Wellness Core Dog Food (Dry)

I have a 2 year old Norfolk Terrier who needs to lose weight! tried so many diet foods its crazy! Ever since he was castrated last year the weight has piled on and now he is 10kg! He is very active and gets 30min to 1 hour walks 3 times a day and recently started hydrotherepy to try and shift the pounds! Have been looking on your site but there are so many Im confused!! I want to go for a 5 star food but was wondering if you had any suggestions or tried and tested reviews much appreciated!

Thank you both for your comments! GSDgirl, that gives me a good idea of what to expect, cost-wise. I feel a little more at ease now, knowing that I can maintain the cost of a higher quality food if something happens with my job.

I don’t have large dogs but yes you would be feeding less.  Example, for my 18-25 pounders they would get 1.5 or so cups of the bad food I fed previously.  Now they get 3/4-1 cup of the good food also adjusting for treats and bones and exercise.  I also give them raw chicken wings and other parts which is less costly per pound.

Have you tried ordering amicus online?

Wow, Mike. Thank you for such a great response.  I will keep looking for natural selenium, even though I know the soil will always contain some, a bit, a bissen, a bissle…very glad to have found your pages and will welcome all suggestions. I have been reading where the extra synthetic minerals are the major cause of dogs having drippy eyes.  Fascinating stuff. Thank you!

love this site very helpfull thank u

Hi Amy’le,

Unfortunately, most commercial dog foods use sodium selenite in their formulas.

On a short term basis, I wouldn’t be overly concerned about sodium selenite. Selenium is an essential mineral for both dogs and humans. However, all minerals can be delivered to a dog in its food in various forms (such as simple “elemental” selenium versus its more common form, sodium selenite). And each form can have a different toxic threshold before it can be considered dangerous.

Toxicosis is the medical word for poisoning. Although selenium is essential for life, ANY mineral (copper, zinc, calcium, etc.) or vitamin can become excessive and cause toxicosis.

The recent Blue Buffalo dog food recall is a perfect example of how even too much of a vitamin (in this case, vitamin D) can become toxic.

And selenium is no exception.

According to AAFCO, the maximum amount of selenium recommended for dog food is 2.0 mg/kg which is 18 times the minimum (0.11 mg/kg) for this mineral.

Even though AAFCO sets a maximum limit to most minerals, the National Academy of Science has never determined the safe upper limit (SUL) for most mineral nutrients (including selenium).

These days, it looks to me like the current selenium controversy might be exaggerated and creating unnecessary concern. After all, over 90% of all commercial dog foods today (even some of the very best) contain the selenite salt version of selenium.

But here’s the real problem. Other ingredients (grains, meats, bone) naturally contain minerals, too — before a dog food manufacturer actually adds the vitamin and mineral supplements to the recipe.

So, unless you test each and every batch of food, you never truly know whether you are exceeding the (still unestablished) safe upper limit of a mineral.

Although no one can assure you every dog (or people) food product you buy will be 100% safe from the potential long term build-up of minerals, you can take at least some comfort in the apparently safe margin between the AAFCO minimums and the maximums.

Those who still consider themselves “selenite phobics” should simply look for foods that contain selenium yeast (considered by some a safer alternative) rather than sodium selenite.

By the way, a unique naturally produced form of elemental selenium can be found in a fairly uncommon ingredient known as selenium yeast.

This is considered a safer and healthier way to add selenium to a dog’s diet.

Hope this helps.

I think it’s better than the Cali Nat Grain Free Chicken Meal you mentioned earlier as this one is not a limited ingredient diet.  My pugs used to eat this flavor.  Actually they’ve probably eaten about a dozen flavors of foods in the past 2 years.

Have you tried a raw food as they are very low in carbs?  Also Dogswell Nutrisca is certified low glycemic as well as some Merrick cans.  There are other foods similar to it (the Nutrisca) – foods that use lentils, chickpeas/garbanzo beans instead of potato and grains.

http://www.gripetfoods.com/CertifiedDogFoods.htm

http://www.k9natural.com/component/wordpress/category/diabetic-dogs/?Itemid=12

As always – consult with your vet!

Can you recommend a dry food for diabetes for my black labordor retriever?

have you considered 4 health which really is a great food and is much cheaper and they have a puppy food.rated 4 stars out of 5…sold at tractor supply stores…

Hi everyone, just wanted anyones comments on dog treats purchased two products today for my 10yr old black lab and 2 yr old german shepard, i had posted earlier looking for a good treat product, as my shepard has a very queasy intestinal track,very soft stool, gas, etc. i v’e been trying to find a training treat or as a good boy treat, and im trying wellness wellbites turkey&duck the ingredients seem very good, blueberries,flaxseed,sweet potatoes,apples,carrots,molasses.I also purchased a wellness wellbars made with yogurt apples & bananas, which is also a no meat by product,wheat,corn soy or artificial preservatives so im hoping this will be good treats for them,my 10 yr old lab, dosent have any issues, and they are both on a 4health kibble with a 4 health wet topper beef stew product. ew which they both like…thanks to all that responded..Ron.

In our search for better quality food than Science Diet or Eukanuba, we tried this food out for our 7 month old puppy. Unfortunately, she didn’t like the tast and hardly ate it. We had to mix it with wet food to get her to eat it.

Core is actually labeled for “adult maintenance” so just for adults.  But if you find a food for “all life stages” you can feed this to your puppy and adults and seniors.

Hi,
I first want to say that I love this site. It is so informative I just wish that there was a Cat Food version *wink wink*
Now, to my actual question. Is food like this appropriate for puppies? I browsed your articles on the matter and have talked to different vets but I still seem to get mixed answers and results. OR…is it better to start with a “puppy” food and go to this when they are an adult?

We adopted a dog that only ate human meals at their previous home and then had him for a week on a cheaper brand. We bought the ocean one first but since we all hate sea food (the smell is ghastly) we just switched him over from Core Ocean to the original Core. He’s doing great. Whereas with the old cheap brand we had to entice him to eat he goes straight to the bag with the Core brands. I’d only switch to Orijen (not available in my area) or EVO brands (No reason to switch really!) from here.

Lana

My recommendation for an overweight dog is to cut out the grain and potato and then lower the fat to protein ratio. Then cut out treats that are not meat – no grain or potato in them.

Usually a high quality kibble will have twice the percentage of protein to fat (say 36% protein and 18% fat). Some kibbles can have an even higher % of fat which is an inexpensive way to increase calories and improve taste.

A gram of protein has 4 calories and a gram of fat has 9 calories so using a food that has more protein and less fat can help. I also think it is far more beneficial to have more animal protein than plant protein.

Then using Dr Mike’s dog food calculator in the left hand index you should compute the amount needed for the weight your dog should be (5.5 lbs.) and not her existing weight.

A 5.5 lb dog will not require much. I think if you are feeding a good grain/potato free food with lower fat your little girl might not need more than 1/4 to 1/3 a cup a day. Our 20 year old 12 lb Yorkie will eat until he turns into a ball if we let him and to keep his weight constant he only needs 1/2 a cup of Brothers a day.

Lana did you not notice that your Yorkie had doubled in size ? I am guilty as charged for giving my dog extra’s and over feeding at times. We have to have a handle on how much they are fed. As much as it pains me, as I’m a fat ars myself, I cut my dog way back when I have to. My dog can gain 5 lbs in a week if I let her. I guess what I am saying is to cut back if you need to as much as it doesn’t feel right. Most dogs adapt very well with how much you give them. We are the weight gain problem, after all we do the feeding. I hope this comment did not come over wrong.

Lana, what is she on right now? I’ve had good luck with the Amicus Senior that Sandy recommended. Half a cup of it would be 200k/cal.