Natural Balance Changes Duck Meal; No Longer From USA

Hallie · 07-21-2009, 12:49 PM

duck meal = more meat= better for your dog (obviously)
fresh duck'= meat with all of the moisture and water content=mostly water=not as much meat.
Good thing I took Hallie off NB before the switch! Is the change only in the duck formula?

rottenlab · 07-26-2009, 09:51 AM

Both my lab and rottweiler got sick from the new formula. My lab had bloody diarrhea and vomited several times, while my rottweiler had explosive diarrhea. This required a vet visit to exclude possible illness as I did not believe that the food they had been eating for four years would all of a sudden make them really sick. What a surprise when I heard that Natural Balance changed their formula without notifying anyone. After several calls to Natural Balance, nothing is being done by the company to resolve this issue and they stated that the stores were notified of the change. As with many other posters on this site they continued to give me the same run around blanket statement that they provided to everyone else. The reps told me that they placed stickers stating, "New and improved" on the bag. None of my bags had this label and "new and improved" to me does not include bloody diarrhea, vomiting, and a trip to the vet costing $269.00. None of the clerks or managers at two separate store were aware of the change as well. The truth is they implemented cost cutting measures and did not want to advertise this fact. Natural Balance has lost me as a customer and I am working on further resolution. If you have experienced the same or similar please post to keep everyone informed. I am not finished in my attempt to hold Natural Balance accountable for irresponsible business practices. They implemented change at the cost of their consumers in order to save money which is not acceptable tactics for a premium dog food provider.

doglover56 · 08-05-2009, 04:41 AM

It never was made in the usa, kibbles and Can foods are co-pack in the states, some can foods and kibbles are imported from Canada, zoological formulas are made in the small 1500 feet production area in Pacoima, What they have is good marketing and large warehouse to store their imports from Canada and co-pack kibbles from the states, in lameness terms, the don’t manufacture any of their products .Except Zoological formulas..

Goldendog11 · 08-29-2009, 12:24 AM

I'm sure glad I found this information about the change in the Duck and Potatoe Natural Balance Formula on this forum. My dog who has been successfully eating it for the past 6 years started throwing up right after we opened the new bag last week and also started having diarreah. I had even gone out and purchased another bag thinking it was a bad batch or something with my first bag. I hope the pet stores will be accomodating in letting me return this stuff. If not I suppose I'll have to take it up with Natural Balance. One of the first things I did was go to their website and I didn't see anything about changing their formula. We'll see how Petco and Pet Extreme (where I bought the two bags) handle my demand for a refund when I call them tomorrow....

wolfsnaps · 08-29-2009, 12:48 PM

I have been taking them back. Only because I know about the change in ingredients from this site! I work at a pet store and have seen about 4 or 5 people comment about their dogs no longer liking the product.

luvntzus · 08-29-2009, 02:14 PM

I've heard about this on other forums. It's such a widespread problem and I wonder how long Natural Balance is going to take the Ostrich approach to dealing with it.

msjinwi · 08-30-2009, 01:22 AM

I lost my dog a few weeks ago and had been feeding Natural Balance Allergy Formula. My cousin lost her dog a week later, feeding the same food, same symptoms...lethargy, breathing raspy, then throwing up, finally not eating - we both made multiple vet visits and antibiotics and steroids did not work. Then I found a coworker's dog also passed - he fed a different food, but it was also bought at PetCo, not packaged in foil. I had already bought our next bag, which I returned today, but remember when I bought it, the store shelves were pretty bare of Natural Balance. Petco staff told me 2 different stories - one they didn't reorder accidentally, second said NB had a formula change. Needless to say, I will not buy food at PetCo or feed Natural Balance again. All 3 dogs displayed the same symptoms and response, all passed away. These were mature dogs (my cousin's was 8, mine was likely around 11 - he was a rescue so were not sure, and my co-workers 12, but had been at the vet w/ no issues less than a month prior) and these are people I know personally. I've contacted Petco and Natural Balance today after trying to put this together. I did have an autopsy on my dog as it was so unexplained and got back that he had pneumonia, an unidentified bacteria that was not responding to the antibiotics, kidney failure, and the decomposition was much more rapid than it should have been. He had all shots, all of his treats were made in our kitchen or the US and of high quality and none of my other dogs displayed anything. He was the only one eating NB... Any thoughts?

msjinwi · 08-31-2009, 05:53 PM

I'm getting nothing out of the company except after the fact, this was part of their response:
A very small percentage of dogs with sensitive stomachs may experience a temporary digestive upset with the formulation change to the Potato & Duck Formula. For this limited number of dogs, we recommend feeding smaller, more frequent meals, combined with the old formula (if available) or a bland diet (ex: boiled chicken/rice), over a 5 to 7 day period to adjust to the new formula.

Now how would I know that when the change was undisclosed? I'm filing a complaint with the better business bureau. If anyone is interested in also filing, here is the link:

http://www.la.bbb.org/ComplaintDetai...anyID=13133628

Goldendog11 · 09-08-2009, 11:15 PM

Natural Balance made a huge mistake when they altered thier formula removing the duck meal and substituting fresh dehydrated fresh duck. The kibble in the new and supposedly improved formula is now nothing but mostly potatoe and my dog will not touch it (can't blame her) Considering that this particular NB brand is marketed towards dogs with allergies and sensitive stomachs I will venture that a lot more dogs than a 'small percentage' are not adjusting to this new formula as NB touts. After 7+ years of faithful patronage to NB Duck and Potatoe I have switched to Pinnacle's Duck and Potatoe, made with real duck meal. My dog loves it even more than the original NB Duck and Potatoe formula. I'm so glad that I heard about it on this forum. NB is losing market share in the very competitive dog food market due to blunders such as this.

torsh · 11-16-2009, 05:24 PM

I originally had same problems w/ NB Duck & Potato back in July . . .dogs have eaten this for 6 yrs based on recommendation of Bichon Rescue. Cringed @ price, but thought the dogs health was worth it. Both were extremely ill (when they would eat the food). We figured out it was the food & my retailer replaced the bag w/ a different lot # (must have been the old formula). Problems started again when I bought another new bag in October . . . . can't believe they didn't notify their retailers of the formula change so that they could tell their customers.

We have switched to Nutri Source Chicken & Rice . . we happened to have a couple of sample bags that my husband got at a sportman's benefit. The dogs love it. My smallest bichon went from "eliminating" 2X per day to 5 for a couple of wks, but that has returned to normal. I got the same boiler plate answer from NB . . was not impressed. They have some accountability issues.