[Tina]

Blue Buffalo

What is the story with Blue Buffalo? For years pet stores, commercials and even online computer ads give Blue Buffalo the best rating there is. In return, costumers almost pick the shelves clean. Why is it not on any of these lists? Is Blue Buffalo a good dog food? With no recalls that I know of, I thought for sure it would be on the top of the list.

• This topic was modified 2 years, 9 months ago by Mike Sagman. Reason: Fix Duplicate Topic Title

[theBCnut]

Blue Buffalo certainly knows how to market their food. They have had recalls, but not too many or anything like that. They just aren’t that great a food and a lot of people have been reporting problems lately, but BB is still saying that there is nothing wrong and they haven’t received any complaints. All of the foods in their 5 star line have chicken in them, but the company wants you to think that they are based on different unique proteins. Don’t get me wrong. They are a decent food, if they really don’t have anything wrong with them, but they aren’t worth what they charge for a bag. You are paying for a lot of marketing.

[Naturella]

I would agree with theBCnut. I have used Blue Buffalo Wilderness Puppy for about 3-4 months and it worked great for my Bruno. But, all products do have chicken which was a disappointment to me – they also have the unique proteins, such as buffalo, rabbit, trout, etc., but next up is always chicken meal. I would still use BB Wilderness in my rotation as Bruno did well on it, as well as some other dogs that I know have done well and continue to do fine, but a lot of people report that their pets have experienced stomach/stool problems on the food. So, it is sort of up to the individual dog. As for the price, watch if it goes on sale or something, because you do pay a lot to their marketing team and for the pretty bags (with Wilderness at least).

[Tina]

Thats interesting, my dog Shadow as a puppy he was on Blue Buffalo Large Breed Puppy but after second bag of the exact same food he wouldn’t eat it at all not even to switch it to a new food.

[theBCnut]

A lot of the people who report problems with it have said that they got a new bag and their dogs didn’t want to eat it, or something about the appearance changed. Maybe your dog was smart and saved himself from an upset stomach.

[Jackie T]

I tried Blue in my boarding kennel for the dogs that don’t bring their own food, all dogs loved it and switched to it without digestive upset, I also bought a couple of bags of wilderness puppy and adult for my own dogs, prior to joining this forum – 2 days ago. After reading that Blue Buffalo Foods are produced by a variety of manufacturers (5), I decided to return to Orijen and or Acana for my house pups and my boarders. I want to know that I am feeding a quality of food that delivers what the label states and not hidden ingredients or additives, color or flavor.

[Sarah Y]

So dog food advisor rates wilderness at 5 stars. I was going to switch my senior beagles from wellness complete health senior to the wilderness senior because I want them to be grain free and with one of my beagles having a bit of a renal issue, I wanted to have food with lower phosphorus.

Why would dog food advisor rank wilderness at 5 stars if there were concerns?

[aquariangt]

DFA rates foods based on what’s in the food for the star rating system. They keep a collection of recall notices and such to be taken into account that you can read about on the top bar there.

However, because of these other issues, that’s why BB doesn’t end up on the Editor’s Choice lists. There are many 4-5 star foods that don’t make the list, and there a few reasons why, but the things that have been in said in this thread are some of the reasons that BB isn’t

[Sarah Y]

OH okay….got it. So if a food had a recall it won’t make DFAs editors choice list? I do see there was a recall 3 years ago for some of their foods. Thanks for explaining it. 🙂

[theBCnut]

Dr Mike can’t go to each of the people’s homes and make sure that they didn’t transition too fast, or the dog didn’t get in the garbage, or any of 100 other reasons that dogs vomit or get diarrhea. The rating is all about the government regulated label. Based on what is on the label, BB is a 5 star food. That’s why it is so cool that Dr Mike gave us a space to report our experiences with the foods, because the label can’t tell you everything you need to know.

[theBCnut]

It is possible for companies that have had a recall to make the list. It depends on how they handle the recall, how responsive they are to customers, what they do to make sure that there aren’t more recalls, etc.

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