Wellness Simple Limited-Ingredient Grain-Free Dry Dog Food

Our McNabb Border Collie has a bizarrely sensitive stomach when it comes to dog food. She can only eat very limited ingredient dog foods, no matter the cost, or she has near-constant diarrhea. Been that way since she was a puppy. Wellness simple has always been easy on her stomach, and she eats it happily (I can’t report for picky eaters, because she’ll eat anything she can fit in her mouth)

In addition to being great for her sensitive stomach, there are some other perks to using a limited ingredient, grain free dog food. Since this stuff is so nutritionally dense, you don’t use as much dog food, which also means that this stuff comes out as being nearly as cheap as the cheaper stuff. A 45lb dog normally eats about 2 cups of cheap food a day. Our dog maintains her weight (and the vet confirmed this is correct) with HALF that. literally half a cup twice a day and she maintains her weight. We give her another 1/3 cup if she’s had a particularly active day.

The other great thing is that your dog doesn’t poop as much! our dog only needs to go once a day, sometimes even every other day. Her stools are very dense (again, checked with the vet, this is normal) and since she doesn’t go as much, it makes picking up poop much better, to boot!

If you can afford it, I do believe the zignature brand food is even higher quality (and my dog absolutely goes berserk for the kangaroo formula) with the same perks, but since I do have to live on a budget, wellness simple is the least expensive quality dog food that keeps my pup from riding a diarrhea rocket into low earth orbit.

My only suggestion is to stick with the lamb and turkey based flavors. The duck and fish smell EXTREMELY strongly, so you have been warned.

Amazon currently sells this stuff for upwards of $20/bag cheaper than petco/petsmart.

great!

I first switched over to Wellness Simple, the Duck and Oatmeal flavor, a number of years ago when my Golden Retriever was having stomach issues. Her stool was always a bit too soft, and often bordered on diarrhea. And every so often she’d get diarrhea. Upon switching to the Simple Wellness, and adding 

VetriScience Laboratories Mega Probiotic

 to her diet, her stomach problems disappeared. Instead of dealing with diarrhea every few months (or even weeks) I have not had to deal with it at all since changing 3 years ago.

Recently, as my girl slowing down, she started putting on weight. (Side note, if you don’t have a pet scale and are not regularly weighing your dog, you should. They can easily put on a lot of weight before you visually notice. And a healthy weight prevents a lot of health issues. See my Sept 4, 2016 review of the 

LW Measurements LVS-XL 700

 for some more thoughts.) So I switched to the “Healthy Weight” formula. This allowed me to feed the same volume of food but reduce her caloric intake. Since I use a lot of food puzzles to prevent boredom, it was beneficial to not have to reduce volume. She slowly dropped the extra few pounds she had put on and then maintained her weight. But as she slowed down even more, I recently had to cut back a ⅛ cup on her daily ration.

She seems to like both varieties I’ve used. When I first switched to the Wellness Simple she seemed a bit more enthusiastic about the Wellness than her previous food (another brand completely). So I interpreted that as it tasting good.

The other thing I like about the Wellness is the kibble is a good shape, and is consistently shaped and sized. The pyramid like kibble is a good smallish size. As I use food puzzles & food dispensers (and use kibble as rewards in training), the more physical pieces per serving the better. And a consistent and good shape works best. Many years ago I tried a food I had to rule out because the flat disc like kibble would get stuck in my 

PetSafe Treat & Train Remote Reward Dog Trainer

 and some food puzzles. The wellness has never gotten stuck or jammed.

Finally, as a practical note, you get 3⅞ cups per pound. So you can use that and the recommended feeding amount (available on the bag, manufacturer’s​ website and possibly the product description here) to calculate a rough initial estimate of how long a bag will last. Keep in mind the recommended amount may vary by formula, especially for the Healthy Weight formula. And you may need to tweak it slightly. Also the bag size may vary by formula. For example the Healthy Weight formula is a 24lb bag whereas the previous formula I used is 26lbs.

Overall, I highly recommend this food.

Puppy enjoyed it. Didn’t clear up his allergies but hasn’t cause any kind of digestive issues.

I recently switched my dog to Wellness Simple Natural Grain Free Limited Ingredient Dry Dog Food, Salmon and Potato recipe. He absolutely loves it, and his coat has never looked healthier. The 24-pound bag is convenient, and knowing it’s grain-free and made with limited ingredients gives me peace of mind about his nutrition.