Wellbeloved - The wet review (James Wellbeloved)

Member Name: NikkiH

Product:	James Wellbeloved
Date:	19/02/08 (513 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Nutritional, good quality

Disadvantages: More expensive

We had a pay a visit to our friendly local vet about 10 days ago, as our 6 month old puppy was starting to lose clumps of fur from all over her body. He has diagnosed an allergy to a mite which is probably present in the fields where we walk her. However, he also said that she appears to have a very sensitive skin and this may be something he will look further into on our return visit in a few weeks. We talked about the food and treats that we give her, and I explained we had stopped using Bakers due to some unpleasant side effects (see my review on that for more details). He said that he was not surprised, and whilst he thought our current brand was probably fine, we might want to consider British brand James Wellbeloved (which he explained is made and packaged in this country where guidelines are stricter about what can and cannot be included). It was a brand name that I was not familiar with, so he said there was a large box of free samples of wet dog food in reception, and said I could take some to try Amber with. I did just that and returned home.

Before I gave her any of the food I did a little bit of research, and was pleased to find that they are a company who specialise in hypo-allergenic foods for pets. A lot of their most popular products are dry kibble style food, but the wet food was the only sample available, so after reading the information we decided to go ahead with trying Amber out with the food. The foods produced contain no dairy, wheat, animal derivatives, gluten, egg, wheat, artificial preservatives and the much hated E numbers. We were advised to make any changes to her diet slowly to prevent any possible stomach upsets, but I felt secure that if the information I had read was correct then this should be a minimal risk.

The puppy food comes in small 150g foil pouches, and to be honest the design looks quite dated. The Lamb & Rice which we selected comes in a pale yellow pouch with a beige strip running through the foil. There is also a portrait style picture on the front of a trio of dog. You can also get a Turkey & Rice variety which we have not tried as yet.

Now Amber generally gobbles her food up without coming up for air, but with this food she seemed to savour the mouthfuls more, and the normal end of meal burp was absent for the first time since we got her. Also, on opening the packet, there was not a fake meat smell as is present in so many other dog foods, in fact the food was odourless as far as I could smell.

I have now been feeding Amber Wellbeloved food for her evening meal for over a week now, and whilst I think it is too early, and probably the wrong circumstances to be looking for any significant changes in her appearance of behaviour, but there has certainly been no decline. It costs just over £10 for 18 pouches at my vets so it is more expensive than her current brand, but I may continue to use it alongside this as I have been doing for the last week. Even if he does recommend using it 100% of the time, then I will pay whatever it costs to keep her fit and healthy. However, we will be changing her to the junior version of the food as the puppy version is only recommended for dogs up to 6 months old. After that, she can progress onto Adult and then in her twilight years onto Senior. This is due to the fact that there are scientifically calculated amounts of protein in each type of food depending on the dogs needs at that age. I have also noticed that this is a brand you will not find without looking hard. So far, only our vet and local independent pet shop actually supply this food. I still have not managed to find the cat food anywhere, as I was considering looking into this brand for my elderly cats. Maybe that is because they spend their money on research and quality control, rather than a huge marketing and advertising budget.

You can request a sample from their website so I may well do this for the cat food. Visit www.wellbeloved.co.uk for more details on their products or to request that free sample.

Summary: Quality food worth paying extra for