** Please respond if you are currently feeding Wellness Core **

[nfedyk]

Our almost 9 month old papillon is currently on Wellness Super5 Mix for puppies and doing great on it. I would like to go grain free and when he turns one change him over to Wellness Core. I have found alot of conflicting information on the web about this food however. It seems like most people had very positive results with this food. However there have been several posts lately where people are stating that since the company was bought out the formula has changed. Some are saying their dogs are having digestive issues and others are complaining about finding bones, bugs etc in the food. If you are feeding this food now could you please give me your opinion on it? I want our little guy to eat a good quality kibble and need to know if I should go with this one or consider a different one. Thanks so much.

[Julee]

I feed CORE and I adore it. I haven't heard anything but praise for it.

I know Innova was bought out, but heard nothing about CORE.

[wags]

I just bought a bag of wellness core reduced fat grain free. Just opened it this past Saturday so 4 days ago. I put my food in containers so, I have it in the container no bugs, and no bones in my bag at all. Sometimes I wonder if people actually are getting these things from the bags or they leave the bags opened and the bugs crawl in their as for bines where are they finding these in all the years I have been now feeding wellness grain free the reduced fat and the regular I have not at all, not once ,found anything in the bag that wasn't suppose to be there, but the kibbles! Like I said I always put my bags into a container with a lid so I am the one who dumps it into that container and I would be the first one to complain if I found anything in that bag other than kibbles! Sometimes I think it can be irresponsible people who just don't do things correctly!
So far my dogs have had all the wellness and we have (knock on wood) never had any issue (digestive or otherwise)due to any health related badness form the food! So far so goo! I also use champion brands as well and so far so good! And NO I am not a rep for the company! Just a consumer!

[nfedyk]

Thank you for your responses. Wags, I also thought the same thing. That people are careless and leave bags open in the garage and such and that's how problems occur. Since our dog is so little we only buy the smallest bags. Part of it goes into a tuperware container and the rest of the bag is resealed and put in the refrigerator. I have never seen anything unusal and the dog loves it.

[MollyWoppy]

I bought Windy a couple of bags of 'Core' (not that she ate them, stupid cat), but there was absolutely nothing wrong with them at all.
I think it is a very good food compared to most of them out there so I'd be very happy to feed my animals it in rotation with other kibbles. What I'd tend to do if I were you, would be to get a small bag of whichever flavour you want, transition your dog over to it slowly, see how your pup does and just take it from there. Don't over worry, you are doing right by your pup!

[speeddts]

Just to be cautious, Wellness Core is not supposed to be fed to puppies, the package indicates its for dogs 1 year and older.

Wellness Core is an excellent grain free dog food, I base this on experience with the company, Wellness dog food (Puppy mix) and specifically having fed Wellness Core Original. It also is balanced by having a strong ingredient list (3 named meat/meat meals in first 5 ingredients, strong protein content (not overboard at 34%) and has balanced calcium (2%) and phosphorous levels (1.4%).

I have not heard anything about Wellness being bought out, in fact they are owned by a large corporation that also produces OLD MOTHER HUBBARD pet products.

Wellness has one of the best customer service teams (in fact I stopped buying Merrick Cans after a poor experience and switched to Wellness Stews). I have purchased some Wellness Core canned products for COSMO (our welsh terrier), he wasn't fond of it and they sent me a coupon(s) to purchase different wellness products. If you join their internet email mail club they send valuable savings coupons, really customer centric, respond quickly to inquiries.

I have switched Cosmo to Orijen Regional Red only because he was not too fond of the Wellness Core Original or Ocean, as he is a picky meaty kibble eater. Wellness Core is much cheaper than Orijen here in Elk Grove CA, almost 30$ cheaper.

Cosmo was fed Wellness Core Original and Wellness Core Ocean (tried once) for almost 5-6 mos of his life (he's now 19mos), this is one of the best dog foods out there, our problem was he did not like eating it and we would have to mix the world in there for him to nibble. Absolutely recommend this food if your dog likes the taste and have had a fantastic experience with the company, quality and relative cost to other super premium holistic grain free brands:

Cheaper than:

Orijen (Champion),
Acana (Champion),
Instinct (Natures Variety)

More Expensive than:

Earthbourne primative natural,
Wilderness Salmon (Blue Buffalo),
Taste of the Wild (Diamond Pet Foods),


I still buy Grain free wellness bars, wellness stews, and pure rewards treats, Cosmo definitely loves these items.

Buy it you won't regret it, but start with a small bag, mix it in slowly and see if your dog likes the taste.

Hope this helps.

[Huginn]

My BF feeds his beagle the Ocean fish blend of Wellness Core. Since moving him from Blue Buffalo Wildnerness to the Wellness Core, his dander has gone down so much, be barely sheds, he doesnt tear as much and has so much energy. I definitely recommend it.

[nfedyk]

I am so glad to hear the postive responses to Wellness Core. Here is what I copied from Wikipedia regarding Wellness being bought out:

WellPet LLC is a cat and dog food company formed by the combination of Eagle Pack Pet Foods and Old Mother Hubbard, after both had been purchased by Berwind Corporation. Their brand names are Wellness, Holistic Select, Eagle Pack, Prism, Hy-Ration, Old Mother Hubbard, Holistix, and (previously) Neura Meats. In October 2007 Eagle Pack was sold to Berwind Corporation for an undisclosed amount. In August 2008 Wellness/Old Mother Hubbard was sold to Berwind for $400 Million, generating a 7x profit on Catterton's initial investment. Between 2008 and 2009, Eagle and OMH were merged into a single entity, Wellpet LLC

[Huginn]

Well if it was sold in 2008 the current formula wouldn't have changed. We just started feeding it to Ajax in January of 2011 (I believe), he's been on it for a year and never looked better.

[monkeys23]

My cat eats Wellness Core and its the food she does best on.