#it’s always been shiny since switched to Purina

[adventures-with-aspen]

[doberbutts]

At the risk of starting dog food discourse on top of Will Smith controversy... how do you like the Wholehearted/Petco brand food? Between supply chain issues and inflation I've been looking for something more readily available

Keeping in mind that I have not worked at Petco in over a year and thus it is very possible things have changed:

I was told by both the Purina and the Merrick reps that came into my store that WholeHearted was formulated by Purina/Merrick and specifically what bags are the equivalent to what formulas. More or less the main WholeHearted brand that comes in both grainfree and grain-inclusive are formulated after Merrick's base brand which also comes in grainfree and grain-inclusive, the limited ingredient WholeHearted after Merrick's LID formulas, and the active dog WholeHearted after Purina's 30/20 formula. I have no verification and never saw that in writing but with more than one rep of the associated companies telling me this I also have no reason to not believe them. Supposedly Petco worked with them on this contract and it was a big corporate handshake that made this happen.

As a result, I'm a bit more inclined to trust it over some other corporate branded food, since they worked directly with the company that has vets formulating their own brand. I used to feed it to Creed and now that I'm out of my PPP reserves I'm working through WholeHearted with the girls.

They seem to like it and most dogs find it pretty palatable. It's also fairly low in actual food ingredients (not counting preservatives and supplements ofc) so it's a good option for elimination trials with allergies as each flavor is identical to the other with the exception of the protein used and the type of oil/fat used in the preservative spray (chicken formula uses chicken fat, beef formula uses beef fat, etc). I find it stores well and I rarely found bugs in it unlike other brands. The kibbles are small enough that the chihuahuas don't mind eating even the allbreed size, but big enough that my big dogs never seemed to choke on the pieces.

In general my dogs have shiny coats and no/minimal eye goopies on it, their poops are small and solid, and they finish their meals including picky Tater. However I also have noticed their poop is lighter in color- indicating higher calcium content- and the dogs are more thirsty, which makes me wonder if it's high in sodium and that can be a problem for dogs with sensitivities to that type of thing. There's also a very specific smell to the poop- not a terrible smell, but definitely different than other brands I've fed.

The girls are currently eating their chicken/rice formula and I also have bags of beef/rice as well as their active dog formula and a couple bags of grainfree chicken and beef. I tend to switch up every so often so they don't always get the same thing, as instructed by multiple nutritionists I've spoken to.