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Old July 29th, 2006, 10:03 AM
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California Natural

I'm in the process of switching to California Natural, Chicken meal & Rice.

For those of you that know the horror I went through trying to find a food that worked for Bubba your probably wondering why I would switch again. Well it's a long story but money became very tight recently.. and I didn't have much choice. The California Natural was the most basic food I could find ingredient wise, and it's $16 cheaper a bag compared to the Eagle Pack Fish and Oatmeal. I refuse to buy crappy garbage grocery store foods.

Well I went through the list of foods I've tried in the past and low and behold I've NEVER tried a food with Bubba that was just chicken and nothing else. So it's worth a try.. I'll definitely know after this whether or not he is intolerant of chicken. I just started mixing in the CN this morning. So I'm crossing my fingers that this works.

Basically the reason I'm posting is that I'm looking for opinions on California Natural. If anyone is using it, or has used it in the past.

Chicken meal, brown rice, white rice, sunflower oil.. the rest is vitamins and minerals.

I know the website lists the ingredients kinda sneaky. But I could write out the entire list if anyone was interested.

http://www.naturapet.com/display.php?d=product-detail&pxsl=%2F%2Fproduct%5B%40id%3D'62'%5D
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Old July 29th, 2006, 12:27 PM
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I feed my cats California Natural Chicken and Rice formula. They both really like it, and their fur is so soft and shiny. The price is better than most and the quality is good. I realize you've got dogs, but I'm sure the cat and dog formulas can't be that different. All in all we really like it and won't be switching any time soon.
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Old July 29th, 2006, 04:02 PM
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California Natural is fine, but there are studies that say if fat is 4th ingredient or above, the food can cause bloat... Not sure what foods they tried in the study (4th ingredient in Purina is much different than 4th ingredient in Natura)... I don't really believe that study just because it's so subjective... Like 4th ingredient after 3 corns/bad grains is so different than after 3 real, digestible ingredients.
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Old July 29th, 2006, 04:59 PM
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I tried it for my husky. He liked it but then he eats anything. I stopped feeding it to him as sunflower oil was the fourth ingredient. There was controversy here about that being linked to cancer.


http://www.pets.ca/forum/showthread....nflower+cancer
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Old July 29th, 2006, 06:24 PM
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Yeah, but the flaxseed would be high enough in omega 3 to counter the omega 6's in the sunflower oil, so it should be ok.
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Old July 30th, 2006, 08:24 AM
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That's what I was thinking too about the sunflower oil and the Flax. I'm honestly not too worried about it. If there was no good sources of omega 3 in there then I'd be worried. I see what you mean about the study too. They should have listed the foods they tried. For all we know they were Ol'Roy and Purina. LOL

Well so far the switch is going as expected.. they have had 3 meals so far with some California Natural mixed in. Bubba is already getting the runs a bit. But I expect that from him. It doesn't matter how slow I go about switching he still gets the runs and firms up later. If he's not having normal stool by the end of this bag I'll know it's not going to work out. Lola has the runs a bit too, but she already had that before the switch. She likes to hoover things.. mud, lint, paper, bird seed.

So I just have to give it time.. and patience isn't one of my strong points.
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Old July 30th, 2006, 08:30 AM
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On the cat formula at least, flax is listed right after the sunflower oil, so that may balance it out.
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Old July 30th, 2006, 08:43 AM
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I used to feed my cats California Natural and they loved it, they were all so healthy on it. It became nearly impossible for me to get it where I live so I had to switch.

One of my dogs is chicken intolerant. I have to be careful because a lot of foods that claim to be lamb and rice actually have some chicken in them. I hope your dog does well on the California Natural, it's a good food.
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Old July 30th, 2006, 05:43 PM
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I feed one of my dogs California Natural because it's the only thing he can tolerate. He has a very sensitive stomach and food allergies. I feed the Lamb and Rice, the Chicken and Rice formula doesn't agree with him. I am so happy I found this food. Before he use to get really bad diarrhea all the time, about twice a month. It would last a couple of days, we would be up all hours of the night letting him out to go to the washroom and during the day if we couldn't get off work we would come home and there was diarrhea all over in his crate. It was so awful it broke my heart. One night we had to take him to the emergency vet he was in such bad shape, one spell of diarrhea ended up being just over $1000 in vet bills. I’m glad that's all over, that's why I love California Natural! He hasn't had diarrhea since we switched him about a year ago. I first tried it because I heard some people used it in place of the Medical Gastro vet food. It works just as well and the quality is very good.
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Old July 31st, 2006, 08:52 AM
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muckypup, That's basically the same problem I have with Bubba. Sensitive stomach and food allergies. I hope this food works as well for him as it did for your dog.

So far so good though.. no 'booty blowout' or 'cow patties' yet.
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Old July 31st, 2006, 03:03 PM
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Glad to hear the good news. and hope it continues.
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Old August 4th, 2006, 10:26 AM
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Well we now have 'cow patties' from BOTH Bubba and Lola. I know I need to give it 4-6 weeks before I look for something else but UGH this is frustrating.

At first I thought maybe Bubba was in fact intolerant of chicken.. but Lola too? Not likely. She was eating a chicken based food before I got her.

I've already given them both some Pepto Bismal.. They are both fairly active and play quite often so I can't reduce the amount I'm feeding too much or Bubba will start dropping weight again. It's hard to keep weight on him as it is..

I may try the CN Lamb meal and rice with Bubba or just put him back on the Eagle Pack if this doesn't work out.
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Old August 4th, 2006, 11:06 AM
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Awwww, RaYne, sorry to hear the news.....frustrating indeed.
Poor Bubba and now Lola. :sad:

So, if you go back to the Eagle Pack then you'll just have to eat more KD and weiners.
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Old August 4th, 2006, 02:50 PM
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Soft stool is okish, but not cow patties. Cow patties show the doggy isn't adjusting... Not good. :sad: Poor doggies and poor you being put through the ringer with Bubba and his bowels.
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Old August 4th, 2006, 04:40 PM
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Actually every brand I've ever tried with him results in cow patties at first. I was hoping this time would be different since the cow patties didn't happen immediately.. but nope. He is that sensitive... it doesn't matter how slow I switch either.

With Lola I think I'm giving her too much. It's hard to find a happy medium with her since she gains 3-5 pounds a week so I can't really follow the guidelines on the bag.

I thought about fasting Bubba for 24 hours to give his belly a break.. but he would go nuts. LOL So I ended up just mixing some white rice in with their dinner tonight.

I'm reallllly thinking the CN was a bad idea. If I just switch Bubba back to the EP the cost won't be unmanagable. I called my vet and he says it just the switch, and to give him time to adjust to it before jumping to something else. So I'm going to try and give it some time.. notice I said try. LOL
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Old August 4th, 2006, 04:47 PM
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Sorry to hear that. The chicken formula didn't work out for Bobbie either but the Lamb did, you can give it a try. They also make a Fish and Sweet Potatoe formula which sounds similar to the Eagle Pack you were feeding.

Here is the ingredients:

Herring
Barley
Oatmeal/Rolled Oats
Herring Meal
Herring Oil
Sweet Potatoes
Sunflower Oil
Natural Flavors
Vitamin E
Vitamins/Minerals
Rosemary Extract

http://www.naturapet.com/display.php...D%271326%27%5D

I think it's new and I have never seen it sold in stores but you could probably ask them to order it for you where you buy your food.
Hope something works for you. Good luck
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  #17  
Old August 4th, 2006, 08:28 PM
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Instead of fasting hungry Bubba, you could always try giving him less at each meal for a couple of days (like 1/2 of each meal).

Oh, and don't even look at the bag- they always either overshoot by a ton or undershoot by a ton depending on how they market the food.
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Old August 8th, 2006, 10:41 AM
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Thanks everyone for the suggestions but we are going back to the Eagle Pack Fish. I've learned my lesson and I'm going to figure out a way to afford it regardless.

Even 1/4 cup of the CN gives both Bubba and Lola explosive diarrhea. Bubba has lost 7 pounds in 10 days!! And Lola has only gained 1 pound when she's usually gaining 3-4 pounds a week. :sad: I feel like such a tool.. I never should have even attempted to switch in the first place. :sad:

I started feeding them hamburger/oatmeal and a little rice. They have normal stool as long as I don't add the CN. But that's not providing them enough calories. Bubba will be a bag of bones if I give the CN 4-6 weeks like my vet mentioned. Heck with that...

If I even mention switching again for any reason please feel free to kick me.. hard!
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