Balance IT Information
Balance IT is a unique pet supplement brand that was founded by Dr. Sean Delaney and has grown into one of the most popular brands thanks to its AutoBalancer tool.
Balance IT’s AutoBalancer tool allows pet owners to custom-build a dog food recipe from a huge range of potential ingredients and required nutritional profiles.
These pet owners can then follow the quantities and instructions as provided by Balance IT to make and prepare their homemade pet food.
You can see an example step from this tool below.
While this tool is extremely useful for pet owners who have pets with very specific needs, its primary purpose is to encourage these pet owners to purchase Balance IT supplements to combine with these custom recipes.
While many pose serious questions regarding the qualifications and expertise of those behind pet supplement companies, you do not need to fear Balance IT.
According to their website, Dr. Sean Delaney, who founded Balance IT, is a Board Certified Veterinary Nutritionist who held an academic faculty position at UC Davis between 2003-2013, headed R&D for Natura Pet Products, Inc. and co-edited/co-authored a leading textbook on veterinary clinical nutrition.
He is also the former Board Chair of the American College of Veterinary Nutrition (ACVN®) and is a current ACVN® representative to the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA).
For those of you less familiar with these qualifications and organizations, Dr. Sean Delaney is undoubtedly one of the leading experts in pet nutrition in the United States.
Based on our research, we found that all of Balance IT’s supplements are produced in a custom-designed facility owned by Balance IT in Woodland, CA.
Balance IT also makes some other impressive claims on its website, including that they are 100% powdered by renewable energy, all of its ingredients are human-grade, and no ingredients of Chinese Origin are present.`
As is the case with many human or pet supplements, you can not purchase Balance IT from retail pet food stores or from large pet food websites like Chewy or Petflow.
Instead, you can only purchase their supplement products online from their website, and they are delivered to your door.
Balance IT Product Range
Dogs
Balance IT has a moderate range of supplements in comparison to many of its competitors, with a total of six products available.
Some of these supplements can be purchased freely without any veterinary advice or consultation.
However, some of Balance IT’s supplements, such as those that include a K in their name, are designed for the nutritional management of a specific medical condition.
As a consequence of this, these supplements can only be prescribed by a veterinarian. You can see an example of this below, where they request approval or a Vet Code.
Cats
Balance IT’s cat supplement range is far smaller than their dog range and only includes two supplements.
Similar to their dog supplements, one of these is capable to be purchased without veterinary consultation.
However, the supplement with a K in its name can not be purchased without approval and is designed for cats with specific medical needs.
Balance IT Nutrition
Dogs
Given that Balance IT’s products are supplements, the core nutrition (protein, fat, and carbohydrates) that they provide is not critical as they are not designed to be eaten in isolation.
However, the main purpose of Balance IT is to provide nutrition outside of these three core nutrients, such as vitamins and minerals.
Balance IT’s supplements include high levels of several beneficial vitamins and minerals, including Vitamin A, B Vitamins, Vitamin D, Iron, Copper, Zinc, and more.
You can see a snippet of some of the vitamins and minerals in Balance IT’s Canine Plus supplement below.
Regardless of the content of Balance IT’s supplements; dogs still need a diet that is high in animal-based protein and fat.
If you’d like to learn more about canine nutrition, we would highly recommend reading our Dog Food Guide.
Cats
Similar to the above, the proportions of protein, fat, and carbohydrates in Balance IT’s cat supplements are not of high importance as they are designed to be mixed with food.
Balance IT’s cat supplements are formulated to provide a different mix of vitamins and minerals than their dog supplements to ensure they meet cats’ nutritional needs.
You can see a snippet of the minerals provided by Balance IT’s Feline supplement below.
However, while Balance IT’s supplements can provide some important micronutrients, cats still require a diet high in animal-based protein and fat.
This is because they are obligate carnivores which means they do not need a high intake of plant matter and instead thrive on a diet that is animal-based.
If you’d like to learn more about feline nutrition, including what it means to be an obligate carnivore, be sure to check out our Cat Food Guide.
Balance IT Ingredients
High-Quality Meat & Fish Ingredients
- N/A
Balance IT’s supplements do not contain any meat or fish ingredients.
Other Notable Ingredients
Unlike other supplement companies that use several recognizable and well-known ingredients, Balance IT sticks to chemical compounds for most of the ingredients in their supplements. As a consequence, there is little to discuss in regard to their ingredients.
The only exception to this is Powdered Cellulose which features in a small portion of all of Balance IT’s supplements.
Powdered Cellulose can be a controversial addition to pet food recipes for some. In essence, it is pure fiber from plant material which sounds reasonable enough, but many are skeptical or concerned about how it is made and sourced.
Some believe that it is made from waste plant material from agriculture or industrial production.
However, there is no evidence that this is the case for Balance IT, not to mention the portion size present is tiny.
If you’d like to read more about Powdered Cellulose, be sure to read our article Powdered Cellulose In Dog Food.
Balance IT Animal Testing
We can not find any information on whether Balance IT participates in any form of animal testing for its supplement products.
Many smaller pet food and supplement brands do not perform large-scale testing or trials and avoid disclosing this information as it could be perceived negatively by their customers.
However, this leads some in the industry to be concerned about the long-term health effects of consuming foods or supplements that are not studied in detail.
We strongly believe that laboratory or invasive testing of animals is a cruel and outdated practice. We hope that in the future, it will be eliminated.
Balance IT Recalls
Based on our research (FDA, AVMA, DogFoodAdvisor), we have no information that Balance IT has ever been involved in a recall which makes it a recall-free pet supplement brand.
However, given that Balance IT is a pet supplement company, this recall-free record is not a great surprise. It is extremely rare for pet supplements to be recalled, even if they experience production issues.
Regardless, we hope that Balance IT continues to take its safety and quality processes seriously during the production of its supplements.
Nevertheless, pet owners should always be vigilant of any future recalls of Balance IT or any other pet brand to ensure that their pets remain healthy and safe.
Best of Balance IT
Balance IT Canine Review
Balance IT’s Canine supplement is bar far, their most popular supplement and is commonly prescribed by their Auto Optimizer tool for dogs without severe or specific health issues.
The supplement helps to boost the levels of critical vitamins, minerals, and amino acids to acceptable levels to ensure that a custom dog food diet will match a dog’s nutritional needs.
As we mentioned earlier, unlike most supplements, Balance IT uses a large range of chemical ingredients rather than plant-based sources, which means that there isn’t much to discuss when it comes to its ingredient list.
Balance IT Feline Review
With only two feline supplements available from Balance IT and one being by vet approval only, the above feline when our only choice.
However, that doesn’t mean it should be dismissed, and it claims to provide a huge range of beneficial nutrition to cats.
Many of the same beneficial vitamins and minerals should in the dog supplements are also present in the cat version, but there are also some new additions, such as Methionine and Cystine.
Once again, the ingredients used to provide these vitamins and minerals are mainly from a chemical origin, so we are unable to discuss the ingredients in depth.
Balance IT Features Articles
At this time, Balance IT has not been featured in any of our articles.
Balance IT Full Product Range
Dog Supplements
Balance IT Canine
Balance IT Canine Plus
Balance IT Canine K
Balance IT Canine K Plus
Balance IT Canine -Cu
Balance IT Carnivore Blend
Cat Supplements
Balance IT Feline
Balance IT Feline K
I like how this company is encouraging people to cook for their pets! It can be an intimidating process to start. The powder is kind of pricey, and I did have to use a LOT of it for 1 recipe, but their recipe builder database is pretty great. A solid company!
My dog is a cancer survivor..i would like him to have a nutrition that will reinforce jis immune aystem
There is so much for a pet owner to consider. I have two dogs. One with a congenital heart problem. My local vet suggested a salmon based diet would benefit him. So I jumped in. Now I’m making two different meals for my dogs. Salmon is at a higher price point so I fed my other dog beef. It’s overwhelming!! I couldn’t generate two similar recipes in order to streamline the process. I know that some dogs are more nutritionally dense this requiring less addition of the balance it product. Chatting online with balance it staff was somewhat helpful but not entirely. They can’t share much because of FDA rules. I feel I’ve gone down a rabbit hole. It would seem there should be more information on their website for batch cooking. I’m good at math but dang!! Help a pet mom out! I’m going to spend so this money on the vitamin. Make it at least a little accessible.
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.
I have been using this product for many years due to my first ailing dog (and then I just continued it for my healthy dogs) and just found out that the canine formula cannot be added to anything over 80 degrees. It doesn’t state that anywhere on their website. It states canine formula is ‘non-heatable.’
I explained to the customer service rep (who was clearly reading from a script) that ‘non-heatable’ to me means do not add it to a hot pan or cook it. It does not signify to me that it cannot be added to warm food. Apparently “everyone” who is making their own dog food is feeding it to them straight out of the refrigerator and not warming it up. If you have been heating up your dog’s food, or batch cooking it and then warming it up and it’s over 80 degrees (which of course it is b/c 80 degrees is basically room temperature), then per the script, the vitamin powder is degraded. I kept pressing my point about the misleading words and she just kept repeating that it states it’s “non-heatable” (per the script).
The rep actually told me if I didn’t want to serve cold food that I should remove it from the fridge and leave it out until it reaches room temperature. I asked her if that meant she wanted me to leave out meat at room temperature for the several hours it would take to go from 37 degrees (my fridge temperature) to 80 degrees…at which point, I would not serve it to my dog for fear of spoilage. I again got the answer that the powder is ‘non-heatable.’
According to my research, vitamins degrade at 120 degrees, w/ the exception of vitamin C. I don’t know why THIS vitamin powder degrades at 80 degrees. When I asked that question, the script didn’t provide that answer. Requests to speak w/ the nutritionist on staff were denied b/c “he doesn’t take customer calls.”
I contacted both my recommending vet, the rescue that recommended this diet AND my favorite vet tech who knows this diet as well. ALL stated they were unaware this supplement could not be added to warm food. I also told the rep that — how could ALL of these recommending parties be unaware of the 80 degree policy? The script did not provide for that answer.
This feels like a vet service that does a business on the side. There doesn’t appear to be any business knowledge or concern for the customer. At no time was their an apology for the poorly worded website or confusing recipe generator. They do not care if you are happy, satisfied or upset. It’s all the same to them. And per the poster above, their refund policy requires you to pay your own postage for gallon jugs back to their facility.
The worst customer service I have had in a long time. I am looking for other options to support a different business model.
Contrary to what the previous person said, I thought their customer service was excellent. That is, as far as responding in friendly, standard ways is concerned.
But their products are very questionable. I got started with them months ago, got approval from my vet to search their recipe base and buy their products from my vet per the BalanceIT requirements. That was frustrating to say the least as they have hundreds — maybe thousands — or recipes that appear at first glance to work for my dog but I slogged through. The editing and viewing tools are very impressive and helpful.
I settled on a chicken-rice recipe after trying something with veggies in it, which didn’t please my dog. All was going relatively well for my ultra picky dog, when I went back to the search at BalanceIT hoping to expand or modify the recipe a bit. When I checked the same chicken-rice recipes, I noticed that they upped the amount of supplement I had to buy to get an acceptable (balanced nutrition) result. I found that increase across the board for many of the recipies because I had printouts in my file for my first attempts. I inquired of their customer service, which lead me eventually to one of their senior people who seemed to acknowledge that “things change all the time” when they get new data, or whatever. Seemed reasonable, at least at that time, so I increased the supplement I bought from them while continuing with exactly the same recipe.
Then, a few weeks later, I had reasons to go back to the search. This time I discovered that all the chicken-rice recipes that I pulled up said that they “failed” for my dog. None of them failed before on first viewing. When I searched similar recipes I noticed that they no longer allowed the supplement that I previously bought in any recipe that passed the test for my dog. That meant I would have to buy a different supplement from them than the one they sold me just a few weeks prior. And use a lot more of it, and considerably higher expense. What the heck?
I also discovered that all the trial recipes that I had saved on their server — a nice feature that allows you to go back and edit what something you already saved — were no longer discoverable. The Autobalancer no longer worked for them. So not only did the Autobalancer no longer work for my pup on a large number of their “standard” recipes, and for the few it worked on it called for a different supplement, but now I couldn’t even access my previous successes to edit them, which is contrary to the promise of the website.
I concluded, reluctantly, that one cannot trust their website to give consisten information. The inconsistencies seem to be directly related to the products they’re selling, which means that it feels a lot like a bait and switch kind of approach where after you get started, the product and price keeps changing and requiring more of it. So if the marketing approach is so dubious and the results inconsistent, what can we say about their nutrition recommendations? My sense is that while it appears to be a scientific enterprise or at least connected with a vet school and claims board-certified nutritionists, the marketing has taken over from the science of it.
I don’t want to be deceived, led astray or oversold when it comes to my dog’s health, so I gave up on that site and the BalanceIT products. Sad, because it looked like such a good idea at first, worked well, and plus my vet recommended it so it must have acquired a good reputation at some point. But maybe no longer credible or reliable.
I have been a Balance IT customer and have purchased supplements for my 1 year old dog. I started making homemade food for him, as I felt it would be healthier. Upon adding the supplement he stopped eating. I contacted Balance IT and they suggested using less of the supplement. I tried a new recipe which included ground chichen, boiled potatoes and hard boiled eggs. He loved it until I added the supplement the next day. Again, he would not eat. He would nibble at it, but he either didn’t like the taste of the supplement or it made him fell unwell. I decided to stop the supplement and he started eating right away. I contacted the company and requested a refund as it was not anything I could use and they denied the refund. Not only was the supplement expensive, but the food ingredients I tried for several weeks was also pricey. This company needs to send behind their products.
These comments and testimonials are extremely concerning and suspect if true.
Just way too pricey for the supplement that costs $75. How can they expect people to purchase Balance IT® Carnivore Blend® ongoing. I can’t do it anymore. Plus, the fact the recipes are confusing.
WARNING – has added Baking Soda ingredient. Baking Soda can cause GI BLEEDING and other serious side effects.
I spoke with the company owner /veterinarian – Dr. Delaney many years ago. The supplements use baking soda. I asked the amount of baking soda my cat would receive for a recipe I generated. I told him the amount he stated is the equivalent of the amount for people on the baking soda box under medicine instructions. The box warns not to take the amount beyond 2 weeks for antacid use, and use about 60% less if over the age of 60. He said he disagreed with the doctor that wrote the instructions for the box. I asked him if he could make the product without baking soda and he said no. I asked a supervisor at Iams if their vitamin mixes use baking soda also and they said no. I remember a past comment from a pet owner that said (to my memory) the supplement caused black runny stool. Black stool indicates bleeding. Today, I viewed a pet owner’s comment on the internet www. pets.ca “anyone use balance-it”, the pet owner ‘Rosalinde” said in 2013, the supplement made her cat vomit blood and had bloody stool. Baking soda has side effects -google ‘Mayo Clinic, sodium bicarbonate oral route’ warns it can worsen kidney and liver disease, intestinal and rectal BLEEDING, high BP, heart disease edema, problems with urination… Medical news today lists: headache, nausea, vomiting, thirst… In the past I believe I also read brain swelling. My cat had IBD and I was concerned about GI bleeding. I use baking soda to clean and it took the enamel off my stove top and refrigerator. Also, I tried it as a shampoo and my hair strands would break off. Sometimes I considered using it in desperation to help my cat, as I don’t like commercial cat foods. After reading the review from Rosalinde today I will never use it.
I just discovered that Rosalinde left a second post that the bleeding stopped. Could you delete my comment and I will repost without her information?
I agree with Zary. I contacted the company asking for refund as it was three weeks waiting period for it to arrive and it never came. They said it is my repsonsibility to pay for return shipping and it was my fault since I didn’t read the fine print while ordering. Then the chat room operator (no way to actually talk to a real person) told me he was ‘sorry’ but it is their policy. If I don’t like it oh well, have a nice day. Then he shoots me a long laborious dissertation why they raised prices astronomically. DON’T BUY THIS OVERPRICE PRODUCT YOU WILL BE MAKING A HUGE MISTAKE. They want your money but won’t support you when you need it. Also, the website is very difficult to negotiate. Good luck if you still order it after reading this.
Hello,
I posted June 18 and made a mistake when contacting you, as my request went as a second post instead of to you.I discovered that Rosalinde mentioned in my post, left a second post that the bleeding stopped. Could you delete my 2 comments and I will repost without her information? Thank you.
I have 13 old rescue dogs wondering how I’m going to feed them as food shortages are comming I have some rice stored wondering if this can be sprinkle on rice to meet requirement & also being able to afford this stuff for so many dogs I work with shelters & rescues????.
I started using BalanceIT about six months ago for my cat with kidney issues. I have struggled for that entire time with getting my cat to eat the recipes they offer. It’s a little tricky to find the hidden treasure chest of recipes and I was finally pointed to it when I was exasperated trying to get my 15lb cat to eat 13 oz of food per day according to the recipe. I’ve looked at several others and there’s not much difference in the volume of food they recommend in order for a cat to get the amount of needed nutrition.
In addition, the recipes are offered in the US using European measurement standards. Get out your calculator if you plan to figure out how much vegetables and meat to buy. The recipes are presented in fully cooked/prepared measurements, so you have to do quite a bit of guessing as to how much to buy and cook. For example, the recipe calls for 4259g of cooked squash. How much squash do you buy if you are allowing for the loss of moisture in cooking. Let the calculations begin!
We’ve finally given up on trying to follow this diet because my cat lost 2 lbs over six months because he just can’t eat the volume of food recommended. To top it off, I have a full bottle of the Feline-K that arrive 60 days ago and they won’t make an exception and allow me to return it. I’m out almost $100 because my vet agreed that we had to find another food for my cat so he stops losing weight. Any one need a full, fresh jar of Feline-K?
I am actually really enjoying my experience with BalanceIT. To the person who said that they never saw that BalanceIT couldn’t be heated, it is listed, quite clearly in the recipe screen (the screen where you would go to print your recipe), and frankly, I’ve put this in warm food, and there’s been no problem, my dogs are quite happy and healthy. I also have had a really good experience with customer service, they were able to assist me in pulling together recipes for my dogs and explaining how the site worked. My 13 year old chihuahua has more energy and looks better than she has in YEARS, my 7 year old Entlebucher is no longer constantly itching his face, and my 11 year old chiweenie finishes her bowl in mere seconds I also like it because I often have no other option but to purchase 1lb of ground beef, turkey, etc. but can rarely eat it all, and this gives me a great option to use up leftover meat or vegetables that would have otherwise gone bad.
If you’re short on time or don’t like to cook, don’t do this unless you need to. Cooking your pets food is just that, cooking it. Cooking is a task that takes time, sourcing ingredients takes time, and creating recipes/portioning out meals is a time commitment. If you want to do it, and see the results of feeding your pets fresh food (which is incredible), set aside some time each weekend, invest in a crock pot, and get a food scale. You won’t regret it.
I have used BalanceIT for years but I am very concerned about the “upgrades” to the BalanceIT site. I recently prepared 4 weeks worth of a recipe (probably cost $200 and countless hours). After feeding it to our Golden Retriever for a few days, I noticed that she was excessively thirsty so I double checked the recipe. I was horrified to find that they were recommending 2.12g of Soduim /1500kCal. This is significantly higher than the recommendations by NAS of 200mg/1000 kCal. Needless to say, I’ve had to throw away all of the food. Pet owners, please be careful about using BalanceIT’s recipes as the excessive salt can lead to a host of issues including coronary and kidney problems.