Blue Buffalo?

[Roxyluvsme13]

Was doing more dog food research since I'm trying to find ways to earn money, and hopefully will have some to put towards the spaying of Lily and the kitties, and putting Roxy on a better dog food. I think this is the highest we have in the area (according to my research) but I was just wondering everyone's opinions on it.

Thanks :).

http://www.petsmart.com/global/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=84552444178 1169&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374302025894&ASSORTMENT%3C%3East_id=2534374302023689&bmUID=1155518470741&itemNo=0&In=Dog&N=2025894&Ne=430

[BitsyNaceyDog]

I feed Blue Buffalo to my dogs up until recently. I was very happy with and my dogs loved it. The only reason I switched is because I used to drive an hour to get it. We recently moved though and we now have pet stores closer to us, but none that sell Blue Buffalo. So I switched to Nutro. I tried to feed Nutro a few years ago but my dogs weren't real big on it. I thought I'd give it another try and this time they're eating it quite well. Nutro is also much cheaper than Blue Buffalo, so I'm pleased. I think we paid around $40 for a 30lb. bag of Blue Buffalo and we now pay $31 for a 40 lb bag for the Nutro. It comes out to $.78/ pound for Nutro and $1.33/ pound for Blue Buffalo.

[Roxyluvsme13]

I feed Blue Buffalo to my dogs up until recently. I was very happy with and my dogs loved it. The only reason I switched is because I used to drive an hour to get it. We recently moved though and we now have pet stores closer to us, but none that sell Blue Buffalo. So I switched to Nutro. I tried to feed Nutro a few years ago but my dogs weren't real big on it. I thought I'd give it another try and this time they're eating it quite well. Nutro is also much cheaper than Blue Buffalo, so I'm pleased. I think we paid around $40 for a 30lb. bag of Blue Buffalo and we now pay $31 for a 40 lb bag for the Nutro. It comes out to $.78/ pound for Nutro and $1.33/ pound for Blue Buffalo.
Ahh, so Nutro's just as good as Blue Buffalo, except cheaper?

[Crazy-Cat-Lover]

Nutro Natural Choice Chicken Meal, Rice & Oatmeal

Top 10 Ingredients:

Chicken Meal
Rice Flour
Ground Rice
Rice Bran
Poultry Fat
Oatmeal
Soybean Oil
Sunflower Oil
Natural Flavor
Dried Beet Pulp.

Blue Buffalo Chicken & Brown Rice

Top 10 Ingredients:

Chicken
Chicken Meal
Whole Ground Brown Rice
Whole Ground Barley
Rye
Oatmeal
Chicken Fat
Whole Carrots
Whole Sweet Potatoes
Ground Flax Seed

Just so you could compare...

[BC_MoM]

I thought rice and flour were bad for dogs? Correct me if I'm wrong. I just get confused with all "what's good" and "what's bad".

[Roxyluvsme13]

It looks as if Blue Buffalo is better.. =/

[K9soul]

I'd personally choose Blue Buffalo out of those two, but Nutro is certainly better than most Purina brands :)

[Roxyluvsme13]

I'd personally choose Blue Buffalo out of those two, but Nutro is certainly better than most Purina brands :)
Okay :). If I can't afford Blue Buffalo at first, Nutro will do I guess. But for now I'm stuck with Pedigree..

[Crazy-Cat-Lover]

I thought rice and flour were bad for dogs? Correct me if I'm wrong. I just get confused with all "what's good" and "what's bad".

I found this info at Natura Pet (http://www.naturapet.com)...


Rice Flour

Rice flour consists principally of the soft, finely ground and bolted meal obtained from milling rice (containing essentially the starch and gluten of the endosperm) together with fine particles of rice bran and the offal from the 'tail of the mill.'

Whenever flour is part of an ingredient's name, the grain has been processed and some (or all) of the nutritional value has been lost. Frequently these flour ingredients are simply the leftover dust from processing human food ingredients.


Rice

Rice is a high quality source of carbohydrates. Rice is the most digestible grain for pet foods and is relatively hypo-allergenic.

[zoomer]

I say Blue Buffalo first, and Nutro second. Ingredients sound better.

[Roxyluvsme13]

I'll see how much money I can get before I make a real decision.. and I'm not 100% sure I've seen Blue buffalo at Petsmart.. Do all of them sell it?

[IRescue452]

For the price, you'd be cheaper going with raw. Another thing about dog foods with veggies and meat is that dogs' stomachs are meant to digest one type of food at once. Wild dogs don't eat a deer with a potato as a side dish. They eat one kind of food at a time and vary the diet from day to day. Rice is helpful for dogs with upset tummies, but most it isn't necessary in dog food. Whole grains of rice are packed with nutrients, but as they are processed they lose most nutritional value. Rice bran and rice flour usually are made in such a way that nutrients are preserved. Nutro doesn't add that they have had food test positive for pentabarbitol, which is a chemical you want to avoid.

[Roxyluvsme13]

For the price, you'd be cheaper going with raw. Another thing about dog foods with veggies and meat is that dogs' stomachs are meant to digest one type of food at once. Wild dogs don't eat a deer with a potato as a side dish. They eat one kind of food at a time and vary the diet from day to day. Rice is helpful for dogs with upset tummies, but most it isn't necessary in dog food. Whole grains of rice are packed with nutrients, but as they are processed they lose most nutritional value. Rice bran and rice flour usually are made in such a way that nutrients are preserved. Nutro doesn't add that they have had food test positive for pentabarbitol, which is a chemical you want to avoid.
But my mom doesn't want to feed Raw anymore.. I'd love to, but she controls whether they eat kibble or Raw. Plus, the meat around here is too high..

[Crazy-Cat-Lover]

Here's a little breakdown of the two brands we're discussing. I added the top 10 ingredients, the price of the biggest bag, and how much it costs per pound.

Natural Choice Chicken & Rice

Top 10 Ingredients:

Chicken Meal
Rice Flour
Ground Rice
Rice Bran
Poultry Fat
Oatmeal
Soybean Oil
Sunflower Oil
Natural Flavor
Dried Beet Pulp

40 Pound Bag: $30.99 works out to $0.77 per pound

Blue Buffalo Chicken & Brown Rice

Top 10 Ingredients:

Chicken
Chicken Meal
Whole Ground Brown Rice
Whole Ground Barley
Rye
Oatmeal
Chicken Fat
Whole Carrots
Whole Sweet Potatoes
Ground Flax Seed

30 Pound Bag: $39.99 works out to be $1.33 per pound

Nutro is much, much cheaper - but Blue Buffalo has better ingredients. You could start with Nutro and see how well Roxy does on it. I know many dogs that are fed Nutro and do fine on it.

Good luck! :D

[BitsyNaceyDog]

I never said Nutro was equivalent to Blue Buffalo, but it is a decent food. I know you are on a budget and Blue Buffalo is a bit pricey. Roxy may do really well on Nutro. I was just giving you something to consider.

[Roxyluvsme13]

Okay. Thanks, everyone. I'll see what I can do.

[MajesticCollies]

Just so everyone knows Nutro has come out with a all natural Holistic food now. Saw it at a visit to PetSmart the other day. Nutro is ummm OK in my book and my sister's collie is doing well on the all natural. I still believe if you look around your area some of the big kennels sell high quality food.

[Giselle]

Yes, but chances are "natural" and "holistic" are simply selling gimmicks. I bet there's not much differences between the normal Nutro and the "natural and holistic" Nutro because "natural" is a very loosely defined term in animal nutrition. Human nutrition is an entirely different subject as the USDA has stricter regulations as to what qualifies as "organic", for example.

Nutro is an okay food, but it is heads and shoulders above Pedigree. Blue Buffalo is a VERY good food, although it is very expensive in comparison to other greyt kibbles out there.

Roxyluvsme13, do you have a specialty feed store anywhere near you? Unless you live out in the sticks or something, you should have one relatively near you... You can try going to each individual company's website and doing an individual search. Naturapet is a good start, as is Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover's Soul (very inexpensive for a very good food!), and Canidae is superb as well. Good Luck! I know you're trying your best and we all appreciate your effort :)

[Roxyluvsme13]

Yes, but chances are "natural" and "holistic" are simply selling gimmicks. I bet there's not much differences between the normal Nutro and the "natural and holistic" Nutro because "natural" is a very loosely defined term in animal nutrition. Human nutrition is an entirely different subject as the USDA has stricter regulations as to what qualifies as "organic", for example.

Nutro is an okay food, but it is heads and shoulders above Pedigree. Blue Buffalo is a VERY good food, although it is very expensive in comparison to other greyt kibbles out there.

Roxyluvsme13, do you have a specialty feed store anywhere near you? Unless you live out in the sticks or something, you should have one relatively near you... You can try going to each individual company's website and doing an individual search. Naturapet is a good start, as is Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover's Soul (very inexpensive for a very good food!), and Canidae is superb as well. Good Luck! I know you're trying your best and we all appreciate your effort :)

Yes, natural and holistic don't phase me too much. Pro Plan has a "natural" food, and it rates about the same I think..

There are local dealers of chicken soup, and canidae near me, the Canidae dealer not too far from my house. Any idea what size their largest bag is, and how much?

[Giselle]

I still feed CSFTDLS from time to time when I get lazy, and I think a 20-something pound bag is around $20.99. I think Canidae is around 40 lbs for $35.99. I'm not too sure about this and the prices might fluctuate from area to area, but this is a good guess.

However, that 20-something pound of CSFTDLS lasted Giselle at least a month, so if you think about it that's less than a dollar a day. I'm sure Roxy doesn't eat as much/more than Gissie because Roxy's rather sedentary and much smaller in size, so that 20-something bag is going to last you at least a month.

[Roxyluvsme13]

I still feed CSFTDLS from time to time when I get lazy, and I think a 20-something pound bag is around $20.99. I think Canidae is around 40 lbs for $35.99. I'm not too sure about this and the prices might fluctuate from area to area, but this is a good guess.

However, that 20-something pound of CSFTDLS lasted Giselle at least a month, so if you think about it that's less than a dollar a day. I'm sure Roxy doesn't eat as much/more than Gissie because Roxy's rather sedentary and much smaller in size, so that 20-something bag is going to last you at least a month.
Ahh, the Canidae dealer is much closer than the Chicken Soup dealer.. I'll have to convince my mom to take a trip there and see. How much do you think Roxy would need? She's eating like 4 cups of Pedigree :eek:

[Tralee]

Dogs will eat less of a higher quality kibble compared to a low quality. Because its not filled with fillers.
Toby was getting 4 cups a day of nutro to maintain his weight, on Canidae he gets 2 cups a day.

[Giselle]

Yup, I agree with Tralee. If Roxy is eating 4 cups of Pedigree, I think she'd do nicely on 2 cups of Canidae. Giselle usually tops at about 2 1/2 cups of CSFTDLS, although I increase her intake to about 3 cups when she's doing strenuous exercise.

How much does Roxy weigh and do you take her for frequent walks? I'm guessing Roxy is around 45 pounds, so if she doesn't do a lot of hard exercise, she should be fine with 2 cups.

[Roxyluvsme13]

Yup, I agree with Tralee. If Roxy is eating 4 cups of Pedigree, I think she'd do nicely on 2 cups of Canidae. Giselle usually tops at about 2 1/2 cups of CSFTDLS, although I increase her intake to about 3 cups when she's doing strenuous exercise.

How much does Roxy weigh and do you take her for frequent walks? I'm guessing Roxy is around 45 pounds, so if she doesn't do a lot of hard exercise, she should be fine with 2 cups.
Wow, that would really save us money on dog food. Ummm, I think she weighs between 45-50, possibly 55 when she's been eating well. (She has a habit of eating her dog food for a while, then she kind of stops, I guess she doesn't like it maybe, but I dunno. She doesn't have any health problems or anything that I know of, and she's pretty active and bouncy.) I try to walk her atleast every 2 days if I can't walk her every day, so, not very much strenous excersize. But she does need to gain some weight, (although she eats like a horse, but she's also naturally skinny) so I might give her 2.5 cups.

[Vela]

Chicken Soup has recently changed its formula and has removed Turkey meal from the ingredient list, supplementing, I'm sure, with more filler. It's still a fine food, but not as good as it used to be. I used that as well up until recently. I also raised cracker on canidae from 8 weeks until a year, when they changed to chicken soup, and he did very well on it. Sometimes adding a little bit of warm water will help them want to eat it more. Glad to see you are thinking things through Bri, it will make a whole lot of difference and the cost would be about the same, since she would eat about half the amount. Both dogs would do very well on the same food also, the pieces are not large so lily would do fine. Would save you on having to buy separate foods too. I would think the bag would probably last you close to a month. It's usually around 1.00 a pound maybe slightly over that, for the canidae.

[Roxyluvsme13]

Chicken Soup has recently changed its formula and has removed Turkey meal from the ingredient list, supplementing, I'm sure, with more filler. It's still a fine food, but not as good as it used to be. I used that as well up until recently. I also raised cracker on canidae from 8 weeks until a year, when they changed to chicken soup, and he did very well on it. Sometimes adding a little bit of warm water will help them want to eat it more. Glad to see you are thinking things through Bri, it will make a whole lot of difference and the cost would be about the same, since she would eat about half the amount. Both dogs would do very well on the same food also, the pieces are not large so lily would do fine. Would save you on having to buy separate foods too. I would think the bag would probably last you close to a month. It's usually around 1.00 a pound maybe slightly over that, for the canidae.
Ahh. I've been needing to switch Lily onto adult food soon anyways, so I'll see what I can convince my mom.

[Zippy]

I feed Iams.Zippy and Pumpkin love it.Bandit(cocker)eats Iams also.

[Roxyluvsme13]

Eeep, I hate Iams, no offense =/. I have a big bag of puppy food that I think I'm going to donate to the shelter. I know I won't be using it. Just mentioned Canidae to my mom, too. She ignored me somewhat.. :rolleyes:.