Wellness CORE Cat Food Review


Wellness is a truly a premium range, and the Wellness CORE Grain Free cat foods are very good.
“Grain Free” is always good for a cat because our cats shouldn’t have any grains in their diet – they’re an obligate carnivore, and it’s undisputed fact. Not once in nearly two decades of reviewing pet foods have I found a pet food manufacturer to offer a decent reason why so many cat foods are rammed with grains, other than it’s cheap to make cat foods with them.
Your cat doesn’t need “grain free alternatives” either, like potatoes or tapioca, which is why Wellness CORE starts to look really good – you don’t find these ingredients either.
Let’s take a look at Wellness CORE Grain Free Original Adult for the sake of this review, but I would recommend feeding your cat a variety (not just flavours of kibble, but other types of cat food as well).
Wellness CORE cat food review
What the marketing says
The bag features a gold badge – how fancy – which says you can “Discover the 5 Signs of Wellbeing”. I feel the purpose is to make the bag look good, as it doesn’t say much about the product.
“Veterinarians recommend Wellness” may offer the brand credibility, but in truth I’ve known some veterinarians to happily endorse any pet food if they get paid for doing so.
What should matter more to you is the ingredients, and how appropriate those ingredients are for your pet carnivore.
Let’s take a look…
What the ingredients really say
What I love about the ingredients of Wellness CORE is they’re excellent choices for your carnivorous cat.
45% minimum protein and 18% fat is excellent, and I don’t think you’ll find a better dry cat food in Australia in that respect.
Out of the seven main ingredients (and I say main as these amount to most of the recipe), only one is a non-animal ingredient – peas. I see no reason to see that as a bad thing, as peas offer protein, fibre, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals, and in such a moderation are likely beneficial for your cat.
Let’s consider the animal ingredients – deboned turkey, deboned chicken, turkey meal, chicken meal, chicken fat, and herring meal.
These are very appropriate ingredients for your carnivorous cat, and exactly what you should be looking for in a dry cat food.
“Deboned” is a form similar to what we would buy for ourselves, sometimes referred to as “real chicken”, whereas “Meal” is a protein powder from pre-cooking the animal and separating the protein from fat content.
The long list of ingredients which follow the above main ingredients will all amount to a few percent or less, but I’m happy to say they’re all beneficial for your cat.
Cheap cat foods use preservatives which may be detrimental to your cat’s health. Not immediately, but from consistent feeding over many months or years. That’s not the case with Wellness cat foods which use natural preservatives such as rosemary extract.
Flaxseed and Salmon Oil are great additions to support wellness – heart health, general wellbeing, skin and coat. It’s good to see salmon oil used instead of a cheaper plant-based oil.
Covering the remaining ingredients individually would take a while, but you can be assured they’re full of antioxidants, probiotics, and vitamins and minerals essential for your cat (as well as being required by pet food standard AAFCO).
Wellness CORE is without doubt a premium cat food, and premium isn’t a word I’d used for many cat foods which tell you they’re “premium”.
Wellness CORE isn’t the cheapest cat food, for good reason, but I would highly recommend it if you’re looking for a top quality dry cat food.
Where to buy
Wellness CORE can be purchased from the following retailers:
Ingredients
The ingredients of Wellness CORE cat food (Grain Free Original):
Deboned Turkey, Deboned Chicken, Turkey Meal, Chicken Meal (source of Glucosamine and Chondroitin Sulfate), Peas, Chicken Fat, Herring Meal, Dried Plain Beet Pulp, Flaxseed, Natural Flavor, Salmon Oil, Calcium Chloride, Choline Chloride, Cranberries, Dried Chicory Root, Hydrolyzed Yeast, Taurine, Vitamin E Supplement, Dried Kelp, Mixed Tocopherols added to preserve freshness, Vitamin C (L-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate), Niacin, Zinc Proteinate, Zinc Sulfate, Ferrous Sulfate, Iron Proteinate, Yucca Schidigera Extract, Vitamin A Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate, Copper Sulfate, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Copper Proteinate, Sodium Selenite, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Manganese Sulfate, Riboflavin, Manganese Proteinate, Biotin, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Calcium iodate, Folic Acid, Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid), Dried Enterococcus faecium Fermentation Product, Dried Bacillus licheniformis Fermentation Product, Dried Bacillus subtilis Fermentation Product, Rosemary Extract, Green Tea Extract, Spearmint Extract.
Guaranteed analysis
The guaranteed analysis of Wellness CORE cat food (Grain Free Original):
Protein | (min) 45% |
Fat | (min) 18% |
Crude Fibre | (max) 4% |
Carbohydrates * | 19% (estimated) |
* May be estimated. Read how to calculate carbohydrates in a pet food.