Wainwright's Dog Food

Stumbled here by chance and this all now makes sense! We fed our 11 month old chihuahua since we’ve had her from 12 weeks old and used to go wild for the Wainwright’s Turkey & Rice puppy food, she’d be running round like a lunatic just at the word “food” and jumping up at my knees for the bowl before I could even put it down then would literally gobble it down and we thought we were onto a winner without the need to chop and change to find her something she would like in the first place!

Now since I took delivery of the latest 15kg bag, she’s been very reluctant to eat it at all, sometimes to the point where she just doesn’t touch it whatsoever and will go without a meal. When she does, she doesn’t wolf it down like she used to with the original recipe either. It doesn’t make her ill like a lot of other comments here, but it’s quite clear that the recipe change has had an effect and she mustn’t like it.

I didn’t notice the ingredients difference, but I did notice the kibble were slightly larger and a lighter colour as I mixed it in with the remainder of the old bag until that was gone. The only thing I noticed was the old bag was just labelled as “Turkey & Rice” and the new one was labelled “Turkey & Brown Rice” but didn’t think anything of it at the time.

We’re now stuck with a 15kg bag that’s pretty much useless and gonna actually have to start shopping around for food she’ll actually enjoy as I feel awful trying to give her this when it’s clear she’s not into it. I’m just lucky she’s not poorly from it like a lot of other comments, I guess!

My 2 year old poocha was fine eating the kibble, but since he has started the new bag he has been really ill. Several trips to the vets, different medicines he gets better then ill again. Sickness, horrendous poops, with slimy mucus and now blood. We have slept with him, by his side thinking it could be something else and he wasn't going to make it. I didn't even click it could be his food, I feel so awful that in reality I have been poisoning my much loved member of the family by giving him Wainwrights. Why has this not been officially highlighted as a warning. Fine if your dog is ok but if not then you need to be warned. Wainwrights this is negligence if it is confirmed. I hope my pooch can now recover and isn't going to end up with lasted damage like some unfortunate other pets. This is so sad.

So glad I found this post. Last week my 10 week old puppy was so poorly diarrhoea and vomiting. We wondered if he had eaten something he shouldn't in the garden but after seeing the reviews I'm wondering if it was the turkey and rice wet food he had. Weve had no option but to change his food now after putting him on a plain food diet for a few days. It's strange as he has been ok on the other wet food but not this one.

Similar to others, after being on wainwright's for years our dog was suddenly very ill, passing blood, constantly having diarrhoea, up to 15 times per day and in the house, skin problems and fur falling out. Having to sleep alongside him as he couldn't alert us in time during the night.

We'd go through periods of medication and starvation until he was improving, then slowly introduce dry food knowing he'd been ok on it for years, but no other treats or food at all and he'd still get sick again. After going through this cycle repeatedly and spending a fortune on vet bills I stumbled across a tiny bit of text on the pets at home site saying the recipe had changed.

We've spent months transitioning to raw food and he's much improved but there are some legacy health issues and what seems to be a permanent shift in his digestion which we have to manage carefully.

It's absolutely disgusting. This company are a disgrace, and I'm sure if our dog wasn't a big lad - 65kg - he would be dead. I'm certain only his size and robustness saved him from worse with all the blood he was passing.

I’m so glad we came across this page. After 3 bouts of diarrhoea we finally realised it was the food that was the issue! Our pup has been on wainwright’s since we first got him with no problems and out of no where he had sickness, diarrhoea, lots of wind and was off his food! He is back on chicken and rice for the 3rd time and hoping to move onto a new food once his stomach has settled, fingers crossed it hasn’t had an lasting effects!

Just stumbled upon this site, I googled Wainwright’s recipe change just to see if there was any notice that they had changed recipes. My dog has been on Wainwrights tray food for at least 5 years never had an issue until I bought the variety 24 pack. I became concerned that the Duck recipe and the Lamb recipe smelt absolutely disgusting like fish, don’t know how something meaty can smell so fishy. I couldn’t leave it down for him it was vile and since then he has had problems with his bowels, lots of mucus in his poop also at the beginning blood too, the vets think its been a stomach issue and I’m putting it down to Wainwright’s changing the recipe. I’m angry because if this is the case surely it should be printed on the packaging that it’s been changed. After reading all these reviews there are lots of very poorly dogs out there. He has been on chicken/pasta/rice and egg for over a week now and I think he will be until I find a better food. ????

I don't know if they've changed the recipe on the Wainwrights Chicken and Rice pouches but there has been a shortage for over a month or so and over this past month where I have been able to source pouches my poor girl has had loose stools and bouts of sickness. She has IBD which involves acid reflux so it's hard to stop her being sick at the best of times but she does have medication to help her stomach stay calm. Everything's gone wrong... I give her chicken and rice with carrots and other natural bulk ups and I have good stools... as soon as she goes back to her pouch food and it's runs again! Im going to speak to the vet again to check on her again. Would love to know if anyone else has had this with pouches.

My 14 year old girly has always been in Wainwrights Mature Lamb & Rice, but in the last week, she has been very very poorly. She's diabetic so having gastric issues is a disaster. After 6 vet visits for dangerously low blood sugar thanks to diarrhea, I finally figured out that it was this food. She has now been taken off and has now been prescribed metrobactin, pro-kolin and hills i/d digestive care to help with her poorly tummy. I'm so glad I found the reviews on this site as this is how I learned that they changed the recipe.

Avoid this food at all costs if you have a dog with diabetes, pancreatitis etc.

I'm so glad I came across this site. My 7 month old puppy had explosive, bloody diarrhoea from the Salmon Wainwrights puppy food. Do not buy! He has only just recovered, having been on a diet of rice and chicken. We are now back on Eukanuba and no problems since.

Just had my dog to the vets yet again. We had Skye and my other dog Kenzie on wainwright’s 25% as skye was rescue and was badly needing to loose weight. All was well from November until April where both my dogs suddenly became violently ill. Runny, bloody poos and projectile vomiting. Found out that wainwright’s had changed their recipe. Changed their food to Harrington’s but due to the damage Wainwright’s food had done to Skye’s stomach she now has long term Colitis. Avoid this food at all costs. A huge vets bill and a very poorly dog

The dogs have been ok on Wainwright's grain free & mature dog food for years. Last week; 3 dys of terrible diarrhoea, 2 beds thrown out, a fortune spent on pro biotics, slept on the sofa with one eye open to avoid another disaster. We have changed to AVA Sensitive stomach dry dog food. They love it & it works BUT today just heard on lunchtime BBC radio 4 that AVA have had to recall their cat food brands because of a steep rise in toxic cytopaenia in cats (fatal). Both produced for Pets at Home. AVA dog is manufactured in Wilmslow, cat food in Boston so fingers crossed.

My dog has been eating Wainwright’s dried food for over 6 years without any problems. Now she has been very ill with loose stools & stomach tenderness. I had no idea the recipe had been changed, there was certainly no notice or information on the change. I will never buy any Wainwright’s products again.

Absolutely appalled to hear of the change in recipe after researching Wainwrights food. We were looking to see if there had been any product recalls and stumbled across this site. Our cat has been on Wainwrights food for years, until falling ill last week. He is a house cat and has not come into contact with anything other than his regular feeds (we even have locks on our kitchen bin). We can only conclude that the cat food has also had an unnotified recipe change, resulting in our cat being horrendously sick.

Absolutely fuming with Wainwrights. My dogs have been on this food since being a puppy and never had any issues. However, both my dogs have had sickness, diarrhoea and sore bums recently and I’ve had to take them to the vets multiple times! I assumed it was just a bug they had caught but now my dogs won’t eat the food so I started to wonder if Wainwright’s had changed the ingredients. I’m so glad I came across this page. I think it’s absolutely disgusting that Wainwrights have done this and not indicated on the packaging that it is a new recipe. I will never buy anything from this brand again and I will be contacting them regarding my vet bills! AVOID AT ALL COSTS!

We have fed wainwrights turkey & rice to our English bull terrier from a puppy she is now 7 1/2, we have never had any issues with her eating. in February of this year(2021) she started being sick & her stools became very soft & slimy, she became very lethargic, we were so worried thinking the worst, after several visits to the vets, blood tests various scans & an endoscopy nothing showed up.
we set about searching the internet and came across this website i was horrified at what i was reading.
we cannot believe that a firm like wainwrights would do this!!!
we have put our dog through some very invasive procedures under general anesthetic trying to find out whats going on. "not to mention the cost involved"
we have changed her food to arden grange chicken & rice an instant improvement.
thanks to everyone that posted on this site & we hope your animals are all back to there normal healthy happy selves.
we will never buy wainwrights products again.
"Angry ex wainwrights customer from Exeter"

After 4 years only eating Wainwright’s Duck and rice, my dog has refused to eat this! She usually wolfs down her kibble but now won’t touch it unless I smother it in raw egg. She has also had started letting off smelly wind and has vomited a couple of times. Now I see on here that the food has changed - there is no alert on the packaging to advise this although now it’s mentioned I can see the kibble looks different. Very alarming and disappointing - thank you to those who have left reviews, you have saved me from persisting with this pack of food/wondering what is going on! I’m boiling up some chicken and rice for my starving dog now and taking this back to Pets at Home...goodness knows what to try next?!

My dog has been on this for a year. He developed a really sore anus and all the hair under around his tail gradually turned red. I had only kept him on it because it gave him really firm poos and I thought it would assist with the emptying of anal glands. He was previously on Challenge Salmon and Potato but his poos were always very soft and squidgy on it though otherwise he thrived. I was honestly just trying to save money by going cheaper.
Such a big mistake. He ended up at the vet with an anal abscess which after 3 courses of antibiotics has not fully healed.
I always check ingredients of dog food before I buy and have to give him grain free as he ( a Samoyed) is sensitive to gluten. Somehow I missed that TOMATO POWDER is in this Wainwright’s food. A really strange ingredient to add to dog food and not good for either dogs or humans with very sensitive stomachs. He had had a bout of acid reflux in the past (brought up blood during the night) and the vet prescribed an anti acid which sorted that out. He was not on Wainwright’s at the time. As a reflux sufferer I can confirm that tomato is one if the foods to avoid. I discussed his food with the Vet when booking him in for sedation for cleaning out of the abscess and he suggested I return him to his original food and stop the Wainwright’s. I can only think that it contributed to the abscess. There were no signs that his anal glands needed emptying at any time. No scooting or bothering his rear end.
I am hoping and praying that he does not have an antibiotic resistant bacterial infection. I am at the vet with him again tomorrow.
I would not recommend this food, as although I can’t prove anything, I do not think tomato powder a suitable ingredient for dog food. I have never seen this in any other dog food and I have researched quite a few.

Found this page by chance as my dog has been so unwell. They have been on this food for 7 years and both dogs have had poorly tummies since the 20th of April. Now I know why!!! They changed the recipe and did not even bother mentioning it! I thought it was just the packaging that changed. I'm livid as its cost me a fortune with the vet! I will be complaining on Tuesday.

Our spaniels have been on this food for 7+ years with no problem until recently we’ve found out the ingredients had changed and it has been making them ill with diarrhoea and pooing in the house. Also cost us a ooh trip to the vets when one of them was very ill overnight! Will not be buying this food again!

My dog has been on wainwright’s from being a puppy it was the only good we settled well on and never had a problem until 2 weeks ago when he sudden severe diarrhoea and vomiting.

Prior to this he has never had us up in the night since the day we got him and we was up all night from 3am in and every half an hour.

We put him on boiled chicken and white rice and with in a day was back to solid poos so re-introduced Wainwright’s and surprise surprise we were back to square one.

I had realised the packaging had changed on the Wainwright’s food and so went to Pets at Home to question it and was told yes the packaging and ingredients have changed. Apparently they have done it to make it a better quality food by increasing the meat content to 36%....as the saying goes if it’s not broke don’t fix it. I’m so angry that we now have to go through the whole process of trying to find the right food again

Had had my dog on the green wainwright's for 6 years with no problems then the last 3 months I have been In and out the vets bill after bill wondering why she was so ill constant lose poo waking up in the night to go, off with herself. It has been the change in ingredients that they haven't made any point of on the packaging. Or I would have known straight away it was her food. So upset I have been hurting her for months because of there not telling us they hanged to main ingredients.

Used this food since our dog was a puppy , really solid poos never would have adjusted his diet but this company decided to do it for us!!!!

We didn’t know what was causing sudden diarrhoea and change in behaviour, poor boy was looking unwell. We put him on chicken and rice and viola solid poop again. So we start to introduce 5 peices of wainwright’s back in and instant diarrhoea, all over his bum he was running round crying, showing him at 12oclock at night and having to clean carpet!!!

After trips to the vets and £78 bill later we find out there’s been a recipe change and that’s causing the problem. We are absolutely fuming and will be returning this food and expect full refund and will never use this brand again. Stay away from this brand unless you’re happy with a company changing the recipe as they please!!!

I have feed my dogs Wainwright complete dry food for 5 years with no problems. Suddenly vomiting after eating . Vet couldn't find anything wrong. After 3 weeks of chicken and rice and a mild diet all good. Introduced a smal amount of Wainwright immediately back to vomiting after just one very small portion.

A couple of weeks ago, my dog started to be sick and had diarrhoea. After numerous visits to the vets, it was still unclear what was wrong and her blood tests and urine results came back absolutely fine. My dog was put on chicken and pasta and every time I began to slowly reintroduce her to her Wainwright's, she became sick again. It took me about 3 times before I realised it could possibly be the food. It was not until I had a google and found these reviews below that I was almost certain it was a change in recipe which has not agreed with my dog. I have now changed her food and she seems absolutely fine!

I recently bought 2 new bags of Wainwright's grain free duck and veg, (which my dog has been on for many years without issue)
I noticed immediately that the kibble looked different. The pieces looked larger, thinner and paler in colour but nothing on the packaging to advise of a new recipe/formula?! My dog ate only from the new kibble (nothing else) and was violently sick from that first evening onwards. He also had diarrhoea and I had to give him Pro-kaolin to settle his tum. Needless to say I stopped feeding him the new kibble.
I've messaged Pets at Home who state they are looking into the matter. The comments on here are very alarming and I've forwarded the link to PaH also.
Not sure if this is due to a change of ingredients or mix up or some kind of contamination but I eagerly await a response from Pets at Home.

I was unaware that the recipe had changed until informed by the vet, the last bag has made my dog vomit and have loose stools.

It has also caused my friends dog to break out in a full body rash !!
AVOID!!! Not only is my dog sick I’m out of pocket for the bag and for the vets bills!

Since the recipe has changed my two dogs have been so unwell after eating this food. It has cost us a crazy amount in vets bills to get them better! Not to mention the worry and sleepless nights staying up while they were so ill.

DO NOT BUY THIS DOG FOOD

Used the adult dog lamb and rice food for past year. Last large bag of food delivered is definitely different. Looks much paler and smaller. My poor dog has such a bad upset stomach and can see similar reviews on here, the recipe must have changed. Not impressed

I maybe should have got the hint that when our 14 year old Springer Spaniel Charlie started picking out the kibble and then dropping them on the floor something was wrong. We have used Wainwright for years and had no problems but in the last 6 months Charlie started being sick. It wasn't until we talked to our vet and changed all his food that things improved. He is now like a different dog. The clincher was we gave a 13 kg bag to our niece for her Border Collie that we knew the food was at fault he took a few mouthfuls and it made him sick as well. I gather that recently the recepie has changed adding maize and removing some meat content. What ever had happened the food is now not suitable for our dog. Note we have always mixed the kibble with Pedigree Chum wet food.

I have been using Wainwrights Grain Free Adult (Turkey or lamb) kibble and my 3 yearold hound enjoys it. No adverse effects after 6 months of use. I combine it usually with a wet food, raw tripe, mince etc.