It bothers me so much when dog food company's do this! They just downgraded this food by taking away the duck meal and adding potato protein. My boyfriend feeds his Dachshund this food and now I will tell him to switch due to the lower meat content. Thanks Italianangell for pointing this out!!

You are very welcome. Nutrition for my pugs is very important to me, so I am always researching foods and what they should be eating and the best companies out there...when I looked at Natural Balance's website I got very upset. They make it seem to be a good thing that they added more fresh duck...which does look good to people that don't know any better. Meat is 80% water, so once it is processed for dry food, it dries out to almost nothing, and without the duck meal there is essentially no meat in the dog food anymore. Ugghhh... Your boyfriend should check out Nutrisource Pure Vita, it won awards and everything. Everything is all natural and human grade ingredients... I have them on the Duck and Oatmeal formula. Your boyfriend should also be very aware of the protein content in dog foods, and when you get to super premium dog foods, the protein content is waaaayy too high for purebred dogs, especially small dogs like ours. With nutrisource pure vita, the protein content is 24% which is a good amount. You really don't want to get much higher than that. I hope this helps even more!! Also... Nurtisource is only available (that I've seen) in your small, local pet stores...not the big chains. It might be a little harder to find, but if you go to the website (nutrisourcedogfood.com) it has a store locator. It's definitely worth it! Natural Balance costs me $14 something a bag for the small bag, and Nutrisource only costs me $15, for a much higher ingredient food. I got my pugs the small bites in the Natural Balance, and Nutrisource doesn't have small bites...but the pieces are almost as small, and they have no trouble eating it. I hope this all helps. He should look into it, It's well worth it!!

Im sorry you feel that way about Natural Balance but you must remember although they changed the formula to "fresh" duck its maintained its quality. Meat is the best source or protein due to its abundance of essential amino acids(essential amino acids are those which cannot be made in the body in sufficient quantities and therefore must be present in the diet) and the more digestible the protein the less the animal will have to consume. Therefore switching the protein is making it easier for animals to digest the food properly while taking in the nutrients. Nutrisource pure vita does use alot of GRAINS which is a filler dogs do NOT need grains it turns to sugar(like white bread for humans once it hits their tounges and could lead to obesity and is the most common problem of allergies. Most companies lie and say its a fiber source but its truly a filler to keep the cost of the product down. NB uses potatoes/sweet potatoes as a carb for energy and to help move the food through the gastrointestinal tract at the right pace. You said your dogs have been scratching, its not because of the meat change its most likely due to keeping them on the same protein for as long as you did.. try using the sp/Venison as it is a red meat(dogs with allergies do really well on) and for dogs prone to stomach bloat like your pugs because they breath in alot of air it also makes them gassier than other breeds. Because of the over whelming response for Natural balance you can also find it at Petsupermarket and Petco which are individually owned and you might find the prices cheaper (sp/venison $9.99)(Potato/duck $10.99) for a 5lb bag they also have a program buy 10 bags your 11th is free. I hope you find this information helpful and do switch back to NB.

Princess 21, looking at all your comments you have left it appears you are a representative of Natural Balance. Natural Balance has done a poor job communicating its formula change of Duck and Potato and based on the number of poor ratings, you should know your company dropped the ball.

Our eleven-year old golden retriever Bailey has been on Natural Balance Duck and Potato for almost a year with great success. Then they changed the formula (unfortunately there was nothing on the bag to indicate a change had been made). Bailey immediately began having diarrhea so we called the manufacturer and found out about the change. At that point, we didn't have any of her old bag to mix with the new formula so we put her on a bland chicken and rice diet and very very very slowly began to add the duck and potato formula back in. Every time we get to 100% duck and potato, Bailey gets sick again. We are back to chicken and rice for the fourth time... starting all over again!

Now that I see others are having this same difficulty, we are definitely going to make a switch to another brand. We no longer trust Natural Balance and will never go back. In fact, I found out yesterday a friend with a golden retriever also on this diet has had the same problem and spent hundreds at the vet. She has since switched to Buffalo Blue Fish and Potato diet.