Natural Balance Pet Foods

In March, both of my cocker spaniels stopped eating the NB Sweet Potato and Venison. They have been eating this for about ten months. I figured they just got tired of the same thing, so I warmed the gravy and convinced them to eat it. Within three days, both dogs were vomiting with diarrhea. I called NB to inquire of any recalls and spoke with Heather. She advised me that NB is tested and the sickness must have come from an outside source. I believed her. Of course, they sent me a coupon for a free bag of food. I threw the old bag away.

Yesterday, I went to the pet store to buy more and discovered the recall. Today, I again called NB and I again listened to Heather tell me how much this product is tested. Therefore, it could not have been the food. Maybe my 4-year-old dog got into something that upset his stomach and the one-year-old got into it also. I resent the fact that NB is telling people that no dogs have gotten sick. I stressed to Heather how worried I was about long-term effects on my dogs and the other dogs eating this food. I feel my concerns were brushed off as not being valid. I was not looking for anything other than answers. Natural is not always healthy.

I am writing to withdraw a complaint that I made yesterday regarding Natural Balance Duck and Potato dog food. I posted a complaint yesterday after my dog became extremely ill with symptoms of Salmonella after eating the food, knowing that the company had a recall on other flavors of their food due to possible Salmonella contamination and after I saw that another person had posted a complaint about their dog becoming extremely ill after eating the food. I am writing to withdraw that complaint after speaking with a representative of the company and being assured that the duck and potato formula was not affected. My dog is being treated with an antibiotic and seems to be doing better today.

Is NB sharing everything? Two weeks ago, I took my dog to the vet because of four days of diarrhea and poop that had a lot of mucous. He got antibiotics for 7 days and it cleared up. He was on duck and sweet potato dry at the time.

Today, I took him to the vet after three days of lethargy, fever and drinking little water. One of the first questions the vet asked is "Do you know about the dog food recall?" I did, but after looking at the lot numbers on the bags, I was convinced that wasn't the problem. The media reports mentioned that humans had gotten sick, not dogs. The vet said otherwise, so that's how I found this site. I'm appalled! Some of the symptoms mentioned are what my dog is now experiencing. He'll eat the wet NB food, but the dry stuff he hasn't touched in days. I gave him bison and sweet potato dry for the first time this weekend. The smell was so strong when I opened the bag that I wondered if that's how it is supposed to smell. I bought two 5 pound bags because of a special. One bag I threw out already; the other has a "best by" date is June 4, 2013.

I switched to NB because of skin allergies. He was on Pedigree before but had no GI problems and was regular as a clock. I'm not sure if it's coincidental, but I will talk to the pet store and vet to see if others in my area have had the same issues. I feel like there is more to this story than NB has shared. Why is there no acknowledgement that pets have become sick? When my dog is outside, he's always with me. He doesn't get into anything inside the house. The only thing that changed the past few days is his food.

There is also information on their website. I guess we are not all crazy. For the record, my older dog had never been the same since the time when both she and my Westie became sick (and he died) and now she is gone too - organ failure. Although she was old, it certainly didn't help her that she was so sick earlier in the year for weeks until I took her off the Duck and Potato dog food. I cannot believe the amount of testimonials - so many sharing the same experiences/symptoms that my dogs experienced are posted here since my last post!

Also, in my latest email response (to my last post here and my email to her) from Jennifer at Natural Balance regarding my inability to provide a sample of the food (it was already gone) and my inquiring where they sourced their foods from (China?) she stated the following:

"Consumer Affairs is an unregulated site, in which anybody can post a comment. When our only contact is through a third party website, such as Consumer Affairs, our ability to interact and get the necessary information is reduced. You may be surprised to know that many of the people who post on these third party websites have never tried to contact us directly. In fact, many times when we try to contact them, the contact information is inaccurate and/or false. For those that we have been able to investigate, both the customer and Natural Balance have found that the food is not the issue. We cannot say anything about the situations where we are given no cooperation in trying to resolve the problem.

You have said there is no proof to be had and we agree. At this point nothing we see indicates a problem with the food. Problems like Ziggy's can come from food sensitivities, getting into medications (both human and pet), cleaning products, plants and so on. As a registered veterinary technician, I can tell you it was very common for owners to bring in a pet thinking the food was an issue when it turned out to be something else entirely. Thousands of dogs have eaten the very same batch of food that Ziggy ate without event.

With regards to where we source our ingredients, this is something I cannot comment on, because there are limited supplies of the high quality ingredients we require, and therefore have to be careful where we say our ingredients are coming from for competitive reasons. That said, some of our raw materials come from outside the US, and it meets the same high standards as US based ingredients.

Finally, our lab testing program is extensive (http://bwc.naturalbalanceinc.com/) and designed to help us identify any of the recognized risks in pet food. No company makes more of a commitment to making these results available to the consumer than Natural Balance does. In fact to my knowledge we are the only pet food company that has a test and hold program in which we test every product and production run for 9 contaminants. Nothing leaves our warehouse until everything meets our specifications.

We all love our pets and feed them the very same food we sell in the stores, because we know that no one is doing more to help safeguard their health than Natural Balance."

So, in light of the latest voluntary recall, I wonder if employees at Natural Balance are as eager to feed their dogs this food, and, "at this point nothing we see indicates a problem with the food" - Wow! I guess that's why there's a recall? I also find it interesting that they "cannot comment" on where their products are sourced from ("for competitive reasons") when I asked a direct question about whether any came from China. I doubt the competition would want any of their ingredients that are causing the recall! And the lab results from their labs always come up negative. Oh, please. Their "extensive lab testing program" must be working overtime these days.

My dog is on his way to the vet because of vomiting and bloody diarrhea. I woke up to a room full of this all over the floor and rugs this morning. I feel terrible for my dog who clearly does not feel well. My dog ate Natural Balance duck and potato.

Natural Balance sweet potato and duck dry dog food - My 13-year old black lab cross has eaten the sweet potato and duck formula for years, but suddenly with this last bag, he has stopped eating it completely! He has always had love for food, he eats anything and everything. This weekend, he became very ill, vomiting, diarrhea and complete loss of appetite. I strongly recommend that if you are feeding your dog this formula, stop. It is not on the recall list, but it absolutely should be! I have emailed the company, but have received no response. I do not care about having my money refunded, I care about this company's moral obligation to ensure that this does not happen to others (from what I have read here, several others are having a problem).

I believe Natural Balance Turkey and Giblets (canned) is contaminated. I have been feeding it to my cats for several years, and 4 weeks ago, my cats started not liking it anymore. One of my cats stopped eating entirely. We took her to the vet, and they thought she had an upper respiratory infection. They gave her antibiotics, and she got better. After she had finished the antibiotics, she got sick again. Her stomach looked swollen, she wouldn't eat, and she was drinking a lot of water. We took her to the vet again, and they said she had liver disease, fluid on her abdomen, fluid in her chest cavity, her pancreas quit working, and her sugar levels were all over the place. We had to put her to sleep on May 3, 2012. I totally believe the cat food is the reason for my cat's illness, because she was fine before this.

I have been feeding my cats Natural Balance Duck and Green Pea for a little over a year. Mr. Grapes became ill not long after I got the new bag and stopped eating and drank lots of water. I took him to the vet and the vet thought it was pancreatitis and gave him a shot and some medication. Mr. Grapes continued to get sicker and I noticed the other cats were not eating the food; we cleaned the cat food dishes out and gave them store-bought food and they were eating as if starved for days.

Mr. Grapes became so ill he had to be euthanized and not long after, Clovis, my other cat, took a turn for the worse. Same symptoms - lethargy, not eating, and pain. I had to rush her to the ER and the vet said she thought it was either botulinum toxin or pancreatitis. She was given Baytril and Pepcid and sent home. Clovis seemed to improve and we followed up with a regular vet and he said he figured it was pancreatitis. He didn't think she needed Baytril, so we didn't get it. She worsened last night and we called ER and got a prescription for her. We gave it to her and she seems better today. I lost my beautiful, loving, irreplaceable Mr. Grapes and watched my other cat Clovis suffer because of what I believe is something wrong with their food. I have a shipping label from them to send them the food, but I am also sending a sample to the FDA. Whatever is in that food is attacking the pancreas.

The smell of the Natural Balance pet food was horrific. My pets got sick. The stench of the food was so strong I had no idea what I had brought into my house. I finally realized the smell was coming all the way from the kitchen. We have a huge house. It was so bad I could not sleep. When I got up and traced it to the pet food, I threw the whole lot outside. They spray the food with recycled oil from restaurant waste. I just read an article on it before the recall. Thanks. Poison our pets and make money off it. Typical.

My cat developed severe diarrhea upon eating the LID Duck & Pea dry and wet food I just purchased. He had no problem until I opened the new bags/cans. He had pancreatitis, and his last blood work was completely normal. Now, the poor guy is just hating having severe dripping diarrhea. I had the vet run an ELISA fecalysis, and nothing showed up. Is there Salmonella in your food that I should be concerned about? I love this cat and don't want to lose him or the others in our household!

Follow-up to my March 03/12 complaint of N.B. duck and potato - As I said in my previous post, my Rottweiler got sick after eating Natural Balance duck and potato dog food. A day or so later, during which time I tried to get her to eat hamburger and rice, I found she was still lethargic and not herself so we took her to the vet. He examined her and found she had pancreatitis. He gave her a steroid shot and put her on antibiotics. She was very much improved the next morning and finally started to eat normally. This time, she ate Blue Buffalo. My vet said it was as if she had eaten a huge greasy meal and that the pancreatitis was definitely caused by what she had eaten. All she had was some duck and potato out of the new bag of NB dog food and some venison and sweet potato canned. The dog food had to be bad.

All Natural Balance did was send me coupons for two small bags. Mine had been a large bag, not that I would ever buy their food again. Jennifer from Natural Balance called me and was supposed to contact my vet. She was to call me back after speaking to him. I have no idea if she got hold of him or not since she has not gotten back to me. Now finally, we have a recall. But this duck and potato is still on the market. Something needs to be done and fast. We have all complained of sick dogs, yet the people from Natural Balance deny this, saying no illness has occurred. What we should send them instead of samples of dog food are samples of proof of our poor dogs' actual illness and our vet bills.

Changed about 6 months ago to NB Sweet Potato and Bison. I have two mixed breed dogs, 10 years old and 11 years old. The Lab mix just stopped eating about two weeks ago. I took her to the vet when she got so dehydrated and lethargic. She was quickly diagnosed with pancreas issues as well as gall bladder problems. The doctor gave her a 50/50 chance of surviving. She was there four days and when I took her home, I had to feed her with a syringe four times a day. She had 5 different prescriptions to take at different times a day. She is better but still not herself. I have her on a very low fat diet and will have to do so, I guess, the rest of her life. No more NB for my dogs. Very costly mistake just to change them to something different and supposedly healthy. So long, NB.

There was a two week period where complaints were not taken on this site. Why? Is it about "follow the money," and ignore complaints against this company's products? The problem is bigger than a recall for Salmonella; it is about ingredients, additives and lack of nutrition that is adversely affecting or killing our pets and the lack of any oversight of what these companies are doing to our pets and us. What is in the additives? Where are the ingredients sourced from, industrial waste, China, rendered fats or what? This is not "proprietary" when it affects the health of our pets. We have a right to know, to make a decision based on facts not costly merchandising of the product. I wrote a complaint during that two week period, it has not been on the site at all.

I had been feeding my 3-year-old American Bulldog NB Lamb and Rice for the past year. I bought a 28lb. bag on line for the first time the end of March. My dog that previously had never been sick started to vomit, have mucous diarrhea, lethargic behavior and loss of appetite. I gave her a bland diet and she seemed to get better. The symptoms always came back. I thought she might have worms and took a fecal sample to the vet. They, as a precaution, gave me meds which were costly. The sample came back negative. Her symptoms persisted. I was totally baffled never thinking it could be her food.

I received an e-mail from the company that shipped me the food saying, there was a recall but no dogs had tested positive for salmonella, yet nine people have presented positive. The thing they all have in common was dog food all coming from Diamond. I called Natural Balance who is sending me a federal express shipper to send back the food, as my bag is one of the lots which was recalled. They are sending me two coupons for free bags of dog food. I will never use this food or any food manufactured by Diamond again and will tell everyone that I know. I will send them my vet bills as my dog is now on antibiotics for the first time in her life. I treat my dog as if she were my child, and to think I was feeding her superior food and to find out I was making her sick is very hard to swallow. They must be held accountable.

I've been feeding my six cats and Yorkie Natural Balance for the last seven years. I know that they changed the formulas due to the fact that my pets have refused the food several times. The dry food also has a strange odor which is not a good sign. Does anyone know where Natural Balance buys its ingredients for their pet food? How about the location of production?

This food is very expensive and I thought I was feeding my pets a healthy diet. Well, it turns out that I was not doing that. These pet food manufacturers should be held accountable for their products. When I contacted Petco as to what they were doing about the NB recall, I was told that if I wanted to return the food, the bag would have to be at least three quarters full. Oh, great, what a bunch of idiots. I will never purchase this pet food again.

I changed my mini poodle to Natural Balance L.I.D. Potato and Duck. She did not seem like she wanted to eat, but I kept feeding it to her. After about half of a 5lbs bag, I noticed her stomach looked bloated and was worried it might be the Natural Balance dog food. So I started a search on the internet and found many many complaints of this bloating and much worse from this dog food. I am getting in touch with the company. Wish me luck.

After all the denial, Natural Balance announced yesterday (May 5th) a recall for many varieties of their dry dog food. But the recall also denies that there have been any reports of pet illness or that their food has tested positive for salmonella. How ludicrous! This company does not care about our pets.

Natural Balance Duck and Potato Small Breed Bites - The last 2 bags of this food that I bought, in my opinion, made my 2 small dogs very sick. They started not wanting to eat their food, having less energy, seemingly tummy distress and small, black, sticky stools. This product has gone back to the store, I have informed the manufacturer and I have also filed a report with the FDA. The manufacturer's customer service director told me the last lot number was tested and came back fine and I don't have the lot number from the previous bag because I threw it away. I have 2 samples of the last 2 dog food bags I bought and am trying to find a lab to test them. This company, Diamond Pet Food, has had 2 other recalls this month. My dogs are still sick and they are going back to the vet tomorrow. I only pray they will be okay.

I lost my sweet little Westie a few months ago and I am convinced it was the Natural Balance Potato and Duck formula I was feeding him. Both of my dogs got very ill, displaying all kinds of strange behavior and gastrointestinal distress and I stupidly did not research any problems with their dogfood. Natural Balance was recommended by their vet to address skin allergies. I never had a problem with the food and was pleased with how their skin cleared up - until around January/February of 2012 when they became ill- flatulence, up all night walking around licking the air distressed, diarrhea, suddenly urinating on the floor (never ever did this before) and total lethargy. My Westie got the worst of it and I rushed him to the vet - all labs, bloodwork, stool samples came back okay but x-ray showed an enlarged liver. She thought it might be his back but was really only guessing.

After putting him on steroids and pain killers, and telling me to let him rest for a few days and bring him back, he went downhill. He was incapable of walking and was barely alive. We had to put him down by the end of the week. I have talked to the company and went back and forth with their customer service representative who should really have the title of Customer Complaint Deflector. She assured me that there had been no other complaints regarding either the duck or sweet potato foods their company sells. Really? This site seems to offer evidence to the contrary. After his death, I spoke to a dog breeder who directed me to this site and I realized that it could possibly have been the food (which I thought was the best on the market) and a bad batch of the product that had stricken my dog. Once I stopped feeding my older dog the Natural Balance, her health improved immediately.

Although she was an older dog by a few years, she had less drastic symptoms than my Westie and, thankfully, was able to recover completely. Thank God I spoke to this breeder or I might have lost both of my beloved dogs. My Westie was the sweetest, gentlest soul that I have ever known. I will never get over this. I will never use this product again and although I cannot definitively prove that it was the Potato and Duck - I am personally convinced of this. The company offered to test the food - too late - that bag was finished and wanted to test the current dog food I had at their laboratory. Yeah right! I am sure they would have been completely honest with their test results. Besides, what could they have possibly done for me? No amount of money or anything could bring back my Ziggy.

My vet feels terrible for recommending this product to me (I was using Taste of the Wild with no digestive problems) and will no longer suggest this product for any of her patients. She investigated this site and others, and agrees with me that it is very likely that a bad batch of food killed ZIggy. Unfortunately, it cannot be proven and the company knows this. There are just too many testimonials describing the exact same scenario that we encountered for there to be no connection. The representative who calls you does her job of expressing sympathy and making hollow offers to investigate and work with your vet, knowing full well that nothing will come of it. Shame on this company. I cannot explain how angry I am or what a loss this has been.

I noticed a change in formula many months ago. The color of the dry Duck and Peas cat food was suddenly darker. My cats seemed to notice a change as well and didn't want to eat it, but I have a cat with allergies and this is one of the few foods he can eat. I left it out and they reluctantly ate it. I have fed my cats Duck and Peas dry food for years in addition to several brands of higher quality wet food. Two of my cats will only eat dry food and I noticed that one of them was vomiting on a daily basis for months.

I thought it was because she was eating too quickly. Then, about a month ago, another cat who will only eat dry food started vomiting daily. One day she could not keep anything down at all and must have thrown up at least six times in a row. She would vomit each and every time she ate. I finally got the message that the food was making them sick. I feel awful that I didn't stop feeding Duck and Peas ages ago but I kept telling myself "their website says they test every batch so it can't be the food". To be honest, it really scared me because it is exactly what happened to my cats in 2007 when they were eating the tainted Venison and Peas.

Two weeks ago, I switched to another hypoallergenic dry food and the vomiting stopped immediately. Seriously, neither cat has thrown up, not even once, since stopping Natural Balance. I called Natural Balance and, unfortunately, do not remember who I spoke with in customer service. She sounded quite concerned and told me they wanted to test the food and that she would send a shipping company to pick up a sample from me. She also promised to send a refund for the large bag plus a coupon for their food, which I have no intention of using.

That was weeks ago and she never followed through. I still have the dry food packed up and ready to be sent to them and I never received a refund check. Very disappointing that Natural Balance does not care enough to find out why their food is clearly making animals vomit. I waited to post a complaint to see how they would handle the situation. Now I know. They act concerned on the phone and then do absolutely nothing. I am tempted to send the food for testing and pay for it myself. I hope my cats do not have kidney damage from eating this for so long.

On March 27, I filed a complaint and wanted to post a follow up. NB rep asked me to do so. She called me right away after I emailed her and she was very polite etc. and wanted to talk to my vet and test my food. I already took the food back to pet supermarket and they gave me a bag of Biljac (food my dogs were on prior) in exchange. I stopped feeding my dogs the NB Lamb and Rice LID following my 3 dogs' onset of watery bloody stool, vomiting, hair loss and flaky skin. I gave them chicken and rice for several days and the vomit and diarrhea cleared up completely.

I took my dogs to the vet on March 31. Their labs and fecal test were normal. The vet did not know what was wrong with them and said maybe they had a bug. I started them on antibiotics and starting adding back their old food (Biljac) to the chicken and rice and added this natural flora bacteria to it for 7 days (still doing it and the abx). My dogs have no symptoms now and their skin has cleared up amazingly.

To me, the answer is obvious. When I stopped the food, the problem cleared up (before I even went to vet). To be fair though, I wanted to post that my dogs' labs and fecal test showed no liver damage. Maybe I caught it soon enough or maybe they just had a bug. Nevertheless, I will not risk my dogs and try the food again.

I have been feeding my dogs the Natural Balance Potato and Duck because one has allergies to wheat. The last bag I bought the first of March 2012 (product # NBPO202B2SL GF 01:08 and best before 11/April/2013), my one dog would not eat much of it so I substituted other food. My other dog, the one with the allergies did continue to eat the product but I noticed that he was experiencing increased flatulence. I didn't think that there was a real problem until one night he ate what he normally does and went to lie down. He experienced gas and seemed uncomfortable. He died on the way to the vet. I will never buy this product again. I had been cooking for my animals prior and it seems that this will have to continue for the other two that are living. I only wish that I knew of these problems. I would never have continued to give my beloved friend it. I have lost him forever and he was not ready nor I for him to go.

Recently, both of my dogs, a lab and a terrier mix, have been throwing up several times a week. I have been feeding them Natural Balance Sweet Potato & Chicken Grain Free because the limited ingredients seemed to help my lab's loose stools. However, recently, with the last bag purchased, I have noticed the upset stomachs.

The first symptoms came after I fed them Sweet Potato & Bison treats. I thought they smelled funny, but decided it must be the Bison which I had not purchased before. I checked the date and it was not expired. After a partial bag of the Bison treats, I discarded it, and I went back to Sweet Potato & Fish treats. They still are having upset stomachs, eating grass, etc. I don't know now if it is also the food and maybe it has something bad from China in it. I don't want to poison my dogs. I guess I can't trust any pet food companies. Who knows what portion of any ingredient comes from China? We need to cease manufacturing products in China or buying any products from that country!

I have been feeding my three dogs this brand food for about 6-10 months and just this last month, my larger dog started throwing up and bleeding when he urinated. He has gotten kidney stones and I now have him on Royal Canin Urinary SO. The two little dogs, I continued to feed the Natural Balance and in the last two weeks, they have started throwing up and are bloated and one started bleeding when he poos. Both have mucus soft or watery poo. I was confused at what was happening with all my dogs as they were all fine before and suddenly this. So I started to research and found this complaint site. I am so upset and will stop feeding my dogs this food immediately. I wish I knew what to feed them. I guess I will go back to Bil-Jac or Wellness.

I gave my English Springer Spaniel, Natural Balance Duck and Potato thinking she would love it. She had a bad experience vomiting, and had diarrhea. I took her to vet and they thought she had liver failure which is luckily in early stages. Lots of time and care went into her recovery besides money. I would not recommend this food at all.

Months ago, I put my German shepherd/golden retriever mix on Natural Balance due to allergies. She had loose stools but nothing major. Then about a month ago she started vomiting and had diarrhea constantly. The vet couldn't find a problem, so we just went to bland diet. Everything's okay. We had run out of food so bought a store brand. Everything's still okay. Finally, knowing that was not good, we went back to Natural Balance. Explosive diarrhea! Then I found this site. I had chosen NB because they had fewer recalls. Now I see that they had fewer recalls not because it was a better or safer product, but just because they don't care enough to recall when they should!

I was feeding my dog Potato and Duck LID Natural Balance dry dog food. My bulldog became sick. I took her to the vet two times with bloat. I did contact Natural Balance and they reimbursed me for the bag of dog food and had me send the bag of food back for testing. They called me and said the tests were all normal. They also sent me 5 vouchers for dog food for a bulldog event. They were very nice and reassured me it wasn't the food and did call my vet which she could not confirm was the food. I have switched my dogs to a different brand and have had no problems with bloat since. I will not be feeding NB in the future. I don't know if it was the issue or not, but according to their testing the dog food was safe.

I have been trying to figure out what is going on with my dog (Barnabas) for the past few months, as he has been experiencing diarrhea and vomiting on occasions. He has been losing massive amounts of hair. His stool is rancid and he just doesn't seem to be as energetic as he was when we first got him. Barnabas is 9.5 months old and we adopted him about 5 months ago and started him on Natural Balance Pet Foods right away as we heard it was an excellent dog food and allergy sensitive.

I have taken him to our vet's and they can't seem to find anything out of the ordinary. I have Googled every possible reason as to why Barnabas seems to be suffering from diarrhea, vomiting, massive hair loss, rancid stools and overall low energy level. I am at a loss, until I came across this costumer complaint site this morning and I finally have my answer. It is the dog food! I did notice that the sweet potato and bison was darker and greasy, but as a new buyer to Natural Balance, I did not know that was not normal. I am so mad. As I've read the many, many post below, it sickens me that this food is still on the shelf and the company continues to ignore the complaints. I literally stopped feeding him that crap this morning and will be getting new dog food. I will never return to Natural Balance and will definitely be informing everyone including my vet about Natural Balance.

We were told by the pet store that endorses Natural Balance dog food that it was wonderful. Well, we gave it 2 chances with our 4-month old lab. Both times he got diarrhea and went several times. I would not recommend this dog food to anyone. Please pass this along to prevent any further animals from getting sick; it can lead to serious problems. I am just an average citizen with no affiliations to any dog food company, just a passionate animal lover!

Robin, Natural Balance uses ingredients from China in their pet food. If you do an internet search using the words "rat poison" and "China," you will see why it is entirely possible that rat poison could make its way into pet food and treats. The symptoms of rat poisoning are kidney and liver failure and internal bleeding (which results in bloody stools and/or vomit). In the massive 2007 pet food recall (in which some Natural Balance foods were recalled), it was originally thought that rat poison was the contaminating agent, though it turned out to be melamine.

I feed my cats Natural Balance, but not any of their flavors which contain wheat gluten, rice protein, or pea protein, as it was protein supplements that were adulterated with melamine in 2007. I haven't experienced any problems thus far with Natural Balance foods. That being said, it is very disturbing to me that Natural Balance uses any kind of products from China whatsoever. Robin, did the customer service person tell you if they tested the food specifically for rat poison, especially since rat poisoning was the conclusion of your vet based on lab work?

Several months ago, I lost my 4 year old lab, Stella. She was one of the sweetest dogs in our "pack". She had allergies and was on NB due to this. At the time, I was so upset over Stella's untimely death that upon reading this column, I was sure it was her dog food. This of course led me to be even more emotional thinking that I had been daily poisoning my sweet girl. Now after being able to sit back and look at the events with a less emotional mind, I am sure there was something else involved. We are pretty sure that she may have gotten a hold of a mouse that had been into poison.

Jennifer from NB was quick to contact me from my original post. I put it all on a back burner, not knowing how to move forward. Jennifer contacted me again a few months later and she was very understanding and helpful. She sent me mailing labels to send the dog food for testing, contacted my vet and then called me back with the results of the testing which were negative. I thank her for her help as it lay to rest my guilt that I had somehow unknowingly been poisoning my sweet dog. Thanks Jennifer. I miss you Stella.

A Natural Balance representative contacted me and sent me a voucher for another bag of dog food. They also sent a label to have the food shipped back to the company that I purchased for testing. They told me they would share the results when they had them. I will share the information when I receive it.

The person I talked with was very pleasant and called and talked with my vet. She then called me back with inconclusive reports and said my vet could not pin it on the dog food that was making my Hannah sick. I have since switched food and am having no problems with bloat symptoms. I will let you know the results of the testing of the dog food and any update I receive from Natural Balance Dog Food.

I am still in disbelief as I read through these complaints. We lost our 5-year old Miniature Greyhound/Jack Russel last month to liver failure. The only reason I ran across these posts was because I was searching for a good brand for my German Shepherd puppy. We currently have her on sweet potato and salmon dry food and her stool has gone from solid to diarrhea within a few days. I thought it may have been due to too many treats. But after reading through this, I am almost positive it is the food. My older dog who had to be put down last month was on the same sweet potato and salmon food. I had no idea that I could have been possibly poisoning her. I am so upset right now. The symptoms came on fast as she stopped eating and drinking her last two days of her life and began to just pace and drool around the house.

We took her to the vet upon showing these signs and they ran tests and they came back that they needed to run more tests. A day later, she was getting worse so we ended up taking her to an emergency hospital. The doctor there diagnosed liver failure and said that it would be best for us to put her down so she didn't have to suffer anymore. I will never buy a Natural Balance product again! As for our German Shepherd, we will obviously find another food for her to eat. Hopefully, her digestive problems will be gone soon after we get her off Natural Balance food.

My Dog Getting Sick: I've been feeding my two bulldogs Natural Balance Duck and Sweet Potato not knowing that sweet potato was now the first ingredient. Six weeks ago, my girl Hannah got sick, starting to lick the air, her stomach getting bigger, and pacing back and forth. I took her to the emergency vet where she was diagnosed with bloat. We were able to stick the tube down her stomach and pass the air. Trying to figure out what caused this, nothing different in her routine. Every evening she would continue to lick the air and have very bad gas. Again, last week I had to take her in and she had bloat again. Same routine, stick the tube down and pass the air. I was racking my brains out why this was suddenly happening to my healthy girl.

Finally, I did some research and found all these complaints about Natural Balance dog food. She had not eaten it since and no problems with gas or bloat since. I have two vet bills now and a full bag of Natural Balance. I did contact the company, but have not heard from them yet. Also, passing this information along to my friends, those too that are feeding Natural balance are having the same issues and have switched their food and their dogs are doing better. Why has there not been a recall on this product yet?

I fed my three Pomeranians over 2 years your food, Natural Balance Original Ultra Small Breed Bites. I was thinking I was giving my puppies the best food with it being all natural with the fresh chicken, brown rice, lamb, oatmeal, pearled barley, duck meal, fresh potatoes, and fresh carrots. And all three of them died with organ failure (mainly liver). My little girl, who just passed on 3/1/2012, was on medicine for her liver. She was never sick, and in fact before I started feeding her this food, my vet said she was growing old gracefully. Then, it started with her liver panel off the chart. Despite being on liver medicine, her panel got worse in December. I stopped feeding her your so-called Natural food a month and a half ago and had her liver panel drawn a week ago and her liver values started coming down.

I want to know what is in your food that has caused me to lose three of my most precious babies. I did not correlate your food to the loss of my first two. The first on 02/23/2011 and the next baby on 11/25/2011, but then when my little girl's liver panel still climbed despite being on her liver meds I knew then your food has to be the culprit and was slowly killing her as it did to my first babies. I will be filing a report of this to the FDA, and maybe once and for all they will get off their butts and do something about the regulations that should be put on the food that our precious little babies are fed. They are our babies and should have the same standards for their food as people. They are no less important than out children--in fact, these babies are my children! I will be contacting ** and I will expect an answer to the above!

My latest bag of NB Sweet Potato & Bison had a funny smell and an oily appearance. It almost smells like plastic. I've returned it to my retailer who provided me with a new bag of Sweet Potato & Venison. After reading all these posts however, I"m not sure if I even want to feed this. We've been feeding this brand for about four months and have noticed really dark stool.

We started feeding Natural Balance Duck and potato dry dog food to our Rottie in July 2011. She loved it and all was well until this last bag purchased a week ago, (Feb. 24th 2012). She took sick on Monday and by Wednesday; I decided it might be the dry dog food. I gave her canned N.B. sweet potato and venison, which she did eat, only to be sicker than ever the next day. She just moped around and had some vomiting and diarrhea (she refused to eat the new bag of food after the initial meal). I went to get the bag it came in, only to find it had gone out with the garbage. I regret that I do not have the info from the bag.

Last night, one of my little poodles woke me up vomiting with diarrhea. She was sick just like the Rottie. I had given her some of the canned also as well as a few pieces of dry. We immediately started feeding both dogs hamburger and rice. I bought some Blue Buffalo food today and thankfully the Rottweiler ate some of it and appears better tonight. The little poodle is better tonight also. I contacted Natural Balance and was offered replacement coupons. She refused to believe there is something wrong with the food. It appears to me as if both the dry and wet formulas are affected. There would be no other reason for both my dogs to be sick at the same time.

My pet started throwing up within hours after eating the food. She had gas, refused food, water and Natural Balance treats. She is shaking, can't stand to be touched. Your food is the only brand she eats. She will be seen by the vet for scheduled appointment on Monday. Due to other family circumstances, she could not be seen earlier. Numbers on the can are available. Not sure how to read . Expect a reply ASAP to advise veterinarian.

My puppy was found to have food allergies, we thought, the middle of 2011. She was probably 12 weeks old when we found this out. We waited and put her on steroids to see if it was seasonal allergies. We ruled out seasonal allergies in the winter and sought other causes. January 2012, I started mixing Pedigree (what she had been on) with sweet potato and venison NB. My 11-month old puppy died on 2/18/2012, the same day she finished the bag. She had no signs that she was in poor health in any way. I am waiting for the complete necropsy results to come in. However, preliminary showed no signs of anything "abnormal" for a puppy of 11 months. My other dog (who is 6) was also on NB at the same time and started being very "lazy". His coat (flat coated retriever) started getting unpleasant.

I switched back to Pedigree for a couple days and I am probably going to do raw feed soon. He is doing much better just a week later and is more like a puppy than when he was on NB ever. When the complete necropsy comes in, I will update my log. However, both dogs had similar stool (black and at times, like a mucus covered it, although this wasn't often) and were fed the same. My flat coated retriever is 6 and was only on the food for a short time and his health declined. I am sad, I couldn't tell the signs but I was looking for allergies and not looking at a possible poisoning of my dog! At this time, I am not blaming NB until the complete necropsy comes back. But I am warning people to watch out for these signs or you may come home from work and no longer have your dearest friend.

My 2 standard poodles have been on Natural Balance for at least 10 years. They get wet and dry food. I have never had a food-related problem with them and Natural Balance. I have never had them reject a wet food flavor, although I am trying to determine which flavors may not be as popular as others. I rotate through the wet flavors. I have recommended Natural Balance to the owners of every puppy I see.

I wanted to follow up on my recent posts regarding Natural Balance. Both the sample I submitted to an independent laboratory and the sample I returned to Natural Balance came back negative for any known toxins. Jennifer from Natural Balance was very thorough and understanding in her follow-up to my complaints. She sent a prepaid package for the sample, got it tested in an independent lab, followed up with my vet, and kept me in the loop throughout the process. At this point, there's no conclusive way to say what was going on with my Boston Terrier, though I'm happy to say she's made a full recovery and her blood tests are all now within normal range. We haven't gone so far as to return to feeding Natural Balance, but the vet and I agree that there is no "smoking gun" pointing to the food as the issue now, only correlation with her digestive problems. For our part, I'm considering the matter closed.

I recently posted that my cats had gotten sick eating Natural Balance. I could not find another food that did not have chicken in the ingredients that wouldn't break the bank. So I went back to Natural Balance. The cats have been just fine with the new bag. Natural Balance voluntarily contacted me to understand my issue. We discussed the situation and settled on the fact that the bag of food may have been expired as they had not had other complaints about any batches of the salmon formula being bad. I was impressed with the way they handled the issue. I'm now using Natural Balance again.

I initially posted a complaint after my dog refused to eat her Natural Balance food when we bought her a new bag. She had eaten the food for two years and never had a problem with it. After three days of our dog not eating, we bought a bag of Iams, and she ate it right up. Natural Balance refunded the cost of her food and encouraged us to try another bag to see if she would eat it. We did, and she still refused the food. We fed our dog Iams ever since.

I did receive an email from a representative at Natural Balance asking me to contact her, and did so today. The representative was very pleasant. She feels that my dog has decided she doesn't like this food any longer. She said no significant changes have taken place with the Natural Balance formula, and that she has not had any other complaints. She is mailing me a voucher of one of the different formulas to try, and we will try it.

My dachshund had been eating this food for about six months. After buying a new bag of the Venison and Sweet Potato, he developed horrible gas and bloody stools. His stools are very loose and he tries to go to the bathroom 4 and 5 times a day. He has also been drinking a lot more water. He strains to go even though his stools are loose. All tests from the Vet have come back normal...blood, fecal, and urine tests. He has even had an X-ray, all fine.

I am about halfway through my first bag ever of Nature's Balance dog food. I got the venison and sweet potato version. My dog's stools immediately got darker and larger, and now they are tar black on the outside, which can be a sign of bleeding in the upper intestine. She leaves the food in her bowl all day even though she has never been a picky eater and usually devours her food right away. I've stopped feeding her the food and started her on a well-balanced, home-cooked diet. I may keep her on that or look for a new brand of natural dog food.

I've been using Natural Balance for a few months. In December, I bought a new bag and the cats have been vomiting a lot. They rarely vomit up their food. I found this web site which gave some insight. Now, I have a problem with trying to find a good food for my one cat who has a grain and poultry allergy. Does anyone have any suggestions? Preferably something that doesn't break the bank either. I don't understand why they put the poultry in the cat foods, it seems there are a lot of cats that are allergic these days.

My Shih Tzu suddenly began having grand mal seizures last year, and went into acute renal failure. I switched him from Natural Balance Original Ultra Small Breed Bites to home cooked and Science Diet renal prescription, then to Fromm Chicken and home cooked. He stopped having seizures, and his renal numbers normalized. His vet says he's never seen a dog so sick recover in all his years of practice. Recently, he has become pickier about his food, and has been eating more home cooked. I decided to try some Natural Balance again, since he liked that, before the seizures started. Within 24 hours of eating the Natural Balance, he had a grand mal seizure, his first seizure in 4 months. His labs were drawn a couple of weeks ago, and his renal numbers were normal.

I can only conclude that the Natural Balance likely contributed to his seizure, as he was on it when the seizures started, and they stopped when he was off the Natural Balance, and then they started again within 24 hours of eating it. I was unaware of the many complaints about problems with Natural Balance, and never correlated it with the sudden, unexplained seizures and renal failure. Now, I feel stupid for not having known it was the probable culprit in the first place.This is a beautiful, show breed, meticulously cared for, adored companion, and I am going to use every avenue at my disposal to let people know about what happened with Natural Balance! To say I am angry, is a monumental understatement.

I have been feeding my cat Natural Balance Green Pea and Duck Dry for approximately 5 years. Due to his allergies to chicken, fish, and turkey, my opinions for food are limited. Six months ago, I noticed my cat began to have loose stools, was tired all the time, drinking more than usual, was loosing weight despite eating more than usual, and began to have blood in his stools. He was diagnosed with anemia at the vet. He tested negative for parasites. My doctor made a diagnosis of probable IBS. I noticed that my other cat also began to have looser stools and I decided to try a different food for both cats. Within several days of changing to a different brand of food (also a duck based product), my sick cat stopped having blood in his stools. I have to wonder what the change was 6 months ago that resulted in my cat (and ultimately both cats) not being able to tolerate Natural Balance Green Pea and Duck Dry any longer. Their new food has very similar ingredients, so I really don't believe it's an allergy problem. I believe it's a Natural Balance Green Pea and Duck problem.

I have spent thousands of dollars on blood tests and vet visits in the last few months. Now, I find out this food from Natural Balance could have caused the problem. I called the company today, trying to get some reassurance that their food could not be causing the problem. That was a joke! I was disconnected after being on hold for over 15 minutes. During the 15 minutes, 3 different people picked up the line, and then told me that they were on the wrong call. After calling back, I was told someone would call me back. Yes, someone did call me back, but she was so rude and uncaring, I could barely believe she was in customer service. That is very poor customer service, if you ask me.

I've been feeding this product for over two years, and was thoroughly satisfied, until about 6 months ago. At that time I had a nursing dam, and her sister who had been losing coat, and looking very un-thrifty. The nursing dam is still recovering from her 11 puppies, but her coat is of very poor quality, when it was lustrous and profuse. I thought she had a thyroid problem. Stools are huge, and very smelly. I took the dam for a complete workup, and thank you God, she's fine. The sister also has smelly stools, and has taken to urinating in the house on occasion, as well as pooping.

I did notice the last few bags were different in color and texture, and definitely odor. I returned them, and the shop said they've not had this food returned, or any complaints. Well, that's about to change. The puppies are thriving. They're not on any NB food. Something told me to take the girls off NB, and switch them to another food. Not that it makes any difference, but my dogs are Irish Setters, and they're shown in competition. One of them is an AKC Grand Champion, and looks raggedy, which I've attributed to stress, but no more. This really disgusts me, as these dogs are my babies, and don't mess with my babies, human or animal.

We have fed our dog Natural Balance Small Breed Bites for two years. We have never had a problem. We purchased a new (large) bag yesterday, and she will not eat it. She is not sick, and is eager to eat treats when given the chance; however, she takes a bite of the Natural Balance and spits it out. Something seems to be wrong with it and I wonder if there were other complaints. I hate to switch her to another brand.

I have the same story as all of the other complaints. I am insanely disappointed in Natural Balance and extremely saddened that I've essentially been poisoning my dog. I actually thought he was becoming depressed and thus exhibiting anorexic tendencies. Little did I know, he was just trying to let me know that he wasn't going to continue to eat food, that has basically been killing him! I've used Natural Balance for about a year and a half, but noticed a shift in my dog's eating behaviors/health (diarrhea/vomiting) in November. I'm so mad that it's taken me this long to realize the connection between his food and his health. I will absolutely never buy another product from Natural Balance.

I purchased the ultra dog food in the hopes of making sure I was helping my dog, since it was supposed to be holistic. She was twelve years old, and healthy until I started feeding her this food in November. Now, it is February, and I am mourning her loss. She started vomiting, and had diarrhea with tarry black stools. She began losing weight, and her hair. I called Natural Balance with my concerns, and like others, have said was offered a coupon to try another type of their dog food, and was asked to mail in the bar code, with the code showing the lot, and never heard back, but was assured they had received no complaints. I would like to be contacted concerning the class action lawsuit, I feel like I am entitled for my financial loss, vet bills, and medications, besides emotional pain. I can't quit crying. She didn't deserve this type of death.

I fed our cat the NB Green Pea and Duck Cat food for approximately 8 months, because he had intestinal issues (loose stool), and itchy skin. We tried a variety of different foods over time, and this one appeared to have solved both. About a month ago, I noticed that the color and smell of the food had changed. The color was more greenish, and smelled strongly of peas. Our cat would not touch the food. I called NB, and asked if there had been a change, and they said that the color change was normal, since they don't use additives.

I was able to find a bag of the older lot (best by Aug 2012), so he had been eating that, and I slowly started mixing in this new bag, which I thought might have been bad. His intake started to decline, and the last couple of days, he has had bad diarrhea. Last night, he threw up for a couple hours, until there was nothing else to throw up. This was about 20 minutes after eating. Prior to eating, he was his normal self. I'm really glad to have found this, because it looks as if we're not alone, and I hope by the time I get home tonight, our cat is still alive. I'm also in the process of trying to get my vet to recommend a prescription food that he might tolerate better, and hope I can pick it up this evening.

I've been feeding my cats the Limited Ingredient Duck & Pea, wet and dry food for months, with no incidents. I opened a new bag and a new can (from a new 24-pack) a couple of days ago, and ever since, both cats have eaten much smaller amounts than usual, both have diarrhea, and one vomited up her food yesterday, which she's never done before. Today, they both refused both wet and dry food entirely, something neither has ever done before. They're normally voracious, non-discriminating eaters. I'm so grateful I found this page. I am never feeding this brand to my cats again. I'm appalled that Natural Balance has been so unethical.

I cannot say for sure why my cat is so ill with pancreatitis, but I wanted to post this in case anyone else has the same problem and it begins to look like a pattern. I have switched my cat's food four times in her (3 year old) lifetime. I changed her from Iams, which she ate at the shelter, to Natural Balance Ultra. She was on that for a long time.

Last year I noticed Natural Balance's Alpha (grain-free), so I gradually switched her to that and she wasn't that into it, so I switched her back to Natural Balance Ultra. All of this switching was without incident. This last time I switched her (gradually) to Natural Balance Salmon and Pea (purchased 1/12, expires 11/12), and something went very wrong.

In about a week, she started to become lethargic, then came the loss of appetite, violent vomiting and bloody diarrhea (which was all blood and mucus because she hadn't eaten). A little over $500 later, she is clear for everything except pancreatitis and some tapeworms, the latter of which the vet said couldn't cause this meltdown. The only thing different about her life in the last two weeks is that food, and never before have I had a problem with switching between Natural Balance Foods.

The vet said the food switching is likely the cause, but he's not sure if it's the food or the switch itself. It seems really suspicious to me, given all of the other complaints on here recently. I will not be giving my cat any more Natural Balance food until I hear back about the testing the company is going to do on that bag.

Links aren't allowed, so my reference below is vague. Just Google "Pets Ring Dings" and the Leda Harvard Law School paper is first.

Read the paper on the Harvard Law School website and forward it to every pet owner you know and see the facts on why we need to be diligent regarding the "stuff" we feed our pets, why so many veterinarians won't blame commercial pet food, and why people need to be reminded of what happened in 2007 over and over and over and stop being so trusting of industries which you think has regulation until it's too late.

You have a lot of gall. This site should be for legitimate comments. Not only is yours insensitive and self-centered, I doubt it's legitimate as this is a complaints site to warn others of what people are going through. Are your sales slacking this month?

I will not feed my dogs this food any longer! I have been feeding my golden retrievers Natural Balance Sweet Potatoes & Fish and Sweet Potatoes & Bison for about a year. In November 2011, I noticed a slimy substance on my dog's poop, and the poop was very big and dark (slimy substance on poop is a sign of an gastrointestinal irritation). My golden retrievers also started vomiting shortly after eating the food. My dogs also picked up a new habit of pooping in the house these huge very dark stools, and the dogs seemed to have a strange new cat like urine smell coming from their pores, along their back, neck, and head. A urine smell coming from the pores of a dog's skin can be a sign of a kidney issue.

I started bathing them weekly, to no avail. About a month ago, one of my golden retrievers vomited 3 times after eating NB Sweet Potatoes and Bison. We took him to the emergency vet, and $600 later, was given antibiotics an IV and something to settle his tummy. My dogs were starving from pooping and vomiting all this food out. They lost 5 lbs. By the way, the blood work was fine, and the vet stated my golden retrievers must be ingesting something to cause the problem.

The vet told me to put the dogs on a bland chicken & rice diet, and can re-introduce the food slowly. Mind you, at this point, I never considered the food to be the issue. The first few days, they had nothing but chicken and rice, and they got better. No vomiting or large dark slimy covered poop, and no poop in the house. Slowly started introducing the NB Sweet Potatoes & Bison food again, and within a few days, the dogs were back to vomiting and pooping the big slimy dark stools in the house again.

We went back to the vet again, and we're given more antibiotics, and told to put them on the chicken and rice diet. Within a few days, all symptoms cleared up, including the urine smell coming from their pores. I started searching in Google about Natural Balance, and noticed others have had the exact same experience with the dog food, and that there was a recall last year for salmonella, as well as a class action lawsuit. I also noticed on the internet that Petco removed the Chicken and Sweet Potatoes from their shelves, I believe it was in the summer 2010, for an issue. I called Natural Balance, and they said they were sorry, and would send me coupons for free bags of dog food. I just spent almost $700 on vet bills, and almost starved my dogs to death, feeding them this stuff. Why would I would I want coupons for free bags? I did ask the rep at Natural Balance if they got any of their ingredients from China, and she stated that they did.

The moral of the story is that my dogs were very ill, but once I changed brands of food, they got better. I'm just stating what happened to me, and what I've read on this website and others. I'm just sharing my story.

I don't know why there are complaints on this product; my dogs are doing great on this food. I've been feeding them Natural Balance and can't say enough good things. After reading an article about dog health and then reading the ingredients of the food, I was previously feeding them that turned out to contain many not-so-healthy foods, I knew I had to switch. I was a bit unsure about Natural Balance after reading the complaints on this site, but I also found many positive comments on other websites.

After a lot of research, we decided to switch to Natural Balance and now my dogs (who had previously suffered from minor allergies and weight issues) are now healthy, happy, fit and free of allergies. My Beagle is on Potato & Duck and my other dogs eat Ultra. What really was the determining factor was the section of their website where you can enter the bag of Natural Balance you purchased and see that it has been tested and is free of contaminants.

My Yorkie has been eating NB Duck and potato tiny bite kibble for approximately 3 years. After opening a new bag, she has had soft mucous stools and is lethargic. After reading all the similar stories, I will not be feeding her anymore of this food.

To clarify my previous post, my vet has not filed any complaints with the FDA or the Health Department as of today. They were waiting for more information from me after I contacted Natural Balance and filed a complaint first. I hope this clears up any misunderstanding between Natural Balance and my vet.

I'm outraged after reading the last post! I was contacted again by Natural Balance after my recent posts on their Facebook and other websites. I asked to email me or leave me a voice mail because I was very busy. She refused to email me even left me her cell phone, but hey, if I were Natural Balance I wouldn't want anything in writing ether!

I actually took my pets off the food after finding mold in the Alpha cat , both of them were puking abnormal amounts. About two weeks ago I tried the wet food again, only two cans and they began puking again.

When I brought that up to Natural Balance,he said that most likely both of my cats developed an allergy to the food and also no ingredients had changed. This is unbelievable! Both of my cats were on this food the entire summer and were fine. I highly doubt that both of them developed an allergy at the same time.

She also stated yesterday that there were no other issues with mold. After reading the post below, I see that she is clearly, flat out, lying to me!

Please know if you animal is throwing up or sick from their food it's not an allergy and it's not normal. There are complaints about the food your pet has, they have heard them, and it has happened to other people. I don't know what type of company this is or how many animals need to be sick. I'm very thankful for websites like this and their Facebook. We can get the word out to everyone this way.

The two foods I was feeling are Wet, Chicken and Green Pea lid and Dry, Alpha Cat Chick & Duck.

I also do don't want Natural Balance contacting me anymore.

All 4 dogs (and my rescue dogs in other states) became violently ill after eating their new bag of Natural Balance LTD fish and sweet potato, purchased on Dec 2011. I noticed the food to be very dark, very smelly and of odd texture. I called my pet shop where I purchased the food and they were told by Natural Balance that the formulation had changed and the food was fine. Obviously, they called because they were having so many complaints. My 4 cats also became very ill with projectile vomiting and weight loss after eating from their fresh bag of Alpha Cat. I found mold in their food and the oddest thing was that their stool also became "moldy" within a short time of them defecating.

Long story short, I now have over $5,000 in vet bills. I have managed to turn around 3 cats but one is very sick and emaciated and now suffering from kidney failure. Of the dogs, all suffered from vomiting, bloody watery stools, horrific breath, lethargy, skin issues and hair loss. The younger 2 dogs were able to bounce back quicker after being put on antibiotics, Subcutaneous fluids and a bland diet. Whereas my 13 1/2 years old Aussie has been severely suffering from bloody stools, vomiting and has had to be taken off all her pain management and arthritis medications because of the bleeding she now has in her gut and intestines. Bland diet, antibiotics and she is returning to normal. The worst case, my 8-year old Golden Retriever has been in liver and kidney failure, on IV fluids, mass amounts of medications, can no longer eat, has lost 20+ pounds and is hanging on by a thread. He was a dog that was happy, energetic, healthy and quite love bug. Now, I have a dog that can barely move by himself.

I called Natural Balance to file a complaint and I was offered coupons. The lady whom I spoke to on the phone was "surprised" and that she had heard nothing like these complaints of the food. **! They've even responded here so they are aware that there is a major issue here. They want me to sign waivers for them to talk to the pet shop of my purchase history and have copies of all animals' vet records to determine if there is truly an issue caused by their food. Yes it is! And there are many other people in my area that their animals are also suffering. The vets around here have seen an increase in sick dogs since December 2011 with intestinal issues. Common denominator: Natural Balance!

My vets have filed a report with the FDA, Natural Balance and the local Health Department. Do not feed your animals this food!

I had gradually made a switch to all Natural Balance products for my 2 year old, 8 pound Chihuahua/Terrier, named Jackson. Using the tubes of food for training treats, and mixing a combination of canned and dry kibble for meals. Two and half hours after eating the combination of the canned NB Original Ultra Reduced Calorie, and NB Original Ultra Small Breed dry kibble, Jackson began vomiting the entire contents of his stomach.

Yesterday, I went to the vet the for a checkup, and he seemed okay. They ran blood tests, and I'm still awaiting the results. Last night, I gave my dog the same Natural Balance treats during training, which I had been using for two months. Fresh packages, of course. While I was making dinner, Jackson urinated in the middle of the kitchen, right behind where I was preparing food. It was a large watery puddle. I thought it was very odd for two reasons. he's very good at letting me know he wants to go outside, and the urine seemed very diluted, and lightly colored. I didn't link the two. Also thinking it was the dry kibble that bothered him, I fed him a little bit of the canned food. Even the vet said it may have just been adjusting to the new food. An hour after eating dinner, he vomited the entire contents of his stomach.

And then I started looking online, only to find a load of complaints regarding Natural Balance, and the same complaints. I'm heading back to the vet in 30 minutes, when the doctor is in, and will likely have to get Jackson on fluids, and hope that he doesn't have any irreparable damage. I feel like a monster feeding him the food, I thought was best.

I'm glad I read these reviews. I am searching for another food for our shelter animals since I have the same issues with both Purina ProPlan chix and rice for cats and Taste of the Wild Parrie. This sounds like another 2007 massive across the board poisoning from many different manufacturers. Apparently the FDA (in bed with the Mfg) is making sure no negative information gets to the public that could affect corporate profits. Who cares that we are losing our beloved friends and family members? May I suggest to all that as we did in 2007 we bite the bullet and just start making our own food? That way we know what we are feeding our pets. I have so many in renal failure now our vet bills are out of sight.

Feline Alpha Cat Chicken Dry Food: I purchased a bag of dry food for my cats in December 2011. They had eaten the exact food before. Long story short, since it is the same as the stories below, my 7 year old healthy cat got sick after one meal out of the new bag, 1/4 cup of the food. Within 12 hours he was vomiting, dry heaving, lost his meow, curled up in a ball, and wouldn't eat.

Thank God I put two and two together and never fed it to him again. I returned the food immediately. It is now 36 hours later and he finally ate a full meal, but he is still not back to normal. I am disgusted and am now going to make my own pet food. How many dogs and cats have to get sick and/or die because of tainted food? The food was tainted no doubt - he had signs of poisoning. I can't even believe I am typing this! Do not buy this food! The company denied it. I told them they are liars. Enough said - do not purchase this food!

I have six indoor cats that I have had on premium foods including Natural Balance Alfa Cat CT&D formula (exp: 2/07/2012) which my cats love. I had to purchase the NB Green Pea & Duck formula (NBG1002LC) exp -12/20/12012 due to my pet store being out of the Alpha Cat.

I also mix and rotate their foods, currently with EVO T&C, Nature's Variety Instinct Rabbit Meal, and Wysong Uretic. I keep all of the foods in the freezer and they are never exposed to air for more than maybe six hours (it might be a bit extreme but I am a firm believer in keeping even dry food fresh). They all love the Alpha more than any other food I have ever given them. They are not too fond of the Green Pea. I decided I was going to stick with a blend of the Alpha with the Wysong Uretic, but now have major concerns about Natural Balance.

Despite the frequent rotation, I have never had a problem with vomiting or diarrhea with any of my cats until this week. Ironically, that was when I added the NB Green Pea & Duck and NB Alpha back into the rotation. However, it is hard for me to jump to any conclusion since only one of my cats has an issue. I will monitor the situation and see if I can determine whether there really is an issue with either NB formula or if it is just an isolated incident. Hopefully post a follow-up if I can determine the problem.

I am so glad I have read these posts. Both of my cats are sick from the Green Pea and Venison canned food. They have been eating it for quite a while and they are sick with the batch I bought in December, 2011. Both are vomiting, one has had loose stools and the other has reduced output. This food is horrible and the company is obviously not accountable.

As a follow-up to my recent post, my dog's blood tests came back with elevated liver enzymes suggestive of liver damage. I've gotten the food back from the store where I returned it and I'm having it tested by the lab at the University. I'll share the results, whatever they may be, here. Finally, I filed a report with the FDA at ****.

I would suggest that anyone else concerned enough to post here do the same. Jennifer from the company did contact me and say that there was nothing wrong, and that all complaints received so far have proved invalid. If that's the case, and the lab work and any follow-up done by the FDA come back negative, I will certainly share that here, likewise if a problem does show up.

This is very similar to the 45 complaints posted on this site from 2011. I too purchased a new bag of Natural Balance and my dog, Yukon, became very sick. I purchased the 28 lb. bag of Natural Balance Original Ultra Reduced Calorie Formula dog food (Lot Number NBL110383SL Exp. 19/Nov/2012) on 12/18/11. I started feeding it to my 12-year-old American Eskimo just after Christmas. My dog experienced what I would call "projectile" vomiting with the entire stomach contents being launched out onto our carpet or tile with some of the most disturbing heaving I have ever seen from our little guy. I stopped the new bag of food after a few days and rushed our dog to the vet. Fortunately, after $300 worth of tests, Yukon did not have any significant kidney, liver, or pancreatic damage.

I called Natural Balance and told them I wanted a full refund of my $50 purchase price and I wanted to send the entire bag back to them for testing. They were very accommodating and said they would send me a Fed Ex label to return the contents and the proof of purchase label. They indicated they had not had any complaints about this formula or any other. Per the vet's instructions, our dog is now on boiled plain chicken and white rice and he is cleaning his bowl three times a day and is such a happy dog. All I can say is buyer beware. And if there are any changes in your dog's health, don't assume that the dog food you have been purchasing for 5 years is just fine. Thank God we stepped in and stopped the issue before the results were worse.

My dog, Zissou has become very sick after eating the Natural Balance L.I.D (Lamb and Rice formula). The proof of purchase # is NBR080432AR exp: 31/AUG/2012.

He has been eating this formula for nearly three months but the very day and the first meal from this bag resulted in vomiting and runny stool. It has been deduced with the help of my vet after a near a week of a sick bud that it is the food that is tainted.

I would avoid this batch. To avoid future occurrences of this, I am switching brands. After doing additional research, it looks like I'm not the only dog owner that finds this company unreliable.

My dog died from eating your food. She died after eating her first bowl of food. You will be sued.

I have been purchasing Natural Balance Green Pea and Duck dry cat food for a long time. In fact, my pet food store has a loyalty program and I have earned a number of free bags because of how long I have been purchasing it. Yesterday, I purchased a new bag and opened it to feed my four cats. I noticed a stronger smell from the food as well as a darker color; also, the pellets were thicker than usual. I posted a question on the company's facebook page and called their customer service. I got somewhat of the same answer from both, with one key difference.

The lady I spoke to on the phone advised me that they had indeed changed the formula and that I likely had a bag of the new stuff. She advised that I should wean my cats off the old formula by adding small amounts of the new stuff to their bowl. She said that there was no notice on the bags of the change because it was just a change in the source of duck protein and that this technically wasn't a change in formula.

My issue with this is how many pet owners would continue to feed their cats this food without questioning the change only to find their pets vomiting and sick because they had an instant switch to what is the same as giving them a new food? My cats tried to eat the new food, but could not bite through the kibble pellets. I tried to bite through one myself with my huge molars and couldn't break down even one piece. How is a cat supposed to do the same then?

I have two cats with autoimmune disorders and a third with vision loss and recovering from a hernia surgery. Do I really want any of the three vomiting and sick? Absolutely not. I feel that the company approach to this formula change is unacceptable and that consumers should be made aware that there is a change. How are they to know to wean their pets? This is so frustrating since I go to the extra expense of feeding my pets something that is supposed to be better quality than what the average pet owner buys in the grocery store.

I have had my 5 month old Akita puppy on Natural Balance potato and duck for the last three months without a problem. This is now the fourth bag I have purchased and it seemed different. It has a dull smell and dark color but I called and they said it was due to when the potatoes were harvested. I fed my dog Bodie the food and he became extremely sick. I had to take him into the vet because he was throwing up and having runny stool all over my home. He was in the vet for two days and received a number of test for common animal virus's and he tested negative for all of them.

It were only hours before he got sick that I fed him this food. I am now left with a full bag of food and $900 out of pocket. $705 for a vet visit, $55 for the food originally, and over $100 for the wet food I have had to feed him for him to gain back the 9 pounds he lost. I am a college student and I had to scrape together all my money to save my friend. He is doing much better but has no interest in the food now what so ever. I spoke with customer service and they seemed like it was my problem and not theirs. They are sending out a shipping label for me to send a sample in, and I have to cut off the proof of purchase and send it in and wait a month for a refund.

Here are the bag numbers: NBP1003B3SL GF 00:48. Best Before 22/OCT/2012.

I am so happy Bodie is doing better but now I am broke and have put all my money into helping him get better. I ran: CBC (Complete Blood Test), Blood Profile (Major), Parvo Test, and, all tested negative. So it led me to believe that it was the food. It was so sad to see my friend in such pain. Please, if anyone else has had this problem contact me at **. It is messed up for me to be struggling and wanting to give my dog a high end expensive food and it causes us more pain. I am at the point where I am holding Natural Balance responsible for his bills, they have not heard the end from me.

This food is horrible. We purchased the Sweat Potato and Venison dry food, canned food and dog treats. It almost killed my 9 year old Boxer. She was only on it for one week and she became very tired, did not want to eat, did not drink any water and did not want to eat her cookies. She could hardly walk she was very weak!

I have a 9 month old Boston terrier puppy. I've been feeding her Natural Balance Sweet Potato and Bison for about six months. The most recent bag I purchased had a slightly different color and smell than previous bags. I thought they must have made a change to the formula somehow and proceeded to feed it to Sophie. Several days later, the vomiting started. I took her to the vet to find that she was severely constipated - her digestive system appeared to have simply shut down. They gave her an enema and put her on prescription food for a week, and everything returned to normal.

Yesterday, we started giving small amounts of the Natural Balance mixed with the prescription food. The vomiting started back up last night, along with shaking and lethargy. We stopped once I read the posts here and after she threw up her breakfast. We fed Taste of the Wild for lunch and dinner, and she's already more energetic and has shown no sign of stomach upset. I plan to get a blood test done tomorrow to check for liver and kidney issues that others have reported here. Regardless, it's pretty clear that the food is causing the problem. I'll be returning the bag and sharing my experience through as many online channels as possible.

I have been feeding my dog Natural Balance Venison and Sweet Potato for approximately one and a half months. This was recommended by a vet in response to some food allergies which my dog is having. My dog's hair is now dry and unhealthy looking and he has been throwing up for the past two days.

I am convinced that there is something wrong with this company's food and I cannot believe that they have the nerve to put this food on the market and charge a fortune for it. I am throwing out the remainder of his food and will have to find something else to give him. I would have voted a zero stars for my rating, however, the form submission would not allow it.

Natural Balance contacted me after my post. I had found mold in my cat's food. I was told a different excuse each phone call.

First, I was told that there was no way that this could have happened at their factory and that there must have been a hole in the bag. Next, after they reviewed the photos, they told me that the food must have been bagged before it was able to dry, and this caused the mold. I requested a call once they contacted their factory and was then told that this happened to my food in transport. They went on to blame it on the weather conditions in Chicago. I was told that the bag must have frozen while on the truck, and due to condensation it developed mold. They checked the samples they had at their factory and I was told that this was just my bag.

I was also told on each phone conversation that their food forms mold very quickly. They said this to me several times, which kind of scared me. I asked the woman if I shouldn't feed this to my pets in the winter because it could freeze on the trucks? She didn't disagree with me. If this is the case, they need to check every bag that was sent to my area. The fact that they are not is the reason why I will no longer feed this food. My cats were throwing up all week, a lot. I had no idea that it was the food until I found the mold. I have photos of this as well.

I'm very disappointed in the company and as helpful as their food was in the past, I cannot continue feeding my pets something that is not safe. I was told that there were no other complaints like mine but after reading this site, it is a blatant lie. I'm happy that I saw this site and got my cats off of this food before something else happened.

A follow-up to my post of 11/15/2011: I contacted Natural Balance and found them very responsible and eager to assist me. Jennifer ***, the head of NB's customer service called, offered me a refund, plus a coupon for a new bag of food. She also asked that I send a sample of the NB Ultra 33-lb (BB 06/24/2012) that had caused the issue and forwarded me a FedEx label to send the food to them, which I did.

NB assured me they had not received any other complaint for this food; the only change they had made was "adding duck" to the formula (or adding "more duck," depending on who I spoke with). I received a timely refund. I received a timely "report of analysis" from NB, showing the sample I sent passed all their quality control tests: negative for melamine, E. Coli., salmonella, vomitoxin, etc.

However, since I switched my dog to "Taste of the Wild" Pacific Stream formula, he has returned to normal, his digestion is happy again and he has great appetite. I don't really know what to think but I will not take a chance on NB, especially with so many other complaints here. Also, the food for which I received a coupon, NB "Alpha" is not available from Centinela Feed, a very large chain feed-and-pet store in the Los Angeles area.

There are more complaints about your brand of pet food on this site than any other brand! So many pet owners out there that depend on these very limited ingredient diets for their sick and allergic pets. It appears that your co-packer is not able to process this food in a consistent and safe manner. Perhaps they are purchasing substandard ingredients or using improper storage or both! There are just too many similar complaints about the food. Who is the co-packer? Is it Diamond?

Unfortunately, I have had similar problems with your food which led me to the discovery of this site. Having dogs that are elderly and also dealing with health issues, these additional problems from a food deemed safe is unacceptable. It would be nice if you could address this issue publically and be more transparent as your many former and even current customers deserve this information and response.

I've been feeding my 8-year old Lasha Apso Natural Balance Organic dry food for two years and it's worked out great—until about three weeks ago. She started vomiting and refusing to eat her food. It became so bad that I had to take her to the vet fearing she was becoming malnourished. Imagine my shock to find many others having similar food-related problems! I'm very disturbed that Natural Balance has not made a more credible effort to identify and resolve these issues before more pets are affected.

I am very disappointed to say I found moldy food in a bad of Natural Balance Cat Food. This food was working wonders for my cat with allergies. The past week both of my cats have been throwing up a bit. I thought nothing of it until I looked into their food bowl this afternoon and saw four kibbles held together by mold. Who knows maybe my cat could have thrown up in the bowl and in 12 hours it formed mold. I doubt it I've switched their dry food for now. At least until Natural Balance steps up and corrects the problems they are having. If you notice anything different with your pets and they are eating this try something else!

My two retrievers have been eating Natural Balance Ultra mixed with the Sweet Potato and Chicken since they were puppies (4 years ago). I have been willing to pay more for this brand, because I have been told that the cleaner it is (less processing, additives and no fillers), then they would eat less and have fewer BM's because they are using the food for energy. I have never had any problems until we purchased the last bags of each. I am wondering if they changed their ingredients or started processing out of the country with substandard quality foods.

I have been using limited ingredient Natural Balance Fish and Sweet Potato for my dog, as he is allergic to grains. We have been using it for a couple of years now. When I was getting down toward the end of the 28 lb bag, there was corn in it. The corn had dog food attached to it. I returned bag to pet store. They replaced the bag, but recommended another brand.

I feed my dogs Natural Balance Fish and Sweet Potato. Recently I have found whole dried corn kernels in the dog food. What gives? The ingredients do not list corn. I'm paying a lot of money for premium dog food. If you're going to put corn in the dog food, man up and tell us so we can feed our dogs something healthy.

My dog is a 3 years old westie. I bought Natural Balance canned Duck and Potato dry small bites and mixed it together. Three days ago, my dog threw up and didn't want to eat. I fed her chicken and rice for 1 day. I thought she just had upset stomach. She had diarrhea today. Her breath smells horrible. She's lethargic. I will also take my dog to vet to check her out. I didn't know there were issues with the food. My dog hasn't eaten the food since she was a puppy .

I am so glad I discovered all of the entries on this site. I purchased a new bag of NB Ultra last week, but my Golden Retriever had a few bowls of the last bag to finish up. Since making the switch a few days ago, my exuberant young dog has become lethargic, unhappy about eating, and has had violent(!) diarrhea. A small amount of blood is in his stool, and two accidents occurred in the house, as well as he has this frequent need to urgently urinate, twice in the house. That's not like my boy. The food is going back for a refund today! I trusted this company, and was loyal, and I am completely convinced this food is the cause. Nothing else has changed. If his symptoms do not improve in 24 hours, we will be visiting his doctor. I hope others find this site for their poor animals, before they suffer too much.

We have a four year old feline which had begun to develop a hypersensitivity to her typical cat food. After determining that her symptoms were related to her diet, we purchased Healthy Balance Green Pea and Duck dry food, and Green Pea and Venison wet food to replace her typical brands. All was well for approximately two weeks until she developed severe GI symptoms which included nausea and palpable inflammation in concert with reduced output by both GI and urinary systems. She also became dehydrated, which was determined by compressing her posterior skin mass which was +3 seconds before losing shape.

After looking at this site's descriptions, I have concluded there is at least some factor associated with the food. I have unopened products and plan to look into the food for obvious issues. I am a microbiologist and our lab has full anaerobe testing capabilities. I will also spore stain freshly opened samples as well as using the food to inoculate media. Because of the delay in onset, I believe the canned food may be the culprit as anaerobic bacteria may grow very slowly with no effect on the food for some time. As for the dried food, I will use a fungal stain as well as bacterial stains. Proper desiccation and bagging should yield minimal results. I will report my findings.

Hi,
I'm Jennifer Freeman, a registered veterinarian technician and the director of customer service for Natural Balance Pet Foods, Inc.

Your concerns are very important to us, and I would like to speak with you personally. I can be contacted Monday Friday from 8:00 AM 4:00 PM at 800-829-4493 OR through email at jennifer.customerservice@naturalbalanceinc.com.

Sincerely,

Jennifer Freeman, B.S., R.V.T.
Director, Customer Service

Natural Balance Pet Foods, Inc.

Natural Balance Pet Foods on Dec. 1, 2011

I have six dogs; three rescue beagles and three golden retrievers. In mid September, all of them came down with diarrhea plus vomiting. I immediately took them off their food, which is Natural Balance premium, gave them a bland diet of rice for several days and slowly reintroduced their dog food again. Within two weeks, the diarrhea and vomiting returned. Once again, I took them off the food, gave them rice, and had their stools checked by the vet, which in turn were all negative! After four days, they all seemed okay so I reintroduced their regular food and within a few days the same symptoms returned!

It's now the end of November, and I've exhausted all other options of what this could be with the exception of the food! I've had our water checked, I've had their stools checked, I've sterilized their stainless bowls between feedings along with their water dish. I've come to the conclusion, after reading all these complaints, that it's the Natural Balance.

I've fed NB exclusively for eight years now, and it saddens me that the company won't step up and do something about this, especially with the number of these complaints. I guess, I have no other option but to look for another food for my crew.

Hi,
I'm Jennifer Freeman, a registered veterinarian technician and the director of customer service for Natural Balance Pet Foods, Inc.

Your concerns are very important to us, and I would like to speak with you personally. I can be contacted Monday Friday from 8:00 AM 4:00 PM at 800-829-4493 OR through email at jennifer.customerservice@naturalbalanceinc.com.

Sincerely,

Jennifer Freeman, B.S., R.V.T.
Director, Customer Service

Natural Balance Pet Foods, Inc.

Natural Balance Pet Foods on Nov. 29, 2011

Our dog has been eating Natural Balance, dry and canned duck, and potato dog food for the last 2 months, with no problem. However, after eating several cans of the newest batch of food that I bought, he has gotten an upset stomach, and has been shaking, and lethargic. I am hoping Natural Balance will check to see if there is something wrong with this batch of food. I will be feeding him a different brand today. This is the info from the bottom of the can: NB00 09:26 ( A )BEST BY JUN 02 14 I bought this food online from Petflow.

Hi,
I'm Jennifer Freeman, a registered veterinarian technician and the director of customer service for Natural Balance Pet Foods, Inc.

Your concerns are very important to us, and I would like to speak with you personally. I can be contacted Monday Friday from 8:00 AM 4:00 PM at 800-829-4493 OR through email at jennifer.customerservice@naturalbalanceinc.com.

Sincerely,

Jennifer Freeman, B.S., R.V.T.
Director, Customer Service

Natural Balance Pet Foods, Inc.

Natural Balance Pet Foods on Nov. 28, 2011

I have been using the Natural Balance duck and potato formula for my 12 yr old Dashchund. He liked it a lot, and it seemed to do wonders for his irritable bowel problems. I had been buying the medium sized bag, but decided to get the large size to save some money. I noticed right away that his usual zest for meal time, was waning. Also, the color of the dog food was much darker than the smaller bag. He would often wait for hours to eat, which was not at all his usual behavior. I also began to notice what appeared to be a sandy substance in the dog bowl. Almost like beach sand! I do not know what is going on, but I will not buy the larger bag again, and am weary about buying the Natural Choice at all, in the future.

Hi,
I'm Jennifer Freeman, a registered veterinarian technician and the director of customer service for Natural Balance Pet Foods, Inc.

Your concerns are very important to us, and I would like to speak with you personally. I can be contacted Monday Friday from 8:00 AM 4:00 PM at 800-829-4493 OR through email at jennifer.customerservice@naturalbalanceinc.com.

Sincerely,

Jennifer Freeman, B.S., R.V.T.
Director, Customer Service

Natural Balance Pet Foods, Inc.

Natural Balance Pet Foods on Nov. 28, 2011

My dogs and I used to love NB Potato and Duck but the last three bags I have purchased, I have dogs who no longer want to eat and when they do, they have diarrhea and want to drink a lot of water. I was doing some research to find out why. When I found this, I realized that I did notice a change in the food and how much greasier it was coming out of the bags. This is not a cheap food and I am seriously disappointed at the cost to not only my pocketbook but my dog's health. I kept wondering why they went from devouring it to not wanting to eat, now I know.

Hi,
I'm Jennifer Freeman, a registered veterinarian technician and the director of customer service for Natural Balance Pet Foods, Inc.

Your concerns are very important to us, and I would like to speak with you personally. I can be contacted Monday Friday from 8:00 AM 4:00 PM at 800-829-4493 OR through email at jennifer.customerservice@naturalbalanceinc.com.

Sincerely,

Jennifer Freeman, B.S., R.V.T.
Director, Customer Service

Natural Balance Pet Foods, Inc.

Natural Balance Pet Foods on Nov. 28, 2011

We have been using the NB Duck and Potato for several months without incident. About two weeks ago, we bought a 33 pound bag, and since then our dogs have been having digestive problems and diarrhea, and their feces have been abnormally large. These are 8 and 9 year old Boston Terriers that are completely house broken, but have been going number 2 in the house, every night for the last week. They seem to have gained a considerable amount of weight in the last two weeks as well, enough that the conversation started with us, thinking we needed to feed them a little less before I started wondering if maybe NB changed their formula.

I started Googling and came across the complaints on this website. Reading these other complaints, we have been having many of the exact problems that others have been reporting in the last month or so. We will be contacting Natural Balance directly, and switching back to Nutro in the AM to see if their symptoms clear up.

Hi,
I'm Jennifer Freeman, a registered veterinarian technician and the director of customer service for Natural Balance Pet Foods, Inc.

Your concerns are very important to us, and I would like to speak with you personally. I can be contacted Monday Friday from 8:00 AM 4:00 PM at 800-829-4493 OR through email at jennifer.customerservice@naturalbalanceinc.com.

Sincerely,

Jennifer Freeman, B.S., R.V.T.
Director, Customer Service

Natural Balance Pet Foods, Inc.

Natural Balance Pet Foods on Nov. 28, 2011

We started our Bernese Mountain Dog puppy (6 months) on the L.I.D. Venison/Sweet Potato dry food a few weeks ago because he was suffering diarrhea and really itchy skin. The diarrhea cleared up and his skin seems less irritated...and he seems to enjoy the food. But I am so relieved to read the posts here because he reeks. Smells just like cat urine. Breath is pretty awful too and it shouldn't be. His poops are big and dark as well, but I expected big poops. He's already nearly 90 pounds. I figured at least they are solid again.

Writing as a follow-up to my previous review. I switched my 5-mo old GSD puppy off of the Natural Balance: Venison and Sweet Potato food immediately after writing the review to a different limited ingredient dog food and lo' and behold, all of the problems cleared up within a day or two. Fur stopped stinking like cat urine, feces became smaller (normal sized) and of appropriate smell and color. I was contacted by a NB customer service rep after I wrote the review. I gave her all of the product's information and the circumstances surrounding my dog's problems with their food. I was told they had never received complains like mine before. (have they read this forum?!) I was told, it wasn't the food that was causing these issues.

I am a professional biologist. Scientific experiments using controls and variables is not a new concept to me. I performed my own study with this food with my dog and have enough conclusive evidence for my own satisfaction that these symptoms were caused by this dog food for my particular dog. I repeat, everything cleared up when I switched my dog off this food and she no longer has these problems. All dogs are different, not all dogs will have problems with this food. But if your dog has been having large, dark, and rank feces, or has been starting to smell like cat urine is coming out of their pores around their face, neck, and back since using this food, I urge you to find another dog food, because it sounds an awful lot like what happened to my dog.

I wish I could give this dog food zero stars for making my puppy miserable. Alas, it won't let me.

I am not writing this to get something from the company. I am writing this in hopes that they will test their food. From all the complaints I see here, all recent, I wanted to add my experience. About 3 weeks ago, I bought a new bag of venison and sweet potato. Klaus was not interested. This is very unlike him as he is always ready to eat. Then we noticed that he was having diarrhea—another thing he never has on this food. I started searching the internet and saw all of these posts and I immediately returned the food and switched to a new brand.

This evening I tried to give my dogs some canned food I had of Natural Balance, the chicken and sweet potato formula (I hadn't returned the canned food). Let me add, my dogs love canned food. They went over, sniffed it and walked away. There has to be something wrong with the recent lots of food. I already sent a comment to the company directly asking them to please check their food. I am posting this so that other pet owners will see this and be aware. The number on the bottom of my can is NBCDP 06:18 (best by Jul 13 14). My puppy, who I fed the dry food to for one week, has a UTI. I am not saying that this is related, but I am worried as the antibiotics do not seem to be working. Natural Balance, please test these recent lots of food.

Here's an email that I just sent to the company, describing our experience with Natural Balanced Pet Foods. I now have $4,500 worth of veterinary bills.

"I am writing to you about our French bulldog, who has been on Natural Balance Duck and Potato for about 5 years.

A few months ago, we purchased 2 small bags of NB small bites and noticed that the kibble in both bags looked different than usual. It was much darker and greasier with a different odor. At the bottom of the bag there were some oily and dark residue we've never seen before.

Shortly thereafter, our dog started losing large patches of hair, and developed a skin infection. he was also very lethargic, which was unlike him. The vet gave him antibiotics, but there were no improvements. (please note- he had taken the same antibiotic over the years and never had a bad reaction to it).

Then one night about 2 weeks ago, our dog had severe vomiting for about 10 times. So we rushed him to the emergency room, where he was admitted and continued to vomit all night until the following day. He developed a Hiatal Hernia as a result from all the vomiting and then Pneumonia from aspiration. The doctor ran nearly every test possible but found no specific cause and had no theory as to what caused the severe vomiting. After 4 days in the ER, our dog's condition eventually improved, enough to come home.

It's been about 2 weeks since we switched his food to another brand, and our dog's hair is growing back and he has regained his energy and is much better.

We've racked our brains to try and come up with a theory to the cause of his sickness. Perhaps, it was this food? We would like to find out if there have been any similar reported cases of dogs becoming ill on your new batch of food. We would also like to know specifically what you have changed in the food.

We've preserved this batch of food in case you would like it back for testing. Looking forward to your response."

I switched to NB Duck and Potato after my 3-year-old beagle mix showed signs of allergies to certain grains. After seven months of good results with the food, I believe I purchased a "bad" bag of food. Within six hours of ingesting food from the new bag, my beagle mix had severe digestive issues, vomiting and diarrhea to the extent that I sought veterinary care within 36 hours. After ruling out infections conditions, she was treated for pancreatitis and put on a bland diet of chicken breast and rice (after the vomiting stopped). Her symptoms resolved within 24 hours, but when I reintroduced the NB food after 48 hours both my beagle and my rat terrier (who can eat anything) both began vomiting and having severe diarrhea again. I again had to take my beagle back to the vet for fluids and supportive treatment. Had only my Beagle shown symptoms, I may not have concluded the food being the problem.

After three trips to the vet and nine days of my dog suffering horrible symptoms I removed the NB entirely from both dogs diets. No more digestive upset, no gurgling stomachs and no vomiting or diarrhea! I will not risk feeding my dogs this food ever again. I did switch to Blue Mountain and slowly introduced it into their diets with no problems. I did return the product to the store where it was purchased and contacted NB directly. I was told they have had no complaints about their food.

I bought a new 33-lb. bag of Natural Balance Ultra Premium dry dog food for my miniature schnauzer, who has been eating this same food for about six years (Best Before Date: 06/04/2012). I noticed the food seemed different: it was harder and flatter, and didn't smell good like it used to; also, the food does not absorb hot water the way it used to.

On the morning of the second day I fed this food, the dog refused to eat it--something he has NEVER done in his life. That evening, he did eat, and had bad-smelling gas. He has had loose, foul-smelling stools since he has been eating this new bag, and he is lethargic, and seems to be hiding in areas of the house that provide more cover (sort of like he wants to be back in his crate).

We have switched to Natural Balance 4 months ago. After doing some research, we decided to give a grain free dog food. And also thinking that the most expensive in the market must be good! Big mistake of course, no such thing! I have a golden and a beagle which can develop sensitive skins. Both dogs have been going on and off with very loose stools, which they had never had diarrhea 3 years of their lives before.

Recently put them on venison and potato thinking that potato might help but now it's gotten worse and they are passing stools in enormous quantity, soft and 3 times a day; strange to see a little beagle leaving soo much debris behind. Now reading all these reviews and realizing the same common issues, I am going back to Science Diet, regardless how commercial it is, made me, my family and most importantly our puppies happy and healthy! Thank you for sharing your experiences. I feel better and hopeful already.

Our dog is a 7 year old, very food-focused, Labrador Retriever. At the suggestion of our Veterinarian, we recently switched to the Natural Balance Sweet Potato and Fish Formula (Production No. NBR0601D22XJW 03:15 - best before date 07/JUN/2012). We blended the new food with his old food over 4 days until he was eating only the Natural Balance product. After about 2 weeks, he became lethargic, showed signs of distress and his food intake decreased markedly over several days until he absolutely refused to eat the Natural Balance dog food.

We let it go a full day and a half, and he still would not eat. This behavior is totally uncharacteristic for this animal. We finally capitulated and offered him another type of food in addition to his old food. This was eaten with great enthusiasm. Our dog has not been exposed to any other agent, poison or plant that could have caused these symptoms. We will be taking him to the vet tomorrow to evaluate the situation further.

I have been feeding Natural Balance venison potato grain free food for a long time. It is the only food that stopped my dogs 4 year battle with loose stools. The last large bag I bought did not smell the same nor look the same. The dog refused to eat it. I then purchased a 5 lbs bag thinking the large bag was just bad or old. This 5 lbs bag was fine. Dog loved it and ate it all. Same old smell and look I always remember. Then, I purchased a larger bag and the dog won't eat it. Side by side comparison of the two bags of food shows it smells and looks different yet I was told there was no change in formula. My dog has never refused any brand of food before, I don't know what's up with the venison/potato GF but recently something changed.

My dog has been on Natural Balance Alpha Dog (Chicken, Turkey, and Duck) for about 10 months now. He has a food allergy, and this was the only food that agreed with him. His diarrhea cleared up, his hair grew back, and no more vomiting! Last month, he got his diarrhea back, and has been vomiting. He has been to the veterinarian, with no problems found. I can only conclude Natural Balance changed their formula.

Natural Balance, have you changed your formula? I really don't want to go through finding a food that will agree with him again. It took me 7 different brands last time and they were top of the line over-the-counter foods. I'm rating at 3 stars, because Natural Balance was great for 10 months! And now?

Enough! How many more pets have to die before NB pulls those lots that are killing and sickening dogs. This is a travesty that they try to blame the owners for the poisonings. It is not a coincidence that animals from all over the country are having the same grave problems with the same food and the same new batches. The other brands are having a mirror image problem with their food. Probably the same manufacturer or a supplier of one of the mystery components. It is the new batch that people are buying that is still on the shelves. NB, at least, go in during the middle of the night and pull that batch from your outlets. How long in 2007 did you deny a problem before you recalled the poisoned food and let how many other animals die or suffer? You should pull the food as an honorable company would and show some concern for the pets who say you love. If it is proven later that your food was not a problem, put it back on the shelves later.

After reading the 10/26/2011 report at a seminar for pet food companies at Petfoodindustry.com about the use of rendered by-products in pet food and their contents, such as 15% feather meal, there is no denying the deceptive practice. Four million metric tons are shipped from renderers to mostly pet food companies. I love how Jim ** from Nutro used the words, value-added, environmentally responsible, enhanced aroma, giving a healthy coat, and giving the food a nice sheen and adds to the shelf life, to the by-products. Where is the word, nutrition?

It is also interesting that NB is coming out with a new line of food called Alpha. It will have all the natural and healthy things the animals in the wild ate. Most consumers are not so naive to see through this new concern at NB. I hope the executives at NB will add some of the great food they produce for our animals to their Thanksgiving meal. Maybe stuff the turkey with it. I am personally more and more saddened and angry as new complaints come in. NB you can make this stop.

My vet called this morning to tell me that my sweet four year old lab, Stella, had passed away. We originally thought she may have been exposed to rat poison, due to her lab work, but as we do not use it, she really has not had access to it. Two weeks ago, we started a new bag of Natural Balance Sweet Potato and Venison, which we had been using for several months. After the first few feedings, she refused to eat anymore. I put chicken gravy on it to entice her and she licked the gravy off and spit out the food. She would eat "people food" if offered alone but not with the dog food.

Last Saturday she stopped eating completely. We took her to the vet on Monday, her liver enzymes were very high and her coags were very thin. They started treatment for toxicity induced liver failure. On Tuesday her liver panel and coags were looking better, although she was becoming very jaundiced. On Wednesday her amylase and lipase shot off the charts. She died Wednesday night. She was four years old, had never been sick other than some ear allergy issues. After reading several similar stories on this site after using the same dog food, I am concerned that I was killing my dog every time I put food in her bowl.

It was a terrible experience. My dog has been eating the Natural Balance Formula (sweet potato and fish) for 7 years. (He had skin issues prior to using it.) I just bought a new bag of food at Petco last week. He reluctantly ate 3 meals of it, then stopped eating completely. He did not eat anything for over a day (this dog is super food-focused.) and was still refusing the NB. He has started eating plain brown rice, and I am trying to figure out if he needs to see a vet or get new food.

I recently bought a new bag of Green Pea and Duck cat food. When I opened it on the 26th, it didn't look right. The food had a grayish white color. I was concerned but decided to use it anyway. I fed my sweet boy a equal mix of CD Dry and Green Pea and Duck which has been his diet for 3 or more years now. He had it for two days and started showing signs of illness. He is now in hospital for testing to try and identify what is wrong. Unfortunately, I have not found a local place where I can have the food tested here in the Bay Area. I have notified my local cat food store of my situation. The information I saw on this site was instrumental in helping me decide on a course of action.

I've been feeding the New Brunswick (NB) dogs vegetarian formula for several years. I have 2 dogs and one has allergies, so I feed it to both. Neither dog would eat from the last bag I purchased. I left the kibbles in their bowls and eventually during the day they would eat it. My allergic dog is now displaying skin reactions so I've stopped giving it to them.

I started feeding my German shepherd puppy NB LID sweet potato and venison. Not even a day after beginning to feed her this new food, she has started to smell awful. Her breath and now even her fur have a tangy, acrid sort of stench. And she's going to the bathroom in larger quantity and more frequently than normal. Her feces are far darker than normal (darker than the food). And it reeks worse than it has with any other food I've given her. After reading these reviews of similar symptoms and worse, I will be switching foods. I will not keep my dog on a food that I suspect will have worse effects on her than making her smell bad, as if that wasn't bad enough! Yes, I am positive it is the dog food. Nothing else about her routine, bathing, or anything else has changed. I have gone over everything thoroughly and she is an indoor dog. No, she did not roll in anything. It's the food. I'm 100% positive of this.

I have been purchasing for my dog the Sweet Potato and Venison for over three years; with no problems and a healthy dog.

I recently purchased a new bag of Sweet Potato & Venison Formula. When I opened the bag, the food looked quite different in texture and color. I have always supplemented a small portion of the Sweet Potato & Venison Formula with a larger portion of Nature's Variety Chicken Chubs and no ill effects occurred. Due to my current finances, I have had to stop the Nature's Variety. Now she has been eating only the Sweet Potato & Venison Formula. Approximately twenty days have gone by since I began giving her only the Sweet Potato & Venison Formula.

I recently noticed a bit of scratching; no fleas and skin is clear. The past couple of days, the scratching has progressed and last night was the worst. She was up all night scratching and biting. The food has been the only change in this past month. I chose the Sweet Potato & Venison Formula as she's allergic to wheat, corn and this product is supposed to be grain-free.

I started putting it together that the food formula had to have changed a different color and the scratching which was occurring due to the only thing that she was eating was more of the Sweet Potato & Venison Formula. I don't know what they have done to their product but with further research, I'm finding that the formula has changed. I will be returning the product to the store and purchase another dry formula other than Natural Balance.

I have been buying Natural Balance Duck and Pea cat food for over a year and had good results. In fact, it replaced the expensive Science Diet prescription Duck and Pea for my cat with food allergies/sensitivity. However, the last bag of Natural Balance that I purchased made my two cats very sick. It took some time for me to figure out that it was the food. I did notice a difference in color and smell when I opened the bag but didn't think much about it at the time. I switched to Blue Buffalo Basics. After I changed the brand of food, one cat immediately got better and the other continued to worsen and died last night.

I have been giving my dog the Fish and Sweet Potato formula for 5 years. After purchasing my most recent bag of dry food, my dog all of a sudden refused to eat it. She would eat the canned food and the treats but wanted nothing to do with the dry kibble. This lasted for about 4 days, at which time she slowly (and reluctantly) started eating the kibble again. Soon after this time she began drinking excessively and urinating clear liquid constantly. She had a leaking episode one night where I woke up and found a large wet spot where she had been sleeping.

I finally started putting it together that this all started when I purchased her last bag of food. I switched to a new food immediately and within two days she is back to her normal, healthy self. Just a note: I had her urine tested by the vet and he confirmed that no infection was found. I do not know what they changed in this formula, but it is no longer the quality food that I started giving her as a puppy. I will not be purchasing any of the Natural Balance products anymore.

The last 2 bags of duck & sweet potato dog kibble have looked different (different color). My dog refused to eat the kibble. I mix in some canned food with the kibble, and he sucked the canned food off and left the kibble. I checked but there are no teeth or mouth issues. I purchased the NB Original Ultra and he gobbled it up. I called Natural Balance and asked if they changed the formula. But they said, "No." They had not changed the formula. The person I spoke to never mentioned that the company received these complaints!

I am writing this follow-up to the reply that NB made after my complaint. It is about the possibility of their pet food being involved in the death of my little friend Buster. I need to address some inaccuracies and insinuations that we did not pursue or authorize the best care for him. We did not have any idea that his pet food maybe what caused his death, until after he died. It was an accident that I landed on a complaint from someone else about the food. We did not see the "evidence" until we looked back over the last month and saw more information than just coincidence.

We have always gotten the very best care and treatments for our pets. When we took Buster into the hospital and found out he had pancreatitis, we were stunned. We advocated every test and drug that was indicated. We did not want to do exploratory surgery, because we were afraid of his survival from that and the pancreatitis. We did not want to cause him more pain and suffering. We spent over $3,000.00 on his care. That does not show a lack of responsibility or negligence on our behalf.

Buster had been treated for pancreatitis for 24 days before the liver problem became apparent in the form of jaundice. He did not show any of the common physical symptoms of liver cancer. Liver nodules are common in dogs over the age of 14. It is not conclusive evidence of cancer. Liver damage often results from pancreatitis. By this time, Buster had lost more weight. And even with our force feedings, we believed surgery was too risky. Buster did not have chronic pancreatitis. He had no chronic illnesses. He was a very healthy senior dog. He played like a pup.

Jennifer from NB spoke to one of three vets who were involved with his care. She did not speak to the vet who was there when we had to release him from his suffering. There was never any mention of an autopsy at any time during his treatments. We were not trying to gather evidence against NB. NB does not manufacture their own pet food. It uses at least 2 different manufacturers. I am glad they test the food batches because they are not on site as the food is made. They say they test for the 9 most common contaminates. Did they test for melamine in 2008? It is very possible there are many more poisons that can be included in the food, as different components are bought from around the world. NB had a recall of food in June 2010 for salmonella. Why did it not show up in their tests?

As far as Teddi not having the same response, it does not prove the food was not tainted. There was a third dog in our house at the time. We had visitors and their Golden, who has always gobbled down their food. He would not touch it at all. We usually have to put it up from him. If I knew then what I know now, you can bet the food would have been removed from their dishes. I just don't want other pet parents to be as uninformed about the pet food industry as I was.

Our dog has been fed sweet potato and duck for 6 years. Over some months, I bought ten bags of food from Petco and just returned from using my free bag coupon. I see that you have shrunk your bags to 28lbs. That's awesome. Your bags keep shrinking but the price stays the same. Congrats. You have successfully chased away a loyal customer. If more people feel the same angst, good luck.

Thank you for contacting Natural Balance and for using our Potato and Duck formula for the past six years. We appreciate your feed back regarding our recent price increase, and want you to know that we do take your concern very seriously.

As pet parents ourselves we want the very best for our dogs and cats. We have held off on price increases for the past two years, but due to the high quality ingredients we use, we could not maintain the old price. Many factors influence the final cost of a product including the rising cost of ingredients and fuel. We all know these prices have risen steadily in this time, and most pet food companies have been forced to increase pricing in the past two years.

The size adjustment to our large bag of Potato & Duck Dry Dog Formula was made so that this product would be consistent with our other Limited Ingredient Formulas. All five of our other LID formulas come as 5lb, 15lb, and 28lb bags. It made more sense to change the bag size than to raise the price of the bag.

If you do have any further questions for us, please feel free to contact our customer service department Monday to Friday from 7:30 AM to 4:30 PM PST.

Natural Balance Pet Foods on Sept. 29, 2011

I have been feeding my french mastiff Natural Balance sweet potato and fish for over three years, with no problem and great health. All of a sudden, my dog has diarrhea with blood and liquid stool. First, I tried adding rice. Then after four days, I took him to the vet. They put him on Metronidazole for diarrhea. They said that there were no parasites or anything in his stool and to give it a week. After a week and out of medicine, he is still having liquid poop. I googled the sweet potato and fish. I found out that other people were having similar problems. And they had changed the fish to fish meal. I wrote the company. They told me to try another bag. But were there no problems with that production run? And they told another person that they had changed the recipe. And why would they tell me to try another bag with a different date? I am now feeding hamburg and rice and gradually adding blue buffalo food in. So far, it's good. It had to be the food.

We buried my sweet male Shih Tzu today. Buster B. was released from his misery on 8/26/11 after suffering since 7/14/11. He and Teddi, my female, have been eating Natural Balance for approximately three years. They loved the Duck and Potato and ate 10 lbs. a month.

Sometime last year, I noticed the shelves at Petco were very empty of D&P. I asked a clerk and he said it was very popular. Actually there was recall that no one told the consumer about. I proceeded to buy various flavors with the sweet potato in it. They also ate a tiny amount of canned food daily and dog treats. After all, they say it is all natural.

On July 6, 2011, I went to Petco and bought food and the D&P was back, so I got the entire set. I had to open the treats right away because they were out. The shape was more flattened and very hard, the smell was also different. Buster would not take his treats or he put it in his mouth, rolled it around and spit it out. We thought he was having trouble biting it with his 14-year-old teeth. We gave him just half, but that did not matter. The new bag of food was taken unopened into the RV, since we were leaving to go to the medical clinic for me. We left on the 13th. We took their food bowl, still 1/2 full to the RV, so they could always eat the dry food at their leisure. They ate that until my husband opened the new bag. It was darker, flatter shaped circle and smelled different as well. We always gave them a morning and afternoon snack of canned food that was about 1 tbls. each.

I was gone every day, but in the evening Buster, "our take it easy boy" was going to the food and water dish and barking. He did this over and over. They usually told us if the bowls were empty, but we told him to be quiet since they were full. Then he would go to the refrigerator and bark. We knew he wanted food from there but they had enough in the bowls. I thought Bo my husband was filling the food and he thought I was filling it.

We got home late on 7/20/2011 and brought the food in the house. Teddi was taking the food and throwing it on the floor. I thought she was playing so I tossed some her way. She ate two bites and walked away. Late Friday, I noticed Buster was having a hard time having a BM, so we thought he was constipated. We even tried to buy a baby enema for him.

First thing on Monday the 25th, we were at the vet. and they tried to get a stool sample, but his body was empty. The tests showed he had pancreatitis. He was in the hospital for six days and came home on July 30, 2011. He was now obviously losing weight. We feed him baby food, but had to stick it in his mouth, also sweet potato and boiled chicken breast. Pills were the hardest. He would not eat on his own.

We decided to go to Lassen Park for a few days on August 7 and continued with the feedings. He was eating more and more easily. He seemed stronger and more alert than when he got out of the hospital. That night, he threw up all the days' undigested food. Friday he ate good, but that night he threw up all the days' undigested food. We left early Saturday to get to the vet. The tests on 8/6/2011 showed the pancreatitis was back. He stayed in the hospital almost two days and we brought him home with a really strict diet of a teaspoon of the canned vet food every two hours. This was not easy, but we got the food down him.

We called and asked if we could increase the food since he was not throwing up. We did and had to get a large syringe to get the food in and down. He fought so hard, but would lick his lips and stay for more. He was starving, but we did not know what was happening inside of him. We made a mush of his Rx food and baby food and got up to 1/2 cup a day by force feeding him at least every one to two hours.

He was taken into the vet on August 18 for a check and the vet noticed he had jaundice. The tests showed his liver was involved now. We brought him home with more pills and watched his jaundice. We continued the daily job of getting food into him. We looked for any sign of improvement. We were in touch with the vet almost daily. He slept good at night and laid on his favorite places during the day. He would go out to potty when we asked him and he used his doggy door as well. He did have some very small BM's. He was very frail and wobbly, but we did all we could do.

On the 25th, he looked like we had made it. He had his tail up and almost trotted outside. He followed us around the house and we were feeling good. We went to bed and the next morning he was in a trance-like state, something catastrophic happened during the night. His jaundice that had been receding was horrible. We took him to the vet and they saw in an ultrasound his bile ducts were swollen shut. Even with our hourly feeding he had lost another pound to 13 lbs. He had been 19 lbs. They admitted him to the hospital again. It was the worst night. We had all worked so hard and knew he could not make it. The next morning before we called the vet, they called and said it was time. We could not let him suffer any longer. His liver test was off the charts. We went in and held our sweet little boy, who was always in a good mood. We could feel all his bones through his pretty black and white hair. He put his head on my shoulder, which he never did. He was not a kissy dog, but that was his goodby to me. We were devastated. We always know when you adopt an earth angel that they will pass before you, but you pray it will not be so traumatic.

I went home and was working on the Internet as I had been trying to make sense of what happened. I put in pancreatitis and up came the website, Consumer Affairs. I was looking at a complaint about a dog dying like my Buster who had been eating the same food. There were more cases and as I started looking at all the brand names they listed, I could not believe it. I had never thought it could be the food, since I always choose the best food available. My heart was even more broken since he was trying to tell me he would not eat it and was hungry.

We went to bed and I jumped up and remembered the food was still down and Teddi had eaten some. It was not much, but what had we done to her? After throwing out two large bowls, we still had 1/2 the bag. We took her in to be checked and her liver test was up slightly. I looked and looked to find a food that was not currently killing dogs and cats. I think it is 2008 all over again. The companies are denying any problem with their food. As a retired detective, I know where coincidence stops. It was too late to have an autopsy since we had him cremated, but I have the food. It is well wrapped up and sealed like evidence in a case.

Today we saw crystals in Teddi's urine. My heart has dropped, since many pets have died from kidney failure. We have another appointment tomorrow to make sure we get ahead of the problem. I have been saying it looks like poison. My dogs are never out of the house without us in sight. They only eat what we give them. We live in the country without close neighbors or stray animals roaming. The food companies are trying to say it is antifreeze. Everyone knows not to have that around pets.

I have filed with the FDA. You can go to safetyreportingportal.gov. They even called me when I asked about reporting. Everyone who has a suddenly sick dog should check out the food and file with the FDA. Our sweet little friends need our help. It takes forever for a recall and how many other pets have to die for greed? If this was a baby food issue it would be on the front page and the companies would be quickly pulling the food and apologizing. We can do something for our four-legged friends. Tell everyone about Consumer Affairs and to see what their pet is eating. Their food should be fit for human consumption. I have found out that many companies buy their food from a few large pet food manufacturers. Try to find out where yours really comes from.

I won't sleep tonight worrying about Teddi.

My name is Jennifer Freeman and I am the Director of Customer Service and the staff Registered Veterinarian Technician for Natural Balance Pet Foods, Inc. When we saw this post, we were moved that Ms. Grimes had experienced such a heart breaking loss. Our pets are like family and one of our core principles at Natural Balance is to provide diets that help the health of the dogs & cats we feed. We are so dedicated to this idea that Natural Balance is the only pet food company with a lab that tests all lots of our food for the nine known contaminants in pet foods. And while we are grieved for Ms. Grimes' loss, we do need to establish that the facts do not support her assertion that Buster's death is related to our food.

I spoke with Ms. Grimes prior to this post and also spoke with Buster's attending Veterinarian. In my discussion with Ms. Grimes' Veterinarian she indicated that Buster had liver failure and chronic pancreatitis and an ultrasound showed Buster had liver nodules suspicious for a neoplasm (possible cancer). When asked if Buster's problems were food related, the Veterinarian responded that this was highly unlikely and noted that Buster was an older dog (14 years old) and that this could be a contributing factor.

Ms. Grimes' other dog, Teddi, was eating from the same bag of food as Buster but is, according to the Veterinarian, healthy and shows no evidence of liver failure or pancreatitis. If the food were the problem, Teddi, eating from the same bag, should have had the same problems.

Ms. Grimes stated in her post that "it was too late to have an autopsy since we had him cremated." Ms. Grimes' was encouraged by the Veterinarian to have a necropsy performed when Buster died and had been offered the opportunity to biopsy the suspicious liver nodules previously. She declined both of these options to learn more about what was wrong with Buster.

The food both Teddi and Buster were eating was tested in the Natural Balance laboratory for the nine most common contaminants in pet foods. The food passed these quality tests.

At Natural Balance, our pets come to work with us every day; we treat them like our children. Natural Balance takes incredible steps to ensure that our food is the highest quality available. After reviewing the records and speaking with Buster's Veterinarian it appears that Buster had a neoplasm of the liver and chronic pancreatitis. We agree with Buster's Veterinarian that Buster's problems are most likely unrelated to his diet. Teddi's good health makes this clear.

Sincerely,

Jennifer Freeman, B.S., R.V.T.
Director, Customer Service
Animal Nutrition

Natural Balance Pet Foods

Natural Balance Pet Foods on Sept. 21, 2011

I have a small show kennel. I've been feeding NB for a little over a year? Last month I bought 4 bags of Natural Balance Ultra Premium dry dog food. The dogs started having diarrhea (sometimes bloody) and occasional vomiting. Appetites were unreliable and irregular. The dogs were not "sick" and since we had a similar experience prior with Canidae when they changed their formula, I suspected the dog food - perhaps a formula change too. But first took a "31 flavors" mix of multi dogs stool to the vet to be checked and came back all clear to the cost of $55.00. Called the company, gave her full description, told her I had ruled out illness, gave her all my label codes, and told her I was considering going to another dog food but would try one more shipment to see if the dogs would adapt. She did mention the only change was going from fish to fish meal Feb 2011.

My next purchase was 6 bags, and the diarrhea has become terrible, smells awful and is attracting flies. Invested $40 in Golden Maldrin to keep flies down, bleach to sterilize 3x's a day, and a gallon of Odoban from Sam's. Took another sample in and again came back clear. My dogs are not harboring illness or parasites and act hungry and look skinny and unthrifty. Not happy about this at all. Not happy about this costly and concerning turn of events on an otherwise highly rated food. Will be doing research to change foods....Forgot to mention, NB sent me three $2 coupons after our conversation. It was almost insulting compared to the extra expense ($165.00+/not incl. the additional 6 large bags invested in their company) that has gone out. I almost forgot to mention, of course we've been treating them for the diarrhea to no avail. I was told they have received no other complaints and that is why I ran the tests again and gave them a second chance.

I'm writing this in hopes that others out there may be having the same problems. I have a 7 month old Australian Shepherd who seems to have had skin issues since a young pup (constantly itching, shedding in huge amounts leaving large patches, and having rashes on entire belly).

I've had him on Natural Balance Grain Free Fish and Potato because I've done a lot of research and have found Aussie's tend to have allergies of the skin and GI tract. It seemed to make his coat very shiny, yet he has so much dandruff and smells awful! It's not the normal "dog smell." It's so rank! Even if I bathe him, he will smell a couple of hours later. Is anyone else going through this with Natural Balance food? I want to switch, but want to make sure first that it's actually the food.

My dog died today. She vomited eight hours after eating. She started a new bag of Natural Balance sweet potato. She then vomited blood. She was taken to the vet first thing in the morning at 8 a.m.

Her liver enzymes were five times normal, she was dehydrated. They said she was bleeding internally. They treated her symptomatically but did not expect her to make it. She died 7:30 a.m.

I am posting this since reading the previous posts, there may be something wrong with the food. Had I read about the food before starting using it, I would not have used this food. My girls were using IAMS F/P before, but for some reason that was discontinued and this was supposed to be the closest food. I hope this information helps someone avoid my grief.

Bad. I have fed my lab Natural Balance dry food for a year now and she has done well. Suddenly, with a new bag of Venison and sweet potato she got VERY sick, bloody diarrhea and more. I switched to Bison and sweet potato and she is recovering, but slowly.

Our Labradors both started eating Natural Balance Sweet Potato and Venison dry dog food in March of 2011. Our 23-month old Chocolate Labrador, Humphrey Charles, has food allergies and that is why we had them on this. On June 7th, 2011, we opened a new bag and started them both on that for their evening feeding. They both had it in the morning on June 8th. About 2 hours later, Homer Griffin, our 1-year-old Yellow Lab, threw up very violently. About an hour later while we were out playing, he had very bad diarrhea. About 2 minutes later, Humphrey had to do the same thing. It looked like a tar like substance. Homer continued with both symptoms and Humphrey continued to have diarrhea for the next several days.

They both had very noxious smelling gas! In fact, if I hadn't known better, I would have thought they had gotten into garbage, but knew they couldn't as our entire yard is fenced in and locked! On Sunday, we met with our veterinary and switched Homer to a Prescription soft dog food. He did not throw up again, until on Tuesday, June 14th. I mixed about 20 pieces of their N.B. dry food with his soft food. Like clockwork, 2 hours later, symptom's back! My wife found this site Tuesday evening, and on Wednesday morning, I was at the store buying EVO dry food for them. With the exception of a mildly soft stool from the switch, all symptoms are gone! Thanks to everyone who had posted on this site, because had this not been available to us, who knows what would have happened to our boys!

I have a 2 years old male Shih Tzu. Since he was 2 months, I had fed him Natural Balance dry food. Once, about one year ago, he ate the sweet potato formula then he started vomiting, diarrhea and not eating well. After I stopped this flavor, he started recovering. He is doing fine but after reading other complaints on Natural Balance Food, I'm worry about him. He always has a bad smell, even after bathing him and washing his teeth. Also, his stools at least every other day are soft. He ate a lot of grass and throw up at least twice a month. I hope this review is helpful. I am going to switch my dog from this brand.

My two healthy cats almost died from eating both dry and canned Natural Balance cat food - duck and pea, and venison and pea formulas. The problem began over the summer 2010. My cats started having breathing problems, then vomiting and the runs. My black cat's fur turned reddish, my other cat lost his fur.

My dog has been throwing up every day so I took her to the vet and she was diagnosed with pancreatitis. I could not figure out why the dogs were not eating. I bought special food at the vet and mixed it with the Natural Balance and my little dog threw up immediately. I then gave him only the vet food and he was fine. The Natural Balance venison and potato and duck and potato was making my dogs sick. I am taking it back to Petco today.

I have been feeding my Bichon Natural Balance "L-I-D" Sweet Potato and Venison canned. I recently detected an artificial smoky odor. I called the company and they said they put artificial smoke flavoring in their treats but not the food. They sent me free coupons to replace the two cases I had just bought that smelled smoky. Today I went to my local pet food store. Before I replaced the two cases, she let me open a can up and smell it. There was an overpowering smoky smell so she called Natural Balance for me and was told that they are now adding it to their small cans and will be adding it to their large cans soon. I guess my question is why. When pet owners and their animals like a product, why mess with it and why add artificial smoke? It is awful. After reading all these other complaints, I am glad I decided to give my little Bichon the same canned food that I now give my PWD and lab, Merick's, which is a fabulous food.

I have been feeding my Bichon the Natual Balance "L-I-D" Sweet Potato and Venison canned and recently detected an artificial smokey order. My Bichon backs away from her food dish and her fur smells awful on her face after eating. I called the company and they said they put artificial smoke flavoring in their treats, but not the food. They sent me free coupons to replace the two cases I had just bought that smelled smokey. Today I went to my local pet food store and before I replaced the two cases she let me open a can up and smell it.

There was an overpowering smokey smell so she called Natural Balance for me and was told that they are now adding it to their small cans and will be adding it to their large cans soon. I guess my question is why? When pet owners and their animals like a product, why mess with it and why add artificial smoke? Awful. After reading all these other complaints, I am glad I decided to give my little Bichon the Merick's, which is a fabulous food and the same canned food that I now give my PWD and lab.

I've had two dogs drop dead of symptoms related to "cancer" at 6 years and 7 years of age. The first dog had gastrointestinal issues and we found out after the 2007 recall that this was common for dogs eating the Natural Balance food. It was too late for our dog. When the food came back on the market, we were assured it was safe so we gave it to our new dog that had skin allergies. She died yesterday exhibiting the exact same symptoms that our first dog did, basically just dropping one day with labored breathing to find that she had congestive heart failure most likely due to cancer since there were no toxins around. The product needs to be removed permanently.

Similar to other recently posted complaints, we have been feeding Natural Balance Sweet Potato And Duck to our four dogs for years. With the most recent bag (Best By of Aug 2011) they have all started vomiting, and now refuse to eat it. We have been very happy with this product for years, but there appears to be a bad batch or some other change that is making our dogs sick.

You may have old stock for immediate release on June 18, 2010. The Natural Balance Pet Foods Incorporated of Pacoima, CA announces a voluntary recall of Natural Balance Sweet Potato & Chicken Dry Dog Food. It has a Best By' date of June 17, 2011 in 5-lb. and 28-lb. bags because it has the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella.

I have been feeding my dog Natural Balance Sweet Potato & Venison Dog Food and the Sweet Potato & Venison Treats for over a year. That is the only food my dog ingests, nothing else. A few months ago, my dog started vomiting at least once a week and I noticed that the treats looked darker in color. So I contacted the manufacturer so see if they changed the formula. They said they did not, but the vomiting continued. I discontinued feeding my dog the treats, but continued with the same dog food. Then about 3 weeks ago, my dog suddenly started vomiting blood and had bloody diarrhea. I rushed him to the emergency vet and he was diagnosed with hemorrhagic gastroenteritis and had to be hospitalized. I have discontinued using that dog food and will never go back to it again. Since switching to a different brand of sweet potato and venison, my dog has not had any problems. Someone needs to look into this company and recall the food.

I recently switched my 12 year old Australian Shepherd dog to Natural Balance wet food. She had been eating big name brands like Iams up until 3 months ago when I switched her to Blue Buffalo. She seemed to love the food but it was getting a little expensive for me at $2.60 per can, 2 can a day. So I switched to Natural Balance after being referred to it by a friend and Pet Supermarket, as it was $1 cheaper per can.

I have a whole bag left of her old Iams dry food that I mix in with her wet food until it's finished. There were no problems adjusting to Blue Buffalo wet food but once I switched to Natural Balance I noticed she had bouts of gas all day. The gas did not stink but it does not seem to be comfortable for her. Her body odor and breath also got worse. She also has runny diarrhea. This morning I woke to her puking on my carpet, something that has never happened before.

She is an inside dog so I know she has not gotten into anything toxic. I supplement her feeding with Omega Treats, Zuke's Hip Action, and Blue Buffalo Blue Bits for treats and training. She has done just fine with these treats for the past 3 months. I am no longer going to feed her Natural Balance and am switching back to Blue Buffalo.

I have been feeding both my dogs Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance Dry Dog Food for about six months. I purchased a new bag and after the first feeding my Westie began vomiting. Knowing that the breeds are sensitive to many things I chalked it up to coincidence. The next day right after feeding she began vomiting again and so did my Shi-Poo. That's when I realized the food was tainted and returned it to the place of purchase. Thankfully both dogs are ok now. I will not use this brand or recommend it again.

I started my dog on Natural Balance dog food at the recommendation of my friend. My dog unfortunately hasn't been adjusting well to it. She has had really bad diarrhea for over a month. There is no blood but it's usually a solid stool followed by a watery stool. I thought she was just adjusting to the food since we switched recently. Our lab has adjusted well but I thought maybe the food was the culprit. Now after reading this page I know it's the food. I will most likely switch her to another type or brand. Thank you all for your posts.

Thank God for your web site. My four year old German Shepard has had very impressive diarrhea for about a week. Otherwise he is ok we have been systematically addressing the things he put in his mouth. I never thought it was the dog food until this morning when I decided to get on the web before I took a specimen to the vet I found all these complaints about Natural Balance dog food. It has to be a recent problem since my dog has been on this food for over three years.

I found out that my Westie has food allergies and the vet recommended that we start feeding him a different type dog food. We purchased Wellmess brand the first time around and all went pretty good. Next I visited the local Petco store and decided that Natural Balance Dog food looked like my best choice, so I purchased the biggest bag of Sweet Potato and Fish Formula that they had. My dog ate a couple of bowls of it and now he refuses to eat any of the food, even after not eating all day. I have not seen and loose stools, but he just seems to eat the taste of oat. I listed this complaint in hopes of being able to return this food back to Petco for a brand that he will eat.

I started my two doxies on the Venison and Sweet Potato dry food. Within 36 hours, the male began to wreak of bad breath. After a couple days of attention to the dog's mouth and teeth, I noticed the odor appears even worse. As a matter of fact, virtually, every part of the dog smelled especially his chest and belly. The odor seemed to be coming out his pores. A check of the female doxie showed the same symptoms but not as acute. I watch my dogs at all times when they are outside and know they did not consume any foreign matter. There was no loose stool or constipation.

This is another update. Since Natural Balance has called me repeatedly and asked for me to say more about my experience with my cats, I will repeat once again. Natural Balance found nothing wrong with the food I sent in for testing. I have yet to receive the complete results from the autopsy in writing but I received a call from the veterinarian explaining that they found out that the cause of my cats death was anti-freeze poisoning. I hope that Natural Balance is now happy with my updated post and will realize that I have done all I could do in re-posting that their results concluded that the food was okay and nothing was wrong with it. I would like to put this nightmare behind me.

My 9-year old golden retriever has been on Natural Balance sweet potato and fish formula for 4 years now. He has never had any problems with it. But when I started feeding him from a new bag of the same product in mid-July, he started having bloody diarrhea and vomiting. I got a full blood panel done and found nothing wrong, but his watery stools persisted. I got him checked again 2 weeks later when he pooped only blood. Again, nothing appeared in his bloodwork. Everything, including PVC and all organ functions, was within normal range. I strongly suspect that the dry food was tainted. I have switched him to home-cooked food and he is recovering fast. I have paid over $2400 at the vet already. I sincerely hope Natural recalls this batch of food because everything points to it being the cause of the bloody stool and vomiting.

I had been cooking all of my miniature pinscher's food and when we added a Siberian Husky puppy to our family, it became very expensive and time consuming so I asked the staff at Petco what the healthiest brand of food was. They suggested Natural Balance. I gave both of my dogs the duck and potato flavor dry good. I slowly added the food in with the food I had cooked and my puppy kept having diarrhea. I thought it may be after the change in food but even after 2 months she continued having diarrhea. My miniature pinscher also gained 5 pounds in two months! This is a huge amount for a small dog. I was actually feeding him a little less than the recommended amount. I started cooking for both of them and our puppy's diarrhea has stopped and our miniature pinscher has already lost two pounds. It's a lot of work to cook for them but much better than the health problems this food has caused!

Shortly after buying and feeding my 5 pound Chihuahua Natural Balance Small Bites Dog Food, she became very ill with vomiting, and bloody diarrhea, to the extent that, I had to rush her to the pet emergency clinic, since it was after hours for my regular vet, to the tune of $500.00 for the visit. The next day I took her to my regular vet. She would not eat for a week, needed extensive hydration due to not keeping anything down. She spent days at the vets ,until she finally started to feel better, which was another $1000.00.

The vet suggested I feed her special dog food which I purchased from them. As she gained her strength back the vet told me to start adding her regular food until she was back totally onto her food, which was the Natural Balance. Again, after feeding her the Natural Balance Dog Food from the same bag, she became deathly ill again. At that point, it was back to the vet, I also decided to no longer feed her that food, because I had a strong feeling the food was the culprit, but couldn't prove it. Then months later, I have heard of other pets becoming deathly ill from the same food. That was when I found this site and decided to complain about my dog almost dying and the expenses incurred.

Currently, my Chihuahua is back to normal after days of suffering. I no longer feed my dog Natural Balance Dog Food. The economic damage to my husband and I has been very difficult, to say the least, to the tune of close to $2,000.00. It is so sad, and totally wrong that a company does not have to pay retribution when a situation like this, happens, most specially when you put your trust in a company by purchasing their products. They reap the reward while our animals suffer.

In June, I purchased Natural Balance dry dog food for the first time. It was fish and something, for a very large quantity. I've long since tossed the bag, as I store his food in a large container. It was on sale. Since then, my 5 year old miniature Schnauzer has been ill, and has begun an odd habit of eating dirt. His eating pattern has changed as well. He used to eat dry food only at night. Now he eats it in the morning, and at night. If I didn't know better I'd think he was starving to death, but his dish is never empty.

I have just given up my pet health insurance. I am long-term unemployed. So, this is very bad timing for me and my pet. I want to take him to the vet, but I also want to pay my mortgage. It's agonizing to think that his condition may worsen, due to the food I am providing him.

Update- I received a call from Jen at Natural Balance and she wanted me to know that they tested the food and did not find high levels of Zinc which I suspected. The customer service follow up was great however I still believe there is something not right with the food. My toy poodle who is 13 made an incredible bounce back by simply feeding her beef and rice. All symptoms she had are gone, i.e. her coat was dull and brittle, her eyes were tearing non-stop, her breath had an awful strange smell and she was lethargic plus explosive diarrhea for 2 days. My dog did not get into anything toxic, only her food which she began to avoid and not eat. Again if your animal gets sick and the vet tests do not find anything wrong, switch food before you give up on your animal.

I purchased Natural Balance Sweet Potatoes & Duck small breed for my Min-Pin. She initially was eating it for approx 3 weeks just fine. Then about a week ago, she began to eat a normal early meal. She ate it and vomited about 4 hours later. We attempted to feed her in the evening and she would not eat. I then attempted to feed her the next day. She would not go near the food.

The diarrhea began and blood was in her stool. I tried the 2nd day to get her to eat with no luck. On the 3rd day, she ate some food and again vomited within 4 hours. The stools contained blood. We made a rice and broth mix and she vomited that immediately. We took her to the vet on the 4th day. They did blood work and nothing showed up. They also did a stool sample. They had us give no food for 24 hours. We then started a prescription can food, small amounts at a time. They also gave her anti vomiting medicine and fluid injections to keep her hydrated. The stool sample came back negative also. The only change was the food. I will not feed her the Natural Balance product. I called the company and they indicated there have been no complaints on the Sweet Potatoes and Duck. We have another dog and she eats Royal Canin and had no issues. I would contribute her problems with the food.

Natural Balance Lamb and Rice Dog Food, which is best by Oct 1, 2011, recently gave my dog explosive diarrhea and I now believe is the cause of my own illness. What is so unbelievable is that in 2008, I lost a dog to Nutro that was never officially recalled however, it was responsible for making over 3,000 animals sick. What is happening to my current dog is exactly what happened to Shelby, the one who died. You send the company the food, they claim they test it and find nothing wrong. Well I suspect the food has a high concentration of Zinc which is consistent with what happened before, however the company will never admit it.

Zinc is found in the food, however, if too much is consumed, it will make them very sick. If you consume high levels of vitamins that can make you sick too. I am making this posting to inform the public that if your dog gets sick and you can rule out all other factors, do not trust the pet food companies that will tell you again and again that the food is 100% safe. Go with your gut and change food. My dog started to leave food around the house that was the first sign, then I added water to her food to entice her to eat it. Well she did and I have guilt over it because that is what caused her explosive diarrhea. My dog only eats this food and is not offered treats or table food. I hope to get the food independently tested and I will post an update.

*Update. After sending the food back for testing, Natural Balance said they found nothing wrong with the food.

We bought a new bag of Natural Balance dry cat food from a local pet store on or around 6/18/2010. We added the new bag of food to the last few cups of the Natural Balance we had been feeding our cats. Both cats are approximately 11 months old. We noticed on the night of the 21st, one of our cats, MJ, had thrown up and we thought it was a hairball or from the heat of the day. The next day, we didn't see her until 8:30 pm which was very unusual for her. When we found her, she was covered with 1000's of fly eggs and larvae and we rushed her to the veterinarian.

The veterinarian explained that she had to be completely unconscious for many hours to have as many fly eggs on her as there were. Also it takes 8 to 30 hours for fly eggs to hatch, etcetera. He immediately said it looked as if she had gotten into something toxic. I left her for treatment and the next morning, I took her to another veterinarian because the first didn't seem to want to provide the care I thought she needed. He acted as if he was giving up. This was 12 hours after I took her in for an emergency visit. The new veterinarian immediately started her on IV fluids and done blood work. He said she had a complete kidney failure and agreed she seemed to have eaten something toxic.

On the morning of 6/24/2010, we visited her and despite the efforts of flushing the toxins from her body, hoping her kidneys would improve, she ended of passing away that same night of 6/24/2010. We had no idea what could have happened or what she ingested until 6/28/2010, when our other cat started having similar symptoms. We noticed both were not eating as well as they should have been but again, we thought it was from the heat or summer. Today, is 6/29/2010 and our other cat, Powder, is now on IV fluids because of dehydration and not eating. I rushed her to the veterinarian after noticing she was not eating or drinking and not able to stand up. After doing blood work, the veterinarian called and said that Powder's kidneys were failing as well, the test results are close to the same results as our other cat, MJ. The only thing both cats ate in common or at all for that matter is the Natural Balance cat food.

I emailed the company a few hours ago, I told them this exact same information and I am waiting for a response. I also plan to call them tomorrow on 6/30/2010 and I am offering to send them a sample of the food since we have a whole bag left so hopefully they will offer to test it. I also hope to find a local laboratory to test the food as well. This may be a little difficult in our area. I may have to look into other cites for testing. I may have lost 2 very important family members and honestly, I believe the food is the cause and that the food may be contaminated. I want the company to be aware of the problem and recall the food before more animals die. I also have a 7-year-old Labrador on the same brand food and I plan to have blood work done on him just in case it is not just the cat food contaminated.

Well my first baby, MJ, died from renal failure and I have no idea how much she suffered. I have pictures and video footage of the last 2 days we spend visiting her. The veterinary bill alone was over $600 although I would have spent more to save her life if it would have come down to it. She was part of our family and would have been a year old on July 4, 2010. My other baby, Powder, is in ICU, on an IV, also with kidney failure. She was very dehydrated, weak, vomiting, no appetite and we have no idea until tomorrow morning if she might have a chance to pull out of this or not. Plus we have to make the decision on what to do depending on what the doctor says tomorrow.

I have only had to put one pet to sleep in 20 years so this is very difficult for me and my family. I have had to see a doctor myself for my nerves after watching both become so sick so fast. My 10-year-old son is worried sick. There is no way to express the heartbreak we feel at this time. I can't imagine the thought of having to bury another pet this week.

Just an update on my previous post. I called this company on June 16th, not the 23rd. I was told there were no complaints on the Natural Balance fish and sweet potato cookies. This is a true statement; they actually have had no complaints on any of their products. That was not made clear in my first phone call with Kristi. Jennifer from the company called me today and was very thorough, she went over the products I purchased, events, vet visits, etc. They are following up with phone calls to the vet and I am sending in samples of both the food and dog cookies. I am very pleased with the response I have received. I want to express that they are on top of the issue and we now will wait to see the outcome of the testing, which they are sending out to an independent laboratory. Just thankful I have a happy dog again and want to thank Jennifer for taking the time to follow up on this complaint and I hope we come to a good resolution.

I called the company Wednesday, June 23, 2010 to advice of tainted dog biscuits, Natural Balance sweet potato and fish. Dog was in vet twice and was super sick. I reintroduced his food, Natural Balance bison and sweet potato on 6/25/2010, and again he was a sick dog. Back to vet. I called the company to inform. They have recalled chicken and sweet potato, but obviously it is across the board on their products. They said there are no complaints received, but I complained on 6/23. So obviously they are telling everyone "no complaints", not true. This caused a vet bill of $375.00 plus one very sick basset hound!

My 7-year old golden retriever developed a severe kidney disease. She has been eating only a Natural Balance dog food. My 5-year old has constant bladder infections. Both dog are eating the same food. We are paying thousands in the vet bills, but most importantly we love our pets dearly and losing them due to the contaminated pet food is unspeakable.

Regarding Natural Balance Cat food "Green Pea and Duck" and "Green Pea and Salmon" dry. We also fed our cats "Venison and Green Pea" canned food. We noticed that the duck formula that we had been using for over a year changed shape. After that both cats seemed lethargic and one cat, KC, would vomit daily. Ted lost weight more rapidly and eventually passed away. KC continued to lose weight and still vomited daily. We got a new cat and the new cat started to vomit after eating the food.

During this time we switched to the salmon formula and the cats continued to show the same symptoms. Our vet encouraged us to feed KC canned food so we switched his diet to the canned venison formula from Natural Balance. We noticed that our new cat would not eat the canned Venison formula and that KC would only pick at the venison food without eating all of it.

KC was very lethargic and near death. We changed to a Science Diet DD formula and KC became significantly better. KC immediately devoured the canned Science Diet formula where he would only pick at the Natural Balance food. The Science Diet formula was rabbit and green pea. Natural Balance admitted to changing the formula to add "more duck and green pea". We have samples of the Natural Balance duck and salmon formulas. I suspect that there is some tainted ingredient in the food. Its not just that grain or other meats were added. Something is poisonous in this food. Our cat Teddy passed away in July. Our other cat became very ill and required treatment and testing at the vet. We paid roughly $300 in vet bills for KC and $100 to dispose of the cat that passed away.

We had well over $1000 in vet bills, and their insurance company wants to give us $71/for each cat, and told us to get the rest from Natural Balance. Both the emergency clinic and our own vet the next morning confirmed the poisoning and kidney/heart failures in our kitties. They were part of our family for 13 years and sat in our laps every night. We miss them and deserve to have compensation. The food was supposed to be organic!

Natural Balance told me on April 20th, on the phone nad in writing, that all their products except Venison and Peas were OK. In fact, all their other products tested OK at UC Davis and I should continue to use them. This after I told them my cat developed a relapse of renal symptoms after feeding him their non-recalled food (not venison and peas).

They told me their products used no gluten or RPC. 5 days later they pulled everything and stated none of their products made any customers pets sick. Then when I blasted them for that, they changed their stance on that, that only a few were made sick. Then they changed their stance that their products did have RPC but it was not supposed to be sourced from China. Then they changed their stance on that and said their manufacturer Diamond Pet Foods did not tell them the RPC used came from China.

They have kept up this never ending tissue of lies, and they need to step up to the plate owning up legal and financial responsibility.

This is about my service dog. I opened a new bag a week ago and my dog threw up every day for 2 days. He had a hard time holding food down throughout the night He woke me up. It was very odd.

I then shortly learned about the recall on a service dog site. I returned the bags of dog food for a refund $50 +/-.

I changed food to another Natural Balance product the organgic food and that was allery city, then the next day I switched to - potato and duck and he hasn't thrown up since.

I had a blood test done the day after I found out about the recall and the 3 odd things my dog had done. the blood test came out normal, so far. I will do another test in a couple weeks.

If my service dog is permanently sick, it is awful.

I have 4 Golden Retrievers and one of my Male Furkids, Harley who is 9 and acts like a puppy with NO previous health problems, has been poisoned with Natural Balance Venison and Brown Rice. Two of my four dogs ate the food and I have had to have all four dogs undergo testing several times to make sure they were ok. Harley has been in the hospital since Wednesday 4/11/07 and I have spent almost $3,000.00 so far with the bill on going. He still is not able to go home and his kidneys have 75% failure and I am told IF he makes it he will NEVER physically be the same.

I am outraged. I have not agreed to any reimbursement or compensation with Natural Balance for I don't know the final outcome will be. I am beside myself with worry. No person or any animal should die a death by poison!

We have an in-home kennel where we raise Cavalier King Charles Spaniels. Last week our dogs began getting sick. I took two of my dogs to my local vet and she said to withhold food for 12-24 hours until their vomiting stopped. Then by late Friday night my oldest girl, Katy, began to go down hill quickly. I took her back to my vet early Saturday morning and my vet said that she appeared to be in Acute Renal Failure. By 6:00 p.m. Saturday, we very sadly lost our precious Katy.

By late Saturday night, Abby our 10 month old girl from Germany, began showing signs of decline. Sunday morning, we loaded up 3 of our dogs and started on our way to Texas A& M University's Small Animal Emergency Clinic. We took Abby and our Timmy, and Tia. We made the 3-hour trip and once arriving, we quickly learned that all three dogs were in Acute Renal Failure. The doctors at A&M were almost certain that it was from some sort of toxic exposure.

Monday morning, we learned that Abby had taken a rapid decline at the hospital overnight and that her chances were very slim at best. The doctors requested that we let her go and have them perform an autopsy in order to perhaps figure this out and save the other dogs. By Monday afternoon, we loaded up again with our remaining dogs and took them to A&M University Hospital. Peaches is in severe acute renal failure with her numbers being off the chart.

With several college professors and doctors, fortunately for us, verifiably some of the best in the nation, working on our case, around 9:00 p.m. last night (4-16-07), the doctors met with us and confirmed that it was the Natural Balance Venison and Brown Rice Dog food that is the cause. The autopsy on Abby confirmed the crystal formation that is seen in all the renal failure cases concerning the recent dog food recalls. We still have 3 Adult Cavaliers at Texas A&M and although they are making improvement, our vet is uncertain if they have will have long term renal disease if they make it through treatment. We also have 5 puppies that are being treated at Texas A&M as well and their outcome is still uncertain.

It appears that Natural Balance may pay our Vet bills if we sign a Claims release form which basically makes it so they do not have to pay anything except the Vet bill. Our kennel has been destroyed by Natural Balance Dog Food. We want Natural Balance company to compensate us for our losses and help us recover. We were on their breeder dog food referral program. We are left devastated and we desperately need help.

On Fri. 13th April I bought a new bag of the Venison & Brown Rice dog food which I fed to my dog that same evening. During the night he was sick and vomiting. Over the next few days he was lethargic and wouldn't eat. On Tues. 17th April I heard that Natural Balance had recalled this particular dog food and then I became really concerned. I made an appointment with my vet right away and he did tests on him and told me he was suffering from renal failure.

After hydrating him for two days his kidneys were re-tested only to find that his condition had worsened. This was a very sick dog and there was nothing more the vet could do for him. We just returned home this afternoon after having him euthanized and we are sick at heart and devastated to lose our special friend this way.

I have yet to find out what my vet bills are but after all the work done at the vet's and the critical care unit I am sure that they will be substantial.

Myself and my husband have had to miss work for a week now and counting. We are at a hotel 5 hours from home.

I sent the following email to Natural Balance after discovering that the allergy formula I'd been feeding my cats was taken off the market:

I am very concerned about the fact that I learned about the recall of your Venison and Green Pea dry cat food on the CNN crawler last evening. I have been feeding my cats both canned and dry Venison and Green Pea formulas for months, and 10 days ago, one of my cats was treated as an emergency for kidney stones at our veterinary clinic.

She very well could have died had she not had surgery in time.

I would have thought that as soon as the first pet food recall had occurred, you would have investigated the Natural Balance formulas for safety and purity.

I pay extra money for Natural Balance products and I do not understand why, if there is no wheat or gluten in the special allergy formulas, there would be reason for a recall of this product. This leads me to believe that despite all of your published claims, you are using inferior ingredients in your products and I have discontinued the use of all Natural Balance products.

Until now, the Venison and Green Pea formulas had been the answer to my prayers in terms of feeding my allergic cats. But now I realize that I had only been putting my cats' health in jeopardy by feeding them your product.