What is it for

Is this intended for a dog or for a cat? What is the pet's issue that led you to BalanceIt? Did your vet recommend it, or did you find it on your own?

The recipes are far too high in carbohydrates for cats, but dogs can digest some carbohydrate so it might be a good thing if intended for a dog.

The idea of loading 'corrective' cat food with carbohydrate is based solely on canine studies. They are two very different animals with distinct dietary needs. Most vets refuse to address these differences.

Harebell,
Both. My concerns with not only the lack of standards for the quality of pet food, but also my pets' dislike of the same, led me to look at home cooked meals. BalanceIt has been recommended several times by Meghane on this site.
I appreciate your comments. I'll take this up with my vet.

Betsyhac,
have you considered raw? Our cats love it. Our vet recommended raw with the addition of Feline Instincts powder. You can make a large batch and freeze in single portions.

Here is a link that might be useful: Feline Instincts supplement

I have considered raw, but there has been a fair amount of criticism of raw.

Here is a link that might be useful: AVMA stance on raw food diet

Ok, whoa. Are you saying that I'm skipping off with a political opinion? How so?

I absolutely agree with everything you say.

Will you email me privately on another matter? I have enabled "contact me" on my page?

I love catinfo.org, and I agree re vets' reciprocity on their in-house brands. I admit that I didn't read through the entire AVMA opinion, but I'd like to believe that the majority of vets are good, well meaning people. However, having read your post, I do wonder what the criteria is for an AVMA opinion.
I feed both my dogs and cats the most expensive brands of canned food available - no dry. Even so, they are often sick and they all (5 cats) turn up their noses at some of the canned food consistently and other flavors inconsistently. It makes me wonder whether the quality and/or ingredients are consistently prepared according to the same standards. On the other hand, they all LOVE any kind of real meat that I give them so much more. We all know the horrible standards for food produced in cans. I never eat anything out of a can. It just makes me wonder.
What commercial raw food do you use? Have you compared the cost to that of a canned food such as Wellness or Evo or Fromm?
I have books on how to create homemade diets, but they are way too involved.

And believe me, I do read a lot. It seems I can never read enough, and I only have so much time..... I try not to "put all of my eggs in one basket" tho, and get some sort of consensus. I will look more deeply into catinfo.org.

Using ground turkey and the Feline Instincts supplement it costs about the same as feeding Wellness for us. A little less than $5.00 a day for four cats. Commercial frozen was more. Probably around $6.00 +.
I feel lucky that our foursome pretty much eats what I put in front of them but they do prefer raw meat to canned.
DH just recently found out what I spend on cat food. My argument is that we don't spend much at the vet office. :)

Harebell said: The recipes are far too high in carbohydrates for cats

How so?

I tried Balance It for my small dog for allergies and weight issues. I purchased two recipes and their supplement. They told you what to buy to make the supplement--too involved--or you could buy theirs. My dog would NOT eat the food with the supplement! She liked the food, but not the supplement. It was not inexpensive, and , of course, they would not take it back once opened!

I have tried the free version. I was disappointed that it did not have more options for meats used.

My vet is a big fan, of the site and of their supplements. I may try to work with them more.

My latest kick is Dr. Becker's book, Real Food. I haven't started the book yet - just got it. With her recipes, you can do either raw or cooked. I tried the raw, with Feline Instincts, and my animals did really, really well on it. At first, the whole process seemed daunting, but after you get into a routine, it's fine. But, I just can't do raw anymore. I work, so I'd have to put the food out in the a.m., and then take it up bc you can't, of course, leave raw chicken sitting around. My cats are all grazers and by the time I got home, they were ravenous. When I was home on a weekend, I'd have to keep taking the food in and out of the fridge all day long for whomever was hungry at the time (I have 5 cats), so it was just tooooo much. I really wanted to like B.I. and tried for a long time to get things set up with them, but their website had too many issues and they, too, are expensive. I look at sites like catinfo.org, and naturalcatcareblog.com for info often, too. I'm hoping Dr. Becker's book can give me some better, current info on meat sources. All I usually feed my cats is chicken. I've read that beef doesn't agree with a lot of cats, so I don't give them that. And I've read that you have to be careful not to give them certain kinds of fish or too much fish, plus they don't care for fish most of the time. No pork. I've seen on the Inet that you can buy rabbit and other odd sources, even live mice (can't do that) but, again, sooo expensive. In the meantime, I use Evo, esp for my kidney cat, and Weruva. Thankfully, I've got a really great vet that is affordable, so I can spend the $ on food that I need to, but even so....sheesh! I just cannot believe people still feed their cats dry food, tho. It's like having kids and letting them eat cheetos all the time.

Ok, I am cracking up here, at the idea of buying live mice and letting them go in the house for the cats to catch :).

I have just had the most horrific experience with BalanceIt. My vet suggested I check it out to see if I found anything. OMG. What a nightmare. I not only could not get a recommendation, BalanceIt would not even help without me first having me vet release my dog's records, Give me a break. Who in his/her right mind would just willfully release records to a company that one is trying to understand if BalanceIt fits a solution. I tired using chat with no success along with emailing. Circles and more circles of blah, blah, blah for nothing. Heck, I provided what is diagnosed, what meds on, and what used to be palatable. How hard is it to respond back stating that BalanceIt has at least one maybe two options to share; however, we can only share with your vet. Great, I am more than glad to provide name of vet; however, I am not granting a company I don't know anything about access to health records. Beware, and use common sense. There is no RX medicine in any of the prescription foods that any vet sells, Those foods are merely special diets that are not meant for general dogs/cats without issues. The term prescription is being misused. Never be afraid to speak up to your vet or any pet food company that tries to strut FDA. FDA does not regulate dog food as it does human.

I started home cooking about 2 months ago for our now 18 month old lab mix. I was concerned that I couldn't meet all of his Nutritional requirements with ingredients. I found Balance It online then asked our Vet for her opinion. She recommended them So far, so good. He really likes the whole ingredients. He would sometimes walk away from the kibble. It took awhile for me to get the hang of their free meal making feature. There are literally a million combinations you can do. I choose the higher protein option but not the"all protein" option. The program then tells you how much of their supplement powder to add. You can buy the version that can be heated up quite a bit but I purchased the one that cannot be heated above 165 F. That's not really a problem. Once I have all the ingredients mixed I put it in the microwave for 50 seconds, mix real well then add the supplement powder and mix again. Their customer service has mostly been pretty responsive to emailed questions I had early on Most were about working the recipe maker and customizing it for his weight and how many feedings per day. So, after 2 months he seems healthy and happy. Weight has remained constant but of course being a dog, he's always hungry.

I ordered Balance IT Feline K which is low in Phosphorus to make home cooked meals for my senior cats. They are not currently suffering from kidney disease but as a prevention measure. They asked for the name of my vet for approval, and I provided. After receiving the supplement tried to access their recipes but there was no recipes for Balance IT Feline K. After asking them to provide access they said they need my vets approval AGAIN!!! Complained and asked why they didn’t ask for both approvals at the same time and why they haven’t put this information (double approval requirement) on their web site and got an apology! I told them my vet is very busy and doesn’t have time to go through their recipes, which vet will do this? None. Its just a way to put the responsibility of their recipes/supplement on vet’s shoulder. I can’t trust them so requested for a refund. They wanted me to return the supplement before giving me a credit, even they admitted it was their lack of information on their website. Had to pay around $15 UPS return charges! Extremely dis-satisfied with this business.

Don't do it , terrible !!!

I’m having a bad experience with support at Balanceit. You can’t trust their site. It gives incorrect or confusing dosage information. After 20 emails back and forth, Support still refuses to give me the infinformation I need to start using the product safely. I‘m requesting a refund.

I tried their product, and it gave my dog severe diarrhea! i tried to retun it, and they refused. the cost was $79 plus tax for a bag of a little over a pound. rip off! i notified my vet, who recommended this and would never support this company!

A typical greedy business, that seems to me at least, intent on selling their supplement via the use of dodgy high carb/low meat/insert random muck recipes which simply can't compete against commercial feed without supplements.

I never found the option of including organ raw or cooked, nor raw meat at all for that matter but OH YEAH they were quick to 'recommend' my pup need this supplement garbage without even knowing her breed or workload.

Buyer beware indeed.