Natural Balance dry cat food? Sharky opinions?

goldenkitty45

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I was at Petco picking up a few things today and Petco has a new dry food - Natural Balance. I stopped and took a look at the ingredients (there's a large line of different choices). The first 4-5 ingredients are meat based - chicken meal, lamb meal, venison meal and no by-products. There are more natural vegetables and less grain (corn, etc.).

It sounded really good vs a lot of the corn based foods you see (even comparing to RC).

So Sharky - what is your opinion on the Natural Balance dry cat foods (they have canned too).????

I did pick up a bag of it and will be mixing into the RC. If you think its a better product, I may gradually switch to this food (its less expensive and more in the bag then RC).
 

sharky

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NB looks and reads great ... BUT many cant handle duck it is too rich.... I dont like the amount of grain ... but they have removed many of the HIGHLY questionables ...

RC is a MORE studied food .... NB is not AFFCO feed tested .... RC has lots of glutens which is fine but not for the $$$ .... NB uses whole grains which are NOT bio avail...

I DO NOT like the % in the duck and pea protein is that of senior ( not enough for most adults ) and the fat is low ...

I say try it but I could tell you the results in my house... if you ask
 

cairo

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I tried Natural Balance for awhile, and then offered it to my cats... Just kidding. My girls tried Natural Balance for a week, but they starved themselves over eating it. I remember reading on here awhile back that it's a hit or miss for cats. It's supposedly really good quality food. I use Natural Ultramix, and the girls love it. It's just really hard to find here. I order it by mail from Petco.
 

iluvdevons

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I only use dry for nibbling at night or when were gone, but Ares loves
NB Duck and Pea. (He also has food allergies, so it narrows down my choices.) The kibble has not softened his stools, but I do know that some cats don't handle duck well - but I have to say I have no complaints
 

sakura

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I haven't tried the dry food, but I gave the wet food a try. Kitty didn't go for it (she likes food with much more gravy).
 
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goldenkitty45

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I saw the Ultramix and was debating between the two. I mixed it with the RC for now - so will let you know if we have any problems.

I put a few pieces of the new food in their bowls - Charlie dove right in; Ling ate a piece or two then left. But that's typical of her. Maybe I'll keep it as a mix of RC and Natural if all goes well
 

alleygirl

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Riley eats duck in a different brand and has no problems so hopefully yours won't have any allergy issues either


I also mix 2 different dry foods (Cal. Nat. and Evo). I'm not sure the kitties care
but I feel better giving them a mix!
 

jcat

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I've found that NB goes down well with most cats. I'm not thrilled with the quality of RC, as many of the ingredients, at least here in Europe, come from the same rendering plants that supply Master Foods (Whiskas), Hill's and Purina. It's sort of a moot point for me, because Jamie is allergic to all varieties of RC. He loves the taste, but the vet bills just piled up before I realized that he couldn't tolerate the ingredients.
 

katiemae1277

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if NB wasn't so expensive I would definitely feed it, the ingredient list is very impressive
the wet food wasn't all that popular, but then my kitties are incredibly picky
 
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goldenkitty45

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RC is higher priced then the NB
So far so good - they seem to like it and no change in stool.
 

moggiegirl

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I thought about getting the new Natural Balance Duck and Green Pea for my cats but analyzing it the amount of peas in this food far outweighs the amount of duck. The fat content is low so that's a lot of carbs coming from peas and the first ingredient is peas, not duck. and I remember when I fed the Venizon and Pea dry food. Spotty liked it and so did Rosie but Spotty gained weight from it. If it only came in a 2 pound bag I would buy it but the smallest is 5 pounds and I feed mostly wet food so it would sit in storage for too long. I just ordered something from www.petfooddirect.com in a 2.5 pound bag. It's called Fromm. It has duck in it as well and chicken and wisconsin cheddar cheese. It's just a supplement to a mainly wet food diet as I can see it's rich but lower in calories than the regular Natural Balance.
 

sharky

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Originally Posted by moggiegirl

I thought about getting the new Natural Balance Duck and Green Pea for my cats but analyzing it the amount of peas in this food far outweighs the amount of duck. The fat content is low so that's a lot of carbs coming from peas and the first ingredient is peas, not duck. and I remember when I fed the Venizon and Pea dry food. Spotty liked it and so did Rosie but Spotty gained weight from it. If it only came in a 2 pound bag I would buy it but the smallest is 5 pounds and I feed mostly wet food so it would sit in storage for too long. I just ordered something from www.petfooddirect.com in a 2.5 pound bag. It's called Fromm. It has duck in it as well and chicken and wisconsin cheddar cheese. It's just a supplement to a mainly wet food diet as I can see it's rich but lower in calories than the regular Natural Balance.
That has more starch than NB or RC ..... and some other issues like too MANY veggies and things like cheese ... i might think of it for a treat food but NOT a main diet
 
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