Miss Chief, your statement may be true in some cases, but not in others. If you go back far enough you'll find that some dogs, mine included, were doing very well and quite happily on their Wellness dry and canned; had been for years. There was some kind of change in the recipe or ingredients or SOMEthing at the same time the packaging changed and the food was offered at the big box pet stores. My beloved Standard Poodles, 7- and 14-years-old and of different breeding lines, began to exhibit stool problems, then a reticence to eat, then vomiting and soupy diarrhea, ultimately refusing, wisely, to eat at all.

There had been no problems earlier. After going through 3 separate bags I finally stopped feeding it to them. So, my 55- and 70-pound MopTops who had handled it and done very well for many years, stopped tolerating it at all and very suddenly, as have others posting earlier as well. While your statement may be correct in some cases it may not be in others. And please, I have no axe to grind with the manufacturer; just trying to share our experience, as is asked by the RateItAll! web site. Walk in beauty, PudlLuvr

And that is fine I understand they changed the formula and that your dog could not tolerate the change. There may have been an added ingredient that your dog could not handle. And if you had no old to mix with the new I can understand how it would upset your dogs stomach. But, because they changed the formula is no reason to bash an otherwise great dog food. The new formula is just not tolerable for your dog. Be mad that they changed the formula bash them. But, rating the dog food as bad because it gave your dogs the runs after a formula change is not accurate judging. Now as for offered at big food pet stores I'm not sure how accurate that statement is. I live in Ohio and can only find the dog food at Jungle Jims a whole food world super market.

Where the 3 different bags from different lots? Did you completely use all 3 bags? How long where you willing to give the formula change a chance? There are factors you have to take in account.

But, in all fairness my comment was not directly connected with you and anyone who had issues with formula changes. It is more for people who decided to try a holistic dog food like Wellness and it gave their dogs the runs. Like I posted as an example, I started out with Merrick, great dog food, just not tolerant with my dogs. Couldn't handle it, to much protein for them. I'm not going to bash the dog food brand Merrick because it was not compatible with my dog.

Hi, back at'cha, Miss Chief. Yes, I understand your points. Please understand, I am a relatively sophisticated dog owner, although certainly a "novice sophisticate," if you will. Not a performance or show dog owner/handler, although one of mine is a retired show dog, now 14+ years old. Nevertheless, I became instantly aware of a problem within 24 hours after opening the first new packaging sack with the dogs' poor reactions to the food they'd been eating without problem for years

It was obvious at the time that the problems arose at the exact intersection in time when there was 1) a change in the packaging, 2) a recent move into sales in the big box stores (PetCo, etc.), 3) the sale of the company (apparently) from a family-owned business to corporate ownership (not necessarily in this sequence).

Was there a change in the ingredients? They deny a change, according to another poster, who worked tirelessly with them by phone, email, sample testing. They denied any kind of recipe change to me when I called. A change in the formula or additives, ingredient suppliers or manufacturing plants, or "whatever"? They denied such changes.

Why would I expect that there would be a change when the bag stated up-front that there WAS no change and thus there should be no alteration in feeding habits, tapering, mixing, etc etc etc. Did I use the entire contents of all three bags? Are you kidding? My dogs are getting sicker and sicker and sicker. Heck no. I simply returned the sacks & remaining contents, purchasing another sack at another store, attempting to rule out storage problems, not expecting that there was some king of unpublished change involved. It seems irresponsible to me to have initiated changes of the sort which generate such digestive responses and then deny having done so.

I am not attempting to slam you, BTW, Miss Chief. I was simply attempting to point out that your statement seemed to be something of an over-generalization, which while accurate in some cases, may not be so in others, such as mine, IMO. They'd been eating the food for years, suddenly when the packaging changed they could no longer tolerate it, the company denies a change of any sort in the recipe or ingredients.

Others on the site have had similar experiences. I am grateful for the validation their sharing their experience has provided me. Books evaluate such things by reading an ingredient list; dogs evaluate their food by eating it. My dogs rate it a "1," and justifiably so, based on their experience. Rating products provides us an opportunity to share more than "book-reading" with our pet-owning community. It seems to me that's what it's about.

My best,
PudlLuvr

And Ms. PudleLuVr if you would refer back to my respone to you, my statement is not directed towards you at any case. While I under stand there was a change over, I did see the bags switch, did not see it in major retailers though like I said I drive 30 miles to get my dog food passing numerous big box stores, my dogs unfazed by the ingrident change. My comment was not directed towards you it was directed towars first time users. And yes you could say I am a "novice sophisticate," as well. I own an acticve show dog.

Got'cha, Miss Chief! I hear ya. thanks for the feedback.

But, but, but, I'd call someone with a dog currently on the show circuit a "sophisticate," leaving out the "novice" part. What a busy life you have with such activity. Enjoy yourself. I'm pleased your pup's doing well on whatever s/he's eating.