Merrick

I love merrick! I have been using the cans for years; my dogs absolutely love them! We prefer Thanksgiving dinner and Smathered comfort!!!Merrick is a very reliable good food; those people who worry about bones and stuff; those bones are fully cooked and so soft, they are safe for the dogs to eat them. Nothing to worry about it; Merrick is great, and my dogs say: Thank you Merrick!!! (By the way, we tried all of the foods and I have been investigating foods for years! We don't like wellness and orijen after they changed the formula anymore; my dog's digestion is not as good; the best food beside merrick is: Fromm; especially surf and turf! My dogs love it!!!And they look great and have great digestion.

I was very surprised to find a 1 & ½ inch long crab/crawfish Claw, in my cat’s dish, after feeding her a can of Merrick Southern Delight. What a blessing that she didn’t eat it. I contacted Merrick directly and was very disappointed in the customer service. I was told that the food might contain shells. This was a claw with a sharp point on the end. I will no longer purchase or feed my pets Merrick products.

OMG just look at this Warning letter from the FDA to Merrick and you will never think of feeding your dog this food! http://www.fda.gov/ICECI/EnforcementActions/Warning Letters/ucm217086.htm

I tried Merricks for my dogs as a treat to their other better food - my dogs that have chemical allergies had major allergy reactions to the food! I took them off the food (only their other food fed), no more allergies! This has happened with other foods also, and I found out that there were chemicals in the food - so my dogs are great indicators if the food is "clean" or not. Remember - the dog food companies don't have to list something if they didn't put it in the food! Chemical preservatives, heavy metals, toxins can be in your pet's food and you don't know it because it isn't listed. It doesn't matter if they food is advertised as "human grade ingredients" - our food can also have chemicals in it depending on what the animals were fed/medicated with, plants fertilized/pesticides, etc. The ingredient list can look good, but is the food really good enough to feed?

The Can Food is excellent considering most brands of can food has quite abit of grains.It's made 95% of the time with 'actual' people food not meals with a few exceptions.Best of all my dog is a devoted Merricks Can Food dog.She'll eat other brands occasionally but not always.Merricks though is a winner!We don't use the treats due to recalls.As long as there's no recall to can food we'll use Mericks Can Food

This seems to be an entry for Merrick as a whole, not any one of their products. This rating reflects that, and the review will touch upon all their products. Merrick is a top quality pet food manufacturer based in Texas. They have three primary dog food brands, available in both canned and dry formulas. Merrick is also becoming very well known for their treats and chewies, and have a broad spectrum of these products. Merrick is perhaps best known for their signature line of dry and canned foods. Their Merrick label is known for the exotic flavors they use, and their formulas mimicking human entrees. The dry formulas are intended to be mixed with warm water, creating a "Gravy Train" effect. The ingredients they use are absolutely top notch, and the flavors created are highly palatable. With flavors like Grammy's Pot Pie, Cowboy Cookout, Turducken, Wilderness Blend, and Trout Feast, Merrick makes a dry or canned food any discerning taste... and the quality of ingredients is out... Read more

I now feed merrick to my 2 border collie mix they love it and are doing fine . On a noter note I opened a can of Merrick Wingaling and found 2 chicken bones.I wrote to Merrick and I am waiting for them to get back to me. Now I am going to have to probe the rest of the food.just bought 5 cases.The can has a Best by date of dec 18 2012

I too feed Merrick and wanted to let you know that both the Smothered Comfort (whole chicken thigh) and Wing a ling (whole chicken wings) are specially cooked so that the bones come out soft and completely safe to feed. The process is different than when you or I would cook chicken. When we cook a chicken, the bones are not safe to feed as they would splinter when a dog tries to eat it. Merrick pressure cooks the wings and thighs so that the bones turn soft. Just an FYI. my 2 dogs (a boston and a pug) LOVE the wing a ling and I have not had any issues with the bones. I do take a spoon and chop them up though, just to make sure that they do not gulp down the whole wing since they love it so much!

Grammy's PotPie is loved by my Chis and seems like good quality, However, just opened 1st can of Smothered Comfort and found an entire chicken thigh with all the bone in tact. NOT GOOD!

I got my dogs (Pekingese) the Merrick Turducken dry dog food due to the pretty high rating on "RateItAll" and the ingredients appear to be of good quality. I was also informed that all the ingredients are either from the US or Cananda (as opposed to China). Both my dogs seem to like the food at first. But then I would come home to find the "peas, carrots, and whatever the white kibble was" outside of their bowl. Come to find out, they were just eating the main kibble and spitting out the "veggies". I wasn't sure if both dogs were spitting it out or just one since neither eat from a particular bowl. Or they start off in one and finish in the other. I free feed, so my dogs only eat when they're hungry as opposed to eating as soon as I pour food into their bowl. I've tried watching when they eat but didn't see them spitting it out either. I eventually figured it out when I would leave the dogs to eat and walk back a few minutes later to find the "veggies" outside BOTH dog bowls... Read more

Process of food rotation first 10 days on Merrick Wilderness Blend. One allergic boxer and one boxer with sensitive stomach. So far so good. No loose stools or allergic reactions, yeah! Even with the slow process of mixing foods. Will not know for sure how well they do until more weeks go by. Giving 5 stars due to below from Merrick. They've been wonderful for the last 2 days getting all the information for me so I can be assured the Merrick dry formulas are safe. +++++Hello Tracie, I called QC to ask how much garlic we used and actually effective Aug 1st 2009, we quit using garlic in out 5star formulas. So any product with a best buy date of Sept 1st 2010 will not have garlic in it. Newer bags will reflect this, AAFCO gives us a year to reflect this on our bags. I am sorry I did not have this information before. When we did use it, we used it for flavoring. We do try to get our e-mail answered ASAP, but do fall a little behind sometimes. We do not use Etho... Read more

Looooooooooove Merrick. Well actually my papillon Boston loves this food. The cowboy cook out is is fav. He eats it and wants more. He normally is a picky dog but with Merrick he eats it all the time. They also love their canned food any I always buy them a can on special occasions such as their birthday. They love it!

great canned food, especially the wing-a ling, another great attribute about the food, is that the cans are not lined with BPA , that is the truth, the canning co. that the Merrick's use don't have BPA lined cans, and to make sure the M. co. had the food within the cans tested, and they found no BPA in the foods.

Update from my previous post. My dogs did love this food and I still consider it a high quality product, however after them being on it for 2 plus months they no longer "gobble" it up like they did and it has caused an odd red staining around thier eyes, mouths, feet, and rear end. I had to stop it and have since switched to a new food. I would still recommend Merricks, not every food agrees with every dog.

I got a can of the puppy plate for Emma after reading up on this company and was very, very impressed. This isn't some pate of who knows what stuff. When you open the can it's chicken broth, chunks of chicken and duck, carrots and apples. Emma LOVED this stuff with her dry food. I am definitly getting this again, very wonderful product! My moms shelties are more sensitive than the puppy but they loved it, too. (they get to taste test, too)

I just bought a Yorkie a week ago, he came with Purina Pro plan. He had dry skin and didn't eat his food. I then switched to Wellness whic is another good food but he didn't eat it! After a nice grooming and switching his food to Merrick Puppy plate, his hair is perfect and he loves his food! It has real veggies in it! It's all great human grade food. No by products, corn, fillers, etc. I know it can be expensive but think of it his way. You feed him low quality food not only will your dog be unhappy and unhealthy but you vet bill will become higher eventually too. So you might as well get the good food. I did alot of research and Merrick was the best that I found! Petland if you have one sells the puppy plate for $11.98 compared to $17.00 elsewhere!! I would still pay the $17.00 if I had to! Great product but it may not work for every dog...

Excellent quality, wet, dry & treats. Hard to compete against, open a can even smells good. Human grade ingredients dog has an excellent diet. May have to watch overfeeding because if dog eats quickly (dogs love it) just look for the recommended serving size. With all the bad pet food out there do research at least every year about the pet food your serving to be on the safe side. The only really safe food is homemade anymore. We hope Merrick keeps up the great products. I rather pay more to be safe than cut back to save more and risk out pets health.

I'm giving this 1 star because it didn't work for our dog. Merrick was recommended for our "allergic" Golden. The perscription food he has been eating has gone up to $90 a month (32lb bag) so we were willing to try it. Well the first few days of mixing it were OK, but when we got to the point where the mix contained more of the Merrick peew!!! boy did he stink! He liked to eat it but obviously it was not agreeing with him. It's back to the perscription stuff for a while until we find another food to try.

Excellent quality food. I have a 10 year old Shepherd mix, and a 9 year old Welsh Springer Spaniel who are doing great between Merrick canned food and Orijen dry. Since switching them over to this combination from Blue Buffalo senior (which I also believe to be a decent food) I notice a difference in their coats (more shine and less shedding) and they seem to be more energetic and bright-eyed. Also, the gas is at a minimum and the bad breath is gone. Highly recommend!

I just today bought the Merrick Puppy Plate for my 14 week old Boston Terrier. I had him on Blue Buffalo, transitioning from Iams (yuck!) which the breeder had him on. He seemed to like Blue, but would throw up all the time and his stool was formed, but soft. So I waited to see if it would get better, but it didn't. So after hours of research, I narrowed it down to Merrick, Innova, and Wellness. The owner of the small specialty store I went to told me that Innova and Wellness were good foods, but tended to cause loose stools. She said that Merrick seemed to not do that and had just been approved or dubbed as a "sensitive stomach" food. So I bought a small bag this morning and just fed him about 20 minutes ago. He WOLFED it down. He licked the bowl CLEAN. He has NEVER done that. He will eat a majority of his food, but leave a few morsels. I am ECSTATIC. I'm sure it will take a little while for his stools to firm up, which I'm going to start putting a tsp of pumpkin with it,... Read more

I have two older dogs that have been on Merrick for about 2 years. I had few problems with this food until I got a puppy and slowly switched him to Merrick Puppy....it is TOO rich for him. I have switched him twice now to see if it was the food....its the food. He has mucousy and loose stools. His breeder fed him Pro-planand he did just fine... so he is back on it. I used to feed the BARF diet...bones and raw food...looks like its time to put them ALL back on it. My 10 yr collie has diarrhea on and off and my guess is its the food.

I recently switched to Merrick's dry food. We've been happy with results so far, we looked at other brands before making the change. The high quality ingredients (meats, grains,& veggies) are exactly what I was looking for, and our boxer couldn't be happier. His skin & coat look & feel great & he absolutely goes crazy when it's dinner time. It may seem a little pricey for some but the results are worth it. I have had our dogs on diff. food in the past and I have never seen one enjoy his food as much as Merrick's. I would recommend this to anyone not happy with their current food or someone who's just looking to change it up.

It gives all 3 of my dogs the diarrhea and bad gas. In addition, to the diarrhea and gas, it also made their coats dull looking and my lab seems to have more dead skin (dandruff).

I feed my 5 yorkie puppies merrick great food all natural. help them with the itch (they were on science diet crap) I recommended . very easy transition no bloody or mucus stools .

I have been feeding my dog the Wilderness dry food. She eats it very well but does have gas and loose stools to runny ones while eating it. I have also notice black hairs in the kibble that look to be cow hair or somthing. From that I question the quality of the meat that is going in. The hairs have not been in just one bag but in several. I have also feed the Trout, chicken pot pie and cowboy cook out ,the trout was too strong smelling for me. The dog has loved all of them. I also tried feeding the Working dog stew and my dog would not touch it. She has eaten most of the other canned foods that I have offered to her.

The dry food is alright, and the ingredients look good, and thinks seem alright...so far. The dogs like the taste of it, but it gives them gas, twice as much stool and not to mention that its loose, if not runny. The customer service is garbage, and it seems impossiable to get a decent answer to any question. As for the cans, they just plain arn't worth it. I tried it once and was concerned about the questionable content. If you want to feed a high quailty, nutritious canned dog food that gets the most out of your dollar...your MUCH better of with feeding Tripett.

I have a mixed breed that is extremly alergic to everything, Chicken, corn, whey products and the only thing that is working right now is Wilderness blend. My dogs fur would fall out, and hot spots from this alergy. I've tried just about every food out there and so far so good, we've gone from Solid gold, to eagle pack, to canidae, to royal canine, to Evo, then to Anergan, and this is the only thing my 4 your old rescued dog has been able to eat. She has been hit with the Iams food recall and has intestinal, digestinal liver and kidney problems from Iams. $1700.00 vet bill and they told me they were sorry I didn't save a can or they would have helped me, so I would never complain about Merricks customer service after that. As for Chicken Liver in their Wilderness blend? One of my dogs main alergies is chicken, she gets hives and she hasn't had one since I've switched her from anergen. Opinions matter, but get your facts straight first. It might not work for every dog, but its workin gr... Read more

I feed Merrick dry food (any flavor) with Cannidae and feed it to my 3 year old standard poodle, Bella. Bella loves this mixture and has been on it for 7 months now. She is one who had an ear infection every other month or so. Not since I changed her from her previous food, Eukanuba (for large dogs) to this mix. Great dog food. I also feed Merrick Puppy plate with Wellness puppy (mixed) to my 2 maltepoo and 1 shihpoo puppy. They have fantastic coats. Very shiny and they are very healthy and happy. Don't let me even start on how much they LOVE, LOVE, LOVE any of the Merrick canned food!!!!!

Merrick is a wonderful food.. however i work at a holistic pet supply store and i must tell you we've had some issues with the merrick company. We often get many of their cans in dented, and several times we've received cans with small punctures which results in the food leaking out. We've also had problems with closed cans being spoiled as well as some cans only been halfway filled. This happens most often with the Smothered Comfort. I use to feed this and every so often i'd get a can that my dog just wouldn't touch.Numerous times we've called the Merrick company and the customer support was not the least bit helpful. They tell us that the food left their facility in percfect condition and anything that happened to it happened in transit and they are not responsible. We've had several customers tell us this as well..After dealing with their customer support, it has really turned me off on their food. I did find their food a saving grace when my elderly english setter stopped eating. I... Read more

My miniature Poodle, absolutely loves this dog food. I love it just as much as she does! The ingredients are phenominal. I can appreciate that there are no chemical and artificial preservatives, soy, wheat or corn in any of the recipes. The canned food smells yummee and has real meat chunks that you can see and distinguish and the dry food actually has freezed dried apples, carrots and peas in it! Her favorates are Turducken, Grammy's Pot Pie or Puppy Plate dry mixed with canned Thanksgiving Day Dinner, Puppy Plate, Turducken, Cowboy Cookout or Smothered Comfort (which has an actual whole chicken thigh in it which can be pulled off the bone or eaten with it because the bone is so soft).  I feed these in rotation and there is no upset to her digestive system and she loves the variety. Since feeding this food, her coat has gotten shinier, her eyes sparkle and the goop that used to build in the corners of her eyes has dramatically decreased. This food also gets a very good rating and revi... Read more

I am about to switch from Canidae ALS to Merrick Turducken dry for my shih tzus as Canidae switched recipe and manufacturing plant. But I am concern with the ingredient - garlic in Merrick dry dog food. How much garlic is not poison to dog?? Any comments please? Thank you.

Merrick has cleaned my dogs' teeth. Before I put him on this food his teeth had plaque all over them. Now his teeth are sparkling! I can't find one bit of tartar on them anymore. His teeth are absolutely gorgeous. The vet is amazed at his smile!

For all those that love what Merrick stands for, but have pups with grain allergies, I highly recommend the Before Grain product by Merrick.  This is their new line of grain free foods and my dog has never shed so little (including when she was on Orijen, EVO, TOTW and any other brand).   She loves both the buffalo and tuna flavors, have yet to try her on the chicken.Just a suggestion for those out there.  Unfortunately, I added BG, but someone got upset when it was ranked #1 over Orijen and purposely gave it a bad rating for no reason.  Talk to  your local pet food carrier and see if they carry it.  All my local stores are now suggesting this over EVO due to the low Ash content and lower protein levels for those dogs not in trials or super, super active.

We tried the Wilderness blend and man is it stinky. She loves to eat it! I have never seen her go nuts for a food!! It really has some great ingredients and love that it is all made in the US and in their own facility. However, poops were grainy and soft after 6 weeks of feedings. Just didn't agree with her.

An excellent dog food.Ingredients: Buffalo, Oatmeal, Barley, Salmon Meal, Venison,Whole Brown Rice, Canola Oil (preserved Vitamin's E and C), Flaxseed, Potatoes, Carrots, Peas, Dried Chicken LiverGood meat content. Quality grains in the food are oatmeal, barley and rice.Flaxseed is a high quality source of Omega 6 and Omega 3 essential fatty acids.Healthy range of fruits and vegetables is appreciated, as are the probiotics.I am going to put this in my rotation for my new Lab/akita mix puppy, as Akita's benefit from a fish based protein source. (from being bred for generations in Japan, a seafaring nation I imagine)

My dog was in the wilderness blend, which smelled very fishy and also the kibbles were more grainy at the end of the bag, compared to other dog food. What I really didn't like is that when my dog was on it ( she was on it for about 1 month), the stool was either very loose or runny, not to mention a lot of it.

For an allergy blend like Wilderness to have chicken liver hidden in it's ingredients is disgusting. Merrick needs to be more upfront with their ingredients. Also while there grainless formulas have very good quality ingredients the true first ingredients in the buffalo and salmon is chicken meal. Kudos for Wellness Core and TOTW for having chicken free grainless formulas with a lower protein content.

Orijen is the best but my puppy seems to go crazy over this too and the ingredients are very good

I put my Chihuahuas on this as I suspected a food allergy in one of them and the Wilderness Blend with Buffalo and Venison in it were just the novel protein sources that I needed to help determine her allergy. Her symptoms actually got worse over time which helped me conclude that her allergy was not to chicken protein, but to grain as everything she has eaten up to this point had contained at least 2 or 3 grains. I have worked in the veterinary industry for many, many years and had been under the impression that the veterinary diets and some of the higher-cost commercial diets out there were great. After a few years of studying nutrition in university, I now know that most of the dog foods out there are GARBAGE but Merrick is definitely NOT one of them. It wasn't for my dogs but I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.

Love the ingrediants in the Puppy Platter. He gobbles it up.

the canned foos is great.. my picky chihuahua loves it. It is however a bit chunky so I hope they come up with a small dog formula :-)

Even though my dog can no longer eat this food since he developed a sensitivity to grains, I still think this is a high quality product. He loved the taste of it and the ingredients are very good, esp. the canned food. I would still recommend this food to dog owners!

My 3 dogs (Cavalier, Border Collie mix, Shih-poo) love Turducken and Grammies Pot Pie can food.  They will eat the Turducken with water (it makes a gravy).  Even my picky Border Collie mix likes it.  They are doing great with it.  It will stay part of my food rotation.  My dogs don't do so well with any grain-free food (I've tried alot).  This is a good quality food!

This is a great dog food my dogs are healthy and happy LOVE there food and never have I feed a dog food that helped with there skin and coat so much it is like haveing a new puppy

This is indeed a good food and my basset likes this food as well!

MERRICK IS AMAZING. SEEMS TO BE SOMETHING IN IT THAT MAKES MY DOGS GO NUTS. MY 5 YEAR OLD PIT BULL IS THE PICKIEST EATER OUT THERE. I HAD TO COOK FOR HER FOR THE LAST 4 YEARS, HAMBURGERS, PORKROLL, EVEN HAD TO BUY WENDY'S BURGERS. THAT IS TH EONLY WAY SHE WOULD EAT. SHE WOULD STARVE HERSELF FOR DAYS AT A TIME IF I DIDN'T COOK HER ANYTHING. I TRIED EVERY FOOD OUT THERE WET AND DRY. I BOUGHT A CAN OF MERRICK THINKING THE SAME THIS WOULD HAPPEN SHE WOULD HATE IT. THEN SHE LICKED THE BOWL CLEAN. SHE LOVES IT. I DON'T HAVE TO COOK FOR HER ANYMORE. THEN MY OTHER 2 YEAR OLD MALE PIT BULL WAS GETTING PICK AS WELL FROM WATCHING HIS SISTER EAT PEOPLE FOOD AND HE LOVES IT AS WELL. I SWEAR BY THIS FOOD. THE WET FOOD IS WHAT MAKES THEM EAT LIKE THEY NEVER EATEN. FOR ALL THOSE DOG OWNERS THAT HAVE DOGS THAT ARE PICKY TRY IT ONE TIME AND I BET THEY WILL EAT LIKE YO UNEVER SEEN BEFORE. TRY THE WET FOOD NAMED WINGALING OR SMOTHERED COMFORT. THERE IS PIECES OF CHICKEN IN THE CANS ON THE BONES DO ... Read more

Been using the Wilderness Blend for about a month now.  Dogs seem to like it but it gives them bad gas.  Seems to be a fairly high quality food.  No complaints so far.

My little doxie has had problems with dog food from the time we brought her home. We switched her over to "home cooking" (she ate what my family ate) and did quiet well on that for a while. She started having skin issues and my vet was convinced that it was because I was not feeding her commercial dog food. We bought the Hills Prescription Diet food at his insistence. She seemed to have more energy on the dog food, but it was mega expensive and we had to beg her to eat it. I went to the local pet food store and picked up a few cans of the Merrick because it had no fillers and all natural ingredients. Daisy now will beg for her food!! It is totally amazing.We can now eat our meal in peace and she is licking the bowl clean! Her stools are normal and her energy level is still high. I highly recommend this food.