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Natural Balance Alpha Dog & Cat Food (Giveaway)

Animals, Giveaways, Pets, Reviews
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I care very much about our five cats and our dog. They are showered with love and hugs every day. We supply them with plenty of toys and interactive fun to keep them active. And we try and feed them right. We don’t feed our pets junk foods. I have known people to feed their pets chips, ice cream, cheese and other kinds of “people foods”. I’m sure that the animals love these tasty treats, but I’m pretty sure they are not healthy for them. If I am going to give my dog (for example) “people food” I’m going to give him baby carrots, apples or cucumbers. Thankfully my dog love fruits and veggies. Our cats don’t eat people food. We did give them a few pieces of turkey at Thanksgiving, but that is about it.

Not too long ago we had to bring one of our cats in with a “bathroom issue”. She is ALWAYS in the litter box, even though she never “goes”. The first thing our vet said to us was “What do you feed your cats?”. When I told him he actually CRINGED! That can’t be good. He went on to explain that what we were feeding our cats was probably one of the WORST foods we could give them.

I don’t know about that (but I do trust him). I do know that the food has a lot of dye in it. Sometimes the cats throw up for whatever reason (usually eating too quickly and not chewing their food). The puke spot often leaves a red mark on the carpet (until I scrub it up with an industrial cleaner). It leaves me to believe that there is red dye in the food and I don’t like that one bit.

When I go food shopping I try and buy what would be one of the better brands of food for both our dog and cats. My husband always goes for the budget brands. Let’s face it, you get what you pay for. Clearly the budget brands are NOT a healthier option for our beloved pets.

 

I do read labels, but when it comes to pet foods I have no clue what I’m suppose to be looking for. I do know that many foods have too many unpronounceable words and words I cannot even recognize. That would lead me to believe that the foods are mostly chemicals and make up ingredients and not real, wholesome, natural foods.

Not too long ago I was sent some samples for a pet foods called Natural Balance. I was sent samples of both the Alpha Dog and Alpha Cat blends.

I should mention that my dog prefers fruits and veggies over meat. I don’t know why. He’s always been that way. Knowing that I try and look for foods that have fruits and/or vegetables in it. The Alpha Dog dry food is made with Garbanzo Beans, Fruits, Veggies and even Prebiotics to aid in digestion. I knew that Garbanzo Beans were a good source of protein for people. I never knew they could be good for dogs and cats too.

Natural Balance Alpha Dog and Cat foods are also grain free. I honestly didn’t know that grains were not good for our pets. I guess when you think about it, wild dogs and cats do not go around eating grains. They eat mostly meats.

Most pets are sensitive to grains and the Gluten from grains, causing a variety of health issues including upset stomachs, obesity, inflammation and other disorders.

Natural Balance pet foods are grain-free. They use other sources to provide  your pet with energy, such as sweet potatoes.

Natural Balance also adds prebiotics to their foods which aid in digestion.

I find it interesting that the foods contain a lot of fruits and vegetables. You don’t notice them in the little dry pieces of food, but they contain ingredients such as pumpkin (my dog LOVES pumpkin), blueberries and cranberries.

I didn’t know that cats like fruits and vegetables too.  

Clearly the Alpha Dog and Alpha Cat foods are a healthier choice then the stuff you pick up in the local grocery store, but how does it taste? Obviously I wans’t going to taste it :-). Instead I served it to my cats and dog.

Oh my goodness! Our kitten, Bella, went CRAZY for the food. We feel Bella a higher quality of food then our old cats. NOT because we love or care about her more (we love and care for them equally) but because she was a day old when we started to foster her. She never had mother’s milk. She was always bottle fed until she ate solid foods. We worry that she didn’t get enough of the vitamin and minerals that she needed to be healthy, so we’ve been feeding her a higher quality dry and canned food. She does it the other cats food too and we’re hoping to ween her off the $$$ food she’s on now so she can start eating what the other cats do.

Bella went crazy for all of the flavors of the Natural Balance Alpha Cat dry food. She preferred it over the other stuff we serve her. When I say she went crazy I mean she would literally eat every morsel out of the bowl. When she smelled it she would meow at our feet and stretch up to try and reach the bowl on the counter as we poured some in.

With her regular food it was not uncommon for her to eat some of it and then walk away. She NEVER walked away from this food. She ate every piece.

We have four other cats. They also tried the Natural Balance Alpha Cat food. Our oldest cat, Velcro, was not keen about it. At first he would just walk away from it. When he realized I wasn’t going to give him the other food he would eventually eat it.

Another cat, Kitty, ate it with no problem. Then again she’ll eat anything.

Our cat Padmé (pronounced Pad-may) tends to be a bit picky too. She was like Velcro. She ate it only because she knew we weren’t goin to give her the other food they are accustomed to.

Lastly our cat Anakin. He seemed to enjoy it. When I would serve him the food he seemed genuinely excited about it. Not to the extend that Bella was, but certainly he was a lot more interested in it then Velcro or Padmé .

Our dog Espn (pronounced Es-pin) is very picky. I cannot tell you how much money we’ve wasted over the years trying to find foods he’ll eat. We finally found one brand of dry food he’d eat but he’d pick out only certainly pieces to eat and leave the rest. What a waste of food and money.

Espn ate the Alpha dog food. He wasn’t too keen on it at first and would take a few bites and walk away. Eventually he got used to it and would eat it when I served it to him.

Epsn tends to get diarrhea when we switch foods. I was concerned that would happen with the Alpha Dog food. Thankfully he didn’t have that problem.

Although some of my cats were not especially keen on the food, I do like the idea of serving my pets a healthier option. Know that I know that grains are not ideal when it comes to their dietary needs I’m goin to avoid buying products that are mostly made with grains.

I MUST buy more Alpha Cat for Bella. She absolutly loves the food, as does Anakin. I think my other cats will eventually learn to like it too.

Natural Balance pet foods are carried by many retail pet stores across the country. You can find a store locator on their website, www.NaturalBalanceinc.com. I see that Petco carries the brand, as well as other places. 

Natural Balance would like to give a lucky reader a FREE product coupon for a 10 pound bag or larger of Natural Balance Alpha Dog or Cat food. You can use it for up to a 25 pound bag of dog food or 10 pound bag of cat food.  

To see which stores near you carry the brand visit the store locator, www.NaturalBalanceinc.com/home/Locator.tpl.

If you don’t have a pet PLEASE consider entering and donating the food or coupon to a local animal shelter. It would mean a lot to hungry dogs and cats. THANK YOU!

To enter please comment on which food you would want to get (dog or cat food) or if you plan on donating the food or coupon to a local animal shelter.

For extra entries you can do any or all of the following. Please leave a separate comment for each that you have done. Extra entries are optional. 

– Subscribe to She Scribes (E-mail or RSS). Both options are found on the right side bar.

– “Like” Natural Balance on Facebook, www.Facebook.com/NaturalBalanceFan.

– “Like” She Scribes on Facebook, www.Facebook.com/SheScribes.

– Follow Natural Balance on Twitter, www.Twitter.com/NaturalBalance.

– Follow She Scribes on Twitter (www.Twitter.com/She_Scribes) and tweet about this giveaway. Please include @She_Scribes in the tweet so I can see it too. This is limited to three tweets per day.

– Share this giveaway with others on Facebook, Digg, Technorati and so forth. Be sure to tell me what you did and please provide a name and/or URL so I can verify.

– Leave a thoughtful comment on a non-giveaway post on She Scribes and tell me which post you commented on. There is a limit of one comment per post, but you can comment on as many posts as you want for an unlimited extra entry option.

– Post about this giveaway on your site and please link back to this post. Please provide the URL.

This giveaway is open to US residents only and will end on December 20, 2011 at 11:59 PM (EST). The winner will be chosen at random using a random number generator from all eligible entries. The winner will be notified via e-mail and will have three days to reply with a name and mailing address (no PO Box). Failure to do so will result in a new winner being chosen.   

Other amazing giveaways can be found on the right side bar under “Win It”.

Kimberly

*I recevied free product samples in order to do this review. There was no compensation. The opinions expressed are my own. Natural Balance will be providing the coupon prize.

 

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Comments

  2. I would get the Original Ultra Reduced Calorie Formula for Cats. I have 9 cats. 7 of them are senior cats and could really benefit from the reduced calorie formula.

  33. I would definitely get the dog food & since I have 3 rescued dogs, I would keep it to feed them

  39. We have been serving Natural Balance food and treats to our rescue dogs for longer than I can remember. This would be an awesome win! Love Natural Balance 🙂

  46. although we have both dogs and cats, I’d probably get the dog food for our golden mix. she’s a picky eater, I’m hoping she’d like this.

  47. Dog Food. Awesome product, haven’t used for a while because we needed to cut costs. Want to go back to it.

  64. I currently use their dogfood so I would just buy more. With four goldens my dog food bill can be quite expensive

  67. I would get the cat food for my indoor cat, but I LOVE your suggestion for donating to animal shelters! Thank you!

  72. I would love the Green Pea and Duck formula dry cat food for my cat 🙂

    sswpss at yahoo dot com

  111. I would love to get the cat food and I would use it for my 7 kitties and the ferals I feed as well. It would be much appreciated in our house.

  121. I would like to get the SYNERGY Ultra Formula for my dog. Good dog food is getting so expensive that even when I use a coupon the bag only lasts a little over a week. I wasn’t aware of this brand but I love feeding my dog nutritious food.

  125. I would use it for cat food for my two cats. My male cat has terrible food allergies, and this food helps keep him from scratching!!

  129. I would be happy trying the cat or the dog food because I have 5 cats and 2 dogs, If I win I will probably try the cat food because Natural Balance is one of the regular foods they will eat so I am sure tehy would like this variety as well.

  162. It would probably be dog food, although I have both cats and a dog.
    But I would probably give it to either my daughter or my grandson,
    since they have a Great Dane and a large German Shepherd mix
    respectively, and very limited budgets.

  181. Well we have one dog and one cat so it is hard to say but since the dog food ends up costing more as she is much bigger and eats more, I’d have to go with the Alpha Dog food.

  192. Cat food, and Id be holding on to it as these cats we have eat so much need help in any way, thanks

  201. I would like to try the cat food out for my elderly cat who has a very sensitive stomach. If the food doesn’t agree with her, then I will donate it to the no-kill animal shelter right down the street from me.

  210. Cat. My daughter lives in a town where there are tons of strays. She has an indoor cat but has been feeding and taking care of an outside cat she named Thomas for over a year. Her husband even made Thomas a little box bed with a quilt in it. But now she sees other cats and many times the other cats are in Thomas’s bed so she is feeding MANY cats. We buy catfood to help out so this would be for her “cat motel”.
    spcale at yahoo dot com.

  227. I would want to get the dog, even though I have three cats. I also have a pitbull and bulldog and they eat like little monsters much more than my three little kitties. 🙂
    cmarquez482(at)ymail(dot)com.

  236. I would want to get Natural Balance® Small Breed Bites™ Ultra Premium Dry Dog Food FOR SMALL BREEDS

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