My friend's lab eats the Natural Balance venison and brown rice and he's been throwing up and had diarrhea. She started feeding him rice and boiled chicken and all was okay, but as soon as he went back to the food, he got sick again. Then, my BF went to buy Cali a new bag of food yesterday (she also eats venison and brown rice) and they were out of all sizes. No note, though. We checked the website and it says customers are having problems, but it has not yet been identified what's causing this.

UGH! We're leaving Cali with a friend for 4 days while we are out of town this weekend, and I guess she'll have to be on a new food.... Her current bag of venison and brown rice seems okay, she's not had any issues. But it's almost empty.....What to do??!!!

I just posted this in FH so more people would see it and was just about to post it here and I saw your post!

This was posted on a K9 nutrition site I belong to. It is still not listed on the Natural Balance site itself. It appears to be legit; not a part of the wheat gluten recall, but apparently some other problem. This is a link to the website with the notice: www.itchmo.com (http://www.itchmo.com/)

Not sure of the info, but wanted to give anyone who is feeding it a heads up so they can contact NB to see if there is a problem.


Itchmo has confirmed an email from Natural Balance that they are removing two products from sale:

Venison and Brown Rice Dry Dog Formula
Venison and Green Pea Dry Cat Formula
These products do not contain wheat gluten (http://www.naturalbalanceinc.com/dogformulas/VenDog.html#Ingredients). No deaths or serious illnesses have been reported and no recall warning has been issued. The warning applies only to products sold in the last week, according to Natural Balance. Please know that at this time we are removing this product from the shelves, as we have had some phone calls indicating gastric upset after eating this formula. At this time, we are unsure if this could just be a particular batch problem, or simply customers switching diets too fast. However, in the meantime while we are looking further into this matter, we are not recommending to feed this formula, and are suggesting to feed our Potato and Duck or Sweet Potato and Fish Dry Dog Formula.




(Thanks Joan)
UPDATE: Why is this not on the FDA or the Natural Balance site? We don’t know. What we do know is that this information was sent to Itchmo and that we confirmed by calling the original author of the email at Natural Balance.

Seems to me like they must have had a number of reports to make them pull it. I feed Natural Balance sweet potato and fish and also the duck and potato. Makes me a little nervous about all of them; I assume they are all made at the same plant? I did open a large bag of the fish about 3 months ago that smelled really sour. I returned it and haven't had that problem with any other bags. If it smells sour or bad, you know not to feed it, its what you CAN'T see or smell that is scary. :(

It is on the NB website. http://www.naturalbalanceinc.com/

It is on the NB website. http://www.naturalbalanceinc.com/

Good, it wasn't on there last night.

Oh, I don't feed that food but use their venison treats for my older lab. She has been sick a few times recently, maybe it has been the treats??? I will toss them!

Oh good! I was going to post a link to the thread in the other section of the board.

I recently switched away from Natural Balance Potato & Duck food (though I was a big fan in the past). I mentioned at the time that the food seemed "different" and I suspected there might be a quality control issue.

Fingers crossed that those of you who have dogs with particular sensitivities can find an alternate food quickly.

I've switched my gang to Nature's Logic Chicken Formula. It doesn't contain any of the common allergens: http://www.natureslogic.com/

Just remembered that my daughter feeds her cats the NB Venison & Green Pea. I called and told her to trash it, and now I have to help her figure out what to switch to :(

Yikes! We feed the D&P during the winter months and the Venison and brown rice the rest of the time. My husband just bought a bag of the Venison and Brown rice on Saturday. I confirmed that he has not fed any of it yet. I guess we will be bringing that back tonight.

Cody (the sick dog) was taken to the vet. He does indeed have kidney problems- he has to stay for 2 days on IV. He was only fed 4 cups of food!

Does anyone know if this "lot" they are talking about on Natural Balances' website is also in Canada? I phoned our pet supply store and they knew nothing about this. I read the website to her and she would immediately take the kibbles off the shelves. Why aren't the reps spreading the news?

Opal eats the Venison & Brown rice in the a.m., then a big turkey neck and a few veggies in the p.m.., but this is pushing me to feeding her an all raw diet.

Does anyone know if this "lot" they are talking about on Natural Balances' website is also in Canada? I phoned our pet supply store and they knew nothing about this. I read the website to her and she would immediately take the kibbles off the shelves. Why aren't the reps spreading the news?

Opal eats the Venison & Brown rice in the a.m., then a big turkey neck and a few veggies in the p.m.., but this is pushing me to feeding her an all raw diet.


Lisa,
I just phoned NB to discuss my concerns as Charmin was on this food before he was diagnosed and thus died due to kidney failure. I don't know about Canada shipments, but their message stated that they are recommending that ALL venison products be discontinued and returned to the store. NB also said that the bacterial testing showed no abnormalities, so they are unsure of what the exact issue is.
Better safe than sorry.........IMO.

I just phoned NB to discuss my concerns as Charmin was on this food before he was diagnosed and thus died due to kidney failure.Oh no, Tina! I remember you PMing me about Charmin's death. I hope NB treats you well in this regard.

I've got the 1/4 full bag ready to go back to the store.

Regardless of the recall being in Canada or not, we're boycotting kibble all together!!!

I sent NB an email last night but have not received a reply yet. Soon another email is going out soon to say that I will not being feeding Opal their product anymore. It really has nothing to do with Natural Balance, per say, I used to like their products, but it has everything to do with ALL the pet food recalls lately. It has to stop!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We've discussed it and we're going all raw with Opal (she has a cast iron stomach so she can go all raw). Need to make a few phone calls tomorrow to order what we need. Zoe is fine on her homemade/raw diet, so we don't have to worry about her.

[QUOTE=Black Labbies]

I sent NB an email last night but have not received a reply yet. Soon another email is going out soon to say that I will not being feeding Opal their product anymore. It really has nothing to do with Natural Balance, per say, I used to like their products, but it has everything to do with ALL the pet food recalls lately. It has to stop!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
QUOTE]


I agree! I really liked NB also, prior to making the possible connection between Charmin and the food. All of the recalls just make me very nervous about ANY company.

Lisa, if you receive a response from NB will you please let me know?

double post sorry

This is such a scary thought, Vickki eats Purina One Lamb and Rice, I hope her food is still safe, I haven't checked in a couple of weeks since getting her last bag *crosses fingers*. I thought NB was good too from what people told me, its sad that kibble is now being recalled on certain ones. I may end up doing a home cooked diet if Vickki's food ends up being recalled too.

Sigh... Bella is on NG Venison, so far she never had any issues.. We will stop using the kibble. I'm at a loss what to feed her. I have been reading Dr.Pitcairn's book, but I'm highly confused with the measurements. I need to go to a dog cooking class.

Pulled this from another board I frequent..

"The industrial chemical melamine has been found in more pet food, and suspicion is falling on a second pet-food ingredient imported from China as the source of the contamination. Natural Balance Pet Foods said Tuesday it found melamine in samples of some of its food, which led to a recall. The company suspects melamine was in a rice protein concentrate used as an ingredient, said President Joey Herrick in an interview."

www.howl911.com (http://www.howl911.com)

I do feed NB duck formula to my dogs, however there is no rice, wheat and so on in it. I'm debating though whether or not to feed them this. CRAP I'm so aggravated.

You know China has different laws on what they can use ingrowing their crops, it just bugs me that we are even buying from them..

Jen

I just read that article too, and the most disturbing aspect is that the Venison and Green Pea cat food is supposed to be GRAIN FREE! There *is* no rice protein or other mention of rice in the ingredient list at all!

I just read that article too, and the most disturbing aspect is that the Venison and Green Pea cat food is supposed to be GRAIN FREE! There *is* no rice protein or other mention of rice in the ingredient list at all!

Yes, there is rice protein mentioned.

Peas, Venison, Venison Meal, Rice Protein Concentrate, Canola Oil, Flaxseed, Natural Flavor, Methionine, Choline Chloride, Inulin, Taurine, Natural Tocopherols, Zinc Proteinate, Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin, Manganese Proteinate, Copper Proteinate, Zinc Sulfate, Manganese Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, Thiamine Mononitrate (Vitamin B-1), Vitamin A Supplement, Biotin, Potassium Iodide, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Riboflavin (Vitamin B-2), Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B-6), Vitamin B-12 Supplement, Manganous Oxide, Sodium Selenite, Vitamin D Supplement, Folic Acid (Vitamin B).

Yes, there is rice protein mentioned.
there sure didnt used to be....

thank goodness our last couple of bags of kitty food have not been venison (ive been buying the ultra premium because money is a bit short and i needed to save a few bucks) i know im not crazy, in the past there was never any mention of rice anything in the dry cat formula. i specificly chose it for that reason as i think that ideally cats should not eat any grains at all. :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: i was planning on switching back to the "grain free" next bag but now i dont know what to do... i dont like EVO and i am not aware of any other grain free cat kibbles.

natural balance:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: this is unacceptable. i wish that i could convince all of my cats to eat homemade catfood.

zen, what are you feeding your cats now?

Yes, there is rice protein mentioned.

That's new. In fact, this morning someone posted a link to Amazon where the old ingredient list - without rice - is still available for all to see.

there sure didnt used to be....

thank goodness our last couple of bags of kitty food have not been venison (ive been buying the ultra premium because money is a bit short and i needed to save a few bucks) i know im not crazy, in the past there was never any mention of rice anything in the dry cat formula. i specificly chose it for that reason as i think that ideally cats should not eat any grains at all. :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: i was planning on switching back to the "grain free" next bag but now i dont know what to do... i dont like EVO and i am not aware of any other grain free cat kibbles.

natural balance:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: this is unacceptable. i wish that i could convince all of my cats to eat homemade catfood.

zen, what are you feeding your cats now?


OMG!! Amazon has taken down the page with the "other" ingredient listing. You get nothing when you search for "Natural Balance Venison". Gee, I'm glad I saved it as an html file in my personal computer. :brow:
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y153/ZenCat27/NBVenisonGreenPeaCat.jpg
There is a review for this food, on this page, dated March 29, 2007. 19 days ago.

I spent the better part of the day shaking in rage, and emailed NB first thing this morning demanding to know when they started adding rice protein to their ONE protein ONE carb food. Depending on what you choose to count rice as, this makes it a TWO protein or a TWO carb food *steam whistles from ears* Dirty rotten lying baskets!!!!

As I mentioned in another thread, my daughter was feeding both her cats and ferrets this food. I was feeding it to my cats, but took Turtle off last fall when she developed a bleeding urinary tract infection). Two of my daughter's ferrets died of kidney failure last fall.

Anyway, I am feeding Authority (Petsmart brand) canned... but only two flavors: Catfish and Turkey & Giblets. They both contain brewers rice only. These were the only foods I could find without wheat and/or corn. My choices are much more limited down here. I settled on these two flavors after reading every blooming can of catfood at both Petco and Petsmart. The catfish is listed as an "acceptable" food on the diabetic cat site I use for reference, to find low carb foods for the cats. It costs $.57/can. My girls are doing very well on it.

I have two bags from their "old" ingredient list sitting right here without rice protein mentioned (both purchased before December).
One bag is empty, the other one 1/2 full of food....sure glad my life got busy and I didn't get rid of them....hmmm....I wonder if I should have this food tested for rice protein.
Zen...if you get an answer back from NB regarding when they started adding the rice will you please post?

I have two bags from their "old" ingredient list sitting right here without rice protein mentioned (both purchased before December).
One bag is empty, the other one 1/2 full of food....sure glad my life got busy and I didn't get rid of them....hmmm....I wonder if I should have this food tested for rice protein.
Zen...if you get an answer back from NB regarding when they started adding the rice will you please post?

Absolutely!

I just read that article too, and the most disturbing aspect is that the Venison and Green Pea cat food is supposed to be GRAIN FREE! There *is* no rice protein or other mention of rice in the ingredient list at all!

There website says different though. It says, "No grains such as wheat, barley, corn and oats" I cannot make out the post you posted with ingredients...does it say NO rice??

Jen

Absolutely!

Thank you!

There website says different though. It says, "No grains such as wheat, barley, corn and oats" I cannot make out the post you posted with ingredients...does it say NO rice??

Jen

The website - showing rice as an ingredient - has changed very recently. I posted a picture of the Amazon dot com website which showed the previous bag, which did NOT include rice on the ingredient list. As of yesterday, since it was on Amazon, people were clearly being offered a GRAIN FREE cat food for sale. The last review of the food on that page was dated March 29, 2007. I can't post the picture bigger, since there are photo size regulations on the board.

Also, to continue to claim a food has a SINGLE source of protein and a SINGLE source of carbohydrates, is now a lie, since (depending on what you understand rice to be, a protein or a carb) it now lists either TWO protein sources or TWO carbohydrates. If they were going to try and sneak an ingredient in there, they should have had the sense to post warnings on the bag, or change the advertised properties of the food.

I fed that food for a year. I know what the bag said. I'm a chronic label reader ;)