Blue Buffalo dog food vs. 4 health dog food

[CoyoteMagic]

Haven't had a chance to read through all the posts yet but Blue Buffalo made my dog sick. She wouldn't touch those little black vitamine thingies.

About 2 months ago we started feeding her Earthborn Primative. They have several different formulas but I like the primative because it had no grains which can promote obessity, diabeties, and imflamation (arthritis). The first thing we noticed was, she would eat it without having to mix anything into it to coax her to eat it. We even began using it in her treat ball.

The 2nd thing was Spook was actually self regulating how much she would eat. Usually it would be 3/4 cups at lunch and 3/4 cups at dinner. She was leaving a 1/4 at each meal. We had changed feeding Spook from once a day to twice a day after she had a severe bout of pancreititis. Small meals seemed to work better.


The third thing we noticed was that she was really moving a lot better. Spook had arthitis just above her hips, down her spine and all the way down her left leg and foot. Plus her 2 front feet. She wanted to run and chase her soccer ball more. She had torn her ACL 4 years ago and always had a limp after surgery. She suddenly didn't have it any more.

The most dramatic thing was that she had lost 9lbs in just over a month!! We had been trying to take weight off of her since she blew out her knee. Everything we gave her just made her fatter. She liked it, it is holistic, and it was doing her good. Only problemwas it costs about $45 for the large bag.


When my Spook passed on June 24th due to the complications of Cushing's Disease, we passed the food to friends of ours. They are true believers not. Their dogs just sucked it down too

 

[Whitewater]

We use Blue lamb and rice in our house (and Blue Buffalo for Indoor Cats, too -- no hairballs for 3+ years and counting . . . ) because our 3.5 year old dog has the doggie equivalents of celiac disease and irritable bowel disease, so just about ANYTHING makes her vomit and have liquid stools . . . and if her stomach gets upset enough, she won't eat or drink and passes stools that are 90% blood. Needless to say, making sure that her food is correct is our 1st priority!

It's scary when she has an attack, and we were dreadfully afraid for her life until we figured everything out. We have so far found a list of what she can't have:

~Corn
~Wheat
~Soy
~Rawhide
~Any food coloring/altering agent or chemical that's not approved for human food (she can have annetto, in cheese, but not Red Dye # whatever, etc) or is chemically based/altered instead of a natural dye (ie, she's ok with saffron!) or naturally occurring chemical (ie, she's good with natural Omega 3's in salmon -- but she can't have the non-natural equivalent, whatever it happens to be. Also the stuff they spray on Nylabones and so on to make them smell and taste good -- that stuff is death to my dog.)
~most grains, although she's ok with oats, rice and barley.

She also cannot have a whole lot of dairy, which means yogurt to help the beneficial bacteria in her gut is out of the question. She occasionally gets a crumble of organic cheese made with raw milk, she can tolerate that.

Needless to say, this made it very difficult for us to properly feed her! We tried Ultra, Wellness, Science Diet, Nutro, and Iams in succession when we 1st brought her home, and she was going down on all of the above. I didn't even bother looking at any of the tiers that were lower than that.

Eventually after about 6 months she was living on boiled hamburger and rice, and I was at my wits end. Then our local PetSmart started to carry Blue Buffalo and I saw the list of ingredients and decided to take home a sample. Hallelujah!!! No puking, no messes, no blood, and our lovely dog started to gain weight, smile, get more energy, and her coat even improved.

That was enough evidence for me! Now we also feed her boiled chicken, eggs, hamburger, rice, and cheese occasionally as treats and she gets cheese and oatmeal based treats (that are dye, grain, soy, etc free) called Old Mother Hubbard (cheese flavor, she hates peanut butter) besides her Blue. The dog used to spit out the little black vitamin bits in Blue Buffalo, but now she eats them all.

Our problem child will never be 100% healthy, but at least now she doesn't look like a bleeding, puking, listless anatomy chart with fur!

We will feed Blue Buffalo forever, because of our experience with it.


Whitewater

 

[bock]

Wow, Coyotemagic and Whitewater, You sure have 2 very different opinions about Blue Buffalo! I think it all depends on the dog, and my dogs did pretty well on it. They also are doing good on 4health chicken and rice formula, though. I think the lamb and rice variety has better quality rice, but I read in a review that it has too little protein???? So I will either switch to that or Diamond naturals. I just need help deciding now.

 

[Whitewater]

Oh, yes, it TOTALLY depends on the dog! You (in the generic sense) really have to search for what's right for *your* dog and ignore pretty much everything else. If it works for your dog, yay! If not, you will have to figure out something that does. My parents fed their dog Science Diet for the longest time and he did great on it, but then, the whole family would call him the goat in dog's clothing, because that dog could eat (and did eat!!) ANYTHING, literally anything that he wanted without harm, including a whole 8' around double layer triple chocolate cake, a tube of lipstick complete with the plastic exterior and many many cooked bones. Not to mention the soft stuff like Kleenex, money, hair 'scrunchies', underwear, and socks!

He could have eaten Ol' Roy and thrived! LOL!

My MIL's Shih Tzu gets fed nothing but hot dogs and Ceasar dog food, the non-kibble kind. He's a roly-poly little dog! When he comes over here, if she goes on vacation, we cut out the hot dogs entirely and within days his coat looks shinier, he loses a bit of weight and becomes more active, it's easier for him to walk and run, and he just looks and acts better! Ceasar isn't the greatest dog food out there, but it's better than hot dogs!

It truly depends on the dog. Some dogs do get sick when they're introduced to real, good food that hasn't got the corn and other fillers, because their systems have a hard time dealing with the change. With mine, we had to introduce Blue literally about a half a handful at a time, I think it took about 3 weeks to get her to a full serving of 100% Blue Buffalo.

I have heard of some dogs that don't need to get switched slowly and can handle a transition that's like 'Ok, I ran out of Food A, tomorrow we'll try Food B' and they're fine with it.

Some dogs get sick. Some don't. Some can handle the abysmal quality of the cheapest foods, some can't. Some need more protein than others, some need extra human-type food supplements. It's all down to the individual dog!

I always say, a good owner knows what they need to do for their dog and will go do it, whatever 'it' is.

The fact that Coyote and I have such a difference with Blue Buffalo is probably because we have very different dogs!

And that's ok, too. All dogs are different, and some react more differently than others.

If you want to try Blue, go ahead. I know for a fact, because I used to sell pet food, that you can return even an opened bag to the store where you got it if your dog doesn't like it. Check with the store manager, of course, because things may have changed since then, but in my store it used to happen every once in a while. Incidentally, BB dry food is the only (to my knowledge) DRY dog food that did NOT get recalled in the great Melamine Contamination affair back in 2007. This is because they don't use foodstuffs from foreign suppliers, a fact that I really like.

Do your best for your dog (or horse, or goat, or pig, or goldfish!) and you won't hear me complain

Whitewater

 

[bock]

Thanks! I try to get my parents to buy Blue again, but really, I don't think it is going to happen.

They think they will do fine on the cheapest dog food in the world.

I honestly don't know how I even got my mom to buy one bag of Blue Buffalo. They are however, willing to buy 4 health and Diamond Naturals.

Oh yeah, and the ''hot dog'' story is pretty funny!

 

[CoyoteMagic]

Quote:
Exactly!!

I had an Aunt that fed her Cocker nothing but boiled chicken. Couldn't stand that dog. He had warts all over the dang place. Couldn't pet him without touching one. Used to freak me out as a kid, lol.

 

[Chickygirl55]

well I didn't read the ingredients... Shame on me, we talked to a guy at the store because our dog, who is a heele/austrailian sheperd mix was shedding like crazy. That's what he recommended and he guaranteed us it would work and it has. Authority is what we are sticking with and will now be switching our other dog to. But every dog is different so you may have to try different things till you find one that works, I wish you luck.

 

[bock]

Thanks! They really love 4 health, and they are doing well on it too. I think I will stick with it. Though I am still wondering if the Lamb and Rice formula is better.

 

[Chickygirl55]

a guy we know had a dog that has health issues because of the diet he was feeding her decidedto try authority and got the lamb one so I guess I'll see how she does on that and will let you know.

 

[Riocotesei]

Good luck with the 4health Bock. I plan on trying it when this bag of Authority runs out.
I really love Taste of the Wild though, great stuff.