My cats liked Merrick canned food, as well. If I remember correctly, it was the Thanksgiving and Turducken formulas they liked.

Currently, I feed them Wellness canned food, along with Royal Canin dry. The Wellness canned Chicken and Turkey formulas are grain-free, and thus, very low in carbs, which is a good thing. It cleans easily, as well, without the grains, as there is no rock-hard dried up starchy residue left in the bowls. You might want to look into Wellness. It is also more readily available in my area than Merrick.

[MADE IN CHINA]

You may have seen packages of dried chicken strips sold under various brand names such as Smokehouse, Vitality, etc at various retailers like Petsmart, Costco, Trader Joe's, and even your local independent pet food store. These are all MADE IN CHINA. Do not let all of the buzzwords on the packaging fool you. "Free range", "Natural", "No preservatives", etc don't mean anything if they feed the chickens contaminated feed, and raise them in unsanitary, diseased conditions.

Please check the labels closely. Some are clearly marked MADE IN CHINA. But, some are deceptively packaged with MADE IN CHINA written in tiny little fonts, obviously designed to avoid detection.

Yikes! Good to know! I think I'll stay away from Innova for our new puppy, as well.

I guess there's not a lot of experience with this food here. Or, like me, a lot of folks don't frequent the forum much since the pet food scandal of 2007 died down.

FYI - My Golden pup wouldn't eat the Wellness, so we decided to go with Royal Canin Large Breed Puppy formula. She loves it. And, I've had a very good experience with their cat food in the past. The nice thing is that it's available just about everywhere, including Petsmart, so I don't need to search for some out-of-the-way, hole-in-the-wall pet food store. (As well as my local Humane Society, so my pet food dollars go to a worthy cause.) I'm switching my cats back to the RC dry as well. I'll keep giving them Wellness canned, as well. They love it.

Hey everybody. Long time, no see.

Well...we are getting a puppy tomorrow, and I am thinking of feeding her Wellness Just for Puppy formula, as we have had such good luck with Wellness Indoor Dry and Turkey/Chicken canned for our two cats.

Has anybody here had any experience with Wellness dog food varieties, especially their puppy food? (I've read a bunch of reviews that range all over the place, with many "this food saved my dog's life", and a ton of "it gave my dog diarrhea and bad gas".)

I have a bag of Royal Canin Large Breed Puppy as a backup, just in case. (She's a Golden.) But, I am curious what you, the cautious and observant pet owners of this forum, have observed while using Wellness dog foods.

Thanks.

I've basically lost trust in Natura. Too bad, as CalNat, on paper, is a great formula.

Holy crap. Keep a close eye on your cat. That is so odd about YOUR symptom, too.

Pet owners are so weird.

Which company? Or, does this troll think there is one big secret organization of pet food companies?

I started out using the Complete Dry. They liked it. I thought it looked and smelled great. I wanted the Indoor, at the time, but that store didn't have it.

After the Complete ran out, I was giving them a 50/50 mix of Indoor and Core. I wanted them to have the benefits of the Indoor (fiber, glucosamine, less fat, etc) They liked it, and my older cat seemed to gain muscle, get his younger physique back.

After that ran out, I wasn't able to get the Core, and have been feeding them Indoor only. The older guy has lately been behaving like a younger cat, as well. So, I may stick with only the Indoor. Not sure. I do like the idea of the higher protein by mixing Indoor and Core.

I think the dry food affects Lucky, the older cat, more than Lucy because he eats more dry food than her. She prefers the wet food.

Prior to my switch to Wellness, I was using Innova Senior Dry and Lite canned. Prior to that, CalNat Chicken Dry and Merrick Canned. They look and act healthiest with the Wellness, followed by the CalNat/Merrick. They were the worst on Innova.

Garypen,
So your cats don't have a "nice fluffy texture"? 

They're definitely harder to mash up with a fork.

I've also noticed the "fluffy" texture of the Wellness canned. It's different than other canned foods I've seen. Most of the others I've seen have a sort of pastey quality to them. The Wellness also smells better, to me at least. The chicken smells like canned chicken, and the chicken & herring smells like fish (not in a bad way). Other (cheap) canned foods have always smelled horrible to my nose.

I have been very happy with both canned and dry Wellness formulas. (My cats like them, too.)

Before I feed it, does anyone know of any other negatives with Wellness wet?

I know this probably doesn't matter now, as you seem to be doing well with the CalNat again. But, both of my cats LOVE the chicken and the turkey formulas. I've never seen them both act that way with a canned food before.

They also have a nice, fluffy texture (the foods, not the cats) that I have never seen in canned cat foods before. My guess is that is due to lack of grains which normally act as a sort of cement or glue.

I believe the Wellness cans are manufactured in the SD plant, the only one not involved in the recall, which has also recently been sold to Mars. (Mars wanted more control on its high-end canned foods, they said.) This may mean that Wellness canned will be manufactured by Mars. That would be interesting to find out for sure. (The same would be true for Natura.)

I have a feeling that when the CalNat is made properly, without any hiccups at the plant that caused the "chunk" issue, it's probably less prone to contamination due to less ingredients. I found it to be a much better food than the sister brand Innova Senior or Reduced Calorie.

I'm glad that you guys can stop worrying so much, as you are almost stuck with using this one brand and formula, due to your cats' allergies and digestive issues.

My theory about acetaminophen in pet food is quite simple. The Chinese-made vitamins are contaminated with it. Period. End of story.

When I found them I tried to switch Andy to Wellness Indoor Health, but loose, runny stools persisted despite switching him over very slowly. 

Have you ever tried any other Wellness dry formulas, other than Indoor? That one has the most fiber, and might have accounted for your cats' stools.

It's always great to have a food that one's pets do well on. My cats enjoyed CalNat, and did well on it, much better than on Innova.

As long as it doesn't have any foreign objects, you appear to be safe. Just save those empty bags in case you experience any problems so you can refer to specific expiration dates and/or lot numbers. I would also save a sample from each bag in a tupperware container, as well, just in case.

Personally, I will continue to avoid Natura due to the way they have been responding to the recent complaints. Also, I don't see any evidence of them opening their own canning facility, as they promised 6 months ago. So, I'd say they have a bad habit of slinging bull****. Not, lies. Just bull****.