A few weeks back BzzAgent invited me to take part in the Hill’s Science Diet Ideal Balance dog food campaign. I’ve been feeding Nacho Wellness brand dog food for a while now and he has done really really well on it, but I have fed him Science Diet in the past, so I was willing to give this food a try and see how he did on it.
Part of this Bzz Campaign was also ordering from Pet Food Direct. I don’t really deem it necessary to order pet food online, I have no problem going to Petsmart and picking up a bag of dog food when I need to, but still I have nothing but rave reviews for Pet Food Direct. The ordering process was really easy and the food got here super fast! Poking around the site, I noticed (and liked the concept of) the fact that they have an automatic reordering process… so if you know how fast your dog tends to eat through a bag of food you can always know when to expect a fresh bag of food to arrive at your door without having to go to the store to pick one up.
Nacho has been eating the Ideal Balance since it arrived on our doorstep and I intend to have him finish the bag, but…. he just doesn’t like it as much as his Wellness. One problem I’ve noticed is the size of the kibble, he seems to struggle with it a little bit. It isn’t huge by any means, but it is quite a bit larger than his Wellness food formulated for small breeds. He also tends to ignore this food more and go to treat begging more often. He does eat it when he finally decides he is hungry enough but I just don’t get the sense that he enjoys eating this food as much as his previous food.
The price of the Wellness formula I’ve been feeding him isn’t that much different than the Ideal Balance so there isn’t really a pro or a con there. I am also having a hard time buying into the dog food comparison tool which is on the website for this dog food. I feel like since their goal is to sell this dog food, of course they are going to tell you how much better they are than every other brand out there…including Wellness and Blue Buffalo. I prefer to look at neutral dog food comparison sites for information regarding nutrition.
Speaking of nutrition and ingredients, I don’t think that Ideal Balance is a terrible dog food or anything like that. I think it is a decent one for sure, but it does have quite a bit more wheat in it than I would like to see. It’s not something I will be switching my dog over to but I think it is a dog food worth investigating. Even though Nacho doesn’t particularly like it as much as his other food, he has done well on it which is a good thing as we have had issues in the past in trying food with upset doggy tummy to foods that downright made him ooze stinkiness. So this food has been pretty gentle on his tummy and has helped him continue to look healthy and be active while we’ve experimented with it.
this is the nonsensical mass that is my life. welcome. 