Natural Balance Original Ultra (Wet) Review

Natural Balance Original Ultra wet product range is made of six recipes which all receive the Cat Food Advisor rating: 4.5 stars.

It is formulated to meet the nutritional levels established by AAFCO cat food nutrient profiles for all adult and kitten maintenance.

Each recipe in the range is tailored to meet the nutritional needs of cats at different stages of life.

The table below shows each recipe in the range including our rating and the AAFCO nutrient profile: Growth (kitten), Maintenance (adult), All Life Stages, Supplemental or Unspecified.

Recipe and Label Analysis

Natural Balance Original Ultra Wet Chicken & Liver Recipe Paté was selected to represent the other products in the line for a detailed recipe and nutrient analysis.

Label and nutrient data below are calculated using dry matter basis.

Ingredients Analysis

The first ingredient is chicken. Chicken is considered “the clean combination of flesh and skin… derived from the parts or whole carcasses of chicken”. ¹ 

Chicken is naturally rich in the 11 essential amino acids required by a cat to sustain life.

The second ingredient is chicken broth. Broths are of only modest nutritional value. Yet because they add both flavor and moisture to a cat food, they are a common component in many wet products.

The third ingredient is chicken liver. This is an organ meat sourced from a named animal and thus considered a beneficial component.

The fourth ingredient is brown rice, a complex carbohydrate that (once cooked) can be fairly easy to digest. However, aside from its natural energy content, rice is of only modest nutritional value to a cat.

The fifth ingredient is chicken hearts. Although it doesn’t sound very appetizing, heart tissue is pure muscle – all meat. It’s naturally rich in quality protein, minerals and complex B vitamins, too. Heart tissue is pure muscle – all meat. It’s naturally rich in quality protein, minerals and complex B vitamins, too.

The sixth ingredient is carrots. Carrots are rich in beta-carotene, minerals and dietary fiber.

The seventh ingredient is ground flaxseed. one of the best plant sources of healthy omega-3 fatty acids. Provided they’ve first been ground into a meal, flax seeds are also rich in soluble fiber.

However, flaxseed contains about 19% protein, a factor that must be considered when judging the actual meat content of this cat food.

The eighth ingredient is natural flavor, Natural flavors doesn’t give us much information about the particular ingredients included in this cat food for flavoring purposes. 

We’re pleased that the flavorings used are natural, but more details are required to give any further information about these natural flavoring ingredients. Flavorings are used to make the foods more appealing and tasty for our cats.

From here the list goes on to include a number of other items. But to be realistic, ingredients located this far down the list (other than nutritional supplements) are not likely to affect the overall rating of the product.

However, this contains carrageenan, a gelatin-like thickening agent extracted from seaweed. Although carrageenan has been used as a food additive for hundreds of years, there appears to be some recent controversy regarding its long-term biological safety. 

The article, The Carrageenan Controversy, published in Scientific American, does a good job of addressing this topic.

This food also contains dried plain beet pulp. Beet pulp is a controversial ingredient, a high fiber by-product of sugar beet processing.

Some denounce beet pulp as an inexpensive filler while others cite its outstanding intestinal health and blood sugar benefits.

We only call your attention here to the controversy and believe the inclusion of beet pulp in reasonable amounts in most cat foods is entirely acceptable.

Nutrient Analysis

Based on its ingredients alone, Natural Balance Original Ultra Wet Chicken & Liver Recipe Paté looks like an above-average wet product.

The dashboard displays a dry matter protein reading of 40.9%, a fat level of 27.3% and an estimated carbohydrate level of 23.8%.

As a group, the brand features an average-protein content of 42% and a mean fat level of 26.9%. Together these figures suggest a carbohydrate content of 23.1% for the overall product line, alongside a fat-to-protein ratio of 64%.

This means the Natural Balance Original Ultra wet product line contains above-average protein, below-average carbs and above-average fat when compared to typical wet cat food.

Has Natural Balance cat food been recalled in the past?

Yes, there have been three recorded recalls for Natural Balance. For full details, please visit the Dog Food Advisor, but in summary:

In April 2007 the company informed the U.S. Food and Drug Administration of complaints it had received about its Venison & Brown Rice Dry Dog Food and Venison & Green Pea Dry Cat Food. 

According to these complaints, some pets had experienced vomiting and kidney failure after consuming these products.

The company immediately issued a voluntary recall of all the affected products, and following laboratory tests, it was determined that some of them contained trace amounts of melamine, which is thought to have come from rice concentrate. 

Later that month, Natural Balance issued a second limited recall for four canned pet foods that were found to contain traces of melamine in rice protein concentrates.

In July 2007, the company recalled a small batch of canned pet food that it feared may have been contaminated in a large-scale botulism outbreak associated with one of its producers, Castleberry’s Food Company. 

In response to ongoing concerns following these recalls, Natural Balance built its own ISO-17025 accredited laboratory and commenced proactively testing every production run of the entire pet food range for nine different toxins before shipping their products to retailers.

On July 3, 2020, Natural Balance’s parent company, J.M. Smucker, issued a voluntary recall on a single batch of Natural Balance Ultra Premium Chicken & Chicken Liver Pâté Formula, after receiving complaints that several cats had become unwell after eating it. 

Subsequent tests revealed that the batch contained elevated levels of choline chloride.

All of the food recipes contain chicken or poultry by-product meal and are bulked out using plant-based ingredients. It also consists of controversial ingredients BHA as a preservative as well as artificial colors.

You can view a complete list of all cat food recalls since 2021 here.

To stay on top of any cat food product recalls, sign up for our free email alerts, here.

About

Natural Balance Pet Foods was formed in 1989, and was picked up by Petco and sold in 625 stores across the United States. In May 2013, Natural Balance merged with Del Monte Foods and was then sold again in 2015 to J.M Smucker Company.

Natural Balance headquarters are in Pacoima, Los Angeles, California. Its products are produced at a variety of manufacturers across the United States from ingredients sourced from the United States, France, India, New Zealand, and Canada.