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The History Of Wellness Dog Food
Although Wellness was only established in 1997 with the introduction of its dog food recipes, the company has in A. Hubbard and Sons bakery from Gloucester, Massachusetts, and Old Mother Hubbard (known for their oven-baked dog biscuits), dating back to 1926. Now with their headquarters in Lowell, Massachusetts, Wellness is owned by Jim Scott, Sr., an animal nutrition specialist. The company consults with animal nutrition experts, veterinarians, and scientists to revolutionize and enhance the quality of pet food.
Wellness’s revolution begins with premium, natural ingredients for their pet food without the wheat, corn, soy, preservatives, and artificial colors and flavors that many other brands use. Instead, they focus on using natural whole foods, such as high-quality meats and produce.
About Wellness
Throughout the company’s history, Wellness has been uncompromising in their values and believes strongly in what they call the “Wellness Difference.” The Wellness Difference encompasses concepts of natural, clean eating for pets, a balanced diet of nutrients and vitamins, and purpose in the food they make. They strive to create food that offers the highest health benefit for your pet, knowing that by being uncompromising in the quality of food they create, we can return the unconditional love our pets give us. For this company, True Wellness Begins Here.
Wellness Dog Food Products
Wellness pet foods are crafted with natural ingredients and added nutrients that provide antioxidants, omega fatty acids, prebiotics, and probiotics without the unnecessary and harmful additives you’ll find in other name brands.
Wellness offers products for dogs at all life stages, from puppy (0-12 months), to adult, to senior. They even have products by breed size, flavor, and special formula (e.g. limited ingredient pet food for food sensitive dogs).
There formulas include:
- Complete Health Recipes
- Complete Health Grain-Free Recipes (including TruFood and CORE Air-Dried Formulas)
- TruFood Baked Blends
- CORE Air-Dried Dog Recipes
- Simple Limited Ingredient Diets
Wellness Complete Health Recipes come in a variety of meat flavors, including chicken & peas, lamb & barley, whitefish & sweet potato, and chicken & oatmeal. The omega fatty acids improve your dog’s skin and coat, the balanced diet of fats, carbohydrates, and proteins will increase your dog’s energy, and the added vitamins and minerals support a healthy, strong immune system.
Wellness Complete Health Grain-Free Recipes feature the same natural, wholesome ingredients and nutrients for your dog as the original Complete Health Recipes, but these recipes are specially formulated to energize your dog without carbohydrates derived from grains. You can still expect healthy immune support, increased energy, and improved skin and coat from omega fatty acids.
The Wellness TruFood Baked Blends are grain-free and slow-baked in small batches to preserve 70% more raw protein than most dry dog food recipes. These recipes are formulated without artificial additives or preservatives and include high-quality ingredients such as coconut oil and chia seeds to promote better digestion, anti-inflammatory benefits, and immune support.
Wellness CORE Air-Dried Recipes have grain-free options. They are formulated without artificial additives, fillers, or by-products. Like the TruFood Baked Blends, CORE Air-Dried formulas are high in protein, containing 70% raw protein ingredients.
And lastly, Wellness offers a line called Simple, which provides limited ingredient diet dry dog food recipes for canines with food sensitivities. These products contain no gluten or wheat and are formulated to be easily digestible thanks to their abundance of prebiotics and probiotics. They also contain no artificial additives, colors, or fillers.
Wellness also a variety of dog treats, including:
- CORE grain-free dog treats
- TruFood Bakes dog treats
- TruFood Protein Bites dog treats
- Crunchy & soft petite dog treats
- WellBars dog treats
- WellBites dog treats
- Pure Rewards Jerky dog treats
- Just for Puppy dog treats
Wellness Dog Food Review
Containing approximately 28% protein, 12% fat, and 52% carbohydrates, the Wellness adult large breed formula’s nutrient contents all fall within the minimum requirements for a dog’s daily suggested dietary intake. Per their claims, they use real meat, but they also use ingredients like chicken meal, a meat concentrate, to pack protein into their formulas. Wellness dog food also uses tomato pomace, a by-product of tomatoes processed into juice, soup, and ketchup. While many pet food companies claim to use tomato pomace for its Lycopene value, it is also controversial because it is commonly used as a pet food filler. As promised Wellness does not use artificial colors or flavors in their ingredients.
A common complaint about Wellness dog food formulas is the expense. Don’t be surprised to pay around $50 or more for a 24-pound bag of Wellness Complete Health Grain-Free dry dog food. Their CORE and TruFood varieties tend to cost even more, but for sensitive doggies these recipes might be the answer. Make sure to take a look at the recommended feeding guide. For higher-quality brands, it’s not uncommon to find that your dog will need to eat less food, so ultimately, you might still be saving money in the long run.
Customers have flooded Wellness products with praising reviews, stating that it is the only food their dogs can eat. Reviewers have stated that it has helped their pooches a series of digestive problems, such as pancreatitis and constipation. Others claim their dog’s skin allergies have disappeared since switching to Wellness dog food.
On the flip side, the biggest complaints from customers seems to be that their dogs have little to no interest in eating Wellness dog food. Some blame the freshness of the kibble, while others think it is more dependent on their canine’s pickiness, but either way most were unhappy, feeling that they had thrown money down the drain.
A few customers have reported just the opposite results with digestive problems, stating that their pooches experienced vomiting and diarrhea after eating Wellness dog food. It is unclear whether this is related to food sensitivities or spoiled batches of dog food. Additionally, for being such a high-quality and rather expensive brand for dog food, many customers expressed sincere disappointment that all of the Wellness dog food recipes are not grain-free.
