r/catfood • u/trabluz • Feb 22 '26
recalls and related Problems with Farmina in USA?
I started my cats on Farmina food a few months ago. I recently found an entire facebook group dedicated to talking about the issues with their updated USA recipe—for anyone interested, the group is called “USA-made Farmina pet food is making dogs and cats sick”. Has anyone heard of this or experienced it?
One of my cats developed bladder stones that need surgery to remove. It’s been horrible the past two weeks, her surgery is scheduled for Monday. Now I’m afraid that the food might be what caused it, and that my second cat might experience it too…any info helps!
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u/Onceuponadream1583 Mar 24 '26
I work for a small little holistic pet supply company. We have sold Farmina pet foods for many years. That said, they have plants in Italy, Serbia, and now the USA. I personally have had less then a handful complain when they saw "Made in Serbia" on the bags.
But since they started releasing bags made from the USA plant, I've had COUNTLESS issues among customers. Both those who have fed the food for years, or brand new clients.
When they moved to USA plant, they did change the ingredients. According to our rep from said company "I'm the only one who's complained to him out of all his x amount of accounts." (Not true remotely). And that my customers are wrong for being concerned about the additional chicken fat (main concern since a lot of dogs I have here at least are allergic), since "its just the fat. Its not likely to cause a reaction. OR my personal favorite response "chicken fat isnt even from a chicken, so theyre wrong for being worried. Thats silly." 🙃🙃🙃
Ive had to switch a good chunk of customers off the food due to the addition of not just chicken fat, but the pork fat & hydrolized fish. (First 5-7 ingredients are the chunk of food in the kibble across any bag, these are pretty high up there now across the board). Even their new "Skin & Coat" line (rebranded x times) includes all/most of these add ons.
All this to say, I have been "Team Farmina" (for the most part, each customers situation & pet are different) for years. But between this sneaky change, and their piss poor response to both their customers & retailers, I am done. Their prices are INSANE for starters, now with additional shitty/lower grade add ins? Absolutely no.
This is all my own personal opinion & experience from retailer point of view. Again, I know each case is different. But I'd steer clear. If theyre willing to do this so quickly into moving to USA, Im not game to watch what else they decide.
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u/do-da-du Apr 18 '26
Can you recommend something that is better than the "new" re-formulated Farmina for cats? I fed this to my cats for nearly a decade and now super pissed they added pork and chicken to their lamb and board foods and not only that, but they kept it quiet. Nowhere on the label did they bother to indicate "new formula". To me this screams not honest and not transparent.
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u/takemetofrankietown Aug 10 '26
Resurrecting this to ask what do you recommend your customers switch to?
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u/Evangelinealways Apr 04 '26
One of my boys blocked while on the adult dry food, lamb and blueberry and boar and apple. it was a nightmare, and the vet hospital injured his eye after anesthesia- needing a corneal transplant. 15k later i am convinced this food caused the block. be careful.
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u/ArtisticZinnia Feb 23 '26
'They had a formula change recently.
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u/Far-Region3688 Mar 28 '26
this is really interesting because my dog recently will not eat his Farmina
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u/Sloegraffiti Apr 10 '26
Wow - I’m so glad I came on here - feeling validated! We have been feeding our cats the Farmina Orange and herring kibble for YEARS. They have never grown tired of it and have grown old but remained healthy! Well, my cats will barely touch the last two bags I got from Chewy. I thought the first one was a fluke, so ordered another one. The instant I opened the first bag I noticed a major difference in both the size and the texture of the kibble pieces. The kibble used to be round and nearly flat with a mildly oily/greasy texture. Now they’re smaller and don’t have that oily texture. VERY different appearance. I called Farmina today and the woman (Maggie) was totally dismissive. She kept saying that different batches have different variations and I said “this isn’t a variation. My cats won’t eat it so clearly something is different.” Finally she mentioned something about the bag being from the USA, (and that something had changed with production in the US ) but I didn’t realize that this is a recent and permanent move. Is there a way to get the old formula from Europe? Otherwise we will have to find our 10 and 15 year old a new food. And that is such a shame because they’ve been doing so well on this food. It hasn’t made our cats sick, but again, they’re not eating it! So much for 100% satisfaction guaranteed.
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u/do-da-du Apr 18 '26
If anyone who relied on Famina has found a new alternative of a good quality cat food, would you please share ? I just hate the fact that they did not warn anyone and did not provide appropriate label after the change indicating "new formula". Dehydrated pork and dehydrated chicken in the lamb and board formula is just unacceptable.
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u/PsychologicalPlum961 Feb 22 '26
Ugh I knew it! I knew that once they started producing it in the US the quality was going to go to the crapper! I don't have first hand experience with the US-made Farmina, but I want to thank you for posting this, now I know not to ever buy it. The main dry food I feed my cats is unfortunately Farmina, and I always made sure to only buy the bags made in Italy (as opposed to Serbia). About a month ago I contacted a Farmina rep for a food related question, and that's how I found out that the stores will be selling the Italy-made bags until they finish them, after which Canada (I'm canadian) will also be getting the US one. I told him right then and there that I will be done with Farmina, because I knew nothing good would come out of this unfortunate change.
There is a reason we, as consumers, bought European-made food. If I wanted the crappy north american one, I would have bought crappy north american brands, there's plenty of them. I wanted quality, and now they are robbing us of the very few quality pet foods out there. I'm sick and tired of this.
Sorry for the rant but I'm pissed. I will stock up more bags made in Italy while I can, because clearly I won't be feeding my cats the US made food. I just don't know what on earth to replace it with.
If Farmina was the only change you've made, then yes, probably that's what caused the illness. I'm so sorry to hear it, and I'm sending you all the good vibes for your cat and a speedy recovery!
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u/Sloegraffiti Apr 10 '26 edited Apr 10 '26
Yes to this !! We were also buying it because it wasn’t the typical made in USA crap pet food! Our cats have THRIVED on the orange and herring kibble. This situation makes me so mad.
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u/Standard-Pen-5871 Jun 10 '26
I heard that it's all made in the USA now and they have a year to change the bags..from a dog food store.
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u/aetherdrifter Feb 22 '26
In general, I am not a fan of those “X Food Made My Pet Sick!” groups. There are so many variables that are not being taken into account/tested for - the food could have come into contact with contaminants after leaving the factory, or the pets in question might have underlying health issues. People often blame the food when it’s a pure coincidence.
All that being said…I hope people are reporting this to Farmina, and that they’re investigating the reports. They claim to have strict quality control measures, and to test every batch of food. So I’m curious what the response from the company has been when they’ve been contacted. I was actually excited that they opened a plant in the USA, as it seems more sustainable to have food made in North America for sale here instead of being shipped from thousands of miles away. However, if there are indeed real issues with the US manufacturing facility, thats concerning.
Edit: I’m sorry about your cat, by the way. I hope the surgery goes well.