Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance® Pet Foods: Testimonials

Testimonials: Page 4

We have received so many wonderful letters, we now have the chance to share them with you! Be sure to click on the "Next" link to see additional Testimonial Pages. If you have a success story that you'd like to share with us, and have it published in this page, please email us (Please put "Testimonials" in your subject). If you have a jpeg or GIF photo, send it as well.

Hi! I just wanted to tell you that your Natural Balance dog food is the BEST we've ever come across! One of our dogs, a small (15-lb) Pomeranian-Poodle mix named Poco, recently started having some urinary issues which included blood in his urine, as well as a constant need to relieve himself. We took him to the vet, which prescribed antibiotics, and the meds didn't seem to help much. Taking him back to the vet, the doctor began telling us of all of the expensive medical tests our little dog would need to try and determine the cause of his urinary troubles. We were devastated... financial problems are major for us right now, and there was no way we'd be able to afford this. After my fiancé and I discussed our options, we decided it be best to just try and switch the dog food first, to see if that'd offer Poco any relief. So, we crossed our fingers, drove to Petco, and hoped for the best. Upon arriving at Petco, I was overwhelmed with the massive variety of premium dog foods that are available! I immediately sought assistance from one of the Petco employees and explained to him that I was looking for a premium dog food that had no "fillers" and explained to him some of the problems Poco was having. The employee then directed me to Natural Balance dog foods, and informed me that a LOT of people have been making the switch to this particular brand. I had never heard of it before (but of course had heard of Mr. Van Patten!) and thought I'd give it a shot. My dogs love it! (I have another small dog as well as Poco.) And, let me tell you, in just over a period of two weeks on the Natural Balance dog food, Poco was showing major signs of improvement! He no longer needed to go out with the same urgency, and there was no longer any blood in his urine. He has since gotten a clean bill of health from the vet!!! Though the food is a bit on the expensive side, it is worth it because I have now seen proof that it is the right choice, the ONLY choice, for my dogs. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Sincerely, Kristen Kushpinsky

My Dalmation "Murphy" loves the Natural Balance® Dog Food Rolls. And it is perfect to take along when traveling! Thank you! Michele, FL

We fed Natural Balance to my Irish Setter until her death in 2008, and she loved this food. Her hips were better with the Glucosamine and Chondrotin, but her hips finally gave away. Now, we are feed Natural Balance dry food and the Natural Balance® Dog Food Rolls, usually Lamb or Turkey formula to our two little dachshunds. They loved it also and I know that they are getting everything they need to become healthy and happy. I just wanted to write and let you know how satisfied we are buying these products. Thank you very much, DeeDee, KS

Thank you so much for the Natural Balance Limited Ingredient Diets. My dog Max was chewing his paws raw and had hives until I figured out he had a chicken/turkey allergy. He was better once I put him on special food. However, he was no longer allowed any of his favorite treats. Then I found the treats for small dogs Natural Balance® Sweet Potato & Venison Formula treats. Thank you, thank you, thank you. He now has a treat for fun, training and rewards. A much happier Max. Laurie Cason, WA

I wanted to thank you for making your Natural Balance® Sweet Potato & Venison Formula dry dog food! My little guy Wesson is allergic to so very many food ingredients. Poultry, Wheat, Rice, Fish, and others. Your food is the only food that I found that he can eat without worrying about setting off an allergic reaction! I even drive 20 miles just to pick up his food! I brought it home the first day and gave him some and he just loved it! So did my other non-allergy dog Turbo. I also got him the Sweet Potato and Venison Treats and he ate them like they were candy! Thank you so much for making it possible to find at least that one food that my dog needed! Ricki, PA

Our Chocolate Lab, Mudd was diagnosed with protein allergies a few years ago. The vet put him on a strict diet of Science Diet DD RX food. It seemed to help him somewhat but he really wasn't fond of the taste. That is the only food he had for 2 years! We went to our local Petco a few months ago and started reading the ingredients in all the dog foods. We bought a small bag of the Natural Balance® Duck & Potato Formula. We mixed it with the Science Diet, a little each day to get him adjusted. We noticed he only ate the Natural Balance. Mudd is now on his second large bag of Natural Balance. He is happier and healthier than ever before. We stopped mixing the food and he has no problems! Thank you for giving us a better option for our dog. If you ever have special offers or coupons we would be interested. We would like to try the treats and canned food soon too. Brenda, AZ

Thank you. Six months ago I adopted a seven year old cat from the shelter. This was my first cat. After about 4 months she developed feline acne and sores over her body. She received shots and after many vet visits I starting researching over the internet about pet foods. I was shocked to find out what they were putting in pet foods. I changed her food to Natural Balance® Turkey Canned Cat Formula and after only three weeks, she is getting much better. We love our animals and are thankfull that there is a company who really cares about animals. I am telling everyone about your food. Thank you again. Lynn Ellis -Chicago

I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate your Natural Balance® Green Pea and Duck Cat Formula. I have one cat whose never had any allergy issues, but when I adopted my second cat, I noticed she was scratching and licking her fur all the time and since she sleeps in the bed with me it was keeping me up at night. I knew it wasn't fleas because there was no evidence of any and my other cat wasn't affected. My vet suggested I use a limited ingredient pet food and mentioned duck or rabbit were often used in this case, which I wasn't aware of. Anyway, within a couple of weeks of putting her on your duck and green pea dry and canned food my kitty stopped licking and scratching and her hair grew back in the bald spots she had given herself. That was almost a year ago, and now all my cats (I've since adopted a third one), eat your duck and green pea formula food. Thanks for a great product. Sincerely, Leanne Fritsch

I work at a Petstore in Calgary, Ab and I have tried my dog on a few different dog foods. All the foods that I had tried him on all gave him indigestion, except the Natural Balance!!! He LOVES!!!! the food and I love that it's not the costly and it's so healthy for him. I love that Natural Balance has such a unique variety of food as my dog has allergies to chicken, beef and lamb, so it was such a relief that your food has made him a happy and healthy dog. Thank you so much for your amazing and unique food. Sincerely, Janine Corrado

After seven years of using Science Diet dog food at our vet's insistence, our chocolate lab dog suddenly developed debilitating hot spots. They spread over his face, neck, and trunk. We watched our sweet, active dog become listless and miserable. He was in so much pain that it broke our hearts. We wrote to every dog forum we could find begging for help. Every last one informed us that Science Diet is a horrible brand and can causes allergies to wheat and soy. They all also suggested we switch to Natural Balance. After two days, TWO DAYS, of eating NB his hot spots were clearing up. Now, six months later, not only is he healthy as a horse but his coat is gorgeous, he is energetic, and has slimmed down! He still has his allergies, so we have to be vigilant about making sure he gets no human food, not even his favorite treat of popcorn. But he loves your Natural Balance® Potato & Duck Formula food and treats. Thank you from our entire family. Our baby Bear thanks you, too! Suzanne

I wanted to let you know how thankful I am to Natural Balance for the extra time I was given with my cat Zeni during her battle with Small Cell Intestinal Cancer/Lymphoma. This is a very difficult cancer and in many cases once diagnosed, the prognosis is months. After I found out, I spent hours in animal food stores looking for a food without by-products and natural ingredients. I tried several brands and then one day at a Petco, the assistant recommended Natural Balance and after reading your ingredients list I bought it. Zeni responded so well and put back on weight and never showed a sign of suffering. She meowed for her food and knew when it was time. I moved her to canned food and she began to perk up. She lived for over a year when her original prognosis was 2-3 months. Until the day she died she was mobile, active and her eyes shined. I cannot thank you enough for giving me the time with my baby and giving me time to say goodbye. I have since moved all my animals (dogs and cats) to Natural Balance. My rat terrier was a finicky eater and now she devours your food. I have recommended you to everyone and will never use another food again!! Here is Zeni 2 months before she passed away and no one ever guessed she was sick. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU . . . Tracy Lee

After trying just about every allergy cat food out there, yours is the only one that has helped our 4-year-old cat. She had sores and scabs, I tried everything possible - then I read about your Natural Balance® Green Pea and Duck Cat Formula and in less than 3 weeks her skin has healed and she acts just like her old self! Thank you so much ! Kim, PA

Thank you so much for not doing dog or cat testing for your products. I am a loyal Natural Balance customer, as are my cats, they were always picky eaters until we tried your food. That is all they eat both wet and dry. When I learned from PETA that you weren't testing on animals I was even more impressed with your brand. Keep up the great work and I will tell everyone about your food. Thank You! Gretchen - WA

I thought it pertinent to stop in and say thank you to everyone at Natural Balance Pet Foods. It can be extremely difficult to be confident when making purchases, expecially for pets, that the company is environmentally concious and respoects animal wellfare. We originally started using the organic dog formula after the pet food recall and have since found that not only are all of your products liked by both our dogs (the beagle shouldn't count, he eats everything) but that we can purchase with confidence. It is extremely disheartening that so many pet food suppliers cannot align their corporate goals and financial estimates with the moral and ethical obligation to the animals they are serving. Thanks for your products and awareness. Greg Hetrick - MA

My name is Nina Renee Staroba and I have a female boxer named Cecelia. (CC for short). Here is her story: In August of 2007, she became ill with diarrhea. She was 63 pounds at this point. After several trips to the vet and a a few thousand dollars later, she was diagnosed with EPI. (Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency.) It took until Dec. 2007 to diagnose her correctly. She was down to 47 lbs. I was worried that she was going to die shortly. Her vet prescribed enzyme replacement medicine and told me to mix it with her food. At that time, I was using a commercial brand. Needless to say it didn't work. So he told me to try a premium brand. Well, I tried several of them with no avail. I was desperate at that point. She was wasting away quickly. I live in Illinois and went to Petco in Edwardsville. I spoke with the young manager on duty about my CC and her illness, (Ryan was his name). He handed me a can on Natural Balance® Duck & Potato Formula and said that a lot of dogs do well on this brand. I fed it to CC that evening with her enzymes mixed in and her first stool was PERFECT!! I immediately went back and bought a case. All weekend long her stools were perfect, no more diarrhea. On Monday, I called the vet and questioned why this particular brand worked so well and not any of the others I tried. He explained that the enzymes can only turn food into nutrients, not fillers, by-products etc. Well, that told me that Natural Balance has more real food in it that any of those other so-called "premium" dog foods out there. So I believe that your dog food saved CC's life and not only the medicine she is on. The story continues: On a particular trip into Petco to buy more Duck and Potato a few months later your Account Representative was there. I told him I loved the Duck and Potato and wanted to tell more dog owners about it. He hired me to become a Product Demonstration Rep and now everyone who comes in when I'm there hears CC's story. I also belong to an K-9 EPI global group on Yahoo that I share CC's story with to all new members. We have several thousand members at this point. So I have been raving about Natural Balance for several months now to people all over the world. It has been truly a blessing for many frightened dog owners trying to get this disease under control. Thank you very much, and thank you Jeff for giving me the opportunity to share my story locally. AND, she is now at her ideal weight! Renee and CC

I wanted to contact you to inform you of a client base that you may not be aware of. I am a member of an online group called K9-EPIGLOBAL. We are owners of dogs who suffer from a rare condition called Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency (EPI). This condition renders our dogs incapable of naturally producing the digestive enzymes necessary to break down fats, carbohydrates, and proteins so we must supplement there diet with theses enzymes as well as feed them kibble that is low in fat and fiber. By the time the condition is diagnosed, many of the dogs have lost up to 30% of their body mass. The purpose of the online group is to provide help and guidance for those trying to get their recently diagnosed dogs back to a healthy state. There are around 1200 members in our group and many of us have had remarkable success with Natural Balance® Potato and Duck Formula in particular due to it's low fat and fiber content. Please click the image at right to see the before and after photo of my own dog after switching to your formula. As you can see.. the results in a short period of time have been staggering!! She has gained almost 30 lbs in only a few months and is now back to her original weight! Many of the group members are switching over to your Duck and Potato formula due to the high success rates many of us are having. We are not sure if you are aware of the niche you have created for yourself with this kibble as it happens to be particularly formulated for EPI dogs. Please feel free to check out our webgroup. We will continue to promote and recommend your product to new as well as current members, it seems to be a miracle food for our EPI dogs. On a personal note, thank you for helping me get my own dog back to a healthy state. Everything made a turn for the better when I switched to your Duck & Potato formula. If there are any offers or discounts you may be able to provide to our members, all of whom must also deal with the high cost of enzyme supplementation we would be extremely grateful. Regardless, we all promote your product and will continue to use and recommend it. All the best, Marty Smets - Hamilton, Ontario


Ozzie	Storm

Bo	Bogie and Babe

I am very happy to be a new member of the Natural Balance Club since I have been a satisfied customer of yours for a long time now. Our relationship with Natural Balance started many years ago when we had a large Akita mix male, Ozzie, who was getting up in his years and starting to have a weight problem. The reduced formula brand that I was feeding him at the time seemed to be causing his skin and coat to get quite dry. We live in the mountains and especially in the winter months the air is so dry that it is really hard on the coats of many of the dogs that live in this area. A sales associate in our local pet store recommended the Natural Balance® Reduced Calorie Formula food to me and within a short time his coat was beautiful and he looked so great that he got many complements from everyone including his vet. He lived to the age of 14 years which is very old for a dog his size and I attribute a lot of that to the healthy food he was eating. A few months after he passed away we got a Newfoundland female pup. Her breeder recommended a high premium kibble which we fed Storm her for the first year of her life. Then we got another Newfoundland pup, Bo, who had a gastrointestinal infection shortly after we brought him home. He recovered from that but it seemed like the kibble recommended by his breeder just didn’t agree with him. He was also constantly itching which made me think he had a food allergy. He had already been through so much with the gastric problem that I decided that rather than put him through allergy testing, I would first try one of the Natural Balance diets formulated for dogs with allergies. Both pups love fish so I went with the Natural Balance® Sweet Potato and Fish Formula and the results were astounding. The itching stopped and Bo’s loose stools firmed up which makes yard clean up much easier (and with 2 big Newfs that is very important!). Both dogs have beautiful shiny coats so I am including pictures as I think the old saying “a picture is worth a thousand words” is very true. Oops, I was on such a roll about the dogs that I almost forgot to mention that all of our cats have eaten the Natural Balance cat kibble for years. Our old cat ate the Reduced Calorie formula until she passed away and our younger ones eat the regular formula. They are both indoor cats as we have a lot of coyotes passing through our area. It is important to feed them a kibble that keeps them in good health when they have a lower activity level than most outdoors cats have. Needless to say, both the cats and dogs enjoy the taste of their food or I wouldn’t feed it to them. So this is our story and I hope that Natural Balance will continue to keep making such a great product! Thanks, Carol Stohlgren

Thank you! Thank you!!! I have a 13 year old cat with food allergies and asthma. I have tried every food I could and none have helped her as yours has! Not only is her asthma better, she has lost a TON of weight and her hair has grown back from allerges that caused hair loss. She is actually hungry, never was before. She is a picky picky eater at that and loves everything you have on the Natural Balance® Allergy Cat Formulas! I give her wet and dry for Uti's balance and she never ever ate canned before, now she nearly screams for it!!! One thing, her energy level is back to when she was a spry healthy kitty and I am losing some sleep (haha), but I wouldn't trade that for anything!!! THAAAAAAANK YOU !!!!!! Sincerely, Amy Jeen

Please keep making Natural Balance® Sweet Potato & Venison Formula!! I have a 9 yr old GSD and a 6 Yr old GSD who have been on your food as of Jan 01, 09 and have never been better. Long story short the 9yr old has been on SDZD all of his life as suggested by my vet and my 6 yr old had been on many and then SDID until changing her to yours as of above mentioned date. My 9 yr old male is now full of energy and whites of eyes white where they had always been pinkish and NO ear infections! My 6 yr old female has had no problems with her stomach since this transition. I work in a high end petshop and this food was suggested to me by my manager. I can't tell you how happy I am and would be thrilled to go into depth so others can experience this for their dogs too. I have also switched vets after all these yrs who is backing me up on these dietary changes. Thank you so much, Dick Van Patten, and I thought you were just a character on a TV show, never realizing you obviously have a great love of animals. Barbara - MA

Roscoe I have an 8 mo. old 1/2 English Bulldog & 1/2 Pit with the most sensitive tummy I've ever seen. He's also got skin allergies. Well, I made his 4th food switch in December, but again, no luck even though it was a premium food w/no corn, soy, by-products or fillers- still chronic diarrhea and gas foul enough to clear out a room. I have spent endless hours researching dog foods and allergies. 2 wks ago I started the research yet again and found Natural Balance L.I.D. formulas and was thinking, well, it's worth a shot! Although I would not normally recommend switching a dog's food cold turkey, poor Roscoe's tummy just couldn't get any worse than it already was, so I went to PETCO and bought the Natural Balance® Sweet Potato and Fish Formula. formula and some of the treats. After only TWO feedings, his stool improved 100%!! It was completely normal for the first time (consistently) basically since I've had him at 10 wks old! I returned to PETCO this weekend and decided to purchase some of the Natural Balance® Potato and Duck Formula too, along with some of the canned food to see if changing him from one flavor to another would affect him at all, and nope! Still solid stool. Not to mention he loves both formulas and really enjoys the canned food mixed in with the kibble. I cannot begin to say how thankful I am that I found this food! I am so relieved. I never thought I'd be so excited to see solid poop, but I was...before it was always a guessing game as to what it was going to look like...not to mention the disgusted looks of people passing by when he was having "trouble" pottying. If only I had found the food sooner! I am looking forward to an improved coat as well, as I have read countless reviews online of those who say that's also been the case with this food. And another bonus- this food is about $8-10 cheaper per 30 lb. than the last food I was purchasing! Anyway, thank you so much. I am just so thankful that this 5th switch will be the last and no more disappointments during potty time and the gas has significantly decreased as well. I'm sure Roscoe's tummy feels much better and I truly think he's a much happier puppy now! I highly recommend this food to anyone's dog or cat, whether they have sensitive tummies and skin allergies or not! Thank You! Jill & Roscoe - Dallas, TX.

I just wanted to send a thank you your way for providing the Natural Balance® Sweet Potato & Venison Formula dog food. My dog is on a special diet per the vet because he is allergic to certain protiens. He can eat only venison or duck. I have searched for so long to find a food that has strictly only those protiens in it without other underlying fats such as chicken etc. It is very expesive as well to buy from the vet and has been a struggle to do so. So thank you sooooo much for having this food. My dog is wonderful and I only want the best for him. Thank you thank you thank you for keeping him healthy and making it affordable for me to do so. Sincerely, Callie - ME

Testimonials: Page 4

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