# Natural Balance vs California Natural



## katdog5911 (Sep 24, 2011)

After dealing with diarrhea from giardia the past few weeks, we are finally back to normal poop and eating kibble instead of chicken/rice/pumpkin. Currently I am giving her NB sweet potato and salmon. I did notice my feed store carried California Natural and it looked like a good limited ingredient food. Any thoughts on the 2? Reason for LID is Stella has been itching, scratching a lot since we have had her. 

Also, can you switch out "flavors" with NB quickly or do you need to take a week or so? Some brands can just be switched out I think.....


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## Greydusk (Mar 26, 2010)

Blitz was on Natural Balance venison and sweet potato (I think that's the flavor) after he just quit tolerating the kirkland brand and had explosive diarrhea (repeatedly). It worked really well for us, but once I upped his exercise, he had a hard time keeping weight on. Switched him to TOTW pacific stream and it's been working well, starting to build back some muscle. I haven't looked into the California Natural brand. 

Also, I wouldn't switch flavors quickly, knowing my dog and his sensitive tummy it wouldn't end well.


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## katdog5911 (Sep 24, 2011)

I have read that it is low on protein. Some one suggested adding meat to the NB.


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## Gretchen (Jan 20, 2011)

Natural Balance and protein content - first ingredient is sweet potato. This food was OK for short term use to see if she had allergies, but after a while she did not like it, had formed, but soft stools smelling awful, like rancid sweet potato. Our dog was itchy for a while too. 

We never had California Naturals. We have used Nature's Variety, they use tapioca instead of sweet potato for a carb and encourage rotation diet. After trying a lot of 5 star expensive brands, seems my dog likes a mediocre brand, RC German Shepherd food. Her stools are still not perfect, but with her colitis, they may never be. But at least she will eat it without having to add stuff to it.


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## msvette2u (Mar 20, 2006)

We have one dog on NB and she does wonderful on it. 
She's intolerant to chicken. 
We may switch her to Kirkland's Nature's Domain though, they have a fish kind and now a turkey kind.


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## Good_Karma (Jun 28, 2009)

I absolutely love how my dogs do on California Naturals. Best poops ever.


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## atravis (Sep 24, 2008)

Used Cal Nat several years ago with Mulder before the P&G buyout, he did fine on it.

If I was going to use it again, I would probably go with either the chicken/rice line or the GF lamb/salmon/chicken lines. The protein/fat, IMO, in basically all of the other lines is too low for a young, active dog. Especially the venison/kangaroo lines... a good chunk of that protine % is coming from potatoes/lentils, not worth the outrageous price they charge for it unless your dog has some _serious_ issues and will literally explode on anything else. 

As for NB listing sweet potatoes first- because there are only two ingredients in the food and they are listed individually by weight, this is so. However, brands like Cal Nat list rice/brown rice or red lentils/green lentils, etc, separably, thus the majority of foods like this have WAY more "other" ingredients than the labeling would lead you to believe.


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## msvette2u (Mar 20, 2006)

NB is the only "true" allergy diet, actually. In order to qualify for an allergy diet you must have only one protein source.

It does make it good for ruling in or out foods. I would not feed it to a growing dog, but an adult moderately active dog ought to do fine on it.


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## Barb E (Jun 6, 2004)

Kaos is on the adult version of Cal Nat Chick and Rice and doing very well on it.


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