Wellness Chicken Cat Food

[karatemom2]

Smooth texture.  Both cats like it.  I was happy with product.  I switched because of their association with Menu Foods.   

[amy]

I am having trouble with the idea of still feeding any Wellness products due to Menu.  Anyone feel ok with it despite things, and why do you feel comfortable?

[Sharon L.]

At least for the moment I'm comfortable with Wellness canned food. Commercial canners are in the business of canning product for clients for the least amount of money, and it is ultimately up to the client to insist on verifiable quality controls when manufacturing their product. After many, many emails and conversations with OHM, they seem to be aware of their responsibilities. Also my cats like the food, and the ingredients list is very good, so until I see additional reasons to be concerned that's what I'll be staying with.

My second best alternative was Evangers, but they only have one flavor in the premium brand that is grain free and my cats won't touch it. They also wouldn't touch Merricks.

For dry food I'm using Orijen. My cats just *love* this food.

[Geff]

My sister's 7 year old male has been on Wellnessdry for about a month. She reports 0 problems & a huge energy increase (over Friskies)

[batgrrly]

Well, I tried the Sardines varietty and then found here that some was manufactured by Menu .....darn it. I am monitoring the cat, and of course he loves it. As long as he keeps playing with us and the dogs, I figure he's okay. But I won't buy it again until all this mess clears up.

[Lisa M]

batgrryl - I also had concerns about wellness b/c of the menu food recall,  but I've been feeding wellness to my two cats daily for the past five years and they are doing wonderful.  I switched to wellness 5 years ago when one of my cats was diagnosed with CRF.  The vet cannot believe how well she is doing.  They didn't expect her to make it to the end of the week and now, five years later, she is thriving. I truly believe the better nutrition wellness provides made all the difference.  (When this whole pet food thing went down, I stopped the wellness for about 1 month b/c of the Menu Food concern and I switched to Blue Buffalo-big mistake.  I've been back on wellness for the past two months and all is good again)  I don't believe there has been any reported illness from wellness, just the opposite, all the reports I've read have been positive.   

[jenny]

I was annoyed at Wellness because of how they responded to an email of mine.  However, I talked to them this week and they were very helpful - sent me a spreadsheet with all their 'as fed' information for their canned cat food.  I went back to Wellness, despite it's being made by Menu, because it seems like such a good product.  Two of my big cats are nicely loosing weight on it  - and there seems to be a flavor for any cat or need.

[KimS]

Wow, Lisa M, I am so happy to hear your report of Wellness for your CRF cat. I can't believe I was suckered into using Hills K/D! Oh well, I'm living in the present now!

[Lisa M]

KimS - I initially did the K/D thing too as recommended by my vet.  Since, I thought my cat was going to die within days, I decided to just let her eat whatever she wanted.  She was eating home cooked chicken, pizza, popcorn and anything else she wanted and unbelievable, her kidney values improved significantly.  Once it appeared that she was going to survive more than a week, I began investigating cat foods and decided on wellness dry and canned.  Currently, I have my cats eating all varieties of wellness canned, although I try not to feed them too much of the seafood varities, but Salmon is ok.  I've read that Salmon is actually good for kidneys.  I also always keep out wellness dry food(Indoor Health-the yellow bag) or Nature's Logic dry food.  I've read that new studies show that the amount of protein for CRF cats is not as important as the quality of protein.  I do not have my cat on a low protein diet, but only feed her high quality foods and it seems to be working for  her.  I also frequently supplement their meals with Halo dehydrated chicken, lamb or salmon treats(they love them, esp. the chicken) and merrick, evangers canned food for their nightly meal.  I'm really pushing the homecooked or raw food, but the cats won't eat much of it, just eat a couple bits of it, but my dogs are all over it.  Last night I gave the cats some v. lightly cooked buffalo meat and they only ate a couple of pieces, while the dogs were literally doing back flips for it!!!  Hope this info is helpful to you in dealing with your CRF cats.  Read the  ingredients on the K/D and compare it to wellness or some other high quality brands, you'll clearly see the difference.  Hill K/D for dogs even has BHT in it!!!  Do what you think is right for your cat, don't let your vet scare you off--mine still yells at me b/c I'm not following a low protein diet and I'm like, "are you kidding me!!"  They say she is a miracle cat, but refuse to attribute it in anyway to her better nutrition, when I clearly know that is what made all the difference.  Good luck. 

[karatemom2]

I recently lost Amber to CRF, but she lived to be 19 and lived with advancing CRF for at least 6 years or more of those last years.  She did not tolerate a low protein diet at all, it gave her loose stools, caused her to vomit and she often just didn't want to eat it.    The vet's preference was for her to be on Hills K/D canned or dry.  But she couldn't tolerate it at all.  In fact, she thrived on high protein and did the best with kitten food.  I used to give her Nutro and Royal Canin products thinking it was "better quality" than grocery store products.  As I became more educated, I switched to Wellness and then Kumpi dry near the end when I wanted to avoid Wellness due to association with Menu.  All along, I also supplemented her diet with Nurtrical for Cats and Kitten Formula Powder top dressing for added calories to keep her weight up.  When she finally did succumb to kidney failure, her fur was still in reasonable condition for her age and her weight was stable.  Her vet called her a "miracle" cat.  The vet techs would always cringe when I would describe her diet and the vet would always have to tell them that it was ok...that it was working for us.  The vet finally conceded years ago that we just had to listen to Amber's body and give her what she wanted, and that was protein.  Better to keep her hydrated and keep her weight up than have her underweight, throwing up and debilitated.  Her kidney values all those years were either stable or very slowly changing as her CRF advanced.  When she finally did pass, it was inevitable because she was so old and her kidneys just were worn out.  Her arthritis had been bothering her more than her kidney function and she had lost her sight.  It was time and though I wanted her with me more than anything, I knew it was time.  But my point is, I agree that the anti-protein position is not always right...I'm not a nutrition expert...but I found with Amber that I just had to go with what she wanted.

[KimS]

That's so cool! Yeah, I stumbled upon Wellness when we adopted a dog. The rescue fed their dogs Wellness Lamb dry food and Wellness wet and so we continued with that for him. Then I decided to chance it and try Wellness for my cats. I give them the Wellness Indoor dry and either the chicken and herring or turkey and salmon canned.

My CRF cat is due for a checkup soon.
They LOOOOve the Wellness canned and look great too.

I'm weirded out about my vet being Hills Science diets' bitch! It's scary that they push that filler crap. Although when I first brought my cat to the vet to be diagnosed with CRF she had been eating Fancy Feast and Purina Urinary tract formula. (Yum). So actually the RX food helped her get a little better at first. Probably giving her tired kidneys a break. But YES, nutritionally the Wellness is much better. Keep up the good work.

[Geff]

Questions is whether your vet is getting paid by Hills to push they're food, or just isn't an expert on food. When our current mess started & my vet realised i was obsessing about it, she was able to use me for some info; she felt she didn't have the time to be an expert on different brands of food.  Her office was selling Royal Canin, I susoect AND HOPE that they've since stopped.

[KimS]

My vet said my CRF cat didn't need phosphorus binder. My vet is not a nutritional genius though or else she wouldn't be ramming Hills K/D down my throat.

[Geff]

In my never ending search for a safe food for my cat, I am about to try Wellness Chicken wet, despite misgivings about the Menu connection & about the fruits & vegetables in it.  I can only find 2 negatives here or on Itchmo about Wellness:

1. They are a bit tight lipped about their manufacturing codes & what they stand for

2. A number of Cats have thrown up on the Beef & Salmon flavor.

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

[eternaljester81]

Geff,
My only complaint so far with Wellness wet is that it doesn't keep very long once openned (no chemical preservatives). The chicken is one my cats' favorite flavors (behind chicken and herring). We've been it for around a month now with known problems (knock on wood, of course).