Timberwolf really disappoints me
I was actually looking into feeding my dog their food. Think it was last year. Zooplus had MAJOR stock issues and it's only recently come back onto their site -- after months and months of being unavailable. For that reason I won't try to feed it.
Also when I was researching it, Timberwolf seem to be VERY secretive of their descrepency of ingredients which has put a lot of people off ..
From the dogfoodproject.com
Timberwolf Organics ingredient list discrepancies
Admin | December 8, 2007 7:30 pm
A member of my dog forum at
http://www.ourdogsonline.com posted the following statement from a Timberwolf Organics employee a couple days ago:
I am cross posting this to a few forums. If you do see a forum that I did not get to please direct them here or please let me know so I can address this.
Due to some concerns of a possible formula 'change' in Timberwolf Organics we'd like to set the record straight. The ingredient list on our website has always reflected the food in our bags. Some online retailers that carry our food do not necessarily update their listing to reflect what we have on our website. The food we produce has not changed.
With our older packaging there was some compliance issues with some descriptors of the ingredients. For example 'low ash salmon meal'. Low Ash can not be defined under AAFCO guidelines so even though the salmon meal that we use is exactly the same as before we must remove the low ash portion of the ingredient listed.
This is a similar case with the dried potato product, dried egg product and a few other ingredients. Since the recent boom in natural and holistic ingredients and dog foods there has been a lag in definitions available through AAFCO. AAFCO defines a potato or egg being used in a food as a dried potato product or a dried egg product. There has been no change in supply or quality in any of our foods. We have been merely updating to the 'correct' definition under AAFO guidelines.
As for the chicken fat in the Ocean Blue and the Dakota Bison it has always in all of our formulations. Do to an oversight when we switched bag manufacturers a few years ago it was left off the ingredient list and wasn't discovered until we switched to the new bag manufacturer and started to review the label. We apologize for any perceived deceit as there was none intended.
Chicken fat will not trigger an allergic reaction in dogs or any animals that is allergic to chicken. The antigen that is associated with chicken allergies is only found in the protein portion of the chicken, i.e. chicken meat and meal. It is not in the fat, and chicken fat is probably the best single source of the correct ratio of omega 6 and omega 3 fatty acids available.
For the rumors of financial problems or other issue are not true. We have recently moved into a new office high rise in downtown Orlando and sales of Timberwolf have been spectacular. We are in no danger of going out of business or selling out to a faceless corporation (who we hear are the ones spreading the rumors - some companies cannot compete on quality and so must use more devious means to try to create a competitive advantage). We will continue to make, in our opinion, the best food on the market.
If you wish to change to another food over this issue there is probably nothing that we can do to to change your mind. Thank you for the time that you did use the food and we hope in the future that you try us again. For those of you on the fence as your experience please ask yourself: Has your experience with our foods been positive? Like I said earlier the formulas have been the same and have not changed in over two years. The formulas are excellent food that have changed the lives of thousands of dogs for the better, hopefully many of your own dogs. If your dog has enjoyed the food we hope you continue with us.
We soon will have the most compliant bags in the industry and many other manufacturers will be going through the same procedure as us in the future with the greater scrutiny by AAFCO. We will be having more information coming soon regarding the new bags. If you have any other questions please email at customer.support@timberwolforganics.com
Thank you,
Joseph Carey
Timberwolf Customer Service
I'd like to discuss some of Mr. Carey's statements and present my opinion and point of view:
Ingredient changes
It's difficult for me to believe that "nothing but" changes in the names of certain ingredients happened. For the record, here's a comparison of ingredient lists, the left column taken from my product database and the right column today (12/08/07) from the Timberwolf website.
Some of the time stamps show a time frame of over two years, but this is simply the case because at the time I last compared ingredients there were no changes, so no editing of those listings was necessary. (Also see here.)
Please note that even the number of individual ingredients differs between products, so the claim that no changes were made is not correct. The ingredient list in the right column is what Timberwolf claims you have been feeding all along, even if the ingredients to the left were printed on the bag.
It's hard to miss that in some cases ingredients present in the old formulas are missing, while the new ones show items that were not present at all previously. Just as an example, what happened to the much-touted unrefined walnut oil? When did tomato pomace enter the picture? How come ingredients that used to be higher up on the list are now in an entirely different place further down? This isn't possible if all the company did was "updating correct definitions".
Misdeclaration of food ingredients
Intentional or not, as per Mr. Carey's admission ingredients of Timberwolf Organics foods have been misrepresented for "a few years". I can't fathom how a company can "forget" the simple step of reviewing and comparing ingredient labels, especially when switching manufacturers for packaging materials.
Mislabeled bags is one thing, but being careless enough to provide the same incorrect information to customers on the company website, where it is no effort to update it at all, is entirely different.
I also recall amaranth was removed from Timberwolf Organics foods some time in 2006. Timberwolf Organics customer service representative Carol Cameron posted on OurDogsOnline.com on 10/13/06 that "We just sent off an order with redesigned bags today." By my calculations, that was roughly 14 months ago.
Food ingredients and allergies
While it is correct as a general rule that antigens associated with allergies are present in the protein portion of a food ingredient and fats are generally well tolerated, reality is that it's not just about "allergies". Some dogs are sensitive to any kind of chicken/poultry components and can't tolerate them in their diet. I'm not making this statement as a layperson, but as someone who has provided nutritional consulting for several years, and most of my clients ask for help due to allergies and sensitivities.
The fact that undeclared chicken fat has been present in Timberwolf foods could certainly explain why some dogs I know did not do well on some TWO formulations when technically they should have worked for them.
Packaging and "grace periods"
As for the "new ingredients in old bag" thing, which is brought up as a lame defense time and again: many food companies claim that AAFCO gives a "grace period" so that they can use up their old packaging (it's expensive), but this is not the case. The truth is that the ingredient lists must reflect what's actually in the container. End of story. If someone tries to convince you of this, ask them for the page number of the AAFCO publication where this "grace period" is outlined. It doesn't exist.
Those of my readers who have known me for some time and are familiar with my research know that I tend to give the benefit of the doubt where something went wrong once and a company works hard to improve things, but there have been so many different issues with this brand of dog food in the past where I couldn't help but doubt the sincerity of responses from customer service representatives and the business practices of the company that I have to point out that you can only hold onto a customer base for so long. Eventually people will become aware of all the little details, no matter how hard someone tries to sweep them under the carpet.
