New Formula for Natural Balance Duck and Potato (vet, science, stomach)

[dukie46]

I was wondering if anyone else has noticed a difference with the new formula of the Natural Balance Duck and Potato food. My dog has food allergies, so I switched him to this food back around Christmas. Everything was going well, and he loved the food. About a month ago, I bought a new bag of the food and noticed that it looked different- seemed lighter in color. I didn't really think anything of it until I noticed that JD wasn't eating it. When I was at the vet for his yearly check-up, I mentioned that he wasn't eating much, and she said that several dogs weren't because it was so hot and humid. After about a month of him eating VERY little food, I decided to try another bag of food to see if that made a difference. This bag of food was darker in color like it used to be. I gave JD the food today, and he devoured it within seconds! I just went on the Natural Balance website and saw that they have changed their formula, taking out the duck meal and replacing it with more duck and potato protein.

I was wondering if anyone else who uses this food has noticed that their dogs have stopped eating it once they switched to the new formula. I'm not sure what to do now about his food. I don't like that they switched the formula without any notice on the bags. The website says to slowly switch to the new food, but how would I have known to do that when nothing was on the bags?

[BornNewYorker]

My dachshund experienced the same thing. He has a ridiculous amount of food allergies and when I found the Duck and Potato variety earlier this year, it was a godsend. But just last week I started feeding him the new duck formula and he immediately started showing signs of illness. He vomited once and has had problems with his bowel movements. I was researching causes of constipation in dogs and found out that the quality of dog food is big factor. So I did further research to see whether Natural Balance is a high quality food, when I stumbled upon some sites where people who have been feeding the NEW Duck variety to their pets have been having similar issues. I am planning to switch my dog over to the fish line to see how that works.

[ShelbyGirl1]

I don't use it...but used to. I got an e-mail from them a few months back saying their new formulas were new and improved. Didn't pay much attention to it, since it no longer pertained to me.

[phonelady61]

yes I use that food for my two chis cause the one male chi has food allergies and any other food will mess his digestive system up and was wondering if they had changed the formula I just bought a bag on sunday and they dont seem to like it as much but dont know what else to feed him seems even with a gradual change he has digestive upset and they have run full blood panels and dont know or seem to be able to find out what is wrong with him not tolerating a different food . But yes have tried and will keep them on it , cause I really dont have a choice .

[AllAboutEve]

I feed my dogs science diet and I also make their own dog food. So I feed them half science diet, and half whole food. This is much better for them. You might also want to try giving your dog plain yogurt if they are having any stomache upsets.

[Blondie621]

I also had my dogs on Science Diet for a few years until my rescue partner saw me buy it one day about 6 years ago and had a fit! I did not know at the time that Science Diet was full of corn, other grains and fillers that are not good for the dog. It is at the bottom of the totem pole for quality, healthy food.
I then switched to Nutro and now am looking for something else since I went to the pet store last week and it went up 10 dollars a bag. I was shocked! That is a huge price increase!
I was also mixing in the Natural Balance Sweet Potato and Venison but my dogs got sick on that.
Now what? I have to look around Petsmart tomorrow and slowly wean them onto something else. I have 6 rescues and cannot spend 50 or 60 dollars a bag that last only 2 weeks.

[ChaseandGucci]

My dog had eaten the potato duck for two years, bought the new bag and he started throwing up and refusing to eat. I had no idea the stuff had changed so I could only get him to eat about 20 kibbles a day, After 5 days took to vet for $185 in blood tests that came back fine. I was just alerted on Facebook that many dogs on the new potato duck getting ill. Just put bag in trash can.

[dukie46]

I ended up switching JD over to Pinnacle Duck and Potato, and he immediately started eating again with no problems.

[Montana96]

Hi All,
I have 4 Shih Poos and they were on Venison & Sweet Potato for a long time all was going very well until recently, they all took extremely ill, had to rush them all to the vet (costly). They were all throwing up dark green bile. I took them off. The company sent me a voucher for a new bag. So I returned recently to the Bison and Sweet Potato now one by one they are all starting to throw up again. Needless to say I have switched them to another brand and will not be coming back to Natural Balance Limited Ingredients Diet, I'm very disappointed that the new formulation (whatever that may be) is not working for my dogs. I will be contacting the company again with regard to my issue. Good Luck to all.

[ReturningWest]

I used to use that brand but switched over to Taste of the Wild and I like it much better than the Natural Balance stuff.