Last Updated on March 30, 2026 by admin
Eight lots of Quest Cat Food contain almost no thiamine. The FDA tested them in March 2026 and found levels so far below the minimum that some lots registered at zero. Thiamine — vitamin B1 — is the one nutrient your cat’s brain cannot function without. And the damage starts quietly.
The Recall Nobody Saw Coming
Go Raw LLC, based in Cottonwood Heights, Utah, first recalled a single lot of Quest Cat Food Chicken Recipe Freeze Dried Nuggets on February 17, 2026. Nine days later, the company expanded the recall to include two lots of frozen chicken recipe and halted all Quest product sales nationwide.
Then, on March 13, the FDA issued its own advisory: agency testing confirmed that eight lots of Quest Cat Food fell well below the AAFCO minimum of 5.6 mg of thiamine per kilogram of food. Some contained none at all.
The affected products — freeze-dried nuggets in 10-ounce bags and frozen chicken recipe in 2-pound beige zip-lock packages — were distributed across more than 20 states, including California, Texas, New York, Florida, and Ohio.
Why This One Matters More Than Most Recalls
Most pet food recalls involve contamination — salmonella, listeria, something that shouldn’t be there. This is different. This is about something missing. And because thiamine deficiency builds gradually, your cat won’t collapse after one meal. She’ll just stop eating as much. She’ll seem a little off. You’ll blame stress, or the weather, or a hairball. By the time the real symptoms show up, the window for easy treatment is already closing.
Signs to Watch For — Starting Tonight
Early signs look like nothing special: decreased appetite, drooling, vomiting, weight loss. Every cat owner has seen these and shrugged them off. That’s what makes thiamine deficiency dangerous.
Advanced symptoms are harder to miss — and harder to reverse. Your cat may develop ventroflexion, where her neck bends downward and she can’t lift her head. She may walk in circles. She may bump into furniture she’s navigated for years. Tremors, seizures, and dilated pupils that don’t respond to light can follow. According to PetMD, neurological signs can appear within 30 to 40 days of eating a thiamine-deficient diet — and the decline from there is rapid.
In some cats fed the affected Quest products, symptoms appeared within a single week.
What to Do Right Now
Check your pantry. If you have any Quest Cat Food products — freeze-dried or frozen — flip the bag and read the lot code. The recalled freeze-dried lot is #C25288 (Best By 10/15/2027). The recalled frozen lots are MCD25350 (Best By 5/17/2027) and MCC25321 (Best By 6/16/2027). But because the company has stopped all Quest sales, the FDA recommends treating every Quest product as suspect until further notice.
Stop feeding it immediately. Switch to a different brand tonight. You don’t need to match the protein or formula — just get something with verified nutritional content on the shelf.
When to Call the Vet
If your cat has been eating Quest Cat Food and shows any combination of appetite loss, vomiting, unsteady walking, or a head that droops lower than usual — call your vet today, not tomorrow. A single thiamine injection can reverse the damage, but only if you catch it before your cat stops lifting her head. Response to treatment is often visible within hours. Cats treated early make full recoveries. Cats treated late can suffer permanent neurological damage — or worse.
How to Protect Your Cat Going Forward
Keep a photo of every pet food lot code on your phone. It takes two seconds and it means you’ll never have to dig through the trash during a recall. Bookmark the FDA’s pet food recall page and check it once a month — or set a Google Alert for your brand name plus “recall.”
If your cat is healthy and hasn’t been eating Quest products, no action is needed. But pass this along to any cat owner you know who feeds freeze-dried or raw. They may not have heard yet.
Has your cat been affected by this recall? Tell us in the comments — and share this so every cat owner sees it before the next feeding. 🐱