Natural Balance Ultra (Dry Dog Food)

cincychick35

I have a 4 year old Rat Terrier and a 7 month old Shih Tzu/Yorkie mix.  I have been buying them separate puppy food/dog food but they are constantly eating each others food.  Someone recommended Natural Balance for both of them as it says for stages puppy to adult.

Has anyone had experience with this brand of dog food and it is really OK to feed my pup and my dog the same food?

Thanks!

aggiebug

It is really not best to feed an adult dog an all life stage diet unless their caloric intake requires it. I highly recommend keeping your adult dog on a maintenance diet. Many foods are deceiving, you have to look at AAFCO statement on the nutrition label and it should say "formulated for maintenance".

Your puppy is old enough to start transitioning to adult food if she is eating well and maintaining wait. It's a little earlier than necessary but should be ok for your pup.

agoodse

Natural Balance is a great food.  My dogs love it, gobble it up.  That being said, I have 3 large breed dogs, one 7, one 5, and one 6 months.  They all eat the same food, and while I vary the amounts slightly (the 6 month old gets the most, the 5 year old retriever mix gets the least, and the 7 year old pointer gets almost as much as the 6 month old).  They love it, and I enjoy feeding it to them.  We're currently on the salmon/sweet potato formula because the 5 year old has allergies.

closapio

Natural Balance is a fine food, but I won't feed it. The company treated one of the former regulars here terribly when their food almost killed her dogs during the recalls a few years ago.

I really like the Fromm family of foods, but there are other great foods out there, as well. I think that an ALS or adult formulated food for both of your dogs at this point would be okay. Just watch the weight on your rat terrier - if s/he is eating puppy food, s/he is getting more calories than really necessary.

agoodse

I didn't hear about that, Closapio.  Their company was extremely generous to our rescue, donating at least 200 samples of food for a rescue event in 2012.  My dogs have never begged for a food so much, and we began purchasing it intermittently.  They always seem to know when it's NB month  Hopefully the previous nestie's issue was concentrated to a specific formula.

ETA:  If I remember correctly you have GSPs.  My GSPs all seem to thrive on it, including fosters and new puppies.  Everyone's coats are the best on it, and their 'smell' seems to go away - no doggy smell.

closapio

Here's a good post about how they handled the recall situation in 2007.

Trixie is our GSP. Great memory! She hasn't really had a doggy smell other than her Frito-toes after we switched them from SD when she was just a pup.

agoodse

Sounds like they may have had good time to change their formula or customer service.

We went from Pedigree (2 baths a month for our GSP) to TOTW (one bath a month) to Natural Balance (no smell, plus darker coats and shining fur).  Due to cost and other factors we switch between TOTW, NB, and now 4Health, which carries a similar plan to the NB our dogs like.  We just sort of play it by ear with them though.