What do you think of Natural Balance wet food?

I feed Nora Wellness Core dry food (1/2c per day to free feed on which she usually finishes) and since around Thanksgiving she has been getting ~3oz of Wellness canned food per day split into two feedings. I had been buying 8-16 cans at a time and keeping them in stock, and I ran out last night so I went to Petco to buy more. They raised the price by 20 cents since I last bought them, and so far I have not seen them on sale at all.

I want to continue giving her Wellness canned, but until I find a job I am most likely going to have to switch it up with another, cheaper brand. I'm pretty limited in the brands I can buy here, and I'd prefer to stay with something grain free (since she has been completely grain free for a while and she is doing great) but I will give something with limited grains if I have to. I want to completely avoid vague by products and corn.

I looked at the ingredients in all the brands they had at Petco, which was very little b/c they had pallets blocking all of the canned cat food that wasn't Wellness, Iams, Science Diet, and a few others. I'm not sure about these brands and which are best. I pretty much have to choose between Wellness, Organics, Natural Balance, Blue Buffalo, Iams, Science Diet, Nutro, and the others like Friskies, etc.

Today I chose two small cans of the Natural Balance Limited Ingredients, in Duck and Green Pea and Venison and Green Pea. Both are grain free. She loves veggies and seems to digest them well, so I'm not bothered at all with the pea flour and protein.

Duck and Green Pea ingredients:
Duck, Duck Broth, Duck Liver, Pea Flour, Pea Protein, Salmon Oil, Dicalcium Phosphate, Guar Gum, Potassium Chloride, Taurine, Sodium Chloride, Flaxseed, Dried Cranberries, Yucca Schidigera, Carrageenan, Zinc Sulfate, Ferrous Sulfate, Vitamin E Supplement, Copper Sulfate, Manganese Sulfate, Niacin Supplement, Sodium Selenite, Thiamine Mononitrate, Calcium Pantothenate, Calcium Iodate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin, Vitamin A Supplement, Folic Acid, Biotin, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Vitamin B12 Supplement.

Venison and Green Pea ingredients:
Venison, Venison Broth, Venison Liver, Pea Flour, Venison Meal, Salmon Oil, Dicalcium Phosphate, Kelp, Flaxseed, Guar Gum, Potassium Chloride, Methionine, Taurine, Parsley, Yucca Schidigera Extract, Sodium Chloride, Dried Cranberries, Carrageenan, Zinc Sulfate, Ferrous Sulfate, Vitamin E Supplement, Copper Sulfate, Manganese Sulfate, Niacin Supplement, Sodium Selenite, Thiamine Mononitrate, Calcium Pantothenate, Calcium Iodate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B6), Riboflavin, Vitamin A Supplement, Folic Acid, Biotin, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Vitamin B12 Supplement.

Do those look good to you? Should I go with something else? Most of the other big brands are close to the same price as Wellness, but the Natural Balance is a bit less so that would help. Sticking with just the two flavors will be fine, since she now switches between 3 flavors in the Wellness and she doesn't mind. These two flavors and one or two flavors of Wellness to switch between until I find a job will work.

If anyone can suggest a different food that would be great, and I can see if I can find it here. BTW, she loved the Venison and Green Pea, and gobbled it right down.

Well cr*p. Nora threw up her food twice on the living room floor. She has never thrown up before. Does that mean the Natural Balance doesn't agree with her? Should I not give her anymore? Does wet food need to be changed gradually like dry food?? I have no clue what to do at this point.

If she 'gobbled' the wet food, she may have simply eaten too quickly.

Hennessy likes the Natural Balance Venison better than the duck, but seems at ease with either.

Beyond that... I'm not sure.

Should I feed her again tonight or make her wait to let her stomach settle? She's begging for food like she is hungry again, and I'm sure she is if she threw it all up.

I tried 3 different flavors of the NB canned and my Snowbell wouldn't touch them and he will eat ANYTHING! He acted like they were poison!!

Ours love the Natural Balance canned (venison or duck mostly). Charlie had UTI and this is one of the brands of canned they get. He has not had UTI since.

We feed Wellness, Avoderm, Iams, Natural Balance, Blue Spa, Max Cat in the canned foods - they get a new flavor every other day. I stack them so they are not getting the same brand or type (chicken, lamb, beef, venison, duck).

I buy Natural Balance, and Alpine does very well on it. I like that it's grain-free and gives the cat more variety than just getting beef, chicken, or turkey. (I avoid all fish since Alpine's very tenacious UTI)

I'm also a wet food rotater, buying non-fish varieties of NB, Wellness, Eagle Pack, Nutro, and even a few Friskies flavors.

I have an IBD kitty that I just started feeding Natural Balance Venison to due to his recent diagnosis. He's a raw fed kitty so I don't really have a yardstick to judge very well. He's not happy about going back to canned but compared to the Royal Canin (he HATED it, wouldn't eat it) food the vet gave me, he eats it readily enough. I chose it because it is 100% natural and the ingredients are as high a quality as Wellness (I use in case of emergencies for my raw fed cats). Wellness did not offer a LID diet and my vet wanted him on a high quality venison diet. I didn't like Hills Diet or Royal Canin (because of ingredients) but my vet gave her seal of approval on the Natural Balance.

While they do not advertise themselves as "human grade" as Wellness does they do however test their product for toxins which makes me feel better about feeding canned:

As of September, 2008, we have added E. coli and Salmonella testing to our standard testing protocol which already includes testing for: Ochratoxin, Zearalenone, Fumonisin, Melamine, Cyanuric Acid, Aflatoxin, and DON (Vomitoxin). http://www.naturalbalanceinc.com/PetFoodScreening.tpl

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It's pretty common for a cat to experience stomach upset when first trying a new food. You'd have to feed it for a week or two to get past that initial transition issue... yes, I'd suggest mixing it in with the old wet food to transition gradually.

My cat loves Natural Balance wet and does well on it. It's his favorite food of all the brands I've tried. I had him on the allergy variant you're trying at one point, when doing an allergy trial, and that also was received very well.

My only complaint is that it's still expensive... I wish I could get him to eat Nutro as reliably as he'll eat Natural Balance.

Originally Posted by emmylou

It's pretty common for a cat to experience stomach upset when first trying a new food. You'd have to feed it for a week or two to get past that initial transition issue... yes, I'd suggest mixing it in with the old wet food to transition gradually.

My cat loves Natural Balance wet and does well on it. It's his favorite food of all the brands I've tried. I had him on the allergy variant you're trying at one point, when doing an allergy trial, and that also was received very well.

My only complaint is that it's still expensive... I wish I could get him to eat Nutro as reliably as he'll eat Natural Balance.

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Wish I could go back to raw. But he's developed Irritatable Bowel Disease (IBD) due to a food intolerance which is why we had to switch. Wasn't my choice and I'm not happy about it but I'm not willing push it and risk his health further. Until he's a little more stable I can't try to narrow down what the intolerance is. Venison is a novel food for him and so far that's the only thing he's been able to keep down and keep in (if you know what I mean). Nasty...

I gave her another feeding with the Venison flavor before bed b/c I didn't want her to be hungry before she was fed again this morning. She held it down fine. I think she was just so excited about eating it that she ate too fast and made her stomach upset. lol Since I only got one of each of the smaller cans to see if she would actually eat it, she finished it last night. Therefore she got Wellness again today, and the big can lasts two days, and she'll get the NB Duck flavor after that. I think I'm going to do the "every other can" thing, trying to cut costs a little.

I just wish there were more grain free, less expensive, wet foods available.

Just wanted to add that I rotate some NB cans as well. I have used the duck/pea, vennisen/pea, and also the chicken/liver...none have fish but the pea types do have salmon oil (I'm not sure if I'll stop using them because of this). They all love all three types. They also like the turkey/giblets, but it has fish as well.

My cats will ocassionally throw up after "wolfing" down their food. At first I thought it was a food colorant issue (some friskies I feed has coloring in it), but it has happened with other types that they like, so I think it's just eating way too fast.

Art

p.s. if she likes the NB look online (I've used pfd) you can get it cheaper if you order a lot at once and get a discount on shipping.

Has Nora had a HEAVY pea food before?? Peas amazingly are high on the cat allergen list , I have a hard time understanding there heavy usage in "allergy" formulas..

As for "Human Grade" It DOES NOT exist per AFFCO and often the companies claiming it are actually running the canning process in a HUMAN plant after hours ...... In reality MOST meat is of Human grade in many premiums but at the current time there are NO true guidelines and thus a company claiming it actually gets a mark against it in my book...

Originally Posted by sharky

Has Nora had a HEAVY pea food before?? Peas amazingly are high on the cat allergen list , I have a hard time understanding there heavy usage in "allergy" formulas..

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No she hasn't. The only foods she has ever had in her life are Kitten Chow (before I got her) Iams Kitten (before I came here, and thought Iams was the best food to buy), then I gradually switched over to Wellness Core and she's been eating that and Wellness canned for a few months now.

Originally Posted by kara_leigh

Since I only got one of each of the smaller cans to see if she would actually eat it, she finished it last night. Therefore she got Wellness again today, and the big can lasts two days, and she'll get the NB Duck flavor after that. I think I'm going to do the "every other can" thing, trying to cut costs a little.

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Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but are you switching brands every other can? Changing the food like that could trigger stomach upset. If you're transitioning the cat to a new brand, what you want to do is mix some of the new brand into some of the old brand. Little by little, you increase the proportion of the new wet food until eventually that's all that's left. When trying out a new brand to see if it agrees with the cat, I'd stick to one flavor for at least the first month or two.

My cat has an intestinal condition too -- ulcerative colitis rather than IBD. He does very well with a high-fiber prescription dry food, and then the Natural Balance wet food.

Originally Posted by emmylou

Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but are you switching brands every other can? Changing the food like that could trigger stomach upset. If you're transitioning the cat to a new brand, what you want to do is mix some of the new brand into some of the old brand. Little by little, you increase the proportion of the new wet food until eventually that's all that's left.

My cat has an intestinal condition too -- ulcerative colitis rather than IBD. He does very well with a high-fiber prescription dry food, and then the Natural Balance wet food.

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with Most cats you can switch wets regularly without a switch period ... usually the only issue is if kitty is sensitive to a protein ( which with a colitis kitty you likely have lots of experience )

Plenty of work trying to find the right food, yes. I'm very happy to have found a combination that works. In his case what it took was the high-fiber diet; he doesn't need medication so long as he's on it.