Hi Shawna,
In regards to balance it I hand calculated out the protein requirements for a 50 lb dog and then looked at several recipes and they all met or exceeded NRC recommendation. Not sure why you’d say the diet isn’t complete and balanced.
The strength of Balance is it is a good place to start if you can’t afford an individual consult and it looks that you can customize the recipes for a small fee. But if you wanted to say up the protein you could run the calculations yourself since all the nutritional information is given.
I do agree that in early stages higher protein can be fed and of great importance to me is to calculate protein needs and make sure they are being met independent of the percent of protein in the diet.
Darwin’s “kidney” diet is quite the mystery to me as phos. is not restricted. As you know phos. restriction is the most important key to slowing down progression of renal disease. The Phos level is nearly twice the NRC recommended amount for a normal dog.
I’m glad to see they require vet approval as it looks like this diet would only be appropriate for a dog that doesn’t yet need any modifications from AAFCO maintenance requirements. In that case there are OTC diets that are a lot less expensive that could be used
