I am so confused!

[Doggie07]

As some of you already know, I am volunteering at a shelter. I noticed the shelter feeds their dogs and puppies "Sunshine" dog food which everyone in this area and the shelter claims as good dog food because its price is high as heck and that's what everyone is feeding their dogs.

I cannot find Sunshine dog food on the dog food analysis site. So first, I was wondering, is that a good dog food?

Now, what I'm confused about is this dog food called Natural Balance. Is that the same people who make Natural Life or Nutro? Is Natural Balance a good dog food?

Thank you!

 

[vanillasugar]

I've never heard of Sunshine dog food, so I can't comment on that. Can you track down an ingredients list/nutritional analysis?

As for Natural Balance, it is not made by anyone else. Natural Balance is it's own company (as far as I know...). It's a pretty decent food, some formulas are quite good. My only concern is that some of the "L.I.D" foods (limited ingredient diets) have far less meat content than I would like to see.

 

[Fran101]

My shelter feeds basically whatever they can get.. dogs aren't usually there for very long (10-15 days tops) and budgets are SOOO hard as it is. So whatever is donated, is given.

your shelter is probably just feeding sunshine because its the only thing that people have donated..

 

[Doggie07]

vanilla, I can not find Sunshine's ingredients anywhere on the web! I did find the official website but could not find the food's ingredients.

Fran, you're probably right.

 

[PalmettoPaws]

Sunshine is crap that they sell at the grocery store here for really cheap. I have never bothered to look at the ingredients but I'd be willing to bet that the first one is corn.

Natural Balance is a pretty good food, Dog Food Analysis gives it a four but they've had several recalls if I'm not mistaken. It's not made by the makers of either Natural Life or Nutro.

 

[Gerald]

Yes, Sunshine is not good food at all.

 

[CharlieDog]

Natural Balance is what I feed my dogs, and I've been really happy with it. Ozzy's had a terrible time on some other foods, (well, he was happy, he just had TERRIBLE TERRIBLE gas the whole time on them, so WE were not) and I ALWAYS get comments on how great Enzos coat looks. It's very shiny and healthy looking.

I haven't heard of any recalls involving Natural Balance, but we rotate through three different bags of their stuff, the green one (LID) the yellow one (also LID) and the blue one because none of them have stuff Ozzy can't have, and none of them have too much sugar in them which causes yeasty ears in both of my dogs.

 

[PalmettoPaws]

I haven't heard of any recalls involving Natural Balance, but we rotate through three different bags of their stuff, the green one (LID) the yellow one (also LID) and the blue one because none of them have stuff Ozzy can't have, and none of them have too much sugar in them which causes yeasty ears in both of my dogs.

I came across this one not too long ago:

Letter from the President of Natural Balance Pet Foods, Inc®

 

[CharlieDog]

Thank you!

Fortunately, we don't buy that size, or that er, flavor, lol. And our state wasn't one of the affected ones. I'm also glad to see that they did it voluntarily, and that it wasn't something like what happened with the foods coming out of china.

 

[Fran101]

Oh and ya, natural balance is a good food. especially for dogs with allergies

but shelters feed what they can, with budgets and so many dogs coming in... im glad that my shelter can afford ANY food for all the dogs

 

[MandyPug]

One note.

Do NOT bring it up to the director of the shelter, it's not worth it. Shelters are struggling as it is and mentioning dog food choices being poor is not exactly the way you want to present yourself there. Yes you care, but that's probably all they can afford.


My humane society feeds all Acana Prairie Feast to their cats, which takes up all the food budget. So the dogs mainly get donations, but we do ask for Acana for the dogs to be donated (which sometimes happens). It was more important for the cats to get a constant diet than the dogs who can adapt better so we had to make that choice.

Perhaps you could buy some good food and donate it to them?

 

[dobesgalore]

Yep, most shelters do rely on donations, and budgets are tight. And no, Sunshine is a really terrible food but like what was mentioned earlier, dogs arn't in shelters usually for very long so eating that on a temperary basis is OK. Once adopted, they will be changed by the new mom/dad anyway in most cases. Not something I would feed as a steady diet though for sure.