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Old 12-13-2009, 05:49 PM   #1
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Default Beware of Natural Balance Dog Food

So I use to feed my dogs wellness and about 2 months ago I switched over to Natural Balance as it is supposed to be better (???) So, I put food in their bowl and come home from work and only a small amount as been eaten...usually the whole bowl is gone between the two of them. So nothing happens that night everyone potties like normal, they got their yogurt before bed and everythings fine. So the next day the same thing happens when I come home except for the fact that Jasmine (my yorkie) wasn't waiting for us at the door like she ALWAYS is. So I found her and she looked lethargic so I am panicking. I grilled a boneless skinless chicken breast for her and they both ate it like there was no tomorrow and the dry food is in the same spot. So they eat then go outside and go potty. ( by the way I work nights so my schedule is backwards) So we go to lay down in the bed and Jasmine pukes all of the chicken up.(on my $400 comforter!!!!) So I take her off my bed and she pukes on my carpet in my bedroom. So I take her onto the tile part and asked her if she has to go potty and she did so I took her outside and she collapsed at my sliding glass doors. So now its about 7am and I am on my way to the vets. She stayed there all day had 2 IV's and abour 4 X-Rays. The vet explained to me that the bag of food was rancid(the other dog had funny poop for the two days) and I had to have her on a special diet for a few days. Now this cost about $600 so I called natural balance and they explained to me that there is no quality control on dog food and it could have happened at any point and time. They also advised me that they could only send me a free bag of food!! Why would I want another bag of "rancid" food! So I put them back on Wellness and everythings great but Natural Balance was horrible to speak with. They almost killed my baby!
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Old 12-13-2009, 06:04 PM   #2
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Oh isn't that just so nice of them, a free bag of food! What IF your baby had died? Would they just say oh well? That's terrible. Hope she makes a full recovery.

Uni is on Wellness and is doing very well.
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Old 12-13-2009, 06:08 PM   #3
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SO SO SORRY this has happened to your babies and you!!! Thank you for letting us know about NB!!! Hope your baby recovers quickly!!! Keep us posted on how she is doing!!!
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Old 12-13-2009, 06:09 PM   #4
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I love Wellness, I should have never switched them. I was upset that it almost killed my baby and then they offer me another free bag of food?? eww lol. But petco where I buy their food, i explained to them what happened and they gave me a free bag of Wellness, they were very nice to deal with.
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Old 12-13-2009, 06:30 PM   #5
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I am sorry your babies got sick from the dog food. Do you mind telling me how big a bag you had bought and how long the bag had been opened? Also, what store did you buy the food from? How did the vet know the dog food was rancid, did you take him some of the food? Personally I think if it were me I would be very tempted to have the food tested at a laboratory and if the food was contaminated with something I would be sending Natural Balance the bill.

Any dog food from any manufacturer can go bad. Once a bag is opened it needs to be properly stored and kept in a sealed container or it can go bad.

Storage of dog food is important. If you go buy a bag of dog food and leave it in a hot vehicle for a long time that can also effect the quality of the food. The manufacturer of the food is not always the blame. Sometimes the retailer of the food may not store the food properly. When buying dog food always make sure you check the dates on the food. I know several years ago I had bought some Bil-Jac dog food from Petsmart and it turned out it had an expired date on it.

It is also a good idea to smell the food every now and then. I had a bag of Canidae go rancid one time and it had a different smell.
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Old 12-13-2009, 06:51 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bjh View Post
I am sorry your babies got sick from the dog food. Do you mind telling me how big a bag you had bought and how long the bag had been opened? Also, what store did you buy the food from? How did the vet know the dog food was rancid, did you take him some of the food? Personally I think if it were me I would be very tempted to have the food tested at a laboratory and if the food was contaminated with something I would be sending Natural Balance the bill.

Any dog food from any manufacturer can go bad. Once a bag is opened it needs to be properly stored and kept in a sealed container or it can go bad.

Storage of dog food is important. If you go buy a bag of dog food and leave it in a hot vehicle for a long time that can also effect the quality of the food. The manufacturer of the food is not always the blame. Sometimes the retailer of the food may not store the food properly. When buying dog food always make sure you check the dates on the food. I know several years ago I had bought some Bil-Jac dog food from Petsmart and it turned out it had an expired date on it.

It is also a good idea to smell the food every now and then. I had a bag of Canidae go rancid one time and it had a different smell.
Excellent advice. I only buy quantities that can be used in a reasonable amount of time. My DH has a tendency to leave some of the old in the bottom and add the new food bag to the top. I'm constantly bugging him to NOT do that. In theory some of the food at the bottom could end up being old and stale.

I would have the food tested to see if that was the real issue. Another thought is if you introduced the new food gradually. Some pets can have issues adjusting to a new diet unless you gradually mix in the new food with the old over a period of time. I don't know how old your pups are, but particularly young pups can become dehydrated from diarrhea and vomiting which could lead to them collapsing. I'm not sure if your babies had that issue but it could also be low blood sugar from not eating enough.
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Old 12-13-2009, 11:13 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bjh View Post
I am sorry your babies got sick from the dog food. Do you mind telling me how big a bag you had bought and how long the bag had been opened? Also, what store did you buy the food from? How did the vet know the dog food was rancid, did you take him some of the food? Personally I think if it were me I would be very tempted to have the food tested at a laboratory and if the food was contaminated with something I would be sending Natural Balance the bill.

Any dog food from any manufacturer can go bad. Once a bag is opened it needs to be properly stored and kept in a sealed container or it can go bad.

Storage of dog food is important. If you go buy a bag of dog food and leave it in a hot vehicle for a long time that can also effect the quality of the food. The manufacturer of the food is not always the blame. Sometimes the retailer of the food may not store the food properly. When buying dog food always make sure you check the dates on the food. I know several years ago I had bought some Bil-Jac dog food from Petsmart and it turned out it had an expired date on it.

It is also a good idea to smell the food every now and then. I had a bag of Canidae go rancid one time and it had a different smell.
The bag I had only for about 3 days. I buy the 4lb bags and then I have an air tight container it goes in so it doesn't go bad. I was jsut mad and upset and wanted my baby to be ok. Natural Balance wanted the actual bag which I did not have because as soon as I empy it into the air tight container I trash the bag. I bought it from Petco and they gave me a bag of Wellness when I told them what had happened.
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Old 12-13-2009, 11:16 PM   #8
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Excellent advice. I only buy quantities that can be used in a reasonable amount of time. My DH has a tendency to leave some of the old in the bottom and add the new food bag to the top. I'm constantly bugging him to NOT do that. In theory some of the food at the bottom could end up being old and stale.

I would have the food tested to see if that was the real issue. Another thought is if you introduced the new food gradually. Some pets can have issues adjusting to a new diet unless you gradually mix in the new food with the old over a period of time. I don't know how old your pups are, but particularly young pups can become dehydrated from diarrhea and vomiting which could lead to them collapsing. I'm not sure if your babies had that issue but it could also be low blood sugar from not eating enough.
She will be 4 years old in January. They had been on the food for about 2-3 months before anything happened and I did not have a problem with it. I know when I was driving her to the vet if she didn't have her seatbelt harness on she would have slid off of my seats. As soon as I got to the vet they got her on an I.V. she's fine now this was about 2 weeks ago, I just wanted to make people aware to check their food. I definately smell it before it goes in their container. I love Wellness.
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Old 12-14-2009, 01:11 AM   #9
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Just this week I started Sophia and Kimo on Natural Balance Duck and Potato. I have been incorporating it slowly and hadn't even gotten to using 1/4 old food and 3/4 new food before Sophia started having loose stools. I just found a site with a lot of complaints about the Duck and Potato formula. I'll be heading to the pet store tomorrow morning and switching them back to Nature's Variety.

Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance - Reviews on RateItAll
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Old 12-14-2009, 01:35 AM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by vanessa19 View Post
The bag I had only for about 3 days. I buy the 4lb bags and then I have an air tight container it goes in so it doesn't go bad. I was jsut mad and upset and wanted my baby to be ok. Natural Balance wanted the actual bag which I did not have because as soon as I empy it into the air tight container I trash the bag. I bought it from Petco and they gave me a bag of Wellness when I told them what had happened.
I used to do that...empty the kible in an air tight container, but Solid Gold and Blue Buff recomend keeping the kibble in its original bag, press the air out while folding the top of the bag, then placing it into an air tight container or plaxtic freezer bags.
I got this info because I had sent both of them an email asking how to store their kibble.
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Old 12-14-2009, 01:46 AM   #11
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I used to do that...empty the kible in an air tight container, but Solid Gold and Blue Buff recomend keeping the kibble in its original bag, press the air out while folding the top of the bag, then placing it into an air tight container or plaxtic freezer bags.
I got this info because I had sent both of them an email asking how to store their kibble.
Great idea!! Thanks, I will start doing that. I at first didn't have any issues with Natural Balance, I thought it would be a better food because it's "natural". I just want people to know what happened so with any of the food to be more careful so no one else has to go through this, it was horrible!
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Old 12-14-2009, 05:57 AM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by vanessa19 View Post
The bag I had only for about 3 days. I buy the 4lb bags and then I have an air tight container it goes in so it doesn't go bad. I was jsut mad and upset and wanted my baby to be ok. Natural Balance wanted the actual bag which I did not have because as soon as I empy it into the air tight container I trash the bag. I bought it from Petco and they gave me a bag of Wellness when I told them what had happened.
We all have to use lots of precautions no matter what we feed. Sometimes no matter how careful we are things happen. I guess the part I do not fully understand is how the vet figured the food was rancid without testing it. The dogs not wanting to eat the food is not proof in itself because, say for example, if the dogs had been chewing on some chews that were bad and they got sick from the chews then naturally they would not want to eat their food because they had a tummy ache.

I remember a couple of years ago I had been feeding the Natural Balance dog food rolls from Petco and one time I went to Petco to buy some more rolls and I checked the expiration date on the rolls and all the Lamb and Rice rolls had expired dates on them.

I just hope your babies make a speedy recover and don't get sick again.
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Old 12-14-2009, 06:18 AM   #13
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I am glad your baby will be ok. That had to be very scary. Great discussion on food storage.

Last edited by Cha Cha; 12-14-2009 at 06:18 AM. Reason: spelling errors :)
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Old 12-14-2009, 10:22 AM   #14
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Did you happen to check the expiration date on the bag before throwing it away by chance? I was cleaning out Snicks cupboards over the weekend and noticed that some of his food was expired. I would never have known unless I checked dates. None of it smelled old or rancid, but I would never feed anything expired and we really need to be on the lookout. I'm so sorry your pup got sick. I really hope she is ok.

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Old 12-14-2009, 10:51 AM   #15
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I was going to suggest this as well, I feed Milo the Natural Balance LID and he loves it he has been on it for 3 years now without a problem. What I can tell you is that one of the MAJOR chains that sells it around here always has expiered bags on there shelf. And they do have quality control and testing of there foods they put this in place after all the recall

Natural Balance Pet Foods has created this new "Buy With Confidence" feature for pet owners to monitor the testing of their pets’ food. TO LEARN ABOUT OUR TESTING CLICK HERE

As of September, 2008, we have added E. coli and Salmonella testing to our standard testing protocol which already includes testing for: Ochratoxin, Zearalenone, Fumonisin, Melamine, Cyanuric Acid, Aflatoxin, and DON (Vomitoxin).

We have taken samples from each date code of Natural Balance product and subjected them to our testing protocol. With the new "Buy With Confidence" service, you are now able to view these test results. When you see your "Best By" code in the results section, you will know that the samples we tested from that date code met the FDA guidelines for the tests listed.

Not only does Natural Balance test for these 9 different contaminates, we also test ALL of our formulas quarterly at an independent laboratory (Midwest Laboratories) to ensure that our vitamins and minerals meet the AAFCO nutrient guidelines.

If you don't see the test results for a particular product, they may not have been uploaded yet, so please do not hesitate to call us at 1-800-829-4493 during normal business hours (8am-5pm pacific time) or e-mail us and we will assist you in getting test results.

Choose from the Dog or Cat Formulas below, and find the size of the pet food you would like to check. Formula Names are in alphabetical order, smallest size down. Type in the 'Best By' date found on your Natural Balance® product. What's this?

All you have to do is go to there site to look. While I am very sorry your dog is sick, (Milo just had a stomach but he picked up at doggie day care)

so I understand how upset you are. We also bear a responsibilty to everyone on this site not to jump to conclusions about things.

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Did you happen to check the expiration date on the bag before throwing it away by chance? I was cleaning out Snicks cupboards over the weekend and noticed that some of his food was expired. I would never have known unless I checked dates. None of it smelled old or rancid, but I would never feed anything expired and we really need to be on the lookout. I'm so sorry your pup got sick. I really hope she is ok.

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Last edited by cdawnfine; 12-14-2009 at 10:53 AM.
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