Food for cats with sensitive digestion

The American super-premium food Wellness Core, which recently arrived on the Russian market, is not yet very popular on the shelves, but readers of “Cat Obormot” so often ask for a review of it that we could not refuse.

Wellness Core is manufactured by WellPet, a company that has been around since 1926 in Indiana. The USA is famous for its strict quality control regarding pet products, and according to the official website, the company places serious demands not only on production, but also on suppliers of raw materials - all of them meet FDA (Food and Drug Administration) standards.

The manufacturer promises

• Priority of meat ingredients and indication of their mass fraction.
• Grain-free composition.
• Dry food is hypoallergenic - it does not contain dairy products, soy, grains, artificial colors, flavors or preservatives.
• A complex of useful antioxidants, vitamins, pro- and prebiotics.

Well, it sounds beautiful and very intriguing. By the way, in addition to dry food, Wellness Core complete wet food is also produced, we will also consider them soon. Dry food is packaged in packages of 300 g and 1.75 kg.

Advantages and disadvantages

• First on the list of ingredients are fresh fish and meat. But it is from these products that the animal receives the amino acids and proteins necessary for growth and development. Plant proteins, which are added to many cheap feeds, are poorly digestible by animals. The cat is a predator. This is due to the enzyme system, the structure of the stomach and intestines, and the shape of the teeth. You can’t feed her anything!
• Preservatives and antioxidants are used exclusively natural: a mixture of tocopherols, dried cranberries, etc.
• The food is completely hypoallergenic. The manufacturer does not use wheat, corn or their derivatives.
• Rich in vitamins and minerals that help maintain immunity, regulate the digestive system, improve the condition of coat, skin and teeth.
• The line contains diets for each age range: for young animals, young and mature cats.
• The Wellness Core line includes not only dry food, but also canned food.

• The first and rather significant disadvantage is this: Wellness Core food is difficult to buy in regular pet stores, not to mention supermarkets, where the choice of treats for animals is small. You will have to look for suppliers on the Internet and spend money on delivery.
• There is no medicinal food and no division by breed.
• Wellness Core is an expensive food and not every cat owner will be able to buy it on an ongoing basis.

Get acquainted with interesting cat breeds with the help of our encyclopedia: Don Sphynx, California Radiant, Kurilian Bobtail.

Types of Wellness Core

The line includes 4 types:

• Core Original turkey with chicken.
• Core Kitten turkey with salmon.
• Core Sterilized with salmon.
• Core Sterilized chicken with turkey.

What’s interesting is that the assortment of the line varies from country to country, for example, in the USA and Australia, Sterilized food is not sold, instead, Adult with turkey and duck, and Indoor with chicken and turkey.

Perhaps in Russia and Europe, food for neutered animals sells better, so Wellness marketers decided that food for sterilized animals would bring them more money. In our opinion, they did this in vain, because any food for castrates is pure marketing and does not inspire much trust in the manufacturer.

All the highest quality foods do not contain any gradation by age, sex status, or gender (Acana, Orijen, AATU, and other examples). In any case, the main thing for us is that the composition is good-looking and identical to the American one.

Manufacturer

The business originally started with dog biscuits in 1926, but Wellness food itself was created in the 90s. Experts in the field of veterinary medicine and nutrition were involved in the case. The developers set themselves a specific task: to launch food on the market that could become a truly revolutionary product.

In addition, the organization engages in volunteer work: helping American shelters, advocating for animal rights, and supporting the Institute for Host Animal Research.

Factories are located in the USA and France (dry), and in Thailand (wet). In addition to cat food, dog food is also produced. The American company WellPet LLC, in addition to the Wellness Core brand, owns the brands Old Mother Hubbard Natural Dog Snacks, Eagle Pack Natural Pet Food, Holistic Select Natural Pet Food.

In 2004, the food took a leading position in US retail stores.

Compound

Meat

So, in first place for Wellness Core feeds are:

• Original: Turkey 26% (fresh meat 16%, meat meal 10%) (same as Kitten food).
• Sterilized with salmon: Salmon 26% (fresh meat 16%, fishmeal 10%).
• Sterilized Chicken with Turkey: Chicken 27% (fresh chicken 16%, dried chicken 16%, meat meal 15%).

So what about the main ingredient? This is a real marketing ploy, because the manufacturer decided to combine fresh meat and flour under a common name. If the components were listed in descending order of their mass fraction in the feed, then dehydrated meat (flour and fishmeal) would not be in first place.

There are no complaints about the ingredients themselves: both fresh meat and dehydrated meat are fairly high-quality sources of animal protein.

Surprisingly, the American official website does not indicate the percentage, unlike the Russian composition. The meat components of American food look like this (the components are translated literally):

• Original: boneless turkey, boneless chicken, turkey meal, chicken meal.
• Kitten: Boneless Turkey, Turkey Meal, Boneless Chicken, Chicken Meal.

In principle, the compositions are quite similar, it’s even strange that they decided to indicate the percentage on Russian packaging. After all, it is much more profitable to simply list the ingredients without details. Maybe the manufacturer is really trying to be honest with the consumer, or did someone screw someone over?

In second place are:

• Original: Chicken 21% (meat meal 16%, dried chicken 5%) (same as Kitten).
• Sterilized with salmon: dried potatoes.
• Sterilized chicken with turkey: peas.

It is not entirely clear what the manufacturer means by meat meal and dried chicken, most likely they are one and the same thing - what in English sounds like chicken meal. Hello again, marketers - combining two similar components under a common name allows you to move the ingredient higher on the list.

However, Sterilized food also contains a little meat:

• Sterilized with salmon: in 5th place herring (fish meal) 8%, tuna (fish meal) 5% and dried fish protein 2% in 15th place.
• Sterilized chicken with turkey: in 4th place is turkey (meat meal) 4% and in 7th place is dried chicken protein 3%.

Dried protein is highly processed freeze-dried protein from dried animal tissue. Its nutritional value is much lower than that of fresh and dehydrated meat, since its quantity is low.

The Original and Kitten foods also have salmon (fishmeal) 5% in 6th place.

Conclusion about meat

So, let's summarize where there is more meat:

• Original and Kitten: 52%.
• Sterilized with salmon: 41%.
• Sterilized chicken with turkey: 54%.

Well, they got smart with the composition. It’s strange, but Wellness Core Original and Kitten food from the official website have the first 4 meat components, and in sixth place there is also herring flour, which is not included in the food compositions sold in Russia.

We can conclude that not only the types of feed, but also their compositions differ in different countries. I don’t know whether this is good or bad, one way or another, the percentage of meat ingredients in the food is not bad, there are no veiled, blurry components, no suspicious by-products, and the percentage of meat in the food corresponds to the declared super-premium class.

Advantages and disadvantages

Among the main advantages of Wellness food it is worth highlighting:

• use of meat and fish in the production process;
• use of natural preservatives and antioxidants;
• contains a large percentage of vitamins and minerals;
• a wide range of products, allowing you to choose the option suitable for a particular pet (dry food, canned food and treats).

Among the disadvantages are:

• lack of goods in some pet stores;
• high cost.

Range

Wellness cat food available for sale in the following assortment:

• Wellness Core Adult Cat Sterilized (chicken + turkey), which is used to feed cats and female cats that have undergone sterilization/castration;
• Wellness Core Adult Cat Original Turkey with Chicken Grain Free Hypoallergenic - finished products for animals characterized by hypoallergenic properties;
• Wellness Cat CORE Kitten is a dry product intended for the diet of kittens;
• Wellness Tender Cuts (tender slices of turkey and duck in a spicy sauce) - a type of wet ready-made food for furry purrs (pouches);
• Wellness Core (beef and chicken slices in sauce) is the most delicate canned food for pets that even the most picky cats will enjoy.

Carbohydrates and Supplements

The plant components are approximately the same in all types:

1. Peas are more preferable in food for cats and dogs than grains. Contains a lot of vegetable protein, carbohydrates and fiber, while having a low glycemic index.
2. Potato protein is a cheap substitute for animal protein with vegetable protein. Incomplete for cats.
3. Dried potatoes are better than potato flour, but worse than whole potatoes, since they are processed before they are added to the feed. Source of fiber and complex carbohydrates.
4. Dried beets 2-4% - either fodder beets or beet pulp - a source of fiber.
5. Fiber is a plant dietary fiber of unknown origin.
6. Dried chicory root 0.5% – contains the prebiotic inulin.
7. Cranberry – it is not known in what form it was added to the composition. Its effectiveness in preventing urolithiasis has not been scientifically proven, and its presence in food is most likely a marketing ploy.
8. Dried kelp is a useful component, but it is hardly added in such quantities that it would provide real benefits to the cat’s body.
9. Yucca Schidigera - added to feed to reduce fecal odor.

All foods contain a complex of natural antioxidants, the composition of which has not been disclosed, and you shouldn’t rely too much on them - usually such additives are nothing more than a marketing ploy.

The salmon feed also contains rapeseed oil - since the degree of its purification is not known, we can assume that this is the most inexpensive refined oil. May contain toxic erucic acid, which has a bad effect on the functioning of the heart, blood vessels, liver and other organs. It is best to avoid foods that contain rapeseed oil.

Sterilized contains added glucosamine hydrochloride and chondroitin sulfate, which should have a positive effect on the joints of our pets, but their effectiveness has not been scientifically proven.

Conclusion about the carbohydrate component

They didn’t deceive us, there really is no grain, peas are used as the main carbohydrate ingredient. In the composition of the American food, carbohydrates and other additives are practically no different, but in the Russian version there is no tomato pulp and some natural chicken flavoring.

General conclusion about Wellness Core food

Pros of food:

• A decent amount of animal components corresponding to the declared super-premium class.
• Grain-free composition.
• Nice packaging design.
• Good guaranteed analysis.

Cons of food:

• Inconsistency of compositions in Russia and the USA - we know how suppliers like to embellish the composition of feed, but in this case we cannot even compare the original and the translation.
• Explicit marketing with ingredients - combining meat components under a common name.
• Marketing with KSD prevention (cranberry), healthy digestion (prebiotics), immune support (chicory?) and joint support (glucosamine and chondroitin) - these supplements are not dangerous, but there is no way to reliably test their usefulness.
• Salmon feed contains rapeseed oil, which may contain a toxic substance.
• Inflated price - the average price in Russia per package is 1.75 - 1450 rubles, and Sterilized food is even more expensive - more than 1500 rubles. For comparison, a 1.8 kg package of Acana food costs an average of 1,600 rubles. At the same time, Acana contains 75% meat, mostly fresh, and Wellness Core contains a maximum of 54% in total, that is, both fresh and dehydrated, and even contains a small amount of freeze-dried protein.

We cannot say unequivocally that the food is bad, it would be unfair, but in terms of price-quality ratio, Wellness Core food loses.