Natural Balance Dog/Cat Food

alphadoginthehouse · 08-02-2008, 09:01 PM

Does anyone know anything about this? Just another celebrity with a dog food?

http://www.naturalbalanceinc.com/

briteday · 08-02-2008, 10:21 PM

If you're referring to Mr. Van Patten being the impetus behind the food, he and Natural Balance have been around for several years now. I was feeding NB about 4-5 years ago. And it was one of the first higher quality brands carried at Petco stores.

alphadoginthehouse · 08-02-2008, 10:48 PM

Did your dogs like it. I've been feedig beneful and kibbles and bits and after readng stuff on here I'm ashamed...

. I don't have a whole lot to spend on the top top of the line but I would like somethat is reasonably priced and that has small bits...mine seem to like that size better. The dogs were on Nutro Max until I read the thread on here about all the deaths from it...and they really liked it.

The Cat is on Nutro Max.

Kathyy · 08-02-2008, 11:06 PM

I fed this a long time ago. I think I went Iams in 1994, Science Diet 1997, NB starting 1998 or so since the SD was so nasty. Good stuff! I liked the little discs as it made great training treats. The semimoist roll is great for high value treats as the dogs don't realize it is a balanced DOG food. I always meant to go back and get more but the feed store's wonderful supply of premium kibbles kept me busy trying one after another!

Willowy · 08-02-2008, 11:25 PM

Ugh....Kibble n' Bits is simply awful....if you have to go cheap, go with regular Purina Dog Chow. It's better than most of the cheaper foods. Still mostly corn and chicken by-products, but doesn't have sugar (6th ingredient of Kibbles n' Bits is corn syrup

) or BHA/BHT (like Pedigree). Beneful has the exact same basic ingredients as regular Dog Chow, but is extremely overpriced. With what you're paying for Beneful (a dollar a pound! Oy!), or just a tiny bit extra, you could get a really high-quality dog food.

Natural Balance is a good food. For a while, it was all that Willow could eat because of her allergies, and it was the only corn-free food available in the area. And the price isn't too bad. The cat food is excellent, but my cats liked it WAY too much and gained a lot of weight. So they eat Chicken Soup instead---they don't like it as much

.

briteday · 08-03-2008, 02:28 AM

My dogs were on the fish and sweet potato flavor because of grain and red meat sensitivities with kibble. It was ok except that the fish flavor has a very low fat content and their coats were very dull. But you could just add some fish oil to their diets if it's a problem. However I don't find it to be reasonably priced in my area.

If you are looking for something inexpensive, at the grocery store you can get Purina One. At Costco I have used their Kirkland Signature brand (small bits and about $10/bag, not the worst food you can buy and definitely a step up from where you are now), and you may have to look around but many members are trying a new product called Taste of the Wild. I bought some TOTW kibble while they were with a petsitter recently (our dogs are now on a raw diet but eat kibble when we travel), it was $37 for 33 pounds which I consider pretty reasonable.

alphadoginthehouse · 08-03-2008, 03:59 AM

Thanks. Think I will try that one next time. Man, I woke up and can NOT go back to sleep...argh...oh well, at least it's the weekend.

rosemaryninja · 08-03-2008, 04:33 AM

I just tried NB Fish & Sweet Potato with Spunky for a couple of months. Didn't do wonders, but she liked it, took to it well and I consider it to be a fairly decent brand of food. We are experimenting a little more.

Criosphynx · 08-05-2008, 01:54 AM

I use both the dog food and the cat food. Iam very happy with it.

HersheyPup · 08-05-2008, 09:30 AM

Last summer I was feeding the Natural Balance Duck and Potato to my dog and told my neighbor about it. Her dog was eating Iams and then Beneful and was scratching herself raw. They had to get her steroid shots it was so bad. She bought a bag for her dog! I was so happy for her dog and noticed recently that Molly looks great this summer, shiny coat, not carrying a bunch of extra weight and (almost) no itching! I found out that she has been eating the NB Duck and Potato for over a year...the dog looks and seems to feel really good.

I am not feeding the dog food from NB, but just starting my cat on their Green Pea and Duck allergy formula, because he seems to be itching aroud his head alot lately and he doesn't have fleas. We'll see if it helps him as much as it did my neighbors dog.

cshellenberger · 08-05-2008, 11:44 AM

I think the best referance for their foods is that the San Diego Zoo feeds their products. In fact I believe they helped develop some of the formulas.