We were at our local TSC this weekend and saw that the bag had changed for Diamond's Lamb and Rice. It's called Diamond Naturals: Lamb & Rice (gotta be a marketing thing). A little voice in my head said "Compare the ingredients!!".

Here are the first ten ingredients in the old formula (I have a bag left): (I bolded the different ingredients)

Lamb meal, brewer's rice, brown rice, rice flour, fish meal, chicken fat, egg product, beet pulp, flaxseed, natural flavors.

Here are the first ten ingredients in the new formula:

Lamb meal, whole grain brown rice, white rice, cracked pearled barley, fish meal, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols), egg product, beet pulp, flaxseed, natural flavor.

The guaranteed analysis is the same.

Obviously, once I'm through this bag (taking into account mixing the new with the old toward the end) I will be 'switching' either to the new formula or another brand altogether. What do you think? I need to stay at $20 or less for a 40 lb bag.

Disclaimer: I'm aware of the recalls. . . The plant where ours comes from was not implicated in any way, and my dogs have done very well on Diamond, so that is not my worry here. I'm mainly worried about the new formula.

To me, the change in rice wouldn't be enough to warrant changing the food. For all you know the Rice Flour was from white rice, and barley is a whole grain that isn't on the list of high allergen grains (as far as I know).

Interesting, I will have to check our local TSC store. I buy the Diamond L&R from TSC to for Bella and I haven't taken notice that they have changed the bags yet. Thanks for the heads up. I'm going to still keep her on it cause I can't find anything else that is good and cheap. And she seems to really like it.

I wouldn't worry about it Emyly.

I was feeding 60lb+ but I knew they had their new "Naturals" by looking at their website so I was excited to get some. Sawyer immediately developed diarrhea. I went and got a bag of the "old" recipie and am mixing it. No "out come" yet so it's either working or I have plugged him up :eek:

I went back to TSC last night (hubby needed something) and sure enough there were only 2 big bags of the old kind there and the rest was of the new naturals, what I'm going to do is keep bella on it but when she starts getting low I guess I will get a bag of the new and mix it just in case. Thanks for the heads up..

I noticed the packaging change, but never thought to check the ingredients! Amos just started on the new bag last week, and he seems fine. It looks to me like the changes were minor, but I'm no expert....

I saw the new bag change last week one I needed to get more food for them. Didn't really notice the change in ingredients till you posted it. My girls have been fine so far, I don't think it's much of a change to cause any problems.

The only issue I would have is with the barley, which mine react to like wheat. But, that is a "Know Thy Dog" sitation. The other changes send up no flags. If you don't have issues, I'd feed it! :tup:

Barley is a glutinous grain very closely related to wheat (a very common allergen). Grip reacts as strongly to barley as he does to wheat.

Jes is allergic to wheat, but tolerates barley just fine. They may be related, but they are different. In fact, he's eating the new Diamond food right now as I didn't have a chance to go over to the next town over to pick up his normal food (Eagle Pack). I guess it's trial and error to find out how your dog reacts to barley or wheat. How they react to one isn't necessarily an indication of how they'll react to the other.

One of the staff at the local Superpetz where we get Diamond L&R for our dogs told us Diamond was replacing the current brand with the 'Naturals' formulation, although a perusal of the Diamond website didn't yield any indication that this was the case. I haven't had a chance to call them up and ask though. If this is really the case, then I will have to search for a new food as Nala doesn't seem to tolerate barley very well. Any suggestions?

One of the staff at the local Superpetz where we get Diamond L&R for our dogs told us Diamond was replacing the current brand with the 'Naturals' formulation, although a perusal of the Diamond website didn't yield any indication that this was the case. I haven't had a chance to call them up and ask though. If this is really the case, then I will have to search for a new food as Nala doesn't seem to tolerate barley very well. Any suggestions?


As far as I know..Diamond l & r as always had barley in it. I remember Lisa telling me to watch out for it since we have wheat issues here.

So is this reaction something new? If so.. steer clear of wheat and yeast as well.

As far as I know..Diamond l & r as always had barley in it. I remember Lisa telling me to watch out for it since we have wheat issues here.

So is this reaction something new? If so.. steer clear of wheat and yeast as well.

Diamond L&R doesn't have barley in it, nor does the LB puppy L&R. When we were switching Nala to an adult food, we went through several different foods (Premium Edge, Wellness, Blue Buffalo) that she ended up developing really soft mucousy poops on after about 3 weeks. What clued me in to Nala's sensitivity to barley was an ingredient comparison of all the foods we had tried. We ended up going back to Diamond.

If Diamond really is replacing their old formula with the Naturals brand, that means I'm off on another food hunt for our dogs.

Just got off the phone with a lady at Diamond Pet Foods and she did confirm that Diamond Naturals was replacing the original formulation. Off to go do some more food research now.

Diamond L&R doesn't have barley in it, nor does the LB puppy L&R. When we were switching Nala to an adult food, we went through several different foods (Premium Edge, Wellness, Blue Buffalo) that she ended up developing really soft mucousy poops on after about 3 weeks. What clued me in to Nala's sensitivity to barley was an ingredient comparison of all the foods we had tried. We ended up going back to Diamond.

If Diamond really is replacing their old formula with the Naturals brand, that means I'm off on another food hunt for our dogs.


I stand corrected. It's been a long time since I fed Diamond foods but I could've sworn it had barley. Oh well..learn something new everyday!