Natural Balance?

I use the Duck and Potato and have been really happy with it for my allergy girl.  I wish I could use those rolls, but they don't make them in a duck formula.  Hopefully they will sometime soon though. 

Natural Balance is a very high quality food. The rolls aren't quite up to par with the rest of their food because they contain sugar (and if my memory serves me right salt too).
I use to use the rolls for treats before finding out JJ has allergies to rice. Alos, I have done it and have heard of many folks grating a little of the roll into their dry kibble if you have a picky eater. The rolls are also great for hiding pills!

As far as the Natural Balance dry and canned I think it is an excellent choice (right up their with Canidae, Eagles Pack, Evo, Nature's variety. . . ). They have great options for dogs that have allergies as well.  I don't know much about the "eatable's newer canned food by NB but if my memory serves me I wasn't as keen on those ingredients but I can't remember why (maybe sugar again???)  Don't know what kibble you are feeding right now but I would say it might be a good switch. 

     

What I love about the rolls is the lamb formual.  Gizzy has a very sensitive problem with her anal gland where the wrong foods will cause them to fill to quickly.  Lamb, so far, works to keep them somewhat under control.  Thats why I'm considering swiching, I still haven't found the "perfect" food for her.  I'm afrade she will need surgery to get her glands removed if I don't find some food that works for her soon. 

She's on Lamb and Rice Eukanuba right now (and supliment it with vitamins, herbs and fish), I know many may not like Eukanuba, however, it has been better for her then even nuto and other brands for her problem.  I have yet to try Natural Balance so any suggestion would be great.

Xebby-
Natural balance has a "lamb" canned food you might be interested in??

Also, I know a lot of folks on this forum feed  Eagle Pack (EP) and they do have a Holistic  Lamb and Rice formula that ingredient wise might be a better than the Eukanuba.  I firmly believe that you need to feed whatever works for your dog, but that said, would always want to give the higher quality brands a chance to work for my guys first.  If you decide to try EP I would definately stay with the holistic formulas as some of their other have corn and such.     

Oh oh - Xebby ..do you have a Bearded Collie??

Anyway - I do have Beardies, and right now they are doing extremely well on the Sweet Pot/Fish. I think it is the lack of grains. And the addition of fish, most Beardies do really well on any foods with fish.

Rory has the most sensitive tummy EVER and we had tried some higher quality foods first (even though Natural Balance is up there) and they didnt work. After trying the Natural Balance for sensitive tummies we have been on it for 1 year now. I think it has helped make her stronger so I have just began adding wet food by Merrick to her natural Balance kibble. The only reason I use Merrick is because of the whole veggies!

I used Natural Balance for Ella when we first brought her home.
I did a cold switch from Science Diet (the shelter had her on it) to Natural Balance all stages formula. She had no problems. The kibble is a bigger size than the tiny tiny pieces that the Timberwolf I'm feeding her now is, but she liked it. I switched to T.O. because it seemed a bit better with the ingredients and I found some T.O. that might do better for her allergies. But she handled it well.

ORIGINAL: Xebby

What I love about the rolls is the lamb formual.  Gizzy has a very sensitive problem with her anal gland where the wrong foods will cause them to fill to quickly.  Lamb, so far, works to keep them somewhat under control.  Thats why I'm considering swiching, I still haven't found the "perfect" food for her.  I'm afrade she will need surgery to get her glands removed if I don't find some food that works for her soon. 

She's on Lamb and Rice Eukanuba right now (and supliment it with vitamins, herbs and fish), I know many may not like Eukanuba, however, it has been better for her then even nuto and other brands for her problem.  I have yet to try Natural Balance so any suggestion would be great. [/size][/size][/size]

 
If Eukanuba Lamb and Rice is working "okay" for her then I think Natural Balance Venison and Brown Rice would probably be excellent. It's the food I recently started Gingerbread on and I'm REALLY, really impressed with this food!
 
Here are the ingredients (without the vitamins at the end):
 
Venison, Whole Grain Brown Rice, Rice Flour, Venison Meal, Rice Bran, Canola Oil (preserved With Mixed Tocopherols And Citric Acid), Natural Flavor, Flaxseed Oil, Kelp Meal, Yucca Schidigera Extract...
 
What's really good about it is there's only ONE protein source- venison and ONE grain- rice. Rice is one of only two grains recommended by Dogtor J. I find his work to be extremely interesting and it makes a lot of sense!
 
[font=arial][size=2][linkhttp://www.dogtorj.net/]http://www.dogtorj.net/[/link]

I meant to add the link to Venison & Brown Rice on Natural Balance's site. They have a canned formula that matches the dry. I mix both together for Gingerbread and I think it's very palatable. It smells like beef and normally canned dog food makes me gag, but it actually smells good!
 
[linkhttp://www.naturalbalanceinc.com/dogformulas/VenDog.html]http://www.naturalbalanceinc.com/dogformulas/VenDog.html[/link]

I have also started my two on the NB Venison and Rice,along with top dressing it with the NB canned version,its only been a few days,so it is to early to tell,it has very limited ingred,which I felt may be good for food intolerances,it has no probiotics though,which may or may not be a issue .We will see.

I used Natural Balance for quite some time, and still buy the canned formulas, on occasion. They did well on it, and enjoyed it. It's the only kibble that Emma does even half ok on (she can have the potato and duck, and the sweet potato and fish).

I don't think it helped her anal glands, but it didn't hurt them at all. I just express them, as often as she needs it. Sometimes, that means twice in the same day. More often, it's every 1-2 weeks.

My dog is currently on NB Ultra Premium, their has been good results since she been on there. It's been a month now! I really love it, & I especially love what's in the food the ingrediences! She was on pedigree but that wasn't really doing any favors at all. I did so much research on dog food, that have found very disburting what's going in dog food & into the cat or dogs. So like what others said NB is a very high quality for dogs or cats. It's all natural period. Since Misty my dog been ill I wanted to put her on a diet that could keep her strong, & build up a better immue system. And I love it!
 
Afterall I did tried the beef roll my mom didn't really like what was in it. It had like Cow's lungs, liver, tongue everything you could image gross. So she didn't really like it really. So maybe next time we'll try another roll!
 
So anyways, if you want to switch that would be great! Just carefully & don't rush. Just mix food with new & old dog food. Then slowly just increase the newer food! Do that for maybe 2wks then you will be fully with new food.
 
Well g'luck!
Jennifer

Brown and Grey eat NB Venison and Rice, and I buy the rolls occassionally for treats. Also, a few days ago, three free cans of NB's new canned stuff came with my dog food purchase. I got one of each variety, but only used one so far. I don't know how good it is, but it looked delicious lol.

ORIGINAL: sarah_b

Oh oh - Xebby ..do you have a Bearded Collie??

Anyway - I do have Beardies, and right now they are doing extremely well on the Sweet Pot/Fish. I think it is the lack of grains. And the addition of fish, most Beardies do really well on any foods with fish.

I don't own a beardie right now, I'm only on a waiting list for a puppy.  (wish I owned it now but I'm shure they are worth the waite[])

Anyway, Gizmo's glands ruptured and healed in a shape that prevents them from empting out the natural way.  I have worked with the vets in chaging her diet to control them from filling to quickly.  I do most of the expressing myself but it's a little different with her than with normal glands and she just hates it.  She is a larger dog so it's almost a mystery why they filled in the first place, not very common in dogs like her.  She has been tested for food allergies but the results came back with almost nothing to worrie about when it comes to allergies.  If I can solve the problem by diet alone then I want to do that over any surgery.  It's extreemly painful for Giz to have her glands expressed and the less I need to do it the better off she is.  I may just go for the sugery but the vet wants to waite till she is at leat 2 years old and fully developed.  Untill then I need to experiment with foods to see if there is another way to get around the surgery.

At this point I'm about ready to try anything.  The Euka is a very grain rich diet which may or may not be what is best for her.  I haven't been exactly pleased with the ingredience but for some reason it's seem to work best.  Natural Balance seems to have more meat in the food that I figure it's worth a try.  I love the way her coat is so shiney but I thinks it mostly due to the salmon she is feed and not the kibble.  Adding the salmon to the food has helped a lot so I've even considered finding a food that is fish based but I don't want to elemit the non-fish meat all together.  Buying fresh lamb from the store is out of the question (hard to find in a small town), and beef or pork seem to increase the amount her gland fill.  That is why I turn to the kibble for the lamb part of her diet.