Food Friday: Natural Balance LID Sweet Potato and Venison Formula

Natural Balance Limited Ingredient Diet Sweet Potato and Venison is a dry food that contains a single protein source and no grains. Like the company's Potato and Rabbit diet, this is a food with a specific purpose. Slightly lower than the Potato and Rabbit formula, the Sweet Potato and Venison diet rates a lowly 2 stars on Dog Food Advisor.

The reason for this rating is obvious if you know how Dog Food Advisor works. Ratings are given primarily based on the amount of meat to plant matter in a given food. Quality of ingredients and protein to fat ratio are also consideration,s with higher ratings given to richer and more meat-based diets.

Natural Balance Sweet Potato and Venison is described as a plant-based kibble containing a modest amount of meat, but I can see that just by looking at the bag. This product is not called Venison and Sweet Potato, it's Sweet Potato and Venison. Natural Balance is coming right out and telling you that this is a carbohydrate-based food with a bit of meat in it. I know it doesn't change the nutritional value of the food, but I appreciate their honesty.

As I've mentioned before, Natural Balance was purchased by Del Monte along with a number of other dog food brands. It has likely undergone a number of unannounced ingredient changes since then.

Like prescription diets, I think Natural Balance's LID foods have their uses. A dog with skin issues and allergies that does well on this food can be declared to be free of venison, sweet potato, potato, peas, flax, and anything else on the short ingredient list.

For Brisbane, who is allergic to chicken, turkey, duck, and eggs, this is a safe food. It's not something that I'd feed him long-term, but it's a nice fallback if he's having major issues.

Everyone at my house does fine on Natural Balance Sweet Potato and Venison, with no tummy upsets or increased itching. It's one of the foods I can switch to abruptly without problems, and it's pretty easy to find. This is really the bottom of the barrel as far as food I'm willing to feed Brisbane and Ru.

Have you used any Limited Ingredient Diets for your dogs?