Blue Buffalo dog food?

For the first year of my dog's life with me I have fed him Nutro Ultra - their holistic brand. I am switching him over to his adult food and did a price comparison at PetSmart. For large breeds - the Blue Buffalo vs. Nutro Ultra 30 pound bags are the exact same price. Same as their canned food.

So people go on and on and on about how great Blue Buffalo is lol, so I figured I would try the switch. Too early to tell right now (just started the switch on Friday night, getting about 25% of it) but I know he really likes the taste! lol

The truth is Blue Buffalo is a very low quality food and is way overpriced. Yes it does not use by-products which is good. But it still has the same protein, fat and carbohydrate levels as the cheapest foods on the market. That mean it has a very low meat content. Any food high in carbohydrates is low in meat, since meat does not contain carbohydrates, only plants do. Blue is over 50% carbs, which means it is well over half plant matter, since plants also contain protein and fats. Dogs can have plants in their diet, but their diet shouldn't be mostly plants. The worst thing about Blue is it contains a very high amount of barley grain. Barley is one of the worst grains you can feed a dog. I would much rather my dog eat a high corn dog food than high barley. Barley is highly inflammatory and contains a type of lectin that causes damage to the digestive tract. This damage leads to digestive issues, allergies, and skin problems. I found this out the hard way. Believing the hype about Blue I fed it to my dog for about a year. She did fine on it for a while, but started to have loose stools. I didn't realize the food was causing it and continued to feed it. Eventually she started having horrible allergies and skin infections all over her body. She lost tons of hair and she just smelt horrible. I spent hundreds of dollars at the vet on medications trying to get to the bottom of what was causing it. The vet never said anything about food and I didn't think it could be food because Blue was supposed to be so good. Finally out of desperation I took her off Blue and put her on a high quality highly digestible food and in one month all her problems went away. I cannot recommend Blue or any other high carb high grain based dog food. The best quality foods are going to be high protein, very low carb and high moisture. Dry foods are the worst. Canned foods would be better. Vital by Freshpet is an excellent choice or if you are interested in raw, Bravo and Primal are also excellent choices. Right now I am doing a well balanced homemade diet and my dog has gone from really sickly to amazingly healthy. I definitely recommend it.

I feed both my Shih Tzu's Blue Buffalo dry food (for small breeds). They love it. But some dogs have problems with it. If you do change your dog's food, do it gradually. Do it over 2 to 3 weeks. 75%/25% for the first few days and gradually add more and more of the Blue Buffalo.

And yes, it is a bit pricey, but for me (and my dogs) it is worth it to give them a healthy, well balanced diet.

Yes, I do.

My dog absolutely loves it, but then again he would likely eat anything I gave him. I have done a lot of research on it and the main complaints that come up are dogs not eating the 'lifesource bits' which are smaller dark coloured kibble mixed in with the food. The other thing I have heard come up is bad gas.

Best thing is to evaluate the ingredients and see how comfortable the food is with your dog as many dogs tastes are different.

I did when my dog was younger. The extra protein was good for my young energetic border collie. I did switch to Nutro brand food after about a year. That was when some her energy level began to level off. I often think of high energy dogs as athletes, with the amount of energy they expend. Blue Buffalo is high protein. I kind of think of it as nutrition for a pro athlete.

I used to use it and it was good. Though I changed to Taste of the Wild and Wellness Core. Both of which are also grain less. Taste of the wild is also cheaper than Blue Buffalo. If you go to their website they have a store locator.

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By their nature, dogs are pack animals with a well-defined social order. Through basic training, you need to consistently make sure your puppy understands that you are the leader, not him. So in teaching him the basic rules, you take on the role of pack leader.

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I use Wellness, but I have talked to a lot that use Blue Buffalo, it seems to be pretty good.

I do.

I feed the Wilderness formula which is grain-free for my dog with skin issues & regular BB to the others. It had a big difference in the one with skin issues - no more skin problems & keeps the others looking & being healthy. No one food will work for every dog, it is a process of trial & error to find what works best for your pets.

My dogs have all been on Blue for more than two years. I am very satisfied with their weight, skin and coat, and overall health.

I have had people tell me that their dogs did not do well on it (persistent diarrhea), so that could be an issue if you switched.