bulldogz4eva Posted June 15, 2007 Share Posted June 15, 2007 Just wondering if any one feeds this product or has used it in the past and their opinions of it.I will make it clear I only want opinions from those who have used it.My reason for asking is I have an older dpog that I have fed supercoat to all his life and I like others havent been happy with it for some time and I am going to change.I feed my younger dogs pro plan and I am very happy with it but he doesnt need something that high in protein.As Natural Balance is made over here I thought I might give it a try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean26 Posted June 15, 2007 Share Posted June 15, 2007 Is this Natural Balance the one made in Oz? http://www.naturalbalance.net.au/ My breeder recommended it for my GSD pup. I found that he had runny poos on it though. I think its the corn that made him have diarrhoea. Apart from that i cant say i have any objections to it. I had it delivered to my door on the same day and i found that the staff and service was excellent. If Kaiser didnt have the runny poos i think i might have stuck with it. I was given lots of good advice on this health forum. You'll get heaps of past threads regarding dog food. I ended up choosing Royal Canin GSD fromula for both my Bitch and Pup. If your dogs arent sensitive to specific foods you should give it a go. I still have a little over 2/3rd of a bag left and i mix it in to their food a little bit at a time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bulldogz4eva Posted June 15, 2007 Author Share Posted June 15, 2007 Yes the one that is made over here in the West. How long did you feed your pup on it?Sometimes they take a bit of adjusting.My old dog thrives pretty much on most things and I feed him mainly meat but the times he does get dry feed it has been supercoat and he likes and goes ok on it.Im just not happy with what comes out the other end.Just out of curiosity how much did you pay for it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flaves Posted June 16, 2007 Share Posted June 16, 2007 (edited) I fed 2 of mine Dick Van Pattens Natural Balance. Is that the one? If so found it great. They loved it. I have since gone back to using Nutro/EPH but i would use DVP Natural Balance again if i couldn;t get the others. I had no poo issues at this house with it either. I think it was about 55 per 7kg bag Edited June 16, 2007 by Kristie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dog_Horse_Girl Posted June 16, 2007 Share Posted June 16, 2007 I fed 2 of mine Dick Van Pattens Natural Balance. Is that the one?If so found it great. They loved it. I have since gone back to using Nutro/EPH but i would use DVP Natural Balance again if i couldn;t get the others. I had no poo issues at this house with it either. I think it was about 55 per 7kg bag No, the OP is referring to the inferior (IMO) product that is made in Australia and somehow managed to 'borrow' the name of a great product for itself. Dick van Patten's is IMO an excellent food. However, I checked the ingredients list of the local product and it's not a good food IMO. Corn isn't suitable for the majority of dogs and can cause all kinds of 'side effects' such as irritated skin and eyes, poor coat, upset stomach, and hair loss in severe cases. I wouldn't recommend it and I certainly wouldn't feed it. ;) There are many better quality foods out there if a dog owner is happy to pay a reasonable price for a better product. I feed a raw, whole foods diet, BTW. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flaves Posted June 16, 2007 Share Posted June 16, 2007 Oh. Well there you go. I don;t know anything about the OP's natural balance then. Only the DVP one, which i reccomend. I feed a mixture of raw foods and high quality dry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dog_Horse_Girl Posted June 16, 2007 Share Posted June 16, 2007 Oh.Well there you go. I don;t know anything about the OP's natural balance then. Only the DVP one, which i reccomend. I feed a mixture of raw foods and high quality dry. Yes, I still don't know how this inferior product can get away with calling it "natural balance"...perhaps the DVP company doesn't know? This other product is no better than supercrap or pedigree IMO...similar ingredients in similar ratios. But so many Australians seem quite happy to continue feeding vastly inferior foods b/c they don't see the benefits in switching to a higher quality product. ;) Or perhaps they can't justify spending that little bit extra? I'm now paying 2 to 4 times the price for RMBs that I did in Canberra. But the butchers here are so expensive and all give the usual excuse of "you're in Darwin"...so tired of that old chestnut b/c freight really shouldn't add double or triple to the price and most of what I want is "scrap" that they can't sell for human table consumption (lamb flap, neck etc - all top quality just not suitable for the table) yet they charge what I consider to be a premium price ($5.50 per kg for lamb neck is just ridiculous as one example, I was paying about $1.50 per kg in the ACT region and about $1.00 per kg in Melbourne). But they have their profit margins to protect, eh? The cheapest I can get is beef neck pieces at $1.50 per kg (and there's a lot of bone on it) which is what I consider a reasonable price for dog food. Perhaps if I buy enough the prices will come down...we'll see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flaves Posted June 16, 2007 Share Posted June 16, 2007 5.50 is a rip off! Such a shame i can;t buy it here and ship it up! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dog_Horse_Girl Posted June 16, 2007 Share Posted June 16, 2007 5.50 is a rip off!Such a shame i can;t buy it here and ship it up! Yeah, I was thinking the same thing...my nephew is working in a butcher shop ATM and I was thinking he could send me some RMBs... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean26 Posted June 16, 2007 Share Posted June 16, 2007 Yes the one that is made over here in the West. How long did you feed your pup on it?Sometimes they take a bit of adjusting.My old dog thrives pretty much on most things and I feed him mainly meat but the times he does get dry feed it has been supercoat and he likes and goes ok on it.Im just not happy with what comes out the other end.Just out of curiosity how much did you pay for it? He was on it for a good month and a half or so. He came with a 3kg sample pack from the breeder and when i ran out i ordered the large bag... 12 kgs i think...I had it delivered for about $80.00 or so... Its the big bag so about 12 to 15kgs. He had pasty, pankake mix like poo for about a month. He was weaned on to NB. I took him to the vet and we went through all the standard procedures like worming (he didnt have any) put on a bland rice and chicken diet, antibiotics and probiotic formula. The vet said that if the diarrhoea persisted Kaiser could risk developing a condition called Intuesseption (sp?) there the intestine rolls in on itself like a rolled up sock. Not only is this painful, but it can lead to severe infection and an operation is needed to correct the situation. Scared the daylights outta me! I contacted other GSD breeders and they all advised me that runny or sloppy poo in any dog for that long is not normal, even with the GSDs sensitivity (with digestion etc, i think same applies to GSP too.) I occasionally mix in a bit of the left over NB with his RC and it seems fine. But if i increase it too much he gets runny poos, not as bad as before but a bit too sloppy for my liking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larry Posted June 18, 2007 Share Posted June 18, 2007 (edited) We have been feeding our dogs natural balance (the one made in australia) for many years and they have done quite well on it. Dogs are like people-most people can eat common ingredients, but some people (and dogs) are allergic to certain foods eg beef, wheat, corn, chicken, etc lillysmum-Natural Balance contains corn gluten meal (not whole corn), which i understand is added due to it contain certain amino acids, our dogs don't seem to have any problem with the corn gluten meal that the NB contains, and many dog foods use corn gluten without any problems. eg many of the nutro lines, etc the usa natural balance has a lot of organic products, and i know you like organic products, but they are the one that had to recall some of it wet pet food products as they were involved in the large recall in the USA-hardly a ringing endorsement in my book...... Edited June 18, 2007 by larry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bulldogz4eva Posted June 19, 2007 Author Share Posted June 19, 2007 Thanks for the comments Larry and sorry to hear about you pup Riverstar. I was aware of the ingredients of NB and just wanted to know peoples experience thats why I stated only people who had used it not people who wanted to make comments based on assumptions.Natural Balance sells for twice as much as Supercoat so to say it is the same is just that an assumption.I know twice as expensive doesnt mean twice as good but it isnt crap I just wondered about others experiences with it.The ingredients are important but I am just as interested in the condition of my dog and what comes out the other end. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean26 Posted June 19, 2007 Share Posted June 19, 2007 Not a problem, happy to help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hazz Posted June 19, 2007 Share Posted June 19, 2007 I too often wondered how they managed to get away with naming it Natural Balance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dog_Horse_Girl Posted June 23, 2007 Share Posted June 23, 2007 We have been feeding our dogs natural balance (the one made in australia) for many years and they have done quite well on it. Dogs are like people-most people can eat common ingredients, but some people (and dogs) are allergic to certain foods eg beef, wheat, corn, chicken, etclillysmum-Natural Balance contains corn gluten meal (not whole corn), which i understand is added due to it contain certain amino acids, our dogs don't seem to have any problem with the corn gluten meal that the NB contains, and many dog foods use corn gluten without any problems. eg many of the nutro lines, etc the usa natural balance has a lot of organic products, and i know you like organic products, but they are the one that had to recall some of it wet pet food products as they were involved in the large recall in the USA-hardly a ringing endorsement in my book...... There were *many* foods involved in the recent recalls. That's no indication of quality as a general rule IMO. And this thread is about dry 'Natural Balance' processed food isn't it? Wet pet foods are a bit O/T in that case. I know you like to support Australian made and owned. Why not add that so people know your bias? I have no problems in posting my biases are for raw, whole foods, organically sourced when possible and that I don't like feeding processed foods under most circumstances. The locally-made Natural Balance is definitely inferior to the imported Dick van Patten's Natural Balance Organic Formulas IMO. The ingredients are superior and the manufacturing process seems to be superior as well. :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dog_Horse_Girl Posted June 23, 2007 Share Posted June 23, 2007 Thanks for the comments Larry and sorry to hear about you pup Riverstar. I was aware of the ingredients of NB and just wanted to know peoples experience thats why I stated only people who had used it not people who wanted to make comments based on assumptions.Natural Balance sells for twice as much as Supercoat so to say it is the same is just that an assumption.I know twice as expensive doesnt mean twice as good but it isnt crap I just wondered about others experiences with it.The ingredients are important but I am just as interested in the condition of my dog and what comes out the other end. It's not an assumption, but my opinion based upon reading the two products' ingredients lists. Price alone is no indicator of quality - - - just look at Hills Science Diet for proof of that theory. If your dog does well on a particular type of food, feed it. If not, find something the dog does well on and stick to it. For me, that's a raw whole foods diet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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