Wellness Kibble

[CSW]

If you feed your dog Wellness kibble, there have been a lot of recent complaints about this product making dogs sick. I found this out when Star became ill (diarrhea) and would get better on homemade chicken and rice and then sick again as I started to phase in the kibble. She even had a trip to the vet and was given veterinarian strength probiotics to rule out other problems. It was a new bag of Wellness kibble and the other recent complaints are very similar. Their product is no longer non GMO which means they are sourcing it differently. So we will be trying Canidae lamb and rice. I looked at Nutro which looked very good, ingredient wise, but also had a a lot of very recent complaints on their new formula, so I decided not to try it. My vet did not recommend TOTW or Blue as they can be too rich for many dogs, though I have friends who find they work well for their dogs. The Petco store where I purchased the Wellness gave me a full refund which I thought was very reasonable. I just wanted to share this info if anyone else was in a similar situation. I realize some foods work very well for some dogs and not for others. If it had not been for all the very recent complaints on Wellness, I would not have shared the info.

[Cass C]

Thanks for letting me know I was just thinking about swapping to wellness core or canidae, and this just finalized my decision as Lyka already has enough food issues.

[gcv-border]

I haven't used Wellness recently (for the past year IIRC), but it has been included in the rotation of kibble brands that I buy.

 

So all the complaints are recent? Has the company changed ownership?

[Gideon's girl]

They had a bunch of complaints about a year ago that they refused to look into. Over time things got better, but they appear to be going downhill again. I think their QC program needs improvement.

 

I found Canidae and TOTW to be about the same. Unfortunately, where I live, Canidae is a Diamond product and we get food from the plant that has all the problems. I got some once from a friend that lives in Texas, so the food came from their Ethos plant and I really liked the quality, but I can't afford to have her buy me food and ship it all the time, so I rarely use it in my rotation.

[CSW]

The recent complaints on Wellness were in July 2015 and were all from new bags. Dogs got sick from the first feedings from a new bag. The owners, like me, had had their dogs on Wellness previously and they got sick when they bought new bags.

[CSW]

Gideon's Girl,

 

How can I tell where what plant my Canidae is from? I tried googling the question and only got info on old recalls. I assume it has to do with the code near the best by date. Can you explain it to me. I think that would be a good thing to know. Thanks.

[Gideon's girl]

Canidae will not release that info. When asked, they say "Canidae is Canidae." We even sent them a picture of kibble from 2 different bags, one from Diamond, one from Ethos. The kibbles were very different and the people from Canidae were very interested, but they still would not disclose how we could tell the difference for ourselves. They still maintained that the food was exactly the same, even though the difference in color was so obvious that anyone could tell the amount of fat in the 2 samples was different, if nothing else.

 

I would assume that due to your location, you would get food from Diamond's northern California plant. Diamond is somewhat open to answering questions because they are trying to patch up their bad reputation, so you could try emailing them and asking which plant would be supplying ND and then ask if that plant makes Canidae.

[DeltaBluez Tess]

I got tired of my dogs getting sick on various dog food so I became a dealer for Dynamite Dogfood....they use a single food mill and they do not cook the dog food four times like other companies but use low temp, high moisture extrusion. and they own their own feed mill. Since my dogs have been on it, they haven't gotten sick and look great. It's not cheap $60 for 40lbs so I signed up to be a dealer to get a better price (buy 1/2 ton at a time).....

 

Shiro and Tess used to get ill from the other high end brands.....every time it was a recalled bag......and numerous vet bills......

 

I think Blue Buffalo got a recent lawsuit for false advertising as well......

[CSW]

Canidae rep on line did tell me that my bag of food Canidae Lamb and Rice did come from "a Diamond plant," though she would not tell me how to indentify that on the package. I had just started transitioning Star to this brand. Is Diamond really bad news? I was hoping North Dakota was supplied by the Ethos plant, but no such luck.

[juliepoudrier]

Diamond has had quality control issues on more than one occasion. That said, it's the main food I feed and I've never had a problem with it.

 

J.

[Alfreda]

Hi CSW, can you share where you saw the complaints? I wasn't aware of them.

 

I feed Wellness and rotate the proteins. It's a processed food -which gives me reservations- but there's also a lot to like about it... my dog's also on a probiotic. I fed my previous dogs Wellness too (among others), and I've never had a problem.

 

Thought I had a "bad" bag of chicken in March, (dog spat it out and had some diarrhea). We were on a road trip at the time, so it could've been something else... Switched to a fresh bag of lamb and all was well... (no pun intended). :-) Kind of wish healthy dog food wasn't so complicated!

[CSW]

Alfreda, Here are some of the reviews, there were more, but I can't find the other url anymore. Scroll down for the more recent. http://dogfood.guru/wellness/

[Alfreda]

Thanks!

[Gideon's girl]

The Diamond plant in Gaston, SC has been involved in multiple recalls. The huge recall in 2012 was, again, eye opening. The FDA sited them for using duct tape and cardboard to repair food handling machines and for storing kibble in open unmarked bins, among many other complaints. The other Diamond plants don't seem to have the screw-ups that the Gaston plant does, but the Powers That Be have failed to clean house in Gaston after any of their many recalls. I will never again feed a Diamond produced food, but that's mostly because where I live, it's guaranteed to have come from the Gaston plant and it's really that bad.

[Tommy Coyote]

I thought Wellness was supposed to be a really good food. Was it sold to Diamond recently or has it always been a Diamond product?

[CSW]

It was in the Diamond recall of 2012, but may not be made at Diamond facilities now. I only know it currently has quality control issues and the packaging no longer says is it non GMO.

[Alfreda]

http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-reviews/wellness-dog-food-super-5-mix-dry/

 

Here's a link to some info on the 2012 recalls. Neither one affects the Wellness product I happen to be feeding. One recall was for too high of a moisture content, and the other for salmonela. My understanding about Diamond was that some foods are made by Diamond and some are just distributed by Diamond? I'm not sure if that's true, but reading down thru the comments, one person says that Wellness is *not* made by Diamond anymore and it was only one flavor that once was. I guess it would take some true primary source digging to really find out.

 

When I got my pup and re-researched foods, I asked my vet about the recalls. She said dogs don't really get sick from salmonela, but people do. (Wash your hands). She is the same vet who thinks my dog got a horrible case of diarrhea from a frozen lamb shin bone I gave him, which probably had bacteria. Yet lots and lots of people feed their dogs raw bones all the time. So, who knows! Reading through the comments on dogfoodadvisor and some of the horror stories, certainly makes me want to change foods. OTOH, my dog is doing great, and recalls actually mean, at least to some extent, that the company is catching problems and doing the right thing- right?

 

I feed the Complete Health line of adult food. It looks like DFA only gives it 3.5 stars out of 5, tho overall, Wellness is a 4-star food... But then, as folks have wisely said, it's not about the stars, it's about your dog... The only caveat that comes up for me, is that your dog might look/act great on a food short-term -especially if young- but I wonder about long-term effects sometimes... Anyway, I don't know that I'll switch, but... then again...

 

The thing that drives me crazy is that switching food (short of home made) involves reading through long lists of trendy things that dogs don't digest or need. My particular vet (who has training in nutrition) says that dogs *do* need carbs...(due respect to Gentle Lake). When asked, vet also said dogs don't digest flax seeds. Flax is in almost all the pricey dog foods nowadays as a source of omega-3. Go figure. I read once that flax oil is also one of the most likely to go rancid if unrefrigerated... but it's in tons of people and pet foods that are not kept cool.

 

Obviously there is more chemistry involved here than I am qualified to analyze, and more fancy marketing than most of us can resist!

YMMV ;-)

[Gideon's girl]

After the Diamond recall in 2012, Wellness built their own facility and started making all of their own food.

 

Some of the foods that were affected by the recall are owned by Diamond, some are just made by Diamond for other companies.

 

Dogs do digest flax, however the form of omega 3 in flax is ALA and dogs don't convert ALA to DHA or EPA efficiently, but DHA and EPA are the forms of omega 3 that they need. Flax is preserved with vit E.

 

And dogs do not need carbs unless they are endurance athletes. That doesn't mean that they can't use them though.

[GentleLake]

And dogs do not need carbs unless they are endurance athletes. (emphasis added)

 

Not according to Dr. Joseph Wakshlag, a professor of clinical nutrition and sports medicine at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine. I can't access the study, but he mentions it in an interview with the New York Times. http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/08/20/the-science-behind-your-dogs-special-exercise-needs/?_r=1

 

Obviously I don't agree with him about people not being capable of formulating their own raw food diets, though, but the rest confirms other things I've read.

[CSW]

Here is something interesting. I got this email from Canidae customer service when I expressed concerns about using a product from the South Carolina plant. "No, we do not use the South Carolina facility anymore."

[simba]

Totally agree Alfreda. Look, I get that dogs can eat 'most anything. Sure. Down with that. Why is dog food so promimently advertised with grape extracts though? Do we get chocolate extracts next?

 

Why can't it come in a nice, synthetic, purified form so I don't have to hear all this bullshit about how your factory-processed 'supplement' is sooooo natural after the 18 chemical and manufacturing processes it's just been through?

[juliepoudrier]

All those processes are what makes it stable to sit on the shelf (or in hot transport vehicles on its way to the shelf) for people to buy sometime in the future. I think if you want to avoid the processes that go into making processed food then you probably need to just make your own or feed raw...

 

J.

[simba]

Not disagreeing with the processes- I have no problem with processing of food, I like my food cooked and I like my pasta to be dried and easily-stored. More disagreeing with the marketing, particularly of the kind of 'pricey dog food' Alfreda was talking about.

 

They'll go for 'grape extract' or 'yucca extract', 'marigold petals', 'nettle extract' or whatever, the 'long list of trendy things' Alfreda talks about. Because it sounds nicer than putting a scary chemical name on it to tell you what the stuff is or what it's for (suspicious old me suspects sometimes it's for having a more attractive label, like glucosamine/chondritin). And this holds true even when it's stuff that most dog owners would presumably know not to feed their dog (grapes)- it still sounds 'nicer' to the human buying it. The sellers can brag about how 'natural' their food is because the 27th ingredient is a tiny amount of a processed herb extract.

 

Just having a curmudgeon moment.

[Alfreda]

Simba- ha ha! Glad to know I'm not the only one who gets curmudgeonly moments over pet food ingredients! We want to give the best care we can, and yet, in a way it's a "first world" luxury kind of issue... All the contradictory information sure is frustrating though

 

Rush Doggie- thanks for adding accuracy and specificity to the flax comment. I do remember now about the ALA conversion... point still being that there are a lot of things in pricey/trendy pet foods that are of questionable value to dogs.

 

I thought Wellness had at one time added salmon oil (which I'd prefer to canola or flax) but it doesn't appear in the list so.... maybe I misread it back when... I do know Vit E preserves... but I don't really know how it works.

 

Interesting article Gentle Lake... I guess the carb/diet debate/controversy continues in the dog world as well as in the people world, where we have the Paleos vs the Mediteranians vs the Vegans... and we have the everyday folks and the Ironman competitors.

 

Sometimes I think of the working collies of yesteryear who, (I think?) would have been fed oats, barley, meat scraps, offal, and maybe some seaweed...? Maybe those who've read historical accounts would know more. Those dogs had long days with high mileage. I don't know about their health or longevity...

[simba]

Black's veterinary dictionary has sheepdogs being fed a mixture of oatmeal and fishmeal or blood, maybe a little milk when available- milk wouldn't necessarily have been there year-round. If they just got oatmeal by itself they were prone to something called 'black tongue disease' under heavy work. This is in the modern edition of Black's, too.

 

I know that around here working sheepdogs used to be expected (maybe still are?) to live for 15 years or so if fed scraps (potato etc., not really a lot of meat.)