Wellness Core dry food review

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.

The Most Popular Grain-Free Cat Food Brands

Today this category is in great demand and more and more manufacturers are starting to try themselves in the grain-free field. The most popular are still the best of the long-known brands:

Primordial.

A unique brand originally from Italy, dedicated exclusively to grain-free holistic nutrition, which provides the best professional quality nutrition in this category. Primordial has solutions not only for all adult cats, but also for kittens, sterilized animals, and animals susceptible to urolithiasis.

Bozita.

A Swedish manufacturer whose calling card is profitable and very diverse canned food. Bozita also produces dry food, but not all of it is grain-free.

Monge.

Italian company with more than 50 years of history. Although the main Monge series is stuffed with corn, the manufacturer also offers a grain-free line of BWILD wet and dry food, as well as grain-free Solo and Monoprotein canned food.

Farmina.

A large Italian brand that produces food of all classes from economy to holistic. Low-grain and grain-free formulas are only available in the N&D line.

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.

Top 4. Bozita with chopped turkey (pieces in jelly)

Rating (2021): 4.78

330 reviews from resources were taken into account: Yandex.Market, OZON, Otzovik, SberMegaMarket, Wildberries, Unizoo

A successful combination of price and volume Although at first glance Bozita seems expensive, when converted to 100 g it costs only 61 rubles, which is below the average in this category. But this food is sold only in 370 g packages.

High-quality pieces in jelly Meat pieces in jelly are rarely of really high quality. A number of brands save money by replacing meat with grains and vegetables, but not Bozita.

Characteristics
Average price: 227 rub. for 370 g
Country: Sweden
Type of food: wet, pieces in jelly
Age: adults
Packing options, kg: 0.37
Taste: idea
Proteins: 7.5%
Fat: 5%
Ash: 2%

It is not without reason that Bozita is considered one of the best wet food manufacturers. The composition of the Swedish diet is rational and contains only the essentials - chicken, turkey, pork, beef, prebiotics and vitamins. No cereals or processed plant products. The pieces of food consist of meat, as expected. Most cats like the natural meat taste, as is easy to see from numerous reviews. The food is well tolerated by animals, their bodies quickly adapt to it. Prebiotics also make canned food a good choice for cats with sensitive digestion.

It is also worth noting the convenient Tetra Pak box, which is easy to open, then close and put in the refrigerator. But it is important to remember that after opening it is recommended to store it for no more than 2 days. This makes the food not the best option for rare treats. However, if there are several purrs or canned food is the main food, a 370 gram package is quite profitable.

Advantages and disadvantages

Swedish rational composition
Prebiotics for better digestion
Many cats like it
Convenient box

Shelf life after opening 2 days

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.

Top 9. Landor grain-free, turkey and sweet potato

Rating (2021): 4.59

74 reviews from resources were taken into account: Yandex.Market, OZON, Wildberries, SberMegaMarket

The most hypoallergenic Unlike many analogues, Landor dry food is ideal for allergy sufferers. Not only is it grain-free, but it is also free of chicken and chicken derivatives, citrus fruits and other allergens.

Without vegetable proteins The food contains enough meat so as not to inflate the percentage of proteins with vegetable proteins that are useless for the cat, which can often protect the pet from KSD and other problems.

Characteristics
Average price: RUB 1,563. for 2 kg
Country: Russia (produced in Spain)
Type of food: dry
Age: adults
Packing options, kg: 0.4; 2 and 10
Flavor: turkey
Proteins: 31%
Fat: 15%
Ash: 8%

Despite its availability, this grain-free food can be called the best in a number of characteristics. First of all, Landor is really suitable for lazy indoor cats, as well as sterilized pets. These are not just words. The food is based on turkey meat, which is considered the best dietary and at the same time hypoallergenic product. For a dry diet, the proportion of fat here is moderate. Potatoes are few in number and are combined with dietary vegetables. All this makes the food not too high in calories.

Many buyers note that overweight pets, as a rule, lose a little weight on Landor and get in better shape. Thanks to the abundance of vitamins and salmon oil, which is beneficial for the skin and coat, cats generally acquire a healthy and well-groomed appearance. Numerous prebiotics improve digestion. Everyone notes the excellent digestibility of the feed. The only “but” is that particularly picky cats are sometimes reluctant to eat food, but this is rare.

Advantages and disadvantages

Suitable for sterilized
Prebiotics
Improves shape and appearance
Reasonable price

Not always liked by picky people

Carbohydrates and Supplements

The plant components are approximately the same in all types:

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.
Potato protein is a cheap substitute for animal protein with vegetable protein. Incomplete for cats.
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.
Dried beets 2-4% - either fodder beets or beet pulp - a source of fiber.
Fiber is a plant dietary fiber of unknown origin.
Dried chicory root 0.5% – contains the prebiotic inulin.
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.
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.
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.

Top 2. Mi-Mi with tuna and salmon

Rating (2021): 4.91

32 reviews from resources were taken into account: Yandex.Market, OZON, PetFood24, Sber Megamarket

The best fish treat Canned Mi-Mi, presented in the most natural and attractive format for many cats, appeals to even the most picky. The best way to pamper your pet.

Characteristics
Average price: 124 rub. for 80 g
Country: Thailand
Type of food: wet, pieces in jelly
Age: kittens up to 1 year, adults and older cats
Packing options, kg: 0.085
Flavor: Tuna and Salmon
Proteins: 12%
Fat: 0.5%
Ash: 3%

Delicious pieces of tuna and salmon that look exactly like minced natural fish are supposed to be a real delicacy for any cat. Thanks to the natural composition, Mi-Mi food is suitable for absolutely all purrs, from kittens to the elderly. Moreover, all components are extremely useful. More than 50% of the jar is occupied by chopped tuna fillet and unchanged salmon meat, soaked in chicken broth. The food also contains egg powder, which is a source of a number of essential acids, the best digestible proteins, as well as two important antioxidants that help preserve vision.

Mi-Mi wet food isn't cheap, but it's definitely worth the money. Unlike its analogues, it receives exceptionally the best reviews, is well tolerated by animals and significantly improves the general condition, helps the cat remain healthy, playful and beautiful.

Advantages and disadvantages

Purrs like it
Suitable for all cats
Maximum useful components
Minimum fat and unnecessary additives

Price is above average

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.

What to look for when choosing grain-free food?

Due to high demand, the concept of “grain-free” has become quite blurred. Some manufacturers and stores use it as a marketing ploy, including food with rice and cereal derivatives in this category. Therefore, first of all, it is better to check whether the composition corresponds to the declared one.

Also of great importance is the percentage of the most valuable ingredient for any domestic carnivore, necessary for the normal functioning of all body systems - meat. In a really good food it is in the first place or even the first five and takes up at least 50% of the composition. More is better. It is worth considering the individual needs of your cat. A low-fat food for weight control is suitable for an inactive or neutered adult pet. A kitten, on the other hand, will need calories and fat for healthy growth. For sensitive and allergic cats, it is better to choose food not only without grains, but also without citrus fruits and a high chicken content.