# Wellness made my puppy sick and i hate them



## Antihero (Jul 29, 2006)

So i bought a small bag of Wellness food mostly because it rates very highly and a half an hour after giving it to him he started vomiting. The poor little guy ended up vomiting 15 times before he got it out of his system, and just layed on the floor and shivered for a couple of hours. Hes fine now, but im still pretty angry. Its not as if ive been feeding him crap food and then feed him a high quality food and upset his stomach. I feed him Solid Gold Wolf Cub.

So im wondering if the "Totally organic" thing that Wellness(god thats a terrible name for this food, its an outright lie!) has going on includes Totally Organic viruses or Totally organic bacteria or Totally Organic ground up rotten rodent corpses.....


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## Onlinek9 (Nov 12, 2006)

How fast did you switch it? Was he eating Solid Gold one day and wellness the next? That would make any dog sick! There are different proteins in each food and it takes awhile for the dog to be able to make the enzymes to break down each one. You need to switch foods sloooooowly! With a puppy especially since they have such sensitive systems. Start with just a few kibbles and slowly increase the amount of new food and reduce the amount of old food over about a 2 week period. Before you write off Wellness entirely you might want to give pup a chance to adjust to the new food.


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## Meghan&Pedro (Nov 6, 2006)

Some dogs just don't do well on some foods.

Wellness is a very good, high quality dog food. I sell lots of it to clients at work, at I see lots of VERY good results on the food. But, like any food, it suits some dogs, and not others.

I'm sorry it didn't work out for you, my guess is that you switched cold turkey - the solid gold is a lamb formula, or bison formula, depending on which one you are feeding. Wellness does make a lamb formula, but their puppy is a chicken and salmon. If you switched cold-turkey then this is a BIG change for the dog, and that's probably why you saw such awful results.


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## Antihero (Jul 29, 2006)

Meghan&Pedro said:


> I'm sorry it didn't work out for you, my guess is that you switched cold turkey - the solid gold is a lamb formula, or bison formula, depending on which one you are feeding. Wellness does make a lamb formula, but their puppy is a chicken and salmon. If you switched cold-turkey then this is a BIG change for the dog, and that's probably why you saw such awful results.



No, i mixed it with his Wolf Cub. 3 handfulls of Solid Gold to 1 small handfull of Wellness. The Wolf Cub is also Bison and Salmon


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## Chemikal (Nov 16, 2006)

Some Dogs especially Puppies are peticular about what food they eat. My dog is hooked on a cheap brand but he recently stopped eating it. I am thinking about switching to science diet. I heard if you mix what your currently feeding and what your going to feed them, and gently take away what your feeding in portions you may get them used to other dog foods faster


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## shadowfacedanes (Aug 30, 2006)

Chemikal said:


> Some Dogs especially Puppies are peticular about what food they eat. My dog is hooked on a cheap brand but he recently stopped eating it. I am thinking about switching to science diet.


For the money you would spend on Science Diet, you could feed your dog a good diet. Science diet, despite what your vet tells you, is a crap food with a high price tag. Sorry to be blunt.

Please check out: 
http://www.dogfoodproject.com/ for all the info you could possibly need on selecting a proper dog food.


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## Snowshoe (Nov 17, 2006)

I agree, Danes. I also have scoured that website. Wellness for all intents and purposes is a good, fairly cheap food. In fact, that's what I have my cat on. The ingredient list isn't totally thrilling, but it is acceptable. 

It is possible that your pup just has a sensitive tummy. I know that mine (who is 8 months old) sure does. I feed her Fromm's, and she has always done well. The breeder had her on Eagle Pack, but I'm not a huge fan. After about two weeks of very slowly introducing the food to her, she was able to totally transition. 

You may want to try it literally a few kibbles at a time. 

Solid Gold is known to purge colons. It is not a food that you can mix with other foods, or your dog will have puppy bowels for a good long time.


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## LabLady101 (Jul 5, 2006)

I just wanted to point out that websites like the dogfoodproject.com site, while informational, are also highly opinion-laced. If you are a person who has no problems seperating fact from opinion, then it's a great tool. However, if you find that it is a personal weakness for you, then I would avoid it. Also, while I don't personally like Science Diet, I would hope that just because someone else calls it "crap" food someone would not switch from it if it's working well for their dog.

Just my 2c,
Darcy


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## NewfCrazy (Apr 13, 2006)

Here is a different website that isn't opinion based on foods. This site simply tells you what ingredients mean, and what the ingredients are for pretty much any dog food you can think of. Then you can make an informed decision.

http://www.doberdogs.com/menu.html

Also, and it isn't common - especially for puppies, some dogs are extremely allergic to chicken. It could be your puppy is sensitive to something in the Wellness. Not every dog does well on every food - every dog is different.

As the others said, you definitely have to make the switch slowly. When I have switched food, I start with 3/4 old, 1/4 new for the first week or so. Then I go 1/2 and 1/2 for another week, 3/4 new to 1/4 old for another week and then all new food by the fourth week.


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## LabLady101 (Jul 5, 2006)

NewfCrazy said:


> Here is a different website that isn't opinion based on foods. This site simply tells you what ingredients mean, and what the ingredients are for pretty much any dog food you can think of. Then you can make an informed decision.
> 
> http://www.doberdogs.com/menu.html


Thanks for posting this website, NewfCrazy! This is a good one. The only thing I can see is Pro Plan has replaced Beef Tallow with Animal Fat, so it might be slightly dated. But, it is exactly the kind of ingredient source I like to see: Plain and simple, straight forward, and unadulterated by opinion so everyone can make up their own mind about certain ingredients.

Thanks again,
Darcy


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## cshellenberger (Dec 2, 2006)

Antihero said:


> So i bought a small bag of Wellness food mostly because it rates very highly and a half an hour after giving it to him he started vomiting. The poor little guy ended up vomiting 15 times before he got it out of his system, and just layed on the floor and shivered for a couple of hours. Hes fine now, but im still pretty angry. Its not as if ive been feeding him crap food and then feed him a high quality food and upset his stomach. I feed him Solid Gold Wolf Cub.
> 
> So im wondering if the "Totally organic" thing that Wellness(god thats a terrible name for this food, its an outright lie!) has going on includes Totally Organic viruses or Totally organic bacteria or Totally Organic ground up rotten rodent corpses.....


I have fed Solid Gold and Wellness, both are good foods. It may be that you dog is sensitive to something in it. I had to take my Pug off Wellnes as he is sensitive to lamb. Wolf Cub is bison and that is more easily digestable that lamb and being an 'exotic' meat is less likely to cause an allergic reaction. Just because it made your dog sick doesn't mean it's not a good food.


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## shadowfacedanes (Aug 30, 2006)

LabLady101 said:


> I just wanted to point out that websites like the dogfoodproject.com site, while informational, are also highly opinion-laced. If you are a person who has no problems seperating fact from opinion, then it's a great tool. However, if you find that it is a personal weakness for you, then I would avoid it. Also, while I don't personally like Science Diet, I would hope that just because someone else calls it "crap" food someone would not switch from it if it's working well for their dog.
> 
> Just my 2c,
> Darcy


I would hardly call Mordy's site highly opinion laced. 

I'm sure if you spent two seconds conversing with her, you'd see just how much time and effort goes into trying to inform hard headed people about the crap they are putting into their dogs bodies. 

Oh wait, it must be MUCH better to just believe the claims on dog food bags. To heck with KNOWLEDGE.

If you believe that, then I suppose you think Science Diet is a great food, complete with it's chemical preservatives that are KNOWN carcinogens.


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## terrier terror (Dec 27, 2006)

shadowfacedanes said:


> I would hardly call Mordy's site highly opinion laced.
> 
> I'm sure if you spent two seconds conversing with her, you'd see just how much time and effort goes into trying to inform hard headed people about the crap they are putting into their dogs bodies.
> 
> ...


I think you hit the nail on the head.

Sabine's site is the most detailed, info-packed site I have seen on dog nutrition (though another favorite is www.dogaware.com -- but it doesn't compare imo). I also like the fact she doesn't recommend foods, and I agree with her on the grading system (which I think is a total crappy way of figuring out good foods from bad). To me, her site is the best way to go if you are actually serious about feeding yours dogs better.


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## LabLady101 (Jul 5, 2006)

shadowfacedanes said:


> If you believe that, then I suppose you think Science Diet is a great food, complete with it's chemical preservatives that are KNOWN carcinogens.


Then you obviously didn't read my whole post. I said


> Also, while I don't personally like Science Diet, I would hope that just because someone else calls it "crap" food someone would not switch from it if it's working well for their dog.


 This in no way implies that I think Science Diet is a great food. All I meant (and I thought it was perfectly clear for any regular joe out there to understand, but obviously you missed ) is that if it was the food someone's dog did best on, I would not be so quick to tell them they MUST switch because it's a "crap" food.

My opinion on those sites still stands. There is no way to "grade" which food your dog does best on- everyone's answer and opinions are different (as they should be). An ingredients list can only tell you so much and even when I'm reading one, I like to do it without someone else's opinion of what is good or bad. So, yes, websites like "Mordy's" is highly opinion laced, and your opinion of her personal character does not change the nature of her website.

I prefer sites like http://www.doberdogs.com/menu.html which doesn't "feed" to me what is good or bad. It just states the ingredients and doesn't even try to rate the food. When looking for a dog food, I want information not opinions.

Btw, I would not call myself "hard headed". In fact, I consider myself just the opposite and actually what a lot of people are not: Open-Minded. I don't discard thoughts of feeding some foods that don't make someone's ingredients list cut. Can you say the same? I bet not. Nope, folks like you discard a lot of foods on the basis of their ingredients and then say it's because you were "enlightened" to what is good for EVERYONE'S dogs. Pardon me while I remain open-minded and prefer never to go through this "brainwashing".


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## Jessica&Crew (Sep 23, 2006)

This is interesting to read, because I've seen allergies and reactions to Wellness food popping up on a few different message boards I post on.


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