ProBalance Dog Food Review
ProBalance is essentially a home brand of Petbarn (inc. same day delivery) and City Farmers, and verges on the more budget-friendly side of the scale.
As of 2025 the formula has been simplified and looks a little better than the previous formula.
Let’s take a look, and armed with an insight of ingredients, I’ll let you decide if ProBalance is right for you, your dog, and your budget.
Related: Best Affordable Dog Foods
ProBalance review
What the marketing says
Wording such as “Scientific Pet Nutrition” and branding fairly similar to well known prescription dog foods can easily give you the impression ProBalance is a good, solid choice for your dog.
We trust in science don’t we?
Or should I say, we trust in clever marketing.
As consumers we should really overlook marketing such as this (it’s just the marketing department doing their job, right?). If we want to be really scientific, without bias, we can take a look at the ingredients and see how they compare to other dog foods – doesn’t that give us a more realistic impression?
“Pro’AgeTM” is something which may convince you to buy ProBalance, because it suggests your dog may live longer. It’s a mix of Rosemary, Turmeric, Clove, Grapefruit, which although are all great for your dog, we have to be realistic given this combo ingredient sits way below salt, and salt should be around 1% of the formula. Therefore, it’s more a marketing thing than a nutritional benefit thing.
“Single Animal Protein” is a more useful statement on the bag, which may matter to you if your dog has digestive issues or food sensitivities… but let’s get to the ingredients.
Right. Ingredient analysis time!
What the ingredients really say
For the sake of a benchmark, let’s take a look at the Medium Breed Formula, for Adult dogs.
Credit where credit’s due, dehydrated chicken as the first ingredient is what your dog will benefit from the most (combined with poultry tallow as fourth ingredient).
However – the reason I started this review with “on the more budget-friendly side” – is we also find sorghum, rice, and later rice bran AND rice hulls. This makes me question the “Scientific Pet Nutrition” on the label, and also how appropriate the recipe is for your dog.
To finish on some positives, compared to a dog food made of wheat and wheat derivatives it has to be better, and single protein may matter to you. It’s good the bulk of protein comes from meat rather than corn or legumes (which is common in many dry dog foods).
Other than that, it’s a fairly basic dog food even if it’s marketed as something scientific.
If Petbarn is your retailer of choice, and ProBalance is a realistic option based on your budget, also have a look at SavourLife.
Where to buy?
You can buy ProBalance directly from Petbarn (inc. same day delivery) (or click and collect).
Ingredients
Ingredients of ProBalance dog food (Medium Breed Formula for Adult dogs):
Dehydrated Chicken, Wholegrain Sorghum, Rice, Poultry Tallow, Natural Chicken Flavour, Rice Bran, Rice Hulls, Salt, Minerals (Potassium, Calcium, Phosphorous, Zinc, Magnesium, Iron, Copper, Manganese, Selenium, Iodine), Vitamins (A, B1, B2, Niacin, B5, B6, B7, B12, Beta-Carotene, C, D3, E, K, Folic Acid, Choline Chloride), Canola Oil, Flaxseed, Fish Oil, L-Threonine, Taurine, L-Carnitine, Yucca Schidigera Extract, Pro’AgeTM (Plant & Botanical Extracts (Rosemary, Turmeric, Clove, Grapefruit)), Chicory Root Inulin, Yeast Extract, Natural Antioxidants (Mixed Tocopherols), DHA Omega-3.
Guaranteed Analysis
The guaranteed analysis of ProBalance dog food (Medium Breed Formula for Adult dogs):
| Protein | (min) 26% |
| Fat | (min) 16% |
| Crude Fibre | (max) 4% |
| Carbohydrates * | Listed (max) 40% |
Hi Pet food reviews Australia. The whole Petbarn range of Probalance dog food has just been changed. They have now added rice hulls, and poultry tallow. They have removed all the vegetables and fruit. Would this change your rating of this product? I was buying this and feeding it to my dog along with cans of Ziwi Peak. But now that they have vastly changed the ingredients, I am thinking of changing to a different dry food. Maybe Instinctive Bite as you give that a good rating and it is also a good price. I can’t afford to feed just Ziwi Peak. Please advise? Regards.
I like your review Jenny. On point. It’s disappointing to see the new formula and packaging. I am reviewing other brands of dry food. I put my Sproodle Tilly on Pro Balance an after a case of colitis earlier this year. One of the key reasons was the Pro biotic impact and fruit,veg ingredients alongside proteins. I feed her Advance tins plus a weekly treat of chicken breast cooked with carrot and rice.
I bought the new Pro Balance 3kg without doing my research. Even Pet Barn staff at the counter had nothing positive to say about it. I’m afraid that Pro Balance is off my list and will try a new dry food for her.
Your article stated that
“The label does say 68% of protein from meat, which means the rest of the protein comes from the other ingredients. This would suggest a bias towards meat rather than peas”
But you list only one CON which is “Bias towards sorghum, rice, and peas rather than meat” seems to contradict the statement posted earlier in the article.
There was a fair amount of assumption concerning the percentages of each of the top four ingredients. I guess one could just as easily assume that out of the top 4 ingredients, that meat products made up 70% and the other three 10% each. I agree that is not likely, but because it’s not listed specifically on the package and neither the writer nor myself actually contacted the manufacture, we really don’t know and as such should really make statements based on facts instead of a personal hypotheses.
Hi Casey,
I try and keep the reviews fairly short, but the calculations I use are more in depth and we can deduce a number of factors. Carbs are around 40% dry matter, which would come from sorghum, rice, and peas. That gives an indication of the bias towards those ingredients over meat – hence the “con”. When it comes to just the protein the bias is towards meat rather than peas – stated as 68%, the remaining protein will come from the sorghum, rice, and peas. Not accounting for moisture, rice and sorghum are largely carbohydrate, and peas around 1g of protein to 3g carbohydrate generically.
If you were to assume meat was 70% and the other three ingredients were 10%, that would mean 30% of the formula would result in 40% carbohydrates plus the remaining 32% protein from non-meat ingredients (100% – 68%). That isn’t possible.
Or to look at it another way – 68% protein from meat in a formula which is 25% protein would mean 17% of the product is protein from meat. 17% of the entire formula sounds much worse than stating “68% protein from meat” on the packet. Poultry meal is protein dense. If we assumed poultry meal was 100% protein this would suggest 17% of the formula is poultry meal, but realistically we would need to account for percentages of fat (as part of the 14% fat), ash, at perhaps a small percentage of moisture.
I’m not sure if that all makes sense?
My dog can be sensitive to rice, but this is great . I prefer it over royal canin or eukanaba now.
Both dogs love it, so it makes a difference no scratching, nice poos, calm brain! I have 2 GSDs.
Was recommended pro balance fish and salmon for lge Labradoodles who is scratching. Hasn’t changed, must be allergic to something in product.
The ocean fish flavour doesn’t have peas or any kind of legumes.