Natural Balance

This is my last post for the evening, I swear.

While I continue to work out the logistics of cooking homemade food for all our pets, I’ve started to feed the cats ”Natural Balance”.  My plan had been to put all the cats on Merrick, but I still haven’t been able to buy it at a reasonable price, and I’m hearing some disappointing reports about quality control.  Helena reported a spoiled case of Merrick cat food recently, although the company quickly cooperated to replace it for her.  Shortly after hearing that news, I was on Amazon and saw that Merrick foods were very poorly rated.  The reviews were from people who used to swear by the food, but who’ve recently noticed a very obvious decline in quality.  One person found hair in a cat of food, and another found a fly.  I’m willing to give Merrick the benefit of the doubt—they maintain their own plant, and are just a tiny company, and they may be having temporary growing pains.  On the other hand, I shouldn’t have to pay for the growing pains.  Once I hear that things have been turned around (and I think the company should address this issues on their website), I’ll certainly be happy to be a customer again.

So then, we’re left with Natural Balance as a decent quality food without unnecessary additives, and which isn’t made at Menu Foods (even Eagle Pack, Innova, and Wellness were made at the Menu Foods factory).  While Natural Balance isn’t as visually appealing as Merrick, it’s still a good food with good ingredients, and it’s priced well.  Instead of making a 5.5 oz. can of food, their can size is 6 oz., so it’s a better value at about 95 cents per can.  It’s got a “Made in USA” label on it, which doesn’t prove that all the ingredients are from the USA, but there’s not much reason to assume otherwise.  One of the nicest things about Natural Balance so far (I’ve only been using it for two weeks) is that Chelsea will eat it!  Chelsea, the cat who would rather starve than eat!  Chelsea, the cat who enjoys food which contains only the cheapest and most unnecessary ingredients!  That very Chelsea has been willing to eat “Venison and Peas” flavor, as well as “Indoor Cat Formula”, although she shies away from “Turkey with Giblets” and “Chicken and Liver”.  Still, this is the highest-quality food she’s ever scarfed down, and that really makes me happy.

Natural Balance has some good incentive programs for breeders and charities.  If it’s something you use and buy by the case please let me know - they have a charity donation program where I can earn money for WeePaws.org if I collect UPC codes and cash register receipts.

It’s still an experiment, but I’ll keep on going for now because it’s fairly well-priced.  If you want to buy Natural Balanced canned cat food online, your best bets are PetFoodDirect (if you can find a good coupon), or OnlyNaturalPet (no coupon needed for a good price, but you may find a coupon anyway if you search at Bargains4Pets).  Petco has had some in-store specials where you buy 4 cans and get 1 free, but it’s such a huge hit that some Petco stores are almost entirely out of stock.

My house is filled with dog and cat food cookbooks, frozen chicken livers, frozen chicken thighs, a meat grinder, etc., yet I still feel rather immobilized by the thought of cooking.  I’ve got about five part-time jobs, literally, and I don’t know how I’ll find the time to cook.  Or the energy.  But I want my pets to be healthy, and I want to save money.  I’ll work it all out eventually.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 04/10 at 02:35 AM

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  1. I got the spoiled case of “Grammy’s Pot Pie” Merrick food about six months ago. Sorry if I wasn’t clear on the time frame. I haven’t had a problem with their food since then, and haven’t actually noticed any decrease in quality. (Though I’m about to order more, so we’ll see if that continues to hold true! I will take careful note, after reading these reviews.)

    I had Salem on Natural Balance kibble for a while--this was before I started giving him wet food half the time--and he *loved* it, but he gained a lot of weight on it for some reason, even with careful portion control. I didn’t know they made a wet food, but that’s good to know in case I do have problems with Merrick.

    Posted by Helena  on  04/10  at  06:34 AM

  2. Thanks so much for doing all this research. Mad-Kitty is horribly picky. (She won’t even eat bites of nice roast chicken from our dinner). We had finally gotten settled on the Nutromax pouches, which she would eat grudgingly, but then the whole Menu Foods mess happened. We’ve tried the Wellness canned food, which I like the look of, but she detests. Sadly, there seem to be concerns over her dry food, Royal Canin, which she likes and has thrived on. Damn and blast. So, we’ll give the Natural Balance a try.

    Posted by Diana  on  04/10  at  07:18 AM

  3. Yoshi eats some Natural Balance canned food along with some Wellness as well.  She hates any wet food with poultry in it (but loves the chicken based Wellness dry food=crazy cat). I’d be happy to mail you the labels from the cans or receipts if that would help.  I am not sure if canadian labels etc would be accepted.  I don’t buy by the case and only use 3 oz cans (which cost $1.29 each!!)but let me know if I can help in any way.

    Posted by Von Krankipantzen  on  04/10  at  10:36 AM

  4. That’s very kind of you, Kranki.  Here’s the link to the Natural Balance page for charities, and it looks as though only UPCs from cases of 6 oz. food are accepted.  It’s unfortunate, but it’s also hard to complain about.  I really appreciate your offer, however!  That price for a 3 oz. can is crazy—there’s not much difference between the Canadian and US dollar, and I’m sure I’d only pay about 79 cents for a 3 oz. can. 

    Diana, most of the Royal Canin problems are anecdotal and not documented.  The documented problems were only with prescription products, so I’m sure you’re still fine using RC kibble.  However, overall, I think the Natural Balance kibble is probably better quality.  My cats just looove kibble, but it makes them gain weight like it did Helena’s cat, so we just keep it around as an occasional treat.

    Posted by Leigh-Ann  on  04/10  at  04:56 PM

  5. Btw, Diana, I took the liberty of editing your comment, because you wrote “Merrick” where I’m sure you meant to write “Menu Foods”.  I’d normally never touch anyone’s post, but I didn’t want anyone reading this to think that Merrick was part of any recall.  They’re just a private company who manufactures their own brand at their own plant, whereas Menu Foods is the huge company which had to recall so many brands they manufacture for others.

    Posted by Leigh-Ann  on  04/10  at  05:00 PM

  6. Yes, yes, sorry. My fingers got the ‘M’s mixed. (So far, Mad-Kitty has had no weight problem, skinny, little thing. Must be all the racing around she does with the dog and ambushing me.)

    Posted by Diana  on  04/11  at  06:16 AM
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