You’re probably wondering why my blog post title says “food for dogs” instead of dog food. Well, at Castor and Pollux they say “It’s not pet food. It’s food. For pets.” I thought this was a cute slogan for a natural pet food brand but I didn’t completely understand it until I saw what their dog food looks like. Have you ever seen dry dog food that looks like this? I hadn’t!

Here is a closer look at some of the unique bits.

Yes, that’s real peas, bits of carrot, banana and other human foods. How cool is that? I also liked how the pieces are smaller than many other brands. Frank & Beans are 8 and 9 years old, so that combined with being smaller dogs seems to make large kibble a bit more difficult for them to consume as they eat it very slowly. With really big kibble they would take some into their mouth, chew, let it fall to the ground and then pick it back up to continue eating. They don’t do that with Natural Ultramix Grain Free Duck Dog food and they chew it more quickly as well.

There is so much information out there about dog foods that it can be really hard to compare one brand of dog food to another without getting confused so I turn to the dog food advisor website to help “pick apart” and explain dog foods based on their ingredients. The dog food advisor also breaks foods down into 1-5 star ratings and they give this food 5 stars! That immediately drew my interest.

We believe we are dealing with some allergies in both of our dogs but aren’t sure what the cause is in either of them. I’ve read that grains are one of the most popular types of allergies in dogs so we only look at grain free foods but even with grains cut out, we have continued to have allergy symptoms. So, I’ve been trying various protein sources. Most people recommend getting away from chicken and beef if there is a suspected allergy so I thought that this Duck based dog food would be a great next try. It doesn’t just contain meat though, it also has turkey, lamb and salmon as meat sources. In fact, those are the first four ingredients on the bag which is a great sign that this is a high quality food (low quality foods won’t include meats in the first few ingredients).

The food is made in the USA, has no corn, no soy, and includes probiotics, prebiotics, and essential fatty acids. My dogs have had tummy troubles on certain foods and we haven’t had any problems with their bathroom habits while on Natural Ultramix grain free.

Based on the quality ingredients in this food, I knew that I was comfortable feeding it to my dogs but I wasn’t sure how they would take to it and I was curious to see if their allergy symptoms would subside.

They immediately took to the food and ate it without a problem or without me having to mix it with their old food. That was great because in the past when switching foods, they wouldn’t try a new food unless it was mixed with the old for a bit at first. Their allergy symptoms have continued, but I’ve started to wonder if it could be some type of grass or weed allergy because it seems to happen more when they first come back in from outdoors. It’s nearly impossible to know for sure. What I do know is that this food has great ingredients and my dogs enjoy it so I would definitely recommend giving it a try.

Update 10/31/2013. We’ve now been feeding this food for several weeks. Since getting the pugs 3 months ago, Frank’s fur would feel really soft right after a bath and then 2-3 days later would start to feel wirey or coarse again. Beans’ fur stayed soft so I thought it was strange that his would get a bit rough. This week, I realized that it has been over two weeks since Frank has had a bath but his fur is still really soft, which I have to guess is the result of being on this food seems how we haven’t changed how often we bathe him, what shampoo we use or anything like that.

In my area, Natural Ultramix is available at Petco and Petsmart. You can use the store locator tool to find where to buy near you or purchase online. Price will vary some of course but Petsmart has the 30lb bag for $54.99 and Chewy.com has it for $49.99, both will ship for free. These are good prices for a dog advisor 5 star dog food, especially mailed to your door.

Connect: You can connect with Castor and Pollux on Facebook and Twitter.

Emily

Hi there! I am Emily Evert, the owner of Emily Reviews. I am 28 and live in a small town in Michigan with my boyfriend Ryan and our two pugs. I have a large family and I adore my nieces and nephews. I love reading memoirs, and learning about child development and psychology. I love watching The Game of Thrones, Teen Mom, Sister Wives and Veep. I like listening to Jason Isbell, John Prine, and other alt-country or Americana music. I created Emily Reviews as a creative outlet to share my life and the products that I love with others.

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