Wellness Core Dog food

[Frances W]

Has anyone had experience with the brand Wellness Core dog food? If so is one flavor better for dogs with allergies? Thanks for any help, Frances

[Trish]

Just wanted to say we just tried a new food and the dogs love it and it agrees with all three of their tummies! It is also an all life stages food. It's Taste of the Wild, the Pacific Stream formula.. it has GREAT ingredients and ranks a 6 star on www.dogfoodanalysis.com . I had been reluctant to try their foods because all of their other formulas contain some form of poultry, which Louie can't have because of his allergies. They did have a little more gas at first, but now Kirby only starts getting gas before he has to go potty.. so not too bad. And my picky eater Louie just LOVES the food.. he's even eating it without me adding canned food! What really surprised me too was the cost, it was $10 less for a 15 lb. bag of the Taste of the Wild versus the Natural Balance.. and the NB only ranks a 4 star versus the TOTW ranking a 6 star. Also, I noticed that Natural Balance has yet again changed their formula, first they changed the duck and potato, and now they've changed the sweet potato and venison as well, now they have even LESS meat in their food, dispute what the front label says. The front label says "now contains even MORE fresh venison!" but I read the back label, and they used to have both venison and venison meal (which is actually better than just the venison) and now they no longer have the venison meal. Same with the duck formula, so I don't think I will be using their food any longer. Especially since they changed the ingredients so that they could manufacture it for less money and still charge just as much. Which is frustrating because now I'm going to have to look for some more foods to be able to rotate with my guys since I don't like keeping them on only one kind of kibble long term, I like to switch up the protein source they're eating so that they get variety in their diet.

[Frances W]

Thanks Trish for the new information. I was looking at Natural Balance food yesterday but did not buy it since I still have Wellness Core food left. Glad I didn't buy any after reading your comments. Is Taste of the Wild a grain free food? I did notice Wellness Core has a new food out called Simple Life for dogs with allegies and sensative stomachs. Have you heard of it? I may have the name wrong, I know it was Simple something???? So far Isabella and Tallulah are doing well on the Wellnes Core reduced fat but I have noticed they poop more than when they ate Science Ultra ZD. The poop is firm just more of it. Thanks for all your help, Frances

[Trish]

Hi Frances. Yes the Taste of the Wild is a grain free food. Here is a list of the ingredients.

Salmon, ocean fish meal, sweet potatoes, potatoes, canola oil, salmon meal, smoked salmon, potato fiber, natural flavor, choline chloride, dried chicory root, tomatoes, blueberries, raspberries, yucca schidigera extract, dried fermentation products of Enterococcus faecium, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus casei and Lactobacillus plantarum, dried Trichoderma longibrachiatum fermentation extract, vitamin E supplement, iron proteinate, zinc proteinate, copper proteinate, ferrous sulfate, zinc sulfate, copper sulfate, potassium iodide, thiamine mononitrate (vitamin B1), manganese proteinate, manganous oxide, ascorbic acid, vitamin A supplement, biotin, calcium pantothenate, manganese sulfate, sodium selenite, pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), vitamin B12 supplement, riboflavin (vitamin B2), vitamin D supplement, folic acid.

I just read up online more about TOTW - and it appears that there was recently a voluntary recall on their Pacific Stream formula, which is the one that I purchased. It only effected bags that were stamped June 2010, some other alternate protein source was in the food, and it made a lot of dog sicks. Didn't kill any or anything, just made some dogs throw up and have runny poop, and they issued refunds to anyone that had dogs that were effected by it. Seems like they have all of the issues all cleared up now, though. Finding good quality foods to feed my dogs that actually agree with their stomachs seems to just be such a difficult task! Seems like there is always something negative to be found somewhere, no matter what food it is! Other then that hiccup, I have heard nothing but very positive things about all of the formulas of food that Taste of the Wild carries. But, if your dogs are doing well on the Wellness Core, then I would just stick to that line of food. Their original formula has turkey and chicken, and then they have their ocean formula that is fish based, so that gives them a little variety with just feeding those two.

I know the Wellness food that you are talking about, I've tried it before, it smells like play-doh and my dogs wouldn't even eat it actually - lol! It's called Wellness Simple Solutions, it's not grain free, there is three different ones, duck and rice, salmon and rice, and lamb and rice. I had bought the duck and rice, since I haven't had much luck finding a good duck based dry food, that didn't have chicken in it.. hoping that they would like it, but nope! Ended up donating the bag to a shelter.

[Frances W]

Thanks Trish I appreciate all your information. I did buy some of the Wellness Pure Rewards grain free Venison and Salmon Jerky treats and Tallulah and Isabella loved them. They were a little expensive at 8.75 for a small bag. I also am trying the Wellness WellBars with Lamb and Apples Snacks. They are grain free and gluten free which is nice. I guess the Frenchie Diet Adventure is an ongoing process. It's so nice having this site to share experiences. Thanks again, Frances

[Barney]

I have Barney on Innova puppy food but we are almost out so I am thinking of switching him to the wellness puppy food- what do you feed your puppy?

[Frances W]

Hi Rebecca, right now I'm in the process of transitioning from Purina Pro Plan Puppy Lamb and Rice to California Natural Puppy . Trish recomended the California Natural since they had a Lamb and Rice for puppies and may make the transition easier. So far so good it's been about 5 days and I'm adding a little more of the new food each day. I was going to put her on the Wellnes Puppy food but some of the comments thought there was more protein/calcium than a puppy needs. When she gets older I'll try switching her to the Wellness Core grain free or the Oijen grain free. My older dogs are on the Wellness Core Reduced Fat/Grain Free. I recently transitioned them to the Wellness and both are doing well. Hope this helps. There is so much to learn.