Hi all. I’ve been feeding Merrick’s new grain free kibble (and one bag of their Small Breed) since right before Christmas. I’ve also been using their small breed canned food as a topper (of course, along with other brands). I’ve fed two bags of the Chicken, one bag of Buffalo, one bag of Pork. It was going great, even better than when they were on Fromm, until this second bag of Pork that was just added last week (the first bag of Pork was a different lot #). I’ve been buying the small bags, except right before this “episode” I did buy a large bag of the Duck which they haven’t had yet. Anyway, I dumped the new bag of Pork in with the other bag that was already in the bin. I didn’t check it closely because I was getting ready to go out of town. My daughter would be the one to feed them while I was gone. She helps me sometimes and knows what to do. The evening meal before I left I fed them. I didn’t feed the next morning meal but did notice that someone had some weird looking stool when they went out first thing in the morn. It had some formed and the rest was runny. It was also a weird color…..dark green or dark grayish to almost black. I didn’t see which one did it. My immediate thought was that Hazel was stressing because I was leaving, as she is my “stressy” dog. I told my daughter to go ahead and feed but no treats and to watch them and call me. I would be back in 3-4 days. Well…this went on for all the time I was gone! No one acted sick, though, and they had no accidents in the house (thank goodness!). When I got back I immediately checked everything out. I started inspecting the kibble and noticed something odd. This new bag of Pork had some pieces that were longer, thinner, way darker and looked very dense throughout the bag. It looked like maybe the extruder had an issue. I immediately took them off this food, of course, and started chicken and rice. Everything was fine. All dogs actually had this bad stool, not just one, and all dogs went back to somewhat fine (still getting there) afterward. I’m switching off Merrick now. I will say this is the first time I’ve had firsthand experience with a food having something “off” in it and I’m not happy. I called Merrick with the lot number and they, of course, weren’t much help. They said no one else has had a problem or contacted them with anything and that they would send me a coupon. I told them I had been very happy with Merrick until this and I didn’t want a coupon because I wasn’t going to take a chance on poor quality control with them again. I may go back to Fromm, but right now I’m going to give Acana’s Single line a chance. I’m phasing in their Lamb and Apple currently. The dogs love it (using it as treats now and putting a few kibble in their chicken/rice mix). I’m just so disappointed. I am going to take the Duck bag back. I had a little of the small Chicken bag left and looked in it to see if the dark pieces were there and they were not. I just don’t want to take a chance with Merrick again, even though they did fine until now. I’ll keep you guys posted. Sorry this is so long, but I needed to rant and wanted to alert others to this possibility. 🙁
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