Just a few customer comments, off a review site / that raises a big alarm bell: GREAT LIFE DOG FOOD
GREAT LIFE DOG FOOD - Great Life brand dog food is manufactured by Doctor’s Finest Inc. Doctor’s Finest ships all of their products out of Southern California, and advertises all of their products as being made in the USA. Doctor’s Finest was first founded in 1996. The spokesperson for Doctor’s Finest is Dr. Elliott Harvey, who was featured on a show on Animal Planet. Dr. Harvey has also won the award for “Best Products Award” from Animal Wellness Magazine. None of Great Life’s dog food formulas have ever been involved in any pet food recalls.
GREAT LIFE DOG FOOD REVIEW - Great Life’s dog food formulas contain a unique freeze dried raw food nutrition complex, which is saturated throughout the dry kibble. All of Great Life’s formulas use meat that is free of artificial hormones and antibiotics. They also market their formulas as being made with only premium human-grade ingredients. In addition to this, Great Life also states that their formulas are low-glycemic, and retain “full active nutrition” after being baked.
Mimi says: March 12, 2011 at 3:34 pm
I called Great Life after noticing large amounts of animal(buffalo?) hair in their food. I returned the food. I have tiny chihuahuas and they can’t digest this. Each kibble, if you break it apart and look closely, has hairs in it. You can even see them protruding from the kibble without breaking it. When I called them the guy who took my call was rude and brusque, telling me to just return the food. No explanation about the large anmount of hir in it. Clearly they use the hide to make the food, with thee hair still on it. Not for my tiny babies and not worth the price for sure. I would not give this to my dogs even it it was free. The place I bought it from said the guy is rude to them as well.
Lisa says: March 23, 2011 at 4:31 pm
I noticed little tiny silvery hair or fibers embedded and stinking out of my Great Life Grain Free Chicken kibbles as well. I returned the unopened bag to my pet store and now we are transitioning to Orijen Regional Red.
Cashay says: June 22, 2011 at 3:43 pm
Dr. Harvey answers the phone, I stopped using this food a couple of years ago because he seemed VERY rude and arrogant when I was asking him a few questions, I very much agree with the former negative assessments of his attitude, plenty of really good foods out there we all just have to do our research and ultimately let our dogs be the judges.
Switch says: August 5, 2011 at 5:01 pm
We’ve tried GL buffalo and chicken. Both are horrendous for the coat of a German Shepherd. The buffalo caused dry flaky skin and massive shedding. The chicken caused massive shedding and a stink to their coats. The food “sounds” good, but the proof comes from the dogs. Great Life products are NOT for German Shepherds. We have seven unrelated GSDs.
marie says: December 4, 2011 at 5:02 pm
hello, i own an organic pet shop and i had noticed that people usually feed great life for about 4 months and then they stop…the reason being is unknown (we have only been open for a year) i was wondering if they change the formula..also some of the salmon bags had changed the front sticker…the large sticker would say salmon and the small sticker under it grain free and potato free WILD salmon. I am thinking we will be discontinuing this food, I would rather see my customers come back all the time !!!
I do know that over a year it went from having organic ingredients in the list to just plain regular ones!
Kerri says: November 4, 2011 at 7:45 pm
- I had been feeding Great Life for the last 2 years. I had switched from EVO as I had considered Great Life to be a higher quality food and Natura Foods (which makes Innova) was purchased by Proctor & Gamble. My dogs all loved the Great Life and I had them on a rotation of the Buffalo, Chicken and Wild Salmon. I used to tell my friends all about how great it was and where they could buy it in our area. Note: used to.
- The last 6-7 months I have noticed a change in what I was finding when I would open a new bag. And one of my dogs had developed very loose stool off and on within the past 2 months (She is healthy otherwise. The vet has examined her and believes it’s her food. I had been supplementing with Nupro, so stopped to see if that was causing the problem. Nope.). The first couple times, I assumed the manufacturer was changing the kibble size. White chunks of something (bone maybe?) were baked into the kibble. Then every other bag, the kibble size and color would change (smaller and darker than what had been the norm). This was all from the same protein variety (Salmon). This last bag I opened had three different types of kibble. The normal, then a smaller, darker flat circle and an “X” shape (think cheap cat food). It totally freaked me out and went back to the natural pet food store I purchased it at. They had no idea what was in the bag. They even opened one of the cat food bags (since they are made at the same plant) to see if the manufacturer had mixed it up. NOPE.
- I’m afraid the quality control for this manufacturer is severely lacking. And, as one of my dogs has an auto-immune disease, I will not take risks with what I am feeding them. I had trusted this company, but after the crazy mixture I found in this last bag, I will not be buying this anymore. It’s not worth it. And I’m extremely disappointed.
- I exchanged my bag for Orijen 6 Fish. It smelled like a fish house when I opened the vacuum sealed bag. My dogs downed their dinner faster than they had in a long time. Hopefully, they will do well on this food. Good luck to you all.
However, I will never trust another bag of TOTW. Too much to risk. Luckily I caught it quick enough not to have any lasting effects, and got a full return.
