My 6-year-old Newfoundland was diagnosed with diabetes as well as heart issues AFTER I switched him to Blue Buffalo back in February. Increased thirst, urination, high sugar and now weakness in back legs. Diabetes is almost unheard of in this breed and I can’t help but think the diet change contributed. He was perfectly healthy before this.
We are switching back to his original diet.

We have a minpin that has been getting sicker and sicker since he started this food. Buying something different today!

We started our 5 year old bassett hound beagle cross on BB Wilderness chicken formula 2 months ago. For the past two weeks she had been quite lethargic and within the past week she began drinking an excess amount of water and as such losing control of her bladder and peeing frequently in the house-very out of character for her. We took her to out vet yesterday and they ran bloodwork and urine analysis revealing sky high calcium levels and vitamin D levels-causing the excess thirst. If left untreated can lead to death in dogs. We stopped her immediately of BB and within a day and a half she is nearly back to her old self. We are going back for follow up blood work in 3 weeks and hopefully fingers crossed her levels will be back to normal. Very very scary we thought we were providing a high quality food for our dog who is like our child only to find out we were nearly poisoning her:(

My 4 legged child (100 lbs) had always been on Iams. Always felt it was superior. Began to read about another scare of the China melamine possibility. Reading about even the possibility petrified me. Again, our 4 legged children were being put in harms way. Then, because he is getting older and I have put him on condroflex2 the last few years to help his hips/joints I did extensive research into holistic dog/people food. – He has been on it for about 5 months. I did an immediate switch over – he experienced bowel adjustment for about 3 days – nothing dramatic – and has even lost a couple of pounds. He never misses a meal or snack. Yes, it is more expensive than the run of the mill. However, it is worth every single dollar – it is all about how you view your love and care for you pet family. My only wish could be that you could print a blue buffalo coupon online rather than mailorder. The $5.00 coupon is greatly appreciated.

I tried Blue Buffalo I have 2 Pekignese They both had diarea and vomiting Thae thwe Petland Manaser suggested Taste of the Wild They were sick again and gas with both kinds Vet told me some of the higher quality foods are too high in protein and dogs w sensitive stomachs cant ttolerate them plus they cause pancreitis and or Kidney problems or failure Too many recalls and problems with this new stuff I ve raise 3 Pekignese on Iams and no problems My last of the 3 is here he is 18yrs old artirits some takes meds does ok thyroid alittle high takes meds still plays my new peke is 3 and Winston the 18yr old one pickks up the toys that Antjuan get out and puts them in the toy box some days he ha alittle trouble walking but usually ok I buy a supplement at the pet store that is the chroni and G and put it on their food Im scared of all the recalls and sick dogs Im reading abt some have died Today Im trying Science Diet Adult small Bites They have been around along time with no recalls if this doesnt work its Iams It has worked well enough to keep all my dogs to live healthy till 16 to 18yrs old and maybe longer since Winston is still kicken

We have two Jack Russell Terriers and started them on blue a few months ago. While their coats are beautiful, they are constantly abnormally thirsty and having to urinate. I too noticed one of them trying to eat feces. I feel confident their unusual thirst is linked to Blue as that is when it started.

I have two boxers, one I had since 8 weeks old the other I adopted at 10 months old – I have always had boxers and they are known to have gas and allergy issues with certain foods. I purchase Costco chicken and rice and Buffalo Blue and do a 75% Costco and 25% dry Blue Buffalo Chicken and Rice mix. Both of my boxers have no gas or allergy issues and solid healthy stool. This is also a good way to feed your dogs healthy when you are on a budget. I also recommend feeding two times per day with a 30 minute quiet time after feeding to help with digestion. Dogs are the BEST!

In the information that you have above you mention,
Who Makes Blue Buffalo?
The company who makes Blue Buffalo dog food is called The Blue Buffalo Company. Blue Buffalo is currently headquartered in Wilton, Connecticut.

Blue Buffalo does not make their products in their own facilities, they are outsourced to different companies.

Ainsworth Pet Nutrition, Dumas, AR
ANI/Vita-Line Products, Hazle Township, PA
CJ Foods, Bern, KS
ProPet, St. Mary’s, OH
Triple T Foods, Frontenac, KS
Tuffy’s Pet Foods, Perham, MN

Some Pet food companies who do make their own products in their own facilities are:
Breeder’s Choice
Champion’s Petfoods
Diamond Pet Products
Fromm Family Foods
Hi-Tek Rations
Horizon Pet Nutrition
By Nature
Merrick Pet Foods
Natura Pet Products (Evo, Innova, CA Natural)
Nutro Ultra, NC and Max Pet Food Products
Precise Pet Products
Tuffy’s Pet Foods

I have an 11 week old lab and 10 week old boxer. I gradually switched them to BB large breed puppy food. They love food, but they both get very wet stool and some times diarrhea. The boxer scratches now and the labs coat looks dry and her skin is flaky. Neither one of them had these problems until they got on BB. They ate both going back to vet for check up. I lost my 12 year old boxer last year, I can not deal with more heart ache. These are my babies and I want them to be healthy. What food do I go to?

dangerously too high in protein, my dog was diagnose with kidney failure after being on the wilderness Blue food. Now has to be on a low protein diet for the rest of his life

My three small dogs switched from Iams (small breed) to Blue (small breed) and they’ve been doing great. Their gots shiny and they love the taste. It’s worth the money to me! I also give my dogs Blue jerky treats, which they also love.

Fed BB to our dogs for the past few years. A few months ago we saw alarming symptoms… after a traumatic fight with colitis, we found that the cause was the food (turns out a while back BB changed their ingredients). several vet bills later, we are doing fine on other (ANY other) food (we now feed TOTW). and as trial has proven, switching back to blue will once again produce frequent bloody stool as soon as the blue is graduated to 100%.

Blue Buffalo is simply the best food and best company I have encountered in a 13 year nutrition specialty. It’s the brand I recommend to the vast majority of my clients, and it has worked wonders for my own pets. I discovered this brand several years ago, and even compared to a field of other super premium foods, Blue stands out above the rest.

Wow, this is really scary. My dog is doing OK on this food, but maybe I should switch. I am hearing so many weird things.

Beth, I’m pretty certain it was the BB that made my dog so sick. Since we stopped the food and started him on the medications he is gaining his health back each day. I’m currently doing research to find a reliable, grain free food for him as soon as he is finished with his prescription food.

As for eating poop, I had a dachshund several years ago that did that. I think I remember the vet telling me that she was missing some nutrients. You might want to mention it to your vet or do some online research.

I’ve been feeding my four month old dachshund BB small breed puppy for two weeks now and after a slight adjustment problem she is doing good and loves it. However there are two issues, perhaps not even related to BB. First she is getting very itchy, has clean vet check, no problems. Second she has started trying to eat her poop, she quickly turns around and attempts to eat it before I can say leave it! would like to know your thoughts on these two things. Any suggestions on stopping this behavior would certainly be appreciated.

I have been feeding my 9 yr old dachshund Blue Buffalo Life Protection Formula for Healthy Weight for almost 4 years and never had a problem. I had immense trust in this company but that is no longer the case. We recently purchased a new bag right after Christmas and about a week later my dog started having diarreah and trouble moving his bowels. It was obvious that going to the bathroom was a very uncomfortable thing for him. Then this past Saturday he woke up lethargic and unable to move. He walked slowly as if in pain. I took him to the vet yesterday and they ran blood tests. Turns out his liver enzymes are very high. The vet said that there was another dog in earler that day with the same exact symptoms and also had been fed Blue Buffalo. Coincidence? I don’t think so. So my pet is now on 3 different medications to try and repair the damage done to his liver.

We have contacted PetSmart and they have agreed to refund the full price of the food, even without the bag or receipt. We are working to contact the company to let them know that there is definitely something wrong with this food. I will never trust their product again.

Two days ago, Christmas Eve we had to euthanize our beloved 6 year-old German shepherd due to lethal levels of vitamin D in Blue Buffalo’s Chicken/brown rice large breed dog food. About four weeks ago he abruptly stopped eating and started drinking large amounts of water and producing large amounts of dilute urine. His apatite would improve then disappear eventually he refused to eat. Our vet had little answers and eventually ran blood work finding he was in the initial stages of renal failure. They also found elevated blood calcium and urine analysis found calcium phosphate crystals. X-rays could not find any bladder or kidney stones. Out of desperation he was eventually hospitalized, IV fluids were forced in an attempt to clear his kidneys however after 24 hours (Christmas Eve) we had to have our beloved dog euthanized.
Our dog was an indoor dog never wondered outside our fenced yard was walked regularly on the leash and was always in close contact with us and could not have ingested a poison or toxin. Our second dog a 16 year-old Malamute was not fed a Blue Buffalo product and did not suffer any of these symptoms. I have little doubt that the Blue Buffalo product contained lethal levels of vitamin D producing hypercalcemia and eventually inducing renal failure killing our dog.
We trusted our wonderful dog with this expensive premium dog food. My wife and I are trying to move ahead after this difficult loss while having to deal with the frustration and disgust for this companies lack of responsibility. We urge any dog owner to avoid all Blue Buffalo products and strongly recommend monitoring all FDA recalls had we done this I’m convinced our dog would be with us today.
CJ

When I adopted my dog, the shelter was feeding him Science Diet. I immediately switched Bailey from this food over to Blue Buffalo. I am embarrased to say that we did not do it gradually, but I guess that we are lucky because we did not have any problems at all. I guess that’s why this dog can eat dead animals that other dogs have ignored because they are so old. He just has a stomach made of lead.

So I guess I am not a good person to judge, but I just wanted to say that my dog is doing good on it.

I tried this food for both of my dogs (GSD and pooble), both of them liked the food but had a bad case of farting and stomache issues… i went to three VETs and all of them said that they have several cases like my experience with BB.. i got my dogs off of it and back to my old food.

this is just my two cents.

PRO PLAN??? One of the LOWEST foods on the market? WOW. BUYER BEWARE

Do you work for Purina?

I breed Akitas. I had my babies on Pro Plan to start then I got a wild hair and decided to feed Blue Buffalo. Where should I begin. I properly mixed in until they were switched then they had loose stool and vomiting. They were lethargic and they have always been perfectly healthy. Well I immediatley switched back to Pro Plan and the problems went away within one day. I will never switch my babies food again.

My dogs had mild seasonal allergies and are starting to age (beagle/pitt mix 13 years and border terrier mix 7 years). My vet suggested that maybe I switch to holistic food. I thought that it would be good since it’s just healthier for them all around. So several months later I started reading up on the brands I had heard before (Blue, Natura, Eagle Pack, etc.). Most of my searching was on sites like about.com, at that time I didn’t know that most websites are biased and enhance certain brands! After a couple days of reading and seeing commercials and receiving a $5 off coupon I decided on Blue Buffalo. Well I gradually and slowly switched as directed mixing the new food with their reg. food (Iams ProActive, which I have never had problems with). First I noticed their stool became softer, I didn’t do anything because I thought that might be normal due to the change in food. Then they started having terrible smelling gas. Then the loose stool turned into diarrhea, and finally when I had completely switched my dogs started throwing up in the mornings. After this they started displaying a disinterest in the food and didn’t want to eat it. First the vomit was just yellowish mucus and then they were throwing up the food and some blood! I became concerned, took my dogs to the vet and immediately went online to see if others were having problems too. I just typed in “my dogs are throwing up after eating Blue Buffalo”, and to my surprise there were tons of blogs and reviews saying the same thing and much worse. I went to the Consumer Reports site and felt sick after reading the reviews on Blue Buffalo. It is NOT what I thought it was and there is a lot of false advertisement on this big brand. There are ingredients in this food that are inferior and extremely high levels of certain vitamins can become toxic at those levels for your pet. They also use other very bad hidden ingredients to preserve that even big shelf brands aren’t allowed to use. I just wanted to warn anyone thinking of using this terrible brand, it might be okay for some dogs but it is deadly and costly after going to the vet for others. I did more research with un-biased non advertising sites and switched cold turkey (which I hated to do but there was no other option) to Acana. I found absolutely nothing negative about Champion brands Acana and Orijen. My dogs immediately became more interested in their food and all bad symptoms stopped after the new food was processed. Their stool is hard and smaller with this food. I don’t know which holistic food you will decide to choose for your loved one, but be wary of Blue Buffalo. They have had several recalls as well.

As a pet parent I believe that a reputable company should be willing and able to answer my specific inquiries. I contacted Blue Buffalo with a number of questions. They responded quickly with a “copy and paste’ of their usual sales “schtick”. I could have gotten that online. They seemed too eager to give me the brush off. While quality matters so does how I am treated as a consumer.

I was feeding my cat the Blue Buffalo flaked chicken, turkey, and salmon canned foods. Recently, when I purchased some cans in February and they were almost all water. This is supposed to be a flaked food with a little liquid in the can. I mean there were 4 or 5 pieces of food floating in a liquid. This happened 3 times.

When I called Blue they told me they were made at different locations. I never heard anything more from them. I don’t want coupons for more crappy food, but a nice letter and some sort of assurance they were working on the problem would be nice.

I don’t think they are working on the problem. I just bought some of the flaked salmon (June 2011) and it’s all liquid. I’m not even going to bother calling them. I understand things can go wrong but as a Company I have no faith in them. As soon as I can find a better flaked or cubed food that my 10-year old can likes and can digest, I’m switching. They don’t seem to care about quality. It’s a shame because I think they have a good product.

ELC, every dog is different so it is quite possible your dog’s did not need the high amount of protein that is in BB. However, like most natural dog foods on this site, you can not just blame a dog food for what happened when you obviously did not do your research on the food and did not talk to your vet before switching. So, if you have 100% proof that your dog’s died because of BB and NOT because your dog’s could not handle the high protein diet (in which case any high protein dog food would have killed your dog’s you just happened to be using BB) then I am sure we would all love to read into it so we can make a better decision on which dog food to use.

Having large dogs, I appreciate Blue Buffalo’s large breed formula, which includes glucosomine and chondroytin among the ingredients. I also appreciate that natural ingredients are used, it is relatively high in protein, does not use corn or fillers and is resonably priced compared to its competition. Oh, did I mention that my dogs love it?

Very good food and very small stools when fed to your dog. They have VERY strict quality control and the recall in 2010 was over something very tiny that wouldn’t hurt your dog if it continued to eat the food. I admire the company for being so particular.

No by-products, no corn, little grain if any at all, and many formulas.

Blue Buffalo also had a recall in December of 2010. Though it was labeled “voluntary” it still matters when you can’t get the calcium ratio right. Had Michigan States’ VTH not found there mistake in a research study, one wonders how long it would have taken Blue Buffalo to realize they had a problem that made many dogs sick nationwide. I don’t have to worry because I feed my dogs a diet that I make from the same quality ingredients that I eat. It amazes me that publications like The Whole Dog Journal gives them a high rating especially since their recall in 2007.