The best dog food is the one that match your dog’s need. Merrick and Natural Balance are two dog food brands available in the market. Both of them offer a wide range of dog foods for you to choose. If you are currently looking for a dog food, you may want to read our article below.
In this article, we are going to give you information about:
– What is Merrick Dog Food and Natural Balance
– What Merrick Dog Food and Natural Balance are made of
– Merrick Dog Food vs Natural Balance
About Merrick
Merrick dog food is brand of dog food manufactured by Merrick Pet Care. This company is offering a variety of dog foods and distribute their foods through pet specialty stores and online retailers across United States. Merrick is founded in 1968 and by September 2015 it was operating as a subsidiary of Nestle Purina PetCare (Purina). The company currently offer their customer a few product lines including Grain free, Backcountry, Backcountry raw, Limited Ingredients, and Classic.
Almost all of those lines are made without grain except Classic variant. All of those lines foods are made according to the each specification and line, so one food and the other may use various different ingredients. Grain Free is made with deboned meat or poultry; Backcountry foods contain high protein kibble with freeze-dried raw protein pieces; Backcountry raw contains freeze dried raw bites of meat, poultry, and fish; Limited Ingredients with single source animal protein; and Classic that contain ancient grains for maximum digestibility.
Merrick Ingredients
Since they have so many foods, we are going to pick only one of them to peek their ingredients and nutrition content. One of Merrick popular food comes from the Grain Free line, Real Salmon and Sweet Potato Recipe. This food main ingredients are deboned salmon, salmon meal, sweet potatoes, peas and potatoes. It also contain 34% crude protein, 14% crude fat, 4.5% crude fiber, 0.4% omega 3, and 3.50% omega 6.
About Natural Balance
Natural Balance is a brand of dog and cat food manufactured by the same name company, which is a subsidiary of Big Heart Pet Brands that owned by the J.M. Smucker Company. This brand offer their customers a wide range of food variants including dry food, wet food, and rolls as well as treats. All of their food is categorized depending on the main ingredients and for dog with specific needs, such as food for healthy digestion and to maintain weight.
Natural Balance Ingredients
Since Natural Balance have so many foods, we are going to pick only one food as an example to see the ingredients they used and the nutrition content. One of the most popular food from Natural Balance is the Limited Ingredients Sweet Potato and Fish formula for adult dog dry food. This specific food is formulated with limited list of premium protein and carbohydrate sources, such as sweet potatoes, salmon, menhaden fish meal, potato protein, canola oil, and dried potato products. It also contain 21% crude protein, 10% crude fat, 5% crude fiber, 0.5% omega 3 and 1.1% omega 6.
Comparison
Now, let’s compare Merrick dog food and Natural Balance. Both of the brand offer their customer a wide range of foods. Looking form both of their foods in our example above, we can know that Merrick contain more crude protein, crude fat, and omega 6 while Natural Balance contain slightly more crude fiber and omega 3.
Merrick Dog Food vs Natural Balance
| Merrick Dog Food | Natural Balance |
|---|---|
| - Contains more crude protein | - Contains less crude protein |
| - Contains more crude fat | - Contains less crude fat |
| - Contains less crude fiber | - Contains more crude fiber |
| - Contains less omega 3 | - Contains more omega 3 |
| - Contains more omega 6 | - Contain less omega 6 |
Conclusion
All in all, the decision is all yours to make. When choosing the best dog food for your dog it is best to match the food with their need first. Since Merrick contain more crude protein and crude fat, it is suitable for dogs that have more active life. At the other hand, if your dog spend most of their time inside the house or not as active, you may want to choose Natural Balance.