Blue Buffalo Dog Food – Life With Dogs

Blue Buffalo is a company that makes dog and cat foods using natural and real ingredients. It was created by pet parents who understand what pets need in order to be happy and healthy. The most important part about having a pet food that is nutritious and easy on a dog or cat’s belly is to minimize health complications.

Some animals, especially dogs, have problems with dry skin, grain or gluten allergies, and heart conditions. That’s why it’s so important to make sure you’re feeding your animal the very best. Pets don’t live as long as us humans so the more you can extend their life, the more time you have to love on them. After all, pets are more like family members than just animals.

To help dogs who have those problems mentioned: dry skin, allergies, and heart conditions, Blue Buffalo has come up with more than one type of dog food formula that provides the right ingredients and nutrients to help specific issues that your dog might be having. Some of the formulas are simply extra nutritious to help older dogs to live longer and then other formulas were made grain-free for pups who suffer from allergies.

It’s not always an actual allergy that causes a dog to be sensitive to foods; sometimes it’s just because of the way their stomach and body processes certain kinds of meats or vegetables. That’s why Blue Buffalo makes certain dry and wet foods that include different types of meat and alternatives to grains like potatoes, oatmeal or brown rice because all dogs are different.

The biggest complaint made by customers who tried this brand is the price. Blue Buffalo dog foods can be a little pricier than other brands. The price really depends upon what kind of food you’re looking for to give your dog. Some of the basic formulas like the Life Protection Formula and the Basics Limited Ingredient Formula are pretty reasonably priced for a large bag.

But, if you need a specific prescription dog food or one of Blue Buffalo’s special Grain-Free formulas, the price is going to be higher. Not only is this brand extremely popular, but it also has tons of research and testing put into the creation of each dog food, so you can expect the price to be higher than other brands because it’s the higher quality option.

Size Options

Most of the dry dog food options come in multiple sizes. They can be in 3, 6, 15, 24, or even 30-pound bags. It’s always better to buy the biggest bag of food you can get because it’s cheaper per ounce. Plus, you don’t have to buy it as often. Would you rather buy a 3-pound bag of dog food every week or 30-pound bag every two months?

It makes more sense to buy the larger bag, but that may not be feasible for some people because of what it would cost them, even though you would ultimately be saving money in the long run.

Dogs of different ages and sizes require different types and sizes of dog food kibbles. When you’re weighing all the options of food, remember to look at the correct one for your dog. If you have a puppy, look for the bag labeled specifically for puppies.

Usually, the ingredients vary slightly because puppies need a different amount of nutrients and different kinds of nutrients than an adult or senior dog would need. This also changes between toy-sized and large breed dogs. If you try feeding a small puppy very large pieces of food, they’ll struggle to try to eat it and could possibly choke.

Blue Buffalo has dog treats as well as dog foods. They come in crunchy, soft-moist, jerky, dental, training, and seasonal options. Some of them have the same recipe or formula as the dog foods; it just depends on which one of their product lines you’re looking at.

Product Lines

Blue Buffalo has five main types of formula for dog food. Each has different flavors of wet and dry food, and also has treats and other available goodies.

• BLUE Life Protection Formula
• BLUE Freedom
• Basics Limited Ingredient Diet Formula
• BLUE Wilderness
• BLUE Natural Veterinary Diet for Dogs

Their standard formula is the BLUE Life Protection Formula. They offer lots of different flavors for a puppy, adult, and large breed dogs. It has real meats, fruits, and vegetables and contains no chicken by-product meals, corn, wheat or soy and nothing artificial.

Blue also offers a Grain-Free option of dog food in their BLUE Freedom line. All products made with this formula contain no grains or gluten for dogs that may have an allergy. It includes options for puppies, small dogs, adults, large breeds and senior dogs.

Another option for dogs who don’t do well with the traditional formula is the Basics Limited Ingredient Diet formula. This recipe is for dogs who don’t necessarily have an allergy but are sensitive to the ingredients that are in regular dog food. It excludes corn, wheat, dairy, soy, and eggs. Your options taste-wise for these foods are a little more extravagant, and the wet food options are much more limited in this product line compared to the others.

You can find more information about the other two product lines and all of the flavors of each on chewy.com.

Prices:

Life Protection Formula (24lb bag) – $38.99

Blue Wilderness (24lb bag) – $52.98

Blue Freedom (24lb bag) – $51.99

Basics Limited Ingredient Grain-Free Formula (24lb bag) – $37.79

*Prescription dog food prices vary*

History of Food Recalls

Blue Buffalo as a brand hasn’t had more than a handful of recalls on their dog foods. The most recall they had was in March of 2017. The recall was voluntarily made by Blue Buffalo as soon as they became aware of an existing problem. The recall was made due to elevated levels of naturally occurring beef thyroid hormone.

Dogs who had consumed large amounts of one of their adult dog wet foods had developed hyperthyroidism. The most serious symptoms that occurred were vomiting and diarrhea; no dogs died because of this recall.

Dog food recalls can be scary because it’s hard to know whether a company is telling you everything or not, but Blue Buffalo has a great reputation of keeping their customers in the know and the majority of those customers have been more than satisfied with the dog food they bought from Blue Buffalo.