Why so few threads on Wellness here?

[tpa232]

I've been feeding Wellness after a great deal of research, but since I've joined RDN, I see it doesn't seem to be what most of you are feeding here. I'd really appreciate your thoughts on the brand and why you chose Canidae, Innova, etc. Innova seems pretty comparable (better?) to me, but Canidae seems lower quality, especially given the recent news about their downgrading ingredients.

I've searched the forum for "wellness" but have only come by mentions of the food and fairly good things. I have high regard for the folks on this site and would appreciate your feedback.

Many thanks,
Tom & Ty

[Nishasmom]

I have fed wellness; my dog did well on it. I rotate foods every 3-4 months now we are feeding Canidae. I have also fed Evo red meat.

[stale]

fwiw, canidae was the best priced of the top dog foods, for a looonnnggg time. only recently did they decide to make the slip from a premium food to something comparable to supermarket dog foods. i actually wrote them a rather strident letter full of convoluted circumlocution (say that five times fast while gargling whiskey) with regards to their recent downgrading of ingredients.

personally, i'm going with orijen on our next bag, since in terms of ingredients, they blow away the available competition where i am.

orijen's first 5 ingredients (on their adult dog food) are: Deboned chicken, chicken meal, turkey meal, russet potato, lake whitefish. 4 out of 5 are straight protien sources. not entirely sure what's up with the potato - but then, i've had no coffee, so i'm not reading their whole page at the moment.

couldn't find an ingredient list for wellness on their site, though i assume it's there - again, no coffee. i would readily believe they're better than canidae - at least currently.

it always comes down to the ingredients, and how your dog fares on the food. for what it's worth, if you find no threads bashing wellness, it implies that nobody has had a serious issue with their food. besides, if your dog is doing fine on it, why worry?

(uncaffienated) stale

[brunie's mom]

I've always found the Wellness foods a bit heavy in the grains. They do use human grade meat and the company has a good reputation. Wellness is also making a grainless food now...but I still think it's high in the carbs.

I've tried Wellness a few times with my dogs, and always found them gassy from the food What works for one dog, may not work for the next.

As far as saying Canidae is a "grocery store" food, that is nonsense. It still has very good ingredients...and there is meat...just don't like the extra ingredients they have added to it. The formula has changed....but I can think of other quality foods such as Innova that has barley in it,etc.

Gina

[AngelBunny]

When I fed kibble, Wellness was one of the brands I fed, rotating between the various meat formulations. My dogs did fine on it and I was happy enough to recommend it to other dog owners.

[bliss7373]

I also agree that Wellness is a very good food. My own dogs did better on "simple" foods that didn't have a ton of ingredients - like California Natural.

I used to think of Wellness as a "kitchen sink" sort of premium food- their ingredients are great, they just have a lot of them! That may not be the case anymore, I haven't kept up with their ingredient list.

I know lots of people whose dogs thrive on it. My dogs just did better on other foods - that's not necessarily a poor reflection of Wellness as a whole.

[MarleysMama]

Just a side note, I know that Wellness is about to be sold in Petco stores, and I have heard that once a dog food begins being sold in a chain store, they aren't as good. I have NO idea if this is true or not, but just something I wanted to share.

[AngelBunny]

Originally Posted by MarleysMama

Just a side note, I know that Wellness is about to be sold in Petco stores,....

I hadn't heard this. How do you know this? I certainly could email the company, but I'll get an answer quicker by asking you.

[MarleysMama]

I actually was in there a few weeks back buying Marley a Kong and I saw the flyers by the checkout.

[Nishasmom]

yep...they sell it now! Dog Food: Premium Dog Food, Puppy Food. Best Puppy & Dog Food Brands at PETCO

[AngelBunny]

At the last meet & greet my Rottie rescue group had in our local Petco, I took a walk around the food section. I didn't see Wellness. When I'm there later this month I'll look for it.

[Max'smom]

They're also selling Wellness at SuperPetz, but not sure of how wide spread their chain stores are.

I know this question was about the food, but what about the treats and biscuits. Does anyone use those?

[tpa232]

Thanks, all! I really appreciate the feedback. Guess I'll stick with Wellness and maybe start gently switching off to Innova, or maybe Evo / occasional raw, every other month. It made sense to me that variety would help to more or less make up any shortcomings of one food with another. I'm also looking more into raw, hearing lots of great stuff on this site, and I know it's "what's for dinner" in the natural dog world.

Thanks again to all, I never stop learning here. :-)

Tom

P.S. I do feed Wellness treats too. Also Mother Hubbard, which I believe is either owned by or owns the Wellness brand. Both of my bears were/are into these treats, and they seem pretty healthy on the whole.

[tpa232]

Originally Posted by stale

orijen's first 5 ingredients (on their adult dog food) are: Deboned chicken, chicken meal, turkey meal, russet potato, lake whitefish. 4 out of 5 are straight protien sources. not entirely sure what's up with the potato - but then, i've had no coffee, so i'm not reading their whole page at the moment.

Thanks also for the details on Orijen ... I hadn't looked at that one, but it seems awesome. I'll check it out.

[Nina&Bill]

I tried feeding Amber Wellness early on but she had explosive diarrhea. And this was with doing a gradual food change. It was awful. I do give her the occasional can & the Old Mother Hubbard biscuits.

Nina