A POPULAR brand of canned cat food has been pulled from shelves amid reports pets have become gravely ill after eating it.

All Best Feline Friend (BFF) cat food has been recalled from Petbarn and City Farmers pet supplies stores.

Cat lovers are urged not to feed their animals the food and to seek a full refund from the store they bought it from.

US company Weruva, which manufactures the tuna-based cat food, released a statement that the canned food “may have been produced outside of intended formulation guidelines”.

Weruva president David Forman said the food would remain off shelves “until our analysis is complete”.

“While this matter affects no other products or markets, we are taking additional steps to ensure quality and confidence across our entire global food assortment,” he said.

“These efforts include aggressive testing of ingredients and finished product by independent laboratories in addition to our routine testing and quality assurance measures.”

Hundreds of people took to Petbarn’s Facebook page to share stories of BFF making their cats sick over a period of weeks.

“Our cat, Teuer, became extremely ill these last few weeks; we’ve been feeding her BFF for at least 12 months,” one Facebook user said.

Teuer the cat was in good health until a few weeks ago, when she started vomiting bile, ran a high fever, became dehydrated, developed an eye infection, and experienced enlarged lymph nodes.

“It was touch-and-go for a long time, and thousands of dollars [was spent] in vet bills,” the man wrote.

“Thankfully, we have an amazing vet, and she’s recovering now, after IV drips, steroids, antibiotics and, anti-inflammatories.”

But other cat owners weren’t so lucky, with many claiming the food killed their beloved pets.

“We fed our cat BFF months ago, and he became very ill and after $2500 in bills, we had no choice but to put him down,” one Facebook user said of their pet.

“I have lost a 1.5 year old and a 15 year old in the last month or so. And to think it could be as a result of this food,” another added.

Online sales of the food have also been pulled from the Petbarn website while City Farmers no longer lists BFF among its stocked brands.

BFF canned foods are exclusively sold to the Australian market.

Customers can contact Weruva on 1800 338 359 or at weruva@salmat.com.au between 9am and 7pm.

This article originally appeared on the Herald Sun and has been republished with permission.

— with Vanessa Brown