Wellness Food Brands

[nancyr]

I never used Wellness for my cats but I did for the dogs and found it to be great food. No by-products, human grade protein. My dog is very allergic and Wellness settled well with her.

 

[nern]

I use Wellness canned foods and have always been happy with them. I have 7 cats that love Wellness. I'm not concerned with the garlic content (partly because canned food is only a small portion of my cats diets and I rotate dry brands so they are never consuming much garlic anyway) although I do understand and respect those who are. If garlic concerns you, Natura (Innova, California Natural) makes excellent products that do not contain garlic.

 

[lakeriedog]

Well, I took the article with a grain of salt just as I do anything else written on the internet. The foul language doesn't bother me too much, but seemed kind of put on.

My kitties love the Wellness, and I have been feeding it to them for about three years (give or take), and they are all doing very well. I alternate in various others that I think have good ingredients so they don't get bored like Organix, Newman's Own, and Chicken Soup for their dry, and have been buying the Wellness, Pinacle, Nutro, Evolve, Newman's Own and Chicken Soup wet. We haven't seen any bowel problems at all.

One really great thing about this forum (and everyone's posts) is that it gives me a lot of information that I never used to have about the food my babies are getting. Now when I shop for them, I feel like I am able to make better decisions about what they get.

 

[misty8723]

Just a note about garlic in cat food. I recently sent an email to Natura to try to determine which of their products contained garlic (because I'm looking for a new food for the cats, and won't give them anything with garlic), and just got this response:

Dear pet lover,

Thank you for contacting us about our product. While we still believe in garlic and its associated benefits for dogs, recent data has caused us to think twice about the risks versus the benefits of garlic as it relates to cats.

The latest studies have shown that cats are uniquely susceptible to hemolytic anemia from the sulfur compounds in garlic. The data suggests that there compounds affect an enzyme (glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase) in red blood cells which result in oxidative injury to hemoglobin. This results in the formation of Heinz bodies (oxidated hemoglobin) within erythrocytes.

While this sounds quite ominous, it is important to note that the studies were done using onions (related to garlic)- in quantities which far, far exceed the relatively minor amounts in our cat formulas.

However, as a responsible company which lives by the promise of "making the healthiest pet foods in the world" we felt that it was incumbent upon us to make this change.

Please feel free to contact me if you need any additional information or if you have any questions.


Veronica Moreno
Natura Pet Products
800-532-7261

 

[nekochan]

Our cat has been on Wellness since we got her (switched off of what the previous owner was using, Deli-cat) about the last 3 years, and she has been doing awesome. Despite being an older cat she has not been sick once since we got her, never had to go for a vet visit for anything other than her regular check-ups. She also lost about 3 pounds which is great because she was 16 lbs when he got her and now she is mostly muscle instead of all fat, and a much healthier weight. Our previous cat also go Wellness (lite) for the last 3-4 years or so of her life after she was diagnosed with kidney disease, and she thrived on that food (after switching off Iams all her blood levels when back down to normal or high-normal and we were able to decrease her sub-q fluids.) When we finally did lose her it was not to the kidney disease but to mammary cancer which I blame her having not been fixed and the fact that she had several litters before we adopted and neutered her.

 

[vanillasugar]

I'm a big fan of Wellness' canned formulas. Their dry cat formulas are great, but WAY overpriced! You can find food of equal (or better) quality at sometimes half the cost!

As for the garlic, I find this board has been the only place I've encountered that reacts so strongly to the garlic content of foods. And on top of that, regularly reccomends Nutro, which I feel is a FAR inferior food, high in grain and generally mid-high range quality. So take that as you may.

All I know is that my cats have both had instances where they've gotten into things they shouldn't have (stupid roommates!) and eaten a great deal of onion, and garlic. I was terrified, but they never reacted badly. Could this be due to a built up tolerance in their system? Perhaps. Perhaps I was just VERY lucky.

I don't feed Wellness much anymore, I've sinced moved on to a raw diet, but they do get a can from time to time when I forget to thaw dinner, and I'm absolutley comfortable feeing them Wellness, since their formulas are so well formulated. If the ONLY problem with this food is the garlic, and the garlic (which is a very minor ingredient) isn't even a proven risk, I'm not worried.

I do wish they'd just take the garlic OUT of their formulas though, to get all these people off their case! lol

 

[sharky]

Garlic is a proven risk and IS now is SEVERAL journal articles in VETERNARY medicine...

As for the Nutro comment I have FOUND MANY HOLISTIC foods having FAR MORE JUNK/ GRAINS at a higher price ...

 

[vanillasugar]

Hey Sharky, no need to get defensive and yell!

The reading I've done has only connected garlic as a risk through the onion family (onion of course IS very dangerous), with no conclusive evidence on garlic itself (it's controversial from what I understand). And in my experience, my own veterinarian was VERY concerned about Buddy eating onion, but only remotely concerned about Nya eating garlic.

I know you don't agree with me on the Nutro thing. But it's just my opinion remember. I don't like the food, I'd never feed the food. Not when there are MUCH higher quality foods (like Felidae) at the same price range (or less!)

 

[sharky]

Originally Posted by vanillasugar

Hey Sharky, no need to get defensive and yell!

The reading I've done has only connected garlic as a risk through the onion family (onion of course IS very dangerous), with no conclusive evidence on garlic itself (it's controversial from what I understand). And in my experience, my own veterinarian was VERY concerned about Buddy eating onion, but only remotely concerned about Nya eating garlic.

I know you don't agree with me on the Nutro thing. But it's just my opinion remember. I don't like the food, I'd never feed the food. Not when there are MUCH higher quality foods (like Felidae) at the same price range (or less!)

SORRY I wasnt yelling just lazy to get off the CAPS

, one day I MIGHT learn to underline

... I feed the younger one Felidea now and the results are not what they were on Nutro but I do agree there are some better depending on the cat

.. Now if she would just eat like the others

Yeah the garlic is weird .. I am getting article s from my vet out of the vet journals ...

 

[vanillasugar]

Originally Posted by sharky

SORRY I wasnt yelling just lazy to get off the CAPS

, one day I MIGHT learn to underline

... I feed the younger one Felidea now and the results are not what they were on Nutro but I do agree there are some better depending on the cat

.. Now if she would just eat like the others

Yeah the garlic is weird .. I am getting article s from my vet out of the vet journals ...

Interesting that you're having poor results on Felidae. I'd heard only great feedback on it until recently, when one of my friends had to switch her cats off of Felidae becuase their fur seemed... as she put it, "off". She switched to "By Nature Organics" and her cats are doing MUCH better.

 

[sharky]

The by nature canned meat in dog goes over well... Zoey is on the chicken and rice due to a supposed corn allergy ... her fur is also off you could say.... I hate shopping for food lol...