Process of food rotation first 10 days on Merrick Wilderness Blend. One allergic boxer and one boxer with sensitive stomach. So far so good. No loose stools or allergic reactions, yeah! Even with the slow process of mixing foods.

Will not know for sure how well they do until more weeks go by. Giving 5 stars due to below from Merrick. They've been wonderful for the last 2 days getting all the information for me so I can be assured the Merrick dry formulas are safe.

+++++Hello Tracie, I called QC to ask how much garlic we used and actually effective Aug 1st 2009, we quit using garlic in out 5star formulas. So any product with a best buy date of Sept 1st 2010 will not have garlic in it. Newer bags will reflect this, AAFCO gives us a year to reflect this on our bags. I am sorry I did not have this information before. When we did use it, we used it for flavoring.

We do try to get our e-mail answered ASAP, but do fall a little behind sometimes.

We do not use Ethoxyquin in any of our products; we use a mixture of tocopherols, a natural source of Vitamin E.
I hope this helps with everything, and please let me know if there is anything else I can do for you.

Thanks,
Merrick Pet Care+++++

Update from my previous post. My dogs did love this food and I still consider it a high quality product, however after them being on it for 2 plus months they no longer "gobble" it up like they did and it has caused an odd red staining around thier eyes, mouths, feet, and rear end. I had to stop it and have since switched to a new food. I would still recommend Merricks, not every food agrees with every dog.

great canned food, especially the wing-a ling, another great attribute about the food, is that the cans are not lined with BPA , that is the truth, the canning co. that the Merrick's use don't have BPA lined cans, and to make sure the M. co. had the food within the cans tested, and they found no BPA in the foods.

I got a can of the puppy plate for Emma after reading up on this company and was very, very impressed. This isn't some pate of who knows what stuff. When you open the can it's chicken broth, chunks of chicken and duck, carrots and apples. Emma LOVED this stuff with her dry food. I am definitly getting this again, very wonderful product! My moms shelties are more sensitive than the puppy but they loved it, too. (they get to taste test, too)

I just ordered a bunch of Merrick Dog food online - dry and canned. My 4 dogs like it alright but there are some things about it that really bother me. I purchased a case of the canned meat called "Cowboy Cookout". The ingredient list shows FRESH SWEET POTATOES, FRESH CARROTS, FRESH GREEN BEANS, and FRESH GRANNY SMITH APPLES as the #4 thru #7 ingredients. I have now opened 5 cans of this food and not seen even one sweet potato, carrot, green bean, or apple --- NOT ONE. All it is is chunks of something brown and brown goo. The Dry Food in the Cowboy Cookout says if you add warm water it will make a gravy and they show this picture on the bag of this luscious brown gray - NOT. I've added warm water and it does nothing. I also ordered a case of Thanksgiving Dinner, a case of Smothered Comfort, and 6 cans of Senior Medley. They all depict vegetables and fruit, but they aren't there. The Smothered Comfort says it has blueberries. After opening 4 cans, I finally found one blueberry. The only thing visible is an ocassional TINY piece of something orange which is either carrot or sweet potato. And I cannot stress enough that after opening close to 15 cans of their food in various flavors; the goodies are not there. I was so disgusted by their false claims, that I called their customer service number and I emailed them. There has been no reply to my email, and the phone call got me no where. So I called again and still nothing. Its as if no one knows anything. Merrick advertizes their food as containing vegetables and fruit. They print them on the ingredient list found on the back of the can. And the label on each can shows these lovely pictures of apples, blueberries, carrots, green beans, sweetpotatoes, etc and I can tell you personally that you will be lucky to find them. Isn't that false advertising??

I just bought a Yorkie a week ago, he came with Purina Pro plan. He had dry skin and didn't eat his food. I then switched to Wellness whic is another good food but he didn't eat it! After a nice grooming and switching his food to Merrick Puppy plate, his hair is perfect and he loves his food! It has real veggies in it! It's all great human grade food. No by products, corn, fillers, etc. I know it can be expensive but think of it his way. You feed him low quality food not only will your dog be unhappy and unhealthy but you vet bill will become higher eventually too. So you might as well get the good food. I did alot of research and Merrick was the best that I found! Petland if you have one sells the puppy plate for $11.98 compared to $17.00 elsewhere!! I would still pay the $17.00 if I had to! Great product but it may not work for every dog...

Excellent quality, wet, dry & treats. Hard to compete against, open a can even smells good. Human grade ingredients dog has an excellent diet. May have to watch overfeeding because if dog eats quickly (dogs love it) just look for the recommended serving size. With all the bad pet food out there do research at least every year about the pet food your serving to be on the safe side. The only really safe food is homemade anymore. We hope Merrick keeps up the great products. I rather pay more to be safe than cut back to save more and risk out pets health.

I'm giving this 1 star because it didn't work for our dog. Merrick was recommended for our "allergic" Golden. The perscription food he has been eating has gone up to $90 a month (32lb bag) so we were willing to try it. Well the first few days of mixing it were OK, but when we got to the point where the mix contained more of the Merrick peew!!! boy did he stink! He liked to eat it but obviously it was not agreeing with him. It's back to the perscription stuff for a while until we find another food to try.

Excellent quality food. I have a 10 year old Shepherd mix, and a 9 year old Welsh Springer Spaniel who are doing great between Merrick canned food and Orijen dry. Since switching them over to this combination from Blue Buffalo senior (which I also believe to be a decent food) I notice a difference in their coats (more shine and less shedding) and they seem to be more energetic and bright-eyed. Also, the gas is at a minimum and the bad breath is gone. Highly recommend!

I just today bought the Merrick Puppy Plate for my 14 week old Boston Terrier. I had him on Blue Buffalo, transitioning from Iams (yuck!) which the breeder had him on. He seemed to like Blue, but would throw up all the time and his stool was formed, but soft. So I waited to see if it would get better, but it didn't. So after hours of research, I narrowed it down to Merrick, Innova, and Wellness. The owner of the small specialty store I went to told me that Innova and Wellness were good foods, but tended to cause loose stools. She said that Merrick seemed to not do that and had just been approved or dubbed as a "sensitive stomach" food. So I bought a small bag this morning and just fed him about 20 minutes ago. He WOLFED it down. He licked the bowl CLEAN. He has NEVER done that. He will eat a majority of his food, but leave a few morsels. I am ECSTATIC. I'm sure it will take a little while for his stools to firm up, which I'm going to start putting a tsp of pumpkin with it, but the fact that he ate his food like that makes me very happy. So even though this is basically being written minutes after, I am giving it a thumbs up so far!!!

I have two older dogs that have been on Merrick for about 2 years. I had few problems with this food until I got a puppy and slowly switched him to Merrick Puppy....it is TOO rich for him. I have switched him twice now to see if it was the food....its the food. He has mucousy and loose stools. His breeder fed him Pro-planand he did just fine... so he is back on it. I used to feed the BARF diet...bones and raw food...looks like its time to put them ALL back on it. My 10 yr collie has diarrhea on and off and my guess is its the food.

I recently switched to Merrick's dry food. We've been happy with results so far, we looked at other brands before making the change. The high quality ingredients (meats, grains,& veggies) are exactly what I was looking for, and our boxer couldn't be happier. His skin & coat look & feel great & he absolutely goes crazy when it's dinner time. It may seem a little pricey for some but the results are worth it. I have had our dogs on diff. food in the past and I have never seen one enjoy his food as much as Merrick's. I would recommend this to anyone not happy with their current food or someone who's just looking to change it up.

It gives all 3 of my dogs the diarrhea and bad gas. In addition, to the diarrhea and gas, it also made their coats dull looking and my lab seems to have more dead skin (dandruff).

I feed my 5 yorkie puppies merrick
great food all natural. help them with the itch (they were on science diet crap)
I recommended . very easy transition no bloody or mucus stools .

The dry food is alright, and the ingredients look good, and thinks seem alright...so far. The dogs like the taste of it, but it gives them gas, twice as much stool and not to mention that its loose, if not runny.
The customer service is garbage, and it seems impossiable to get a decent answer to any question.

As for the cans, they just plain arn't worth it. I tried it once and was concerned about the questionable content.
If you want to feed a high quailty, nutritious canned dog food that gets the most out of your dollar...your MUCH better of with feeding Tripett.

I have been feeding my dog the Wilderness dry food. She eats it very well but does have gas and loose stools to runny ones while eating it. I have also notice black hairs in the kibble that look to be cow hair or somthing. From that I question the quality of the meat that is going in. The hairs have not been in just one bag but in several.

I have also feed the Trout, chicken pot pie and cowboy cook out ,the trout was too strong smelling for me. The dog has loved all of them.

I also tried feeding the Working dog stew and my dog would not touch it. She has eaten most of the other canned foods that I have offered to her.

I have a mixed breed that is extremly alergic to everything, Chicken, corn, whey products and the only thing that is working right now is Wilderness blend. My dogs fur would fall out, and hot spots from this alergy. I've tried just about every food out there and so far so good, we've gone from Solid gold, to eagle pack, to canidae, to royal canine, to Evo, then to Anergan, and this is the only thing my 4 your old rescued dog has been able to eat. She has been hit with the Iams food recall and has intestinal, digestinal liver and kidney problems from Iams. $1700.00 vet bill and they told me they were sorry I didn't save a can or they would have helped me, so I would never complain about Merricks customer service after that. As for Chicken Liver in their Wilderness blend? One of my dogs main alergies is chicken, she gets hives and she hasn't had one since I've switched her from anergen. Opinions matter, but get your facts straight first. It might not work for every dog, but its workin great for mine!!!!

I feed Merrick dry food (any flavor) with Cannidae and feed it to my 3 year old standard poodle, Bella. Bella loves this mixture and has been on it for 7 months now. She is one who had an ear infection every other month or so. Not since I changed her from her previous food, Eukanuba (for large dogs) to this mix. Great dog food. I also feed Merrick Puppy plate with Wellness puppy (mixed) to my 2 maltepoo and 1 shihpoo puppy. They have fantastic coats. Very shiny and they are very healthy and happy. Don't let me even start on how much they LOVE, LOVE, LOVE any of the Merrick canned food!!!!!

Merrick is a wonderful food.. however i work at a holistic pet supply store and i must tell you we've had some issues with the merrick company. We often get many of their cans in dented, and several times we've received cans with small punctures which results in the food leaking out. We've also had problems with closed cans being spoiled as well as some cans only been halfway filled. This happens most often with the Smothered Comfort. I use to feed this and every so often i'd get a can that my dog just wouldn't touch.

Numerous times we've called the Merrick company and the customer support was not the least bit helpful. They tell us that the food left their facility in percfect condition and anything that happened to it happened in transit and they are not responsible. We've had several customers tell us this as well..

After dealing with their customer support, it has really turned me off on their food. I did find their food a saving grace when my elderly english setter stopped eating. It was the only food we could convince him to eat. I credit merrick to giving us a few more months with him before he passed away. 

My miniature Poodle, absolutely loves this dog food. I love it just as much as she does! The ingredients are phenominal. I can appreciate that there are no chemical and artificial preservatives, soy, wheat or corn in any of the recipes. The canned food smells yummee and has real meat chunks that you can see and distinguish and the dry food actually has freezed dried apples, carrots and peas in it! Her favorates are Turducken, Grammy's Pot Pie or Puppy Plate dry mixed with canned Thanksgiving Day Dinner, Puppy Plate, Turducken, Cowboy Cookout or Smothered Comfort (which has an actual whole chicken thigh in it which can be pulled off the bone or eaten with it because the bone is so soft).  I feed these in rotation and there is no upset to her digestive system and she loves the variety. Since feeding this food, her coat has gotten shinier, her eyes sparkle and the goop that used to build in the corners of her eyes has dramatically decreased. This food also gets a very good rating and review on Dog Food Analysis' website. Another reason I chose this food is because it is made and manufactured in it's own plant right here in the USA! No imports from China and no involvement with Menu Foods!

I am about to switch from Canidae ALS to Merrick Turducken dry for my shih tzus as Canidae switched recipe and manufacturing plant. But I am concern with the ingredient - garlic in Merrick dry dog food. How much garlic is not poison to dog?? Any comments please? Thank you.

Merrick has cleaned my dogs' teeth. Before I put him on this food his teeth had plaque all over them. Now his teeth are sparkling! I can't find one bit of tartar on them anymore. His teeth are absolutely gorgeous. The vet is amazed at his smile!

  For all those that love what Merrick stands for, but have pups with grain allergies, I highly recommend the Before Grain product by Merrick.  This is their new line of grain free foods and my dog has never shed so little (including when she was on Orijen, EVO, TOTW and any other brand).   She loves both the buffalo and tuna flavors, have yet to try her on the chicken. 

Just a suggestion for those out there.  Unfortunately, I added BG, but someone got upset when it was ranked #1 over Orijen and purposely gave it a bad rating for no reason.  Talk to  your local pet food carrier and see if they carry it.  All my local stores are now suggesting this over EVO due to the low Ash content and lower protein levels for those dogs not in trials or super, super active.

We tried the Wilderness blend and man is it stinky. She loves to eat it! I have never seen her go nuts for a food!! It really has some great ingredients and love that it is all made in the US and in their own facility. However, poops were grainy and soft after 6 weeks of feedings. Just didn't agree with her.

An excellent dog food.

Ingredients: Buffalo, Oatmeal, Barley, Salmon Meal, Venison,Whole Brown Rice, Canola Oil (preserved Vitamin's E and C), Flaxseed, Potatoes, Carrots, Peas, Dried Chicken Liver 

Good meat content.
Quality grains in the food are oatmeal, barley and rice.

Flaxseed is a high quality source of Omega 6 and Omega 3 essential fatty acids.

Healthy range of fruits and vegetables is appreciated, as are the probiotics.

I am going to put this in my rotation for my new Lab/akita mix puppy, as Akita's benefit from a fish based protein source.
(from being bred for generations in Japan, a seafaring nation I imagine)

My dog was in the wilderness blend, which smelled very fishy and also the kibbles were more grainy at the end of the bag, compared to other dog food. What I really didn't like is that when my dog was on it ( she was on it for about 1 month), the stool was either very loose or runny, not to mention a lot of it.

For an allergy blend like Wilderness to have chicken liver hidden in it's ingredients is disgusting. Merrick needs to be more upfront with their ingredients. Also while there grainless formulas have very good quality ingredients the true first ingredients in the buffalo and salmon is chicken meal. Kudos for Wellness Core and TOTW for having chicken free grainless formulas with a lower protein content.

Orijen is the best but my puppy seems to go crazy over this too and the ingredients are very good

I put my Chihuahuas on this as I suspected a food allergy in one of them and the Wilderness Blend with Buffalo and Venison in it were just the novel protein sources that I needed to help determine her allergy. Her symptoms actually got worse over time which helped me conclude that her allergy was not to chicken protein, but to grain as everything she has eaten up to this point had contained at least 2 or 3 grains. I have worked in the veterinary industry for many, many years and had been under the impression that the veterinary diets and some of the higher-cost commercial diets out there were great. After a few years of studying nutrition in university, I now know that most of the dog foods out there are GARBAGE but Merrick is definitely NOT one of them. It wasn't for my dogs but I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.

Love the ingrediants in the Puppy Platter. He gobbles it up.

the canned foos is great.. my picky chihuahua loves it. It is however a bit chunky so I hope they come up with a small dog formula :-)

Even though my dog can no longer eat this food since he developed a sensitivity to grains, I still think this is a high quality product. He loved the taste of it and the ingredients are very good, esp. the canned food. I would still recommend this food to dog owners!

My 3 dogs (Cavalier, Border Collie mix, Shih-poo) love Turducken and Grammies Pot Pie can food.  They will eat the Turducken with water (it makes a gravy).  Even my picky Border Collie mix likes it.  They are doing great with it.  It will stay part of my food rotation.  My dogs don't do so well with any grain-free food (I've tried alot).  This is a good quality food!

This is a great dog food my dogs are healthy and happy LOVE there food and never have I feed a dog food that helped with there skin and coat so much it is like haveing a new puppy

This is indeed a good food and my basset likes this food as well!

MERRICK IS AMAZING. SEEMS TO BE SOMETHING IN IT THAT MAKES MY DOGS GO NUTS. MY 5 YEAR OLD PIT BULL IS THE PICKIEST EATER OUT THERE. I HAD TO COOK FOR HER FOR THE LAST 4 YEARS, HAMBURGERS, PORKROLL, EVEN HAD TO BUY WENDY'S BURGERS. THAT IS TH EONLY WAY SHE WOULD EAT. SHE WOULD STARVE HERSELF FOR DAYS AT A TIME IF I DIDN'T COOK HER ANYTHING. I TRIED EVERY FOOD OUT THERE WET AND DRY. I BOUGHT A CAN OF MERRICK THINKING THE SAME THIS WOULD HAPPEN SHE WOULD HATE IT. THEN SHE LICKED THE BOWL CLEAN. SHE LOVES IT. I DON'T HAVE TO COOK FOR HER ANYMORE. THEN MY OTHER 2 YEAR OLD MALE PIT BULL WAS GETTING PICK AS WELL FROM WATCHING HIS SISTER EAT PEOPLE FOOD AND HE LOVES IT AS WELL. I SWEAR BY THIS FOOD. THE WET FOOD IS WHAT MAKES THEM EAT LIKE THEY NEVER EATEN. FOR ALL THOSE DOG OWNERS THAT HAVE DOGS THAT ARE PICKY TRY IT ONE TIME AND I BET THEY WILL EAT LIKE YO UNEVER SEEN BEFORE. TRY THE WET FOOD NAMED WINGALING OR SMOTHERED COMFORT. THERE IS PIECES OF CHICKEN IN THE CANS ON THE BONES DO NOT TAKE THE BONES OUT THEY ARE COOKED SO THAT YOU CAN SQEEZE THEN WITH YOUR FINGERS AND THEY CRUMBLE RIGHT UP. I GIVE THIS FOOD A 10 ON A SCALE OF 1 THRU 10 AND 10 BEING THE BEST. THERE COATS ARE NICE AND SHINY AND THERE STOOLS ARE PERFECT. THEY NEVER GET THE RUNS AND THEY NEVER GET CONSTIPATED. TRY IT YOU WILL NOT REGRET BUYING THIS FOOD.

Been using the Wilderness Blend for about a month now.  Dogs seem to like it but it gives them bad gas.  Seems to be a fairly high quality food.  No complaints so far.

My little doxie has had problems with dog food from the time we brought her home. We switched her over to "home cooking" (she ate what my family ate) and did quiet well on that for a while. She started having skin issues and my vet was convinced that it was because I was not feeding her commercial dog food. We bought the Hills Prescription Diet food at his insistence. She seemed to have more energy on the dog food, but it was mega expensive and we had to beg her to eat it. I went to the local pet food store and picked up a few cans of the Merrick because it had no fillers and all natural ingredients. Daisy now will beg for her food!! It is totally amazing.We can now eat our meal in peace and she is licking the bowl clean! Her stools are normal and her energy level is still high. I highly recommend this food.

I have a 1 year old shit tzu, she's always been such a picky eater, I tried almost everything and nothing seem to work. One month ago i tried Merrick and she loves it, specially Grammy's Chicken pot pie. She gets so exited at meal time. Her stool is perfect, the only bad thing for me is that she farts often.

I have been very pleased with the Merrick dry foods. The dry foods have a minimum of 40% meat content, and the ingredients are very nice. No by-product, cheap fillers, or nasty preservatives. And most importantly, my dog has done excellent on the Merrick dry foods. I get "Wilderness Blend" variety the most often.

I really like the Merrick brand as it offers a lot of different flavors and it also isn't like the other canned dog food where it really looks like human food. Meat and veggies you can see! I have tried them all and I have to say her favorite is Chicken Pot Pie.

One of the two foods I feed my dogs.  GREAT ingredients and a variety of flavors.  I mix with Large Breed Senior Natural Choice (for the Husky and Lab) and Large Breed Puppy for my Bernese.  HIGHLY recommend both this food and Natural Choice!!!  Five stars from me!  Also ~ both are USA made!!!

We got a new Cockapoo puppy that refused to eat anything for 2 days. Came across Merrick Puppy plate at our local pet store and our puppy loves this stuff and can't get enough of it. The ingredients are top notch and no fillers.

I have a 3 year old Boston Terrier with a sensitive stomach and she rarely has solid stool. I have tried almost every premium brand including bland foods like CA Natural. Within 3 days of changing over to Merrick Wilderness Blend kibble my dog had solid stool. I have never been so happy over poop. Within 2 weeks her fur began to get softer and shinier. Her fur has even began to loose the red tint and become blacker. I couldnt be happier with the results from this food.

I have been feeding my dog Merrick Puppy Plate dry kibble for about the last 6 months.  I have it delivered to my house so sometimes I use a store premium brand between deliveries.  I noticed that he has to stool twice as much on the Merrick 4-6 times a day and it is much looser than on the store bought premiums.  However, the ingredients in Merrick are top of the line so maybe some of you can handle more frequent looser stools.  My last straw came when I opened a bag of their 60 lb kibble to find it moldy and filled with little gnats.  I called and was put on hold for about 20 minutes but I eventually had a new bag sent to me free of charge.  I think it costs too much for crappy customer service and I want to try a new super premium brand for awhile.

My dog is the pickiest eater in the world and as soon as I started feeding Merrick, he seemed to love eating his meals. The dry and wet food are awesome. My Rottweiler looks amazing and everyone comments on his coat. Before this, I tried all of the high protein, raw diets and they made my dog extremely sick, even if I mixed a little bit at a time in with his regular food. No problems at all with Merrick. My dog loves the food and its great to know that it is very healthy as well! Works for us.

i would have to agree with the fact that given the ingred. and the price for the dry food, its one of the better brands. with so many flavors to pick from,  my dog loves this stuff. his favorite though is the Cowboy Cookout. it actually is fairly cheap at my pet store, and since my dog is only 12.5 lbs, a 10 lb. is very reasonable at something like $8 or $9-for food of this caliber, check out their website. we also mix this dry food with another specific for his breed (he's a wiener), but he won't touch it without Merrick in there.

My two dogs enjoyed this food more than any other kibble.  I like the ingredients and my dogs love the taste.  After getting through a bag of Grammy's Pot Pie followed by a bag of Turducken with soft stools on both, though, we probably won't be trying this brand again.  It's a little pricier than others of the same quality, but this wasn't an issue when feeding two 7-pound dogs.  It could definitely get costly when feeding larger dogs.  I still think it's a great food, but it just didn't work as well for my dogs as well as some other brands.  

I was leary of merrick, gravy?  But I was given a bag and some cans at Woofstock last week and my dogs LOVE it!  I didn't realize how good it was for them, I thought it must be junk like that gravy stuff they sell in the grocery store.  It's corn free and a great product, sure the cans are expensive, I paid $1.60 a can, but it lasts two days for me and looks so good you'd think it was something I made. The dry is wonderful, as well, so many flavors to switch to and from everytime I need to buy a new bag.  The dogs love the gravy, so I might start deleting the cans.

Love the canned food. Good to be able to see whats in it. Too expensive though. The dry food was great, but my dog didnt like it too much. Would never eat it dry and would pick out the freeze dried carrot, pea, and potato chuncks.. Hahaha.. Switched to Eagle Pack holistic formula since it has exactly the same stuff as the Merricks dry food, but it is cheaper Go figure...She likes this much better. Her coat improved a lot also.