Natural Balance Ltd Ingredient Dry: Formula Change?

[ThatCatGirl]

I've been feeding my cat Fifi Natural Balance Limited Ingredient green pea and duck dry food for about six months. She also gets a 5.5 oz can of Weruva chicken wet food each day. It took a lot of months to find just the right combination of food (we tried many different canned food brands before getting to the Weruva). Things have been good (normal, mostly solid poo!) for a solid month. I purchased a new bag of her dry food about a week and a half ago and the color was clearly different from the previous bag. The new food was a fairly dark brown whereas the old was sort of a golden brown. I assumed there was a formula change and could not ease her into it because I had so little of the older food, so I expected loose stools for a few days. Fifi devoured this new dry food much faster than the old which she would just nibble on throughout the day, so this reaffirmed for me there was just a formula change, not that I had a bad or contaminated bag or anything. Her poo is just not normal though and not improving at all. I looked online and could find no mention anywhere on this forum or others that discussed a change in this brand's formula. I did see a couple of consumer complaints about bad bags purchased in the last couple months (one with mold, one with a strange smell or something).

Does anyone else here feed their cats this food and if so, what color is yours? Any problems?

I am not giving Fifi any more of this particular bag of food. The shop where I purchased it is closed for the night, but tomorrow I am going to call and ask if they know anything about a change in formula or if anyone else had problems. I also emailed the company. If I hear anything from them, I'll let you know.

Thanks!

(p.s. Fifi is otherwise healthy. She has been through a heck of a lot this year with really bad tooth pain, then a dental procedure losing nearly half her teeth, then a cold following that, then a kennel stay at the vet's office late summer where she caught a virus it took two months to fully recover from, and all the diet changes on top of all this.. this last month she has been gloriously energetic and as mentioned before - normal poo!)

[doodlebug]

From the NB website:

"Natural Balance does not use any artificial colors or dyes, and we do not bleach our ingredients. Color variations are a normal occurrence."

Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance Limited Ingredient Diets Green Pea & Duck Formula Cat Food

That said...I know they recently added pea protein to most of their LID dog formulas, so a food such as their Bison and Sweet Potato now has pea protein...not the best idea they ever had imo. I assume that it was in the cat foods to begin with since they are pea based...but maybe they upped the amount.

[Beauty Betty Berry]

ThatCatGirl - I feed Beauty Natural Balace Premium formula - dry and wet food. My sister tried the Pea formula with her cats one time and not only did they not like it, according to her and my brother in law, their poo STANK! Now they're back to the premium formula. Beauty did NOT like the formula. We stayed over at her house one night, I didn't bring my own food, she did NOT eat the Pea formula. Right now, I'm feeding all my furry kids Natural Balance and they all have a dark brown poo.

[ThatCatGirl]

Thanks for finding that note, Doodlebug. That's good to know. The color change seems quite significant and an increase in pea protein (making it darker) might explain it. If that's the situation, I hope the company will confirm it.

Thanks!

[ThatCatGirl]

Originally Posted by Beauty Betty Berry

ThatCatGirl - I feed Beauty Natural Balace Premium formula - dry and wet food. My sister tried the Pea formula with her cats one time and not only did they not like it, according to her and my brother in law, their poo STANK! Now they're back to the premium formula. Beauty did NOT like the formula. We stayed over at her house one night, I didn't bring my own food, she did NOT eat the Pea formula. Right now, I'm feeding all my furry kids Natural Balance and they all have a dark brown poo.

I didn't know NB had a premium formula. Actually, I thought the green pea and duck was a premium food. I can't keep up with this stuff! I'm glad you found something that works for your kitties. Not sure where we'll go from here.

[kwarendorf]

Originally Posted by ThatCatGirl

I thought the green pea and duck was a premium food.

It is They just happen to have a dry formula called Ultra Premium. I feed Natural Balance Duck & Green Pea canned. There can be a noticeable difference from case to case, but my guys don;t seem to mind. They love the cans but wouldn't go near the Duck & Green Pea dry.