as well as vet bills for the past 22 days because of Canidae's neglectful oversight on not informing their consumers.
I just found out about the NEW formula 9 days ago while researching Canidae on the web and found more disgruntled consumers. With so many dogs getting sick on the new formula I have to wonder if it's the added ingredients or something else (tainted??)in the formula. Perhaps the FDA should test the new formulas to rule out anything else. The one good thing I can say about Canidae (their old formula was great by the way) is thank God this can't be compared to the recall of last year that killed thousands of pets. By the way, what WAS wrong with the old formula????
Reviewed Aug. 18, 2008
My husband and I put our dogs on Canidae earlier this year after reading so many wonderful reviews about their food -- we had a new bullmastiff puppy and the bullmastiff web sites were unanimously recommending Canidae for the puppies. Our dogs have done really well on it just recently when they started having horrible diarrhea.
My husband told me that he noticed the formula had changed and he thought that the new formula was making them sick, so I checked online and immediately came across this site with the numerous complaints about Canidae's new formula.
Needless to say, we're not feeding them any more of it. They should have somehow warned the consumers that this new food would make dogs sick -- most consumers know that if you CHANGE your dog's food, it can make them sick, but Canidae did it to the consumers without warning them.
Reviewed Aug. 18, 2008
I am a big dog breeder and have been using Canidae for years. I highly recommended it to all my puppy people or anyone I knew that had dogs. We loved the food. Without notice from the company about a change (we found out on a dog chat room) July 21,2008 we started using the new food they had changed to and what a nightmare! Dogs were sick, had major diarrea, dull dry coats, a lot didn't want to eat, bad gas. This went on for 2 weeks. We also were being contacted by our puppy customers having all the same problems.
I called the local sales rep who really didn't care and said they weren't having any complaints. He would have Diane at the company call me. No call. My breeding partner called Diane to tell her what they were going thru with their dogs and she was RUDE and didn't care and tried to blame us for feeding too much or doing something different. It was not their food!
We use, sell and recommend tons of Canidae food and told them they would be losing a lot of business and we are not using the food anymore. They did not care and did nothing for us. I am shocked at the way they handle their customer relations and that they think their food got better by changing. We have switched foods to Fromm Gold and the dogs immediatley got great stools and look so much better and are eating like they used to. Yea!
Reviewed Aug. 15, 2008
After the major dog food debacle in March of 2007, I am dismayed to report that after hours upon hours of research, I finally felt comfortable with Canidae All Life Stages BECAUSE they never had any recalls. That is, up until I discovered all the complaints about the product as of late. Since my feed store specifically ordered Canidae for me, it wasnt until two weeks ago that I received the new formula. My Newfoundlands (I have 14 of them; Im a breeder) did not vomit, however, their stool was deplorable. In fact, the truth of the matter is that even with the old formula, it seemed all they did was have constant bowel movements.
I am simply tired of these dog food companies treating consumers like simpletons. If it were not for us having animals, they would NOT have a company. I paid top dollar for a food that I thought was very high quality.
Since Im a very open and opinionated person, I feel like I ****** away over $1500 on dog food. Their coats are NOT shiny; a few of them look too lean for my taste even though I fed more according to their weight and activity level. In fact, I fed a few cups more to the ones I thought were too lean. They didnt gain an ounce. And yes, my dogs are on a regular de-worming program (Panacur), they are on Heartgard once per month, and I have a great veterinarian who comes out to my kennel.
So, I am back to the drawing board again. In angers me to no end that we, as consumers, have no idea what is safe to feed our animals. Do these dog food companies not realize that we LOVE our pets and want whats best for them? And let's face it, when you are a breeder and have multiple dogs, we have to take cost into consideration.
Reviewed Aug. 15, 2008
My dog has been on Canidae since he was 3 months old (he's now 2 yrs old). I bought a new bag of Canidae Lamb and Rice in August and he immediately became ill with diarhea, vomiting and lethargy and loss of appetite. I looked online and saw that many other dog owners were complaining about the same thing. Canidae changed some ingredients and didnt tell consumers. As a result, I spend about $230 in vet bills and antibiotics. What's worse is that the pet store who sold this to me knew about the changes and never told anyone who bought the new formula!
Reviewed Aug. 14, 2008
New Formula = DISASTER in my house. All four of my LARGE (each 100+ lbs) had eaten Canidae Lamb & Rice for years...we got our first bag of new formula this weekend and all have runny stool and terrible gas. We are in the process of switching foods at this time. Canidae has not bothered to respond to my email inquiries and my phone call to them was no help - the woman I spoke to was RUDE, RUDE, RUDE. Such a shame that they have gone and ruined their food and in doing so have alienated a lot of the people who have made the brand successful.
Reviewed Aug. 11, 2008
My dogs had been eating canidae since they stopped eating their puppy food. They did great on it until yesterday we bought a new bag and they became violently ill after only eating one bowl. This was the only variant in their diet.
I returned the bag back to the pet store and found out they had changed their formula because ingredients had become more expensive. They did not notify consumers though!
My dogs have very sensitive stomachs. This simple change made them very sick. This is a complete disregard for the dogs they supposedly care for. I understand they need to make money but notify the consumer so they can make an educated decision or buy the old formula at a higher price.
I fed my dogs only one bowl and they both vomited for hours.
My dogs had physical and mental stress. I spent hours cleaning and the inconvenience of returning the food and finding a new food.
Reviewed Aug. 9, 2008
I have fed my four dogs Canidea PAWS chicken and rice for the past 3 years now. This dog food has been a wonderful maintenance food for them all until I bought my last bag on Aug. 4th. I noticed the smell was different and the food was a lighter brown than usual. My Mastiff immediately became ill followed by my miniature schnauzers the next day. I figured there was a virus going around and started cooking chicken and rice for them. Go figure, the symptoms went away that evening. I checked the bag to see if it was a new formula and I saw nothing. I took my big bag of Canidae back to the store for a refund.
After a few days of diarrea and a bloated belly, I took my Mastiff to the vet....thank God I found it was the dog food and saved myself a major vet bill with the schnauzers. Now I need to get my carpets cleaned and find a different dog food for my pets. I am a professional pet groomer and until now have recomended Canidae to my customers. Also, this poor pet food cost me a day of work. I had to reschedule my customers for another day for fear of a virus and disinfect my shop. All in all, no virus just bad food.
Reviewed Aug. 8, 2008
My dogs have suffered like everyone else's dogs here. For dogs with grain problems it could be the Barley that they added. Barley is in the wheat family. I talked to Canidae twice and they were very rude both times and said I should check the website before I buy the food. So my response has been to leave bad reviews for this food on Amazon, OnlyNaturalPet, and so on.
A food that has been ok so far is a food called NOW and its by petcurean. I was also told to try FROMM surf and turf. Also, just so everyone knows it doesn't seem they've changed the Chicken formula yet, so 3 of my 4 dogs can handle the chicken formula still and my other one is on NOW.
The consequences has been stress and illness to my dogs and I am not forced to buy a more expensive food.
Reviewed Aug. 5, 2008
we have been using Canidae dog food All Life Stages Formula for our dog Gemma for over two years. We purchased a new bag 5 lbs less for 6 dollars more 3 days ago. August 2, 2008 she is non stop with diarrhea and she seems very lethargic. Please what shall we do?
Reviewed Aug. 5, 2008
Since my last delivery of Canadae Dry (both regular and senior) we've had allergic reactions in our kennel. Diarreah and vomiting in some dogs, hives and scabby bumps on others, scratching and hair loss on others. $100's of dollars on vet and antibiotics! I had also noticed in one bag, white mold growth. This was a problem years ago with Natura's California Natural and they had a recall. Fortunately I recongnized the mold and discarded the food.
Reviewed Aug. 5, 2008
I started using Canidae Lamb and Rice the day I brought my Great Dane puppy home. She loved it and she looked great! A very silky coat and so healthy! She went through the first couple of bags just fine. I live about 100 miles from anyone who carries the product so I had a friend who was visiting stop and buy another two bags. I opened one of the bags and the kibble was a different color and shape. I fed it to Elli and by the next morning her stool was loose. I kept feeding it and the problem became worse and worse. She also had a lot of gas and just seemed mopey.
Out of curiousity I opened the other bag. It was just like the older bags. I fed it to her and her stool cleared up within a day. I then contacted Canidae who at first would not aknowledge that the products were different. I was lucky to have both bags in front of me and could see that much had changed. All of it looked good and reasonable to me, so after the Canidae rep told me that it might take some adjustment I decided to give it a try. I started mixing the food, 3/4 old and 1/4 new, and tried to over time transistion her over. Each time I was giving her more of the new product Elli would get sick again. I went slowly, back and forth, but it was no good. This process took several months.
I finally just decided that the new lamb was too rich for her and switched to the Chicken and Rice. She seems to be doing quite well now. I will certainly be more cautious now. I researched for a long time before deciding to feed Canidae. I may be forced to switch again if something positive is not done.
Cost was minimal, 3 bags of food, extra carpet cleaning, and worry for my puppy.
Reviewed Aug. 5, 2008
Due to my dog having food allergies we had found Canidae food to work awesome UNTIL they changed to formula without announcing it. Every day my dog was getting worse. Vomiting blood and bloody diarrhea. She has now been on chicken and rice and meds from the vet for several weeks now until she is stable enough for the transition to the new food (NOT Canidae) With over 15 NEW ingredients how did they think this would go over well?
I contacted the company,explained my story and that I was very angry for this change without letting dog owners know. I never mentioned a price increase in my email. I did however tell them to not send me an automated response or insult me with coupons. And this is the email they sent me We understand your frustration and we are doing everything possible to keep the prices down on our end. Just so you know we have had only 1 price increase while others in our industry have had several and as well as the commodities just continue to skyrocket. We will send you some coupons to help offset the increase. Best Regards, Team Canidae Are you kidding me?
$500 in vet bills. Chicken and rice going on 3 weeks now. Cleaning vomit and diarrhea all over my house everyday. But most of all the stress to my dog!
Reviewed Aug. 4, 2008
Upon strong recommendation from other Boxer owners on a website I belong to, I switched to Canidae for my two Boxers. I rotate as recommended by the store. Recently, my dogs' stools have become loose and they have been vomiting more than what I would consider normal. It was just brought to my attention that Canidae recently changed their ingredients and didn't even notify everyone who sells it. One guy said a label was pasted over the original nutrient label. But at my store, that isn't done.
I now question why the ingredients have changed and the price increased and now many of our dogs are experiencing problems? The feed store where I get my food may not even know this so I don't necessarily want to implicate them. But Canidae should notify all stores that sell it and give them a list of current ingredients. Mine is going back today.
Dogs have been having loose stools and vomiting.
Reviewed Aug. 4, 2008
I have used Canidae for 5+ years for my chocolate lab. When we got a new American Staffordshire puppy in Feb. 2008 we put her on Canidae and she was doing great. Then, we bought a new bag of Canidae in July and the puppy (10 months old) has had terrible diarrhea and is sometimes very bloated. The chocolate lab was already switched over to Innova so no problems there (I had a coupon for it and thought I would try it).
I am really bummed out because it was really hard to find dog food that the puppy was able to tolerate well. There is definitely something wrong with the new Canidae formulation. I am switching her over to Innova today...
Reviewed Aug. 4, 2008
Canidae Pet Foods had changed the formula of the dog foods - when I wrote them about my concerns, they assured me these were good changes. So we bought the new formula even though it had gone up 4 dollars a bag in price for 5 less pounds per bag
I currently have 3 sick dogs- 1 elderly dog, one puppy and one adult dog- the puppy started on the diet first and has been has been on several medications, has been checked for parasites etc- we have narrowed it down to the food. We just changed to Natures Variety and are starting to see some improvement after almost 2 weeks of her being sick! I am taking everyone off Canidae and am done with this food!
Reviewed Aug. 1, 2008
Baught 35lb bag Lamb & Rice as usual was not warned of change in ingredients. Both my dogs have become sick with diarrhea and vomiting. Called Vet and put them on mixture of Rice and cottage cheese to help keep their health from deteriorating and have to monitor them around the clock...
The cost of special food is not so much the issuse as the fear and worry of losing my beloved animals from the negelect of the company to warn us of the change in ingred. Not sure yet of the vet cost or damage to my dogs health or their life, it is to soon.
Reviewed July 28, 2008
I've been using Canidae dog food for a year and now all 10 of my dogs have diahrea and are broken out in hives, I'm a small breeder of french bulldogs and mini dachshunds, I cannot sell my puppies that are 11 weeks old right now beause of this. It's been going on for 2 weeks now. Help!
Now its cost over $500.00 in vet bills and they are not getting better yet.
Reviewed July 28, 2008
I have a 5 year old Newfoundland that got bad diarrhea and had a bad odor she was emitting even after her bath. We could hardly stand to be around her. We noticed the kibble was a different color but had no idea the formula was changed. I went on to canidae's site and saw they had a new formula. I wrote them and said it did not agree with her and asked if they could suggest something to help.
The exact email I got back was The improved formula should not cause this as this is not what we have seen so far with our friend and families dogs. Can you please provide for us the production and exp date as well as the product #.
After some research I am finding many sites including this one with other pet owners having the same problem. I will be contacting the FDA and urge all of you to do the same. You can find the FDA phone number and address for your state at FDA.gov and go to the animal and veterinary section.
Thankfully I caught on to it being the food right away before any damage was done.
Reviewed July 24, 2008
My American Bull Dog became very ill within 8 hours of eating Canidae's mew formula. They changed the formula and gave NO notice prior to doing so. She has been eating Canidae for 3 years now, and never had a problem. She was vomiting profusely, totally watery diaherra, then blood in the diaherra.
I took her to the vet, she was dehydrated, they had to give her fluids, put her on antibiotics. She was weak, lethargic, could hardly walk. It has been 9 days now, and she still isn't eating much. THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG WITH THAT FOOD PRODUCT AND THEY NEED TO FIGURE OUT WHAT IT IS. I want to file a lawsuit.
Diaherra, blood in stools, vomiting all over my new carpeting in 3 places , vet bills totalling $150.00
Reviewed July 23, 2008
I too have used Canidae all life stages lamb and rice for a while now with my English Bulldog. We got this brand on reccomendation of several other bulldog owners to help cut down on the gas and allergic problems that the breed is prone to. We recently bought a new bag and when we got it home, the look and size of the kibbles were different than usual. My dog has suffered a nasty allergic reaction to whatever the change in the formula was.. acne like pimples all over her face which she has scratched open, she's licked a scab into her paws... this was a great brand of food for my specific needs, but I can no longer buy it for my dog with this new formula.
Reviewed July 22, 2008
I own a one year old newfoundland and have been feeding him canidae for about 7 months (all life stages) the last bag that I purchased in april I noticed a difference in the kibble but didnt think to much of it. within a few days our newf began to experience very bad liquid diarrhea about every 2 hours. within a few days he began to show signs of heavy mucus accompanying the diarrhea. thinking he had a stomach bug or possibly a parasite from our local lake we waited a few more days before heading to the vet.( I realy had no reason to suspect the food and quite honestly it never crossed my mind) our vet was not able to offer any help as to the cause of the problem except possibly heat related or some other intestinal irritation. she started us on a week long antibiotic plan.
within about 2 days the antibiotic started to work and his stools started to firm up, but as soon as the antibiotics stopped the diarreha returned just as bad as before. to make a long story short, I went through everything, ie, chicken and rice, pumpkin all kinds of things. all of which worked to some extent, finally after about five weeks and $350.00 in vet bills, not to mention feeling like hell because my dog was in this situation, it finally hit me, could it be the food.
I stopped the food entirely and started him on anouther brand that I had researched and yes! within 2 days perfect ****! Then I find out about the change in formulation with Canidae and everything begins to make sense. I just truly hope that it was a formulation issue and not a bacteria issue. I alresdy feel bad enough that the poor dog went thru this for such a long time without my realizing it and I still cannot understand why Canidae would change thier formulation without some type of labeling on thier product. I have already proven to myself that this was the cause of his problem, It just angers me to no end thinking that I could have figured it out much sooner with just a little advanced warning. (A simple label).
$350.00 in vet bills.Hopefully the dog will have no issues later seeing as this is the most important time in his growth.
Reviewed July 22, 2008
My two dogs had been on Canidae lamb and rice for the past year and were doing great on it. One of my dogs has a really sensitive stomach and this was the first dog food, ever, that had actually firmed up his stools. Miracle! A couple of months ago I opened a new bag of Canidae L&R and noticed that the kibble looked completely different than their old food. Different color, shape, texture. I checked out their website and it says that they did indeed reformulate the lamb & rice and it was supposed to have a better digestibility.
Well, I fed my dogs that whole bag of food (it took about a month) and they never were able to adjust to the change. My dog with the iron stomach even had problems (soft smelly stools, bad breath, etc), and my sensitive-stomached dog had severe diarrhea the whole time he was on it. Stupid me, I just bought another bag of the lamb & rice and fed it to my dogs for about a week, then decided we'd had enough of the explosive diarrhea. So I've switched them to another brand of dog food.
I sent Canidae an email about a week ago telling them about my dogs' reactions to the new formula and haven't heard back from them yet. I'm really bummed because the old formula was such a great food. Now I'm having a hard time trying to find a good food that my sensitive-stomached dog can tolerate. I've tried a couple of different brands already and so far haven't had any luck.
Economic consequences have been that I've been buying different brands of food to try & find something that my dogs can tolerate. So far, my sensitive-stomached dog hasn't been able to adjust to any of them. All of his stools have been either really soft or diarrhea. He also acted differently while he was on this food. He was lethargic and had a gurgly stomach a lot of the time. I could tell by looking at him that he didn't feel well. Both of my dogs also had really bad breath (they have very clean teeth) the last couple of months on this food.
Reviewed July 18, 2008
I have called Canidae 4 times now each Bad gas and belching was the original issue. Tried the other brands mixed in with no success. Then one dog stopped eating the food altogether so I put both dogs on a bland diet and reintroduced Canidae slowly. Once again same symptons appeared with more negative results: strong foul odor when eliminating, itch paws, flaking skin. One dog got an allergic reaction to an unknown problem. Pathologist found nothing wrong with the dog's slides. My other dog has unexplained allergic reaction infection in one ear only and wont' stop licking and itching.
I was told to either do a bland diet again and slowly reintroduce Canidae as now there is a new formula and/or to reduce the amount of food.
I had already done this without success.
I am curious as to why a company would change a dog food formula without prior notice to consumers to alert us to the fact our dogs may have problems.
I did try to discus a possible bad batch and/or the upc codes to which no answer was given just another plug for their new food.
duress on dogs, vet bills, dogs suffering and cleaning up soft stools along with process of elimination to figuring out problem.
I did as told it did not work and was being sold on this new formula. I have one dog with sensitive stomach/food isssues and after 1 whole year of a dogfood being fine my problems were not being recognized by Canidae. I do NOT feed treats or other recalled pet treat items to eithe of my 2 dogs. Their diet has not changed but their digestibility issues have!
Reviewed July 17, 2008
I have never had a problem with Canidae. It was recommended by a breeder and on line. I was perplexed that others had had issues. In fact I had an older great dane who was having all kinds of problems with other foods and I switched to Canidae which stablized him. I now have a Great Dane puppy who does fine on this good food.
Reviewed July 15, 2008
We have a 10-year-old Border Collie who has eaten Canidae All Life Stages dog food for two years with no problem, until now. After opening and using product produced December 2007, expiring December 2008, our dog had diarrhea all over the house, and vomited 3 times. We corrected this with feeding him real boiled chicken and rice for two days, with return of normal bowel function. On the third day, we added 1/3 the normal amount of Canidae to his real boiled chicken and rice, and the diarrhea returned.
Common sense indicates this is food poisoning, since most humans (mammals) react the same way when poisoned by food. I don't believe it's reformulation. I don't believe the phony posts placed on this site by Canidae company employee(s) saying their pet is just fine.
This began on a Friday evening, after the vet closed. We did not incur any vet bills, but have decided to switch brands, at least until we can determine what Canidae did to poison this particular lot of food that so many others have complained about.
Reviewed July 15, 2008
We switched our dog over to Canidae All Life Stages a few months ago and he transitioned well. Suddenly, a few weeks ago he started having terrible diarrhea. The vet thought it might be food allergies, but I was skeptical as he had had no problems before. During my research I came across this page and I was astonished to read so many similar stories from other people - and so recently! I agree there must be a bad batch of Canidae out there.
Reviewed July 14, 2008
My 2 boxers have been on Canidae for the last 4 years with absolutely no problems until this past week. My male dog started out with huge hives all over and vomiting. Since we've never had issues with this dog food before I assumed he got stung or had an allergic reaction to something outside. It wasn't until a couple days later I realized it was the dog food.
As soon as I stopped feeding him the Canidae the hives went away and no more vomiting. I started him on California Natural and he is doing wonderful. I'm wondering if there is a bad batch out there or could it possibly from the new formula they have out? I'm not sure if we had the new or old formula since we tossed the original bag. However, my female boxer has not had any issues with the product, but I definitely will not be giving it to her anymore.
Reviewed July 11, 2008
I just got my first Great Dane puppy and bought Canidae per the sales persons recommendations at the local Feed store, as they did not carry what he had been raised on. I found this site when researching my new purchase, and of course got frightened. I called Customer service and left a message that I had just bought their food and I had some general questions. They called me back within an hour. I told them of my findings regarding their brand and they explained that they had just recently been a new reformulation of the food. Which might cause some disturbances within the dog/puppy's gastric system. This new formulation, would cause symptoms similar to just switching the dogs food out of the clear blue without gradually blending the old with the new. When you think about it, you would never switch your baby's formula out of the blue with out making a gradual change.
I read to her many of the recent complaints on your page and some of them made quite a bit of sense to me. I explained to her that after what we paid for our Puppy Great Dane and being a single income military family, we could not afford what these people are claiming to have paid for an emergency vet. I dont know if I would run to the vet for explosive diahrea or some vomitting. I don't do that with my children eiher, I take a step back and see if there were any other changes made with my kids recently. But just so that many of you know they just changed the formulation and probably what your pets experienced was basically a Change in diet, although you think you bought the same brand. I found them to be very helpful and informative. If I had a question and she didn't have the answer, she put me on hold and got the answer for me.
Apparently another thing I learned was to store the food in its own bag, dont empty it into a storage container (you can put the bag into the container.) The bag was specially made to retain vital oils and nutrients. The food can go rancid if not kept in it's proper method. They are AAFCO approved and follow their guidelines, which is equivalent to our FDA. I wouldn't buy a food that isn't AAFCO approved. Keep in mind that some people jump to conclusions when in a panic.
As for the customer service, the technician forgot to mark me off her call list and I got another call right in the middle of writing this up. So they do call back (return your calls), and make sure that you are comfortable with everything. They even end the call asking you, have we answered all of your questions. They have a great return policy... look it up. They really seem to stand behind their food. I just bought my first bag today and despite what has been on this site, I am going to slowly mix it into his previous food and give this brand a chance. I have talked to my vet and this brand came highly recommended!
Reviewed July 11, 2008
Canidae Lamb and RiceDog Food came highly recommended by a breeder as an easily digestible food for new G.Shepherd puppies. I have been feeding that brand exclusivly for 6 months and switched my other dogs to it as well. All did well until about 2 months ago when all the dogs experienced very loose runny stools and began to loose weight. The dog food looks different in appearance than it used to and yet the label is the same lamb and rice. Now I am reading of other dog owners who have had similar problems with this dog food brand.
My dogs have suffered diaherrea and weight loss. I am surprised to learn there may be a bad batch of dog food out there. Should there not be a recall of some kind in place, some consumer warning to alert pet owners as we have seen in the past. why is it still on the market with no warnings. Thank you
Reviewed June 30, 2008
Started my 2 dogs (spayed 7 month puppy and 12 yr old dog) on Canidae All Life Stages a few months ago and everything seemed find. But then we started new bag last week and both have been vomiting since. The puppy started vomiting sooner and we ended up taking her to the Emergency Vet over the weekend. The vomiting was happening right after eating and then continued for about a day- now that they have been off the food they are doing better. After seeing the other complaints and timeline, I suspect there is a bad batch out there.
Medical bill at Emergency Vet - almost $400.
Reviewed May 21, 2008
I have 3 dogs (2 Italian Mastiffs and 1 GSD) and have fed them Canidae All Stages for at least 2 yrs. They look great, healthy, very playful and active. My Vet agrees. While doing some online price shopping, I came across this site and was very surprised. Canidae has consumer complaints? I had to read this. I've recommended Canidae to everyone I know including my breeder. I don't like to take chances with my dogs health and I'm led foremost by their reactions or symptoms at mealtimes, so I watch them while they're eating. Their reactions kept our house from being bereaved by the tainted dog food. My youngest pup is nearly 18 mos. and Canidae is all she's eaten. But what's good in the past doesn't guarantee what's good in the future.
My 1st tip is to give your dogs filtered water. It's very important that you store Verus All Natural Pet Foods properly if using a plastic container! Plastic absorbs oil. Oils from the food can leach into the plastic and become rancid, thereby contaminating the next batch of food...This spoiled oil may contaminate any fresh food added to the container, causing vomiting or diarrhea when fed to your pet. They recommend washing the container with soap and hot water before the next dump of fresh food.
Reviewed May 12, 2008
I opened a new bag of canidae dog food and I feed it to my dogs for a couple days and then all three of them had uncontrolled liquid diarrhea for over a week. I also had a couple episodes of vomiting from my three dogs. It took me a few days to begin to suspect the canidae. I've been feeding it to them for almost a year and never had a problem. I stopped the canidae and am feeding only EVO and the diarrhea is gone.
The bag of food cost $32.00 and I'm of course not going to feed it to my dogs anymore. I'm planning to e-mail canidae. I'm concerened however about possible long term effects. Does anyone know what it was in the dog food that caused these signs and symptoms????
Reviewed May 12, 2008
The bag of food cost $32.00 and I'm of course not going to feed it to my dogs anymore. I'm planning to e-mail canidae. I'm concerened however about possible long term effects. Does anyone know what it was in the dog food that caused these signs and symptoms?
Reviewed May 12, 2008
I switched my four dogs from Nutro to Canidae All Life Stages. I have never had a problem with Canidae, and for my dogs, I believe it is one of the best foods they can be on. One of my dogs had demodex mange, when I switched the food her immune system had such a boost from the good quality of food that the mange started to heal itself. My vet was extremely surprised with the outcome and commended me for the switch to such a higher quality kibble.
I have never heard of anyone having issues with this food, and all negative posts that I have read, sound like your dogs have some form of allergies. Get an allergy panel done from your vet, and then you would know for sure if it was the food/ingredients. I have two dogs with extremely sensitive stomaches and skin allergies, when I made the switch to Canidae over a year ago, the issues went away and have not come back. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and I give Canidae 100%.
Reviewed May 12, 2008
I have been using Canidae all life stages dry dog food for our 2 dogs for the last 2 years after switching from Purina dog chow . We changed dog foods due to the recalls and health problems with our older dog who has autoimmune disease, cushings, hypothyroidism,and arthritis; our other dog at the time of switching dog foods was a boxer puppy with no health issues.
What a difference this dog food makes! Our older dog (11 year old chow/husky mix) is much more active, is loosing some weight (she was getting heavy on that other food with fillers), her coat shines again! Boxers are known to have GI problems so I was cautious at first but she too is in great shape, great muscle tone, her coat glistens, no stomach problems that a lot of boxers have. This dog food is wonderful.
Reviewed April 25, 2008
I have been using Canidae for two years with absolutely not a single problem! I have recommended this to my older sister who has five dogs, all rescues, completely different breeds, with NO problems at all. My younger sister has two dogs, a border collie and a Pekingese, and both are thriving, especially the border collie, who has Valley Fever. The breeder who I obtained my dogs from uses Canidae All Life Stages for all of her dogs--she has six adults and about two litters a year--and has had no problems whatsoever. And a close friend has her Italian mastiff on Canidae now--he was having all kinds of allergic problems, skin and ear infections--and he looks like an absolutely different dog. So...all I can say is to each his own.
All these dogs are in excellent health. My sisters both feed the chicken and rice kibble and canned; I feed the lamb and rice; my friend feeds the Platinum for Senior Dogs; my breeder uses the All Life Stages. I love this food, my dogs love this food, and my little girl, who previously had all kinds of gastrointestinal problems, has had an excellent response. My wife got a call back from the Canidae main office. Lois couldn't have been nicer and was so informative.
Reviewed April 21, 2008
I have experienced similar problems with our GSD to those I've just read. I also suspected the food. Sometimes our dog just doesn't want to eat a brand new bag of food. She recently developed a skin rash that took a month of antibiotics to get rid of. On two occasions over the last 4 months, she had vomiting and diarea for no obvious reason.
This food came with high regard from my local pet store, and when I switched, I thought I was upgrading. Beginning immediately, I am changing brands.
Reviewed April 21, 2008
After feeding Canidae Dry Dog food, both our miniature pinscher became ill. The first symptoms were runny stools. Then the one wouldn't eat the Canidae at all! After a few days of the one dog not eating, we noticed that she couldn't urinate. We took her to the vets, and the vet did blood work. She had high levels of sugar and phosphorus in her blood. Finally got a little urine sample, and it also showed sugar and phosphorus in the urine. It also showed bladder crystals. Thought nothing of it, really, as at that point it was just the one dog. A few days later, the other couldn't urinate, and they also found bladder crystals, a more severe case than the other dog. This dog, had been on Canidae for a little longer. Vet bills which totaled $480. Having to cancel a planned breeding until one dog is well. And still wondering whether the dogs are going to be ok or not.
Reviewed Feb. 13, 2008
I have 3 GSD dogs. I have used Canidae dog food for about 4 months. I have noticed in the last 3 weeks that my dogs have had excessive gas and one of them burps a lot. This had never been an issue (2 of the dog are >10 y.o.). 7 days ago two of the dogs began vomiting in the evening. Three days ago one of the older 10 y.o. dogs bloated. I have taken the two other dogs off the dog food for 2 days and no gas, no belching, no vomiting. The other dog had surgery for bloat and is struggling. This could be coincidental surely, but it seems strange that all three of the animals got sick around the same time and the two that didn't bloat seem absolutely fine now that I have not fed them this dog food for two days. I have had no negative issues with Canidae dog food up to this point, but due to the obviousness of three dogs getting ill at the same time and two of the dogs having improved symptoms after being off this brand of dog food for two days I can only assume that there is an excellent chance something is not right with this food.
Dog that bloated is in the hospital. He had emergency surgery to untwist his gut and has heart issues due to the bloat. This is an ugly, painful condition and very expensive as well.
Reviewed Jan. 7, 2008
I have been feeding my two Boxers Cannidae Life Stages for about 6 months. After opening a new bag my 7 mo. old became very ill, it caused her to vomit, have uncontrollable bowel movements and skin irritation. We had to go to the emergency vet on Christmas eve resulting in a bill over $650. I tried to contact Canidae and have had no response. I have switched food and will not return to Canidae especially after not hearing back from them.
Reviewed Jan. 4, 2008
Their canned dog food made my dog vomit about 30 minutes after eating. The canned dog food was Canidae Chicken & Rice Formula in Chicken Broth. Bottom of can: 1113733 12 , Best by Nov 2012. The remaining food in the can had a peculiar and bad odor. The odor was not detected at feeding time, but was detected later while investigating cause of sickness. After the feeding, the can was resealed with plastic wrap and put in refrigerator. This is normally done since only 1/3 can is used at each feeding. The can is now in the freezer, awaiting disposal. The canned dog food was mixed with Canidae dry dog food. I have used this brand of dog food since March, 2007 without problems until now. The same dog food (different can) was used at the next meal wihout a problem, but the can was carefully checked after opening.
Reviewed Nov. 3, 2007
On Nov 3rd, 2007 I returned unused portion of Canidae Life Stages Dry Dog Food to Sarah at Canine Palace. She returned $17.00 to me instead of $34.00. So, I received half a refund when Canidae has a policy stating full refund. I also informed her that batch 40461-01040 has received national complaints as dogs including mine have become ill.
The Canidae food caused my dog to vomit, have fever and runny stools. My vet bill last Monday was $119.00. My puppy could have permanent damage to his digestive system.
Reviewed Oct. 15, 2007
We have been using Canidae dog food for out Great Dane puppy for the last 6 months with no problems. However the last batch I purchased (40461 01040) was not the same. Our puppy has begun vomiting and breaking out in hives. The symptoms started within 72 hours of giving her the new batch of food. That is the only thing that has changed in months.
The midnight emergency room bill came to $300 after the x-rays.
Reviewed Oct. 11, 2007
I buy Canidae pet food through a distributor in Rayne, LA and get it delivered right to my door. Since the last shipment on the last Friday in September, my dogs have been ill. First i had an older female pomeranian that was pregant die, but she was running and keeled over so we deemed it a massive coronary and age related possibly combined with the pregnancy. But now my Great Dane has had 2 grand mal seizures and many of my other house dogs have had terrible gas and a green colored diarrhea.
The pomeranians are no longer wanting to eat it, their food containers are barely touched by the next day so we've pulled the food. The distributor said she's heard stories but i'm her first complaint and she is going to ship me a new batch of food. But now i'm worried about feeding it at all and if the new food is better than the old even though they may be from a new batch.
My largest consequence is loss of a 2000.00 breeding animal(amount paid) and the puppies that she was carrying out of showline dogs. I dont' know what my long term results may be aside from heartbreak. I just purchased dogs in excess of 4000.00 for my breeding program with the pomeranians and could end up with a very large financial loss.
Reviewed Sept. 8, 2007
We have fed our dogs Canidae dog food about 1.5 years. 3 wks. ago we opened a new bag and within days, our dogs began vomiting and diarrhea. we went to table food and started 10 days later to mix table with same dog food and within 48 hrs. vomiting and diarrhea started again. the vet recommended throwing out the food. we e-mailed Canidae and received no response.
Reviewed Sept. 8, 2007
I just literally called Canidae this afternoon to ask them if something is up with their dog food. I switched from Blue Buffalo to Canidae back in the winter when this recall started. My 3 perfectly healthy labrador retrievers have been stricken gravely ill with all the symptoms from the prior recalls. My kids and husband suspected the food right away, but I, like an idiot, had complete faith in Canidae. But today a nagging voice kept telling me it was, indeed, the food. When you have 3 animals and all get sick at once, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to find the cause. We had just opened a brand new bag of Canidae, and its been untouched since the first day, as my dogs cannot even eat.
Reviewed May 1, 2007
I have been feeding my dog Canidae dog food for the past 1.5 years. It's a highly rated dog food and was recommended to me by my breeder. I opened a new can today to find a smelly can of liquid fat with two pieces of chicken with bones in the can. It was disgusting. In light of the recent problems with dog food in China, this makes me wonder about the quality control procedures at Canidae. Was this the act of a disgruntled employee?
I have sent Canidae an email on their website and I have notified Pet Food Express, where I purchased this case of dog food. I'm anxious to see how Canidae responds. I am freezing the contents of the can, if anyone is interested in seeing it.
Canidae Pet Foods Company Information
- Company Name:
- Canidae Pet Foods
- Year Founded:
- 1996
- Address:
- 1975 Tandem Way
- City:
- Norco
- State/Province:
- CA
- Postal Code:
- 92860
- Country:
- United States
- Fax:
- 951-738-9210
- Website:
- canidae.com
