# Blue Buffalo Life Protection any good?



## rtloeffler (Apr 4, 2018)

So i have a German Shepherd Lab mix but definitely has a lot more GSD in him than anything. He's about 9 weeks right now and is eating dry food. I was wondering if anyone else feeds their dog Blue Buffalo Life Protection Puppy formula or has any thoughts on it? He's gaining weight regularly, though he's on the small size at 9 weeks he weighs about 12.5 pounds. He's fed 3 times a day about a half cup each meal and at night i add a bit of cooked chicken to his food. Any advice would be great this is my first German Shepherd, had labs my whole life.


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## wolfy dog (Aug 1, 2012)

BB has a lot of problems. My previous vet who even recommended Purina (!!) told me to never feed BB due to the stomach problem he had seen .


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## Magwart (Jul 8, 2012)

They have a history of getting caught fibbing about what's in the bag. 

About 10 years ago they crowed in ads about the quality of their ingredients, and then they got caught with melamine-contaminated rice from China in the big recall. Another Pet Food Ingredient Is Contaminated by Chemical

Then more recently, they advertised no by-products in their food and got caught having sold food containing by-products -- for years! https://www.petfoodindustry.com/art...-blue-buffalo-settle-lawsuits-after-two-years

As issues came out of low-quality things that were in the bag that weren't on the label, they always seem to need to blame dishonest suppliers, but the bottom line to me as a consumer seems to be poor control over their supply chain, and an unwillingness to take responsibility for their sourcing, testing, and quality control.

Basically, they've appeared to be either lying or negligent in their representations to customers...more than once! Either way, I'm not interested in buying it.

OP, do you have an independent pet food store in your town (not Petco/Petsmart -- a mom-and-pop little store). If so, they'll likely sell Fromm Gold Large Breed Puppy. This is a multi-generation family that's produced pet food since the early 1900s. They own their own plant, take ingredient sourcing very seriously (and post where each ingredient comes from on their website), and they've never had a major recall. They're private, so they're not aiming to impress Wall Street with numbers next quarter -- they run a business based on long-term customer relationships. When you call them, a nice person in their office will take your call and help you get answers to ANYTHING you want to know about their food -- I literally got a call back from the #2 guy in the company when the lady on the phone didn't know the answer to my question once. They only sell through independent stores and Petflow.com -- no chain stores.


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## rtloeffler (Apr 4, 2018)

Thanks for all the replies, looking into the FROMM brand.


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## atjurhs (Apr 10, 2018)

btw, Taste of the Wild is also made by Diamond, i would never feed any Diamond product to any of my dogs!

Fromm is great stuff! it's made at a dog food farm, not a production factory. also look into Wellness Core (you can get it from Amazon delivered to your door). i've found Wellness Core is a bit cheaper, but not by much


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## Muskeg (Jun 15, 2012)

I am a big Canidae fan. I buy All Life Stages, the 44 lb bag. As far as I know they've had no recalls, and their food is quality and independent.

Blue is an OK food, but way overpriced and has had a bunch of suspect activities. I don't feed it and won't. Blue was bought by General Mills recently. General Mills has done a good job staying hands-off and maintaining quality for some brands I like- Lara Bar and Annie's Natural- so we'll see what happens. 

I also know breeders and sport dog people who feed Purina Pro Plan with very healthy dogs. If I needed to, I'd consider Purina Pro Plan, it's not bad.


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## Magwart (Jul 8, 2012)

atjurhs said:


> Fromm is great stuff! it's made at a dog food farm, not a production factory.



Alas, there's no way to "farm" kibble on a "dog food farm." Kibble is made by an extrusion process using high heat, in a factory.

I feed 2 of mine Fromm and know the company well. The Fromm family owns their own plants (= factories) in Wisconsin, which they use for all their kibble production. They invested in state-of-the-art quality control, and exercise extremely strict control over ingredient sourcing. This page describes how their food is made:
https://frommfamily.com/about/food-safety/


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## Pytheis (Sep 23, 2016)

FWIW, I feed Taste of the Wild, as it is the only food that doesn't cause allergy issues in my dog. I tried feeding Fromm to 3 different dogs... They all HATED it, and it made two of them sick. I know it's a great food; it just didn't work for my dogs. Funny how that happens. Never had any issues with TOTW.


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## GandalfTheShepherd (May 1, 2017)

I would probably feed almost anything besides Blue Buffalo. They are a horrible company and lie about what goes into their food.. my puppy got heavy metal poisoning from their puppy food. You should look into commercial raw or homemade raw if you have the resources, it's great!


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## WIBackpacker (Jan 9, 2014)

@rtloeffler , we actually have an entire subforum with a giant archive of recall and product quality discussions: 

Food/treat recalls - German Shepherd Dog Forums

If you search that forum a bit, you'll see years of history on food recalls and issues, with links to more info. Lots of things to consider, there.


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## atjurhs (Apr 10, 2018)

Taste of the Wild is also made by Diamond. Diamond dog food factory's have been shut down for health code violations several times


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## atjurhs (Apr 10, 2018)

Magwart said:


> Alas, there's no way to "farm" kibble on a "dog food farm." Kibble is made by an extrusion process using high heat, in a factory.


but i think you understood what i was trying to say in my not as exact words, right?


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