# Blue Buffalo food questions



## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

I would do the large breed puppy until she's at least 8 months old. 

With our Jacks, we switched to adult food when he was a year old. 

Our breeder actually wanted us to switch earlier (like 5 months), but I didn't really want to do that.


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## mylissyk (Feb 25, 2007)

BB Wilderness is a grain free variety. I don't think adult Goldens need the large breed variety, just regular adult formula.


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

Oh. About the large breed dog food... it depends? 

While your dog continues to develop (until 2 or 3), it might be helpful, because I think the large breed kibble has higher levels of glucosamine, etc... in it.


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## Momx3 (Aug 18, 2010)

Our breeder told us she wanted us to go through one large bag of large breed puppy food (we are using Blue Buff as well) and then switch them to adult food. I was worried because even with the giant 30 pound bag we won't be anywhere near 1 year which is when I thought I was supposed to switch. I asked my vet about it and she agreed with the breeder. They are both VERY into the grow them slow idea.


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## Enzos_Mom (Apr 8, 2010)

The large breed food is also supposed to have lower calories, I believe, to help with slow growth. Is your other dog on Blue? If you're a new customer, you should go to their website. If you sign up, they'll mail you a $5 off coupon. Enzo was on Blue for awhile and did great on it until they had a formula change. I'm sure he would've done fine with the formula change if we'd known about it, but since we didn't, I wasn't able to switch gradually. His tummy is super sensitive. Another thing you could look at is the possibility of an all life stages food. That's what Enzo is on now. Then, you wouldn't have to worry about when to switch her because the food would be appropriate for her no matter what age she is.


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## tippykayak (Oct 27, 2008)

LBP food is smart for GR puppies because it can lower the risk of bone issues caused by fast growth. It has lower levels of calcium and phosphorus than regular puppy and adult food, and it's usually a little lower calorie by volume.

The way to avoid growth problems is to keep calories reasonable (a lean pup is a healthy pup) and to keep calcium and phosphorus levels at or below normal adult levels.

The risks are much lower in GRs than in giant breed dogs (slow growth is CRUCIAL in Great Danes, for example), but they're there.


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## Adriennelane (Feb 13, 2008)

We switched both of the girls off of large breed puppy when they were around six months old. With Blue Buffalo, you have to switch very slowly and gradually. The girls eat either BB Wilderness Duck or Salmon now. Dory especially seems to be doing better on the grain-free. I don't get them the chicken flavor, because Dory doesn't do well with most chicken flavors either.


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## Enzos_Mom (Apr 8, 2010)

Oh, also, before Enzo was on an ALS food, I think I switched him to the adult food at about 6-7 months, per the recommendation of a lot of people here. He was on Chicken Soup LBP and I put him on Chicken Soup LBA. He wasn't on it very long, though, because I ended up switching him to the Fromm 4 star line.


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## xSLZx (Jul 25, 2010)

Ok good to know. My other dog isn't on blue buffalo, he's never had a set food. I need to just get one and stick with it. He's picky though and i can't seem to find that one food that he loves. I might give BB a try for him too. That's one bad thing about having a small dog and a big dog. I'd love to just feed them the same thing, it'd be so much easier.


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## Enzos_Mom (Apr 8, 2010)

Have you looked at the Fromm ALS foods?? Blue Buffalo has great ingredients, but I keep hearing about more and more dogs having stomach issues on the food.


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## walexk (Nov 13, 2009)

I am just changing Gable over to ALB Blue Buffalo. This is day three of the change. I am still at 2/3 old food, 1/3 new. I would have stayed on Eukanuba ALB but with the nationwide shortage, I had to make a change to another brand. I hope I made the right choice.


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## golden_daisy (Aug 10, 2010)

Daisy is 4 months (17 weeks) and is on Blue Large Breed Puppy food. She does really well on it now. we had some tummy troubles early on, but she went from a raw meat diet at the breeders house to Blue at ours and we didn't know enough to switch gradually. Our vet told us to keep her on Large Breed Puppy food until 6-8 months old then switch her to adult food. I didn't know you had to switch them slowly to adult food from puppy food, so I'll keep that in the back of my head since we'll be switching in the next 2-4 months. 

We haven't tried any other brand for her, she's adjusted great and she LOVES her food!


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## tippykayak (Oct 27, 2008)

I just bought two bags of Eukanuba food yesterday. It may be that some of the shortages are local, rather than national.

I know that there's still some supply issues with a few lines of foods from the factories that were voluntarily closed until the salmonella risks could be dealt with, but the pet store here in CT was fully stocked with Euk stuff as of yesterday.


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## walexk (Nov 13, 2009)

tippykayak said:


> I just bought two bags of Eukanuba food yesterday. It may be that some of the shortages are local, rather than national.
> 
> I know that there's still some supply issues with a few lines of foods from the factories that were voluntarily closed until the salmonella risks could be dealt with, but the pet store here in CT was fully stocked with Euk stuff as of yesterday.


Petsmart had stock this week but they said they only had two weeks of supplies nationally and weren't expecting any until spring. They said that they are totally renovating the plant that makes both Eukanuba and Iams to bring it up to standards so that they will be better able to detect a salmonella outbreak in the future. 
Didn't want to take the chance so I changed to Blue Buffalo and so far have had no issues.


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## Kmullen (Feb 17, 2010)

My golden is now 18 months old and has been on blue buffalo since she started eating! I brought her home at 8 weeks and bought a big bag of Large Breed (orange) puppy food....30 lb and I went with the breeders recommendations to switch after 1 bag to the adult large breed food. She has done great. She did not really go through an awkward stage. Her growth was great, her coat is great, and best yet she loves the food. This diet change is not something that breeders just made up. Breeders use this because they are going by other breeders that have been breeding for more years than I am old!  They are doing what has worked best and what has had the best result. I did try the wilderness...the protein is a little higher! She runs in hunt tests and is very active so I wanted to go with a higher protein, but she is now back to the original. I do add Nupro and vitamin C to her food to help her "Show" hair. Hope this helps.


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## tippykayak (Oct 27, 2008)

walexk said:


> Petsmart had stock this week but they said they only had two weeks of supplies nationally and weren't expecting any until spring. They said that they are totally renovating the plant that makes both Eukanuba and Iams to bring it up to standards so that they will be better able to detect a salmonella outbreak in the future.
> Didn't want to take the chance so I changed to Blue Buffalo and so far have had no issues.


I don't think that's true, though. The salmonella contamination was discovered in two factories that only produced certain specialized lines of food.

Maybe they're innovating at other factories too, but it doesn't seem like a good business decision to me to halt all production across the board to do all the factories at once, even the ones that didn't have any problems.

Also, there's no Iams shortage, right? If they were really shutting production across the board, Iams would be in short supply too.

Like I said, my personal experience at the pet store (independent chain, not one of the biggies) was that they were fully or almost fully stocked with all the Eukanuba lines they usually carry. I buy a line (Premium Performance) that's not always in stock, and they still had it.


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## msdogs1976 (Dec 21, 2007)

tippykayak said:


> I don't think that's true, though. The salmonella contamination was discovered in two factories that only produced certain specialized lines of food.
> 
> Maybe they're innovating at other factories too, but it doesn't seem like a good business decision to me to halt all production across the board to do all the factories at once, even the ones that didn't have any problems.
> 
> ...


My Walmart store had a sign up about a shortage on Iams too. And there were none on the shelf. One poster on another board said the manager at their Petco store indicated Iams would also be in short supply. 

I wonder how many plants they have to produce Iams and Eukanuba? Does seem crazy to shut production in all plants for several months. People will be forced to try other brands and many will stick with those. Seems like you would update one plant at a time and keep production rolling. But, if they they suspect bad problems at all plants, maybe that is all they can do. I got to think they will keep some production going on basic Eukanuba and Iams products.


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## tippykayak (Oct 27, 2008)

msdogs1976 said:


> My Walmart store had a sign up about a shortage on Iams too. And there were none on the shelf. One poster on another board said the manager at their Petco store indicated Iams would also be in short supply.
> 
> I wonder how many plants they have to produce Iams and Eukanuba? Does seem crazy to shut production in all plants for several months. People will be forced to try other brands and many will stick with those. Seems like you would update one plant at a time and keep production rolling. But, if they they suspect bad problems at all plants, maybe that is all they can do. I got to think they will keep some production going on basic Eukanuba and Iams products.


Hmmm...

I wonder if they really felt there were serious concerns about the possibility for more contamination. Maybe they felt it was a problem with their practices, not just with those two plants, and they really want to fix it completely without risking getting any dogs sick.

I don't typically expect that much sacrifice of profit in the name of responsibility from a big company, but it's not impossible. Maybe they think the long-term goal of having the reputation as the brand that never gets any dogs sick is worth the risks of short term closures and the resulting shortages.


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## walexk (Nov 13, 2009)

tippykayak said:


> I don't think that's true, though. The salmonella contamination was discovered in two factories that only produced certain specialized lines of food.
> 
> Maybe they're innovating at other factories too, but it doesn't seem like a good business decision to me to halt all production across the board to do all the factories at once, even the ones that didn't have any problems.
> 
> ...


You are absolutely right, it is not a good business decision and yes, there is an Iams shortage as well. I am not making this up. I have even gotten e-mails from Petsmart that state the shortage and suggest other brands to use.


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

> I don't typically expect that much sacrifice of profit in the name of responsibility from a big company, but it's not impossible. Maybe they think the long-term goal of having the reputation as the brand that never gets any dogs sick is worth the risks of short term closures and the resulting shortages.


I assume that a lot of companies have changed the way they do things because of what happened with melanine (or whatever) from China. It broke the trust most people have in their dog food providers, especially those who have been consistently buying higher priced foods with the expectation that they are better than others. 

About the salmonella issue - it wasn't so much the danger to the dogs, that I remember from the news (it was all over the news). It was the concerns about the health of the owners and their kids handling the tainted kibble.


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## tippykayak (Oct 27, 2008)

Megora said:


> I assume that a lot of companies have changed the way they do things because of what happened with melanine (or whatever) from China. It broke the trust most people have in their dog food providers, especially those who have been consistently buying higher priced foods with the expectation that they are better than others.
> 
> About the salmonella issue - it wasn't so much the danger to the dogs, that I remember from the news (it was all over the news). It was the concerns about the health of the owners and their kids handling the tainted kibble.


Yeah, and people liability is way, way higher than dog liability. If a company kills a dog through negligence, their liability is limited to the explicit value of the dog (a couple of thousand dollars tops). Kill or sicken a person, and the liability has basically no upper limit. It could literally be millions.

It's important to note that nobody got sick in the Iams/Eukanuba recall. Their routine testing found contamination, and they recalled all the food and closed the factories. It was never found in a bag of the actual food, and nobody, canine or human, got sick.


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## tippykayak (Oct 27, 2008)

walexk said:


> You are absolutely right, it is not a good business decision and yes, there is an Iams shortage as well. I am not making this up. I have even gotten e-mails from Petsmart that state the shortage and suggest other brands to use.


Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to imply that you were making it up. Quite the opposite. I just thought it improbable that they had stopped production entirely.

It seems to be regional...so maybe it's a bunch of factories in some areas of the country and not others?


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## firedancer722 (Apr 12, 2010)

The manager at my Petsmart told me they were going to be way understocked on Euk and Iams for the next several months. He said specifically "if I fed my dogs (or cats) that food, I'd go ahead and start transitioning to something else, now." I took his advice and switched Charlie over to Purina Pro Plan ALS Chicken & Rice (not the shredded kind). He has done fine with the switch and seems to enjoy the food (however, there's really only been ONE food that Charlie didn't like - Acana). I don't know yet whether I'll go back to Euk when they get production back to full speed. I guess it just depends on how Charlie does on the Pro Plan for these several months. 

On a side note: My cats are on Iams... I am hoping beyond hope that I can still get their food because they have done SOO well on it and they both like it a lot. As of now, they have plenty of their "formula" at Petsmart and Wal-Mart, too. Keeping my fingers crossed!


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## Adriennelane (Feb 13, 2008)

walexk said:


> You are absolutely right, it is not a good business decision and yes, there is an Iams shortage as well. I am not making this up. I have even gotten e-mails from Petsmart that state the shortage and suggest other brands to use.



I imagine it still looks more appealing than a class-action lawsuit or congressional investigation. I could see both coming to be if measures weren't taken.


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## tippykayak (Oct 27, 2008)

Adriennelane said:


> I imagine it still looks more appealing than a class-action lawsuit or congressional investigation. I could see both coming to be if measures weren't taken.


Not if no dogs or people got sick. There's another, smaller, "premium" manufacturer whose food is mysteriously sickening dogs (don't want to use the name right now because I can't remember if it is who I think it is), and they're in much more danger than P&G right now.

Edited to add:

It is, in fact, Blue Buffalo that's mysteriously giving dogs Vitamin D toxicosis and hypercalcemia right now. No cause has been found, so far as I know, but all the dogs that were switched off the food began to recover immediately. No recall has been issued, but at least a dozen dogs have become seriously ill.

http://news.vin.com/VINNews.aspx?articleId=16468


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## Pete Townsend (Aug 26, 2010)

tippykayak said:


> LBP food is smart for GR puppies because it can lower the risk of bone issues caused by fast growth. It has lower levels of calcium and phosphorus than regular puppy and adult food, and it's usually a little lower calorie by volume.
> 
> The way to avoid growth problems is to keep calories reasonable (a lean pup is a healthy pup) and to keep calcium and phosphorus levels at or below normal adult levels.
> 
> The risks are much lower in GRs than in giant breed dogs (slow growth is CRUCIAL in Great Danes, for example), but they're there.


Can you define lean pup? If I look at her (edited to add by "her" I meant my 8 month old Sugar) from the side he chest tapers down to her belly. From the top, she has a bulge at the chest and a waist near the tail. Gosh I should just post a couple of pics. At one point I saw diagrams on the web showing healthly weight and what they should look like but I can't for the life of me find them.


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## Adriennelane (Feb 13, 2008)

I've seen that. I don't have either of my girls on the chicken wilderness, and if they even began to start acting a little off, I would rush them to the vet and check out the food.


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## AquaClaraCanines (Mar 5, 2006)

All mine are eating Blue Wilderness right now. It's grain free, and it's a really great food! I have outstanding results and my dogs do hard core performance racing and coursing the majority of weekends in the fall and winter.


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## tippykayak (Oct 27, 2008)

Pete Townsend said:


> Can you define lean pup? If I look at her (edited to add by "her" I meant my 8 month old Sugar) from the side he chest tapers down to her belly. From the top, she has a bulge at the chest and a waist near the tail. Gosh I should just post a couple of pics. At one point I saw diagrams on the web showing healthly weight and what they should look like but I can't for the life of me find them.


Check this link for the chart and some accompanying text that can help. That info comes from the Purina long term study on healthy weight that found that dogs kept at ideal weight lived almost 2 years longer than dogs that were even moderately obese. They also experienced an almost 2 year delay in many geriatric conditions like arthritis. That's almost two more healthy years you can have with your dog if you just keep an eye on the food! It's the single most effective, straightforward thing you can do for your dog.

We go round and round and round on this forum about which foods are best, but a dog fed the worst AAFCO approved food, but kept at a healthy weight will live dramatically longer (on average) than a dog fed super-duper premium foods but allowed to become obese.

Even cancer rates are higher in obese dogs! The causal link isn't fully understood, but it's been clearly observed.

On GRs, some of the visual aspects are misleading because dogs have such different amounts of coat. A hands-on approach is usually best.

You want to be able to feel the ribs with very gentle pressure. That's a key one. If you have to push hard, the dog is too heavy. If there's no fat at all (it just feels like skin over the bones) and the ribs are showing or jutting, the dog is too thin. In a lean dog, the ribs may show a teeny bit when the dog is wet or stretched out in a run or nap. That's OK. The lean side of ideal is the good side.

You also want to be able to see or feel a definite waist between the last ribs and the hips.

You should also be able to feel hip bones and the bumps of the spine. If you can see hip bones or vertebrae jutting out, the dog is too thin. In a lean dog, there's typically at least a thin layer of fat over the hip bones. In an ideal weight dog, there's a moderate layer of fat. Fat collects in this area, so it's a great place to feel around. If there's a big fat deposit on the top of the dog, between the hips, it's too much. If you have trouble feeling the hips at all, the dog is incredibly obese.

From the side, you should be able to see a tuck at the waist if the dog isn't too shaggy.


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## tippykayak (Oct 27, 2008)

AquaClaraCanines said:


> All mine are eating Blue Wilderness right now. It's grain free, and it's a really great food! I have outstanding results and my dogs do hard core performance racing and coursing the majority of weekends in the fall and winter.


Eek! The Chicken Wilderness one is the one that is making those dogs sick. They think it may be idiosyncratic (i.e., some unique problem with a small number of dogs individual systems), but keep an eye out for the symptoms of Vitamin D toxicosis (drinking excessive water is the first sign, I think).


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## Adriennelane (Feb 13, 2008)

AquaClaraCanines said:


> All mine are eating Blue Wilderness right now. It's grain free, and it's a really great food! I have outstanding results and my dogs do hard core performance racing and coursing the majority of weekends in the fall and winter.



My girls switch between Duck and Salmon Wilderness. I stay away from the chicken though for Dory's sake.


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## AquaClaraCanines (Mar 5, 2006)

I mix all three in a huge barrel. No problems here, and my dogs are with me 24/7. I may skip the chicken next round just in case, though.


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## walexk (Nov 13, 2009)

*Recall*

They just today issued a recall and it is including certain lots of Large Breed Chicken. Here is the link to the recall info.
http://www.goldenretrieverforum.com...formation/85976-some-blue-buffalo-brands.html


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## tippykayak (Oct 27, 2008)

AquaClaraCanines said:


> I mix all three in a huge barrel. No problems here, and my dogs are with me 24/7. I may skip the chicken next round just in case, though.


They just issued a recall on particular runs of food, so I bet if you check that, you'll be fine.


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## LakeShoreDrive (Jul 25, 2010)

Does anyone have an opinion on which of the Blue Buffalo puppy foods are the "mildest" in terms of digestion and stool? My 5 month old Bolly just won't firm up on the BB Large Breed Formula for Puppies. What is unique about the Large Breed formula that he would not be getting if we switch to the Puppy Chicken/Brown Rice or Lamb/Oatmeal?

Thanks for any experiences and guidance!!


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## tippykayak (Oct 27, 2008)

LakeShoreDrive said:


> Does anyone have an opinion on which of the Blue Buffalo puppy foods are the "mildest" in terms of digestion and stool? My 5 month old Bolly just won't firm up on the BB Large Breed Formula for Puppies. What is unique about the Large Breed formula that he would not be getting if we switch to the Puppy Chicken/Brown Rice or Lamb/Oatmeal?
> 
> Thanks for any experiences and guidance!!


LBP blends tend to be a little lower in calories and fat, so they'd probably be a bit milder than the other blends. They also have lower amounts of calcium and phosphorus than regular puppy food or adult food since too much of those nutrients has been linked to growth problems in fast growing dogs.


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