[cos]

So I went to the vet with my grandparents and their dog. They were great (they go to a different vet than me) and very helpful and nice. We talked about foods and diet and she reccomended for me (because I asked lots of questions) the Kirkland brand salmon and sweet potato grain and corn free. She said freshpet (which I feed now - slice and serve) had a lot of recalls and suggested I change his food. I always fed him freshpet and we have had no problems but she mentioned salmonella and now I'm worried!

My boyfriend has a Costco card so I was wondering if we should change to Kirkland like she suggested? Any issues with Kirkland you've had? I'm worried because it's a brand specific to Costco.

Thanks!

 

[Larkspur]

It's generally a decent food. There will always be people who complain about things for whatever reason. Kirkland dog food is processed by Diamond, if that's of any concern. However, during somewhat of an "uproar" the plant in question was inspected along with the food and passed with flying colors. Some of the people who made claims against them ended up confessing their lies.

As for concerns of salmonella, dog's digestive systems are more acid than ours and are built for tackling bacteria such as that. Generally, dogs with healthy immune systems will not get sick even if exposed. It's if your dog is unhealthy or immunocompromised that you really want to be careful. If your dogs are fine on their current food, then I wouldn't sweat it.

 

[Maiabean]

i currently feed my puppy Kirkland puppy food My 10 year old springer spaniel with a sensitive tummy is fed the Kirkland food you were recommended. He loves it and doesn't have any digestive trouble with it. Our vet recommended Kirkland.

 

[ChessaQ]

I happened to go to costco with a friend so got a big bag of Kirkland since it seemed very similar to the 4health I normally feed, but a bit cheaper. I rarely go so I doubt they'll stay on it, but they've done very well on this bag, no real changes from when they were on 4health. I think it's a very solid food.

 

[cos]

Thanks everyone! That's really good to hear and I hope Cosmo does well on it! We're switching him this Saturday so I guess I could also let everyone know how he takes to it to add to the numbers on either side.

Thanks!

 

[Dawnben]

Dogs don't get salmonella. Expect a huge difference when you change from food with moisture in it and dry kibble. My dogs used to drink gallons of water when they ate kibble. They seemed to be thirst all the time. You might be better off with Honest kitchen than kibble.

 

[timber]

There are lots of recalls due to salmonella in kibble too, so if your dog is doing well on freshpet, i'd just leave him on it. Kirkland had lots of recalls in the past, just keep that in mind as well. It's a medium grade food. I had my dogs on both the grain inclusive and grain free variety and they did really well on it years ago then didn't look as good as the years went by, maybe they changed the recipe or something.

 

[cos]

It's interesting to hear both sides on salmonella as well as my own research which concludes that perhaps this vet simply didn't like raw diet based foods like freshpet. I wonder what she would have said about a raw diet!