Hi, Sammies currently 7 months old and has been on wellness puppy for quite some time, but i was wondering how does Kirklands brand par to wellness? is wellness that much better?

Well if you get technical Wellness is a higher quality food, but that doesn't mean there is anything wrong with Kirkland's. I feed Diamond Natural's, and Diamond makes Kirkland's for Costco. Basically just compare the ingredients and see. If you dog is doing well on Wellness leave him on it, if not try a slow change. If there are other reasons like cost or availability well Kirkland's is not a bad food at all.

Just MHO

Hello - There have been many posts here about Dog Food Ratings. Reading them got me to switch from Iams to Kirkland for my pups.

Here is the link to the Rating Scale that SmackBelly's Mom posted with some results of food already scored.

Dog Food Rating (http://www.lab-retriever.net/board/scoring-system-dog-t7277627.html?t=7277627&highlight=food+score)

FYI both Wellness and Kirland scored a 110 A+

The Kirkland food is a perfectly good food and much better than some of the commercially known brands like Iams, Eukanuba, Science Diet, etc. Wellness is a better product based on the ingredients alone. For example, Kirkland food contains beet pulp, which is a filler. It's a safe ingredient but it is part of the reason Kirkland's food can be cheaper than Wellness that doesn't include beet pulp.

Once you know what ingredients are good, which are bad, which aren't harmful but could be more nutritionally sound, it's just a matter of what you can afford and what you will live with.

I never thought I would feed Canidae, I felt it was grain heavy with both white and brown rice, but with 3 adult dogs, 11 puppies, and however many stay with me as they continue to grow up, I had to move to a cheaper food and still not try to compromise on quality (I was feeding another food that ran about 40 cents more a pound). Kirkland was an option, but I decided I could spend a little more and get the Canidae that while a little grain heavy, has no beet pulp.

I like Kirkland a lot - when my dogs did poorly on two "higher rated" foods, Kirkland was the food that brought them back to perfect health :) However, I found it difficult to actually save money at Costco - their "loss leader" pricing on Kirkland works very well, and it was difficult to leave without spending a fortune on other good deals I hadn't realized I couldn't live without ;)

For a differing view on beet pulp, see the dogfoodproject.com site:Beet Pulp, the isolated fibrous material from sugar beets, is another ingredient that has an undeservedly bad reputation. It is a very gentle, beneficial source of fiber that is not only generally very well tolerated, but also has specific properties that make it suitable as a source of nutrition for the beneficial bacteria that reside in the intestinal tract. The sugar is almost completely removed, what is left in the pulp is only about 1/5 the amount of sugar that you would find in a serving of carrots of equal size. It is also colorless and does not turn a dog's coat turn red, like urban legends claim. The argument that beet pulp is an "unnatural" ingredient is often brought up, but people who present this complaint seem to forget that it is also not natural for dogs to eat highly processed commercial products with a carb content of generally 40% and more, and a moisture content of only around 10% as opposed to a more natural 60-70%. Added fiber is required to make such formulations work for the pets who eat a dry diet.