# Merrick grain free and Wellness Core



## SitkaRose (Jan 28, 2014)

Currently my pitbull and husky are eating Merrick grain free dog food brand. They seem to do good on any food though, but I've recently read some questionable mixed reveiws on that brand. My cocker spaniel has really bad year staining, and I think it may be from allergies, so I've been feeding him wellness core wild game, an his eyes have cleared up a considerable amount, but not completely. So I'm guessing he either has a grain or chicken allergy, or maybe both. But I've also read some so so reveiws on this brand. When looking them up in dog food review sites they are both rated as 5 star though. So I guess my question is, are these good brands or not? What brands come the most highly recommended but at a reasonable price?


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## Pugtown (Aug 9, 2012)

All foods don't work for all dogs so there will always be some negative reviews on dog foods whether they are poor quality or "premium" brands, and don't forget, some people are more inclined to post a negative review than a good review. The two you mentioned are good brands and mod-high priced. Wellness moved away from Diamond after the recalls so they make their own food now as does Merrick, and Wellness now advertises they are GMO free. As far as allergies and ingredients go, keep a log or spreadsheet of all the foods he's eaten and their ingredients and take notes on how he does on those foods. Merrick has their budget brand Whole Earth Farms which just came out with a couple grain free dry recipes. I would find a couple foods he likes and does well on and have a rotation of foods since there is no perfect food. They all have some kind of drawback. Some of the budget friendly brands that people promote are Victor (small company, made in Tx by Mid-America Pet Food), Nutrisource (made by Tuffy's, no recalls), Dr Tim's, Earthborn, 4Health grain free (made by Ainsworth). I always feed Nutrisource grain free as one of my "staples" to my fosters. It's mid-priced and mid-protein. If you're not too worried about Diamond and their recall history, then Taste of the Wild is one of the budget friendly foods as well. Also, although Canidae built their Ethos facility in Texas, they still use Diamond to produce some of their foods. Canidae's Pure line has fewer ingredients.


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## Losech (Apr 5, 2011)

I like Taste of the Wild and Diamond Naturals Extreme Athlete, but some people don't because DIAMOND omg sooo bad...
I like Merrick, I fed their Before Grain foods before they redid them. So far I've only used their grain-free chicken but I plan on trying out the other grain-free and grain-inclusive formulas (30% protein or more only though, I don't go lower than that). I like Earthborn Holistic, EVO, Nature's Variety instinct, Canidae Pure, and a few Fromm formulas as well.
I'm not a fan of Wellness, but I only fed it to the problem dog and he had, problems. So my perspective of it is somewhat skewed.


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## Damon'sMom (Aug 2, 2011)

Like the others have said, not all foods work for all dogs. So you are bound to read some things online about it noting being good, etc. Wellness and Merrick GF and both good foods. If you want to try to find them something else then dogfoodadvisor.com could be a good place to start researching good quality foods. Merrick GF is rated 5 stars out of 5, as is wellness Core.


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## Hermes1 (Jan 3, 2014)

If your dogs are doing well on the food and it fits your budget, I would stick with it, regardless of "but I've recently read some questionable mixed reveiws on that brand" unless there has been some change in formulation you are not comfortable with. Dogs are generally creaturers of habit and while we humans may like variety in our diet, dogs typically do not and can changes be stressful on them. So unless there is some compelling reason to switch, I would stick with what your dogs are happy with.


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## OwnedbyACDs (Jun 22, 2013)

My dogs didn't do well on wellness, plus they don't have much Martian for rotating within the brand as the grain free formulas are all chicken based. 

I think the mixed reviews every brand gets come down to the fact that there will be the few odd dogs that a food doesn't work for, it might not have anything to do with the quality I the food itself.


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