With there being a large amount of controversy around Blue Buffalo dog food right now, we have seen more and more people reaching out with various questions about the brand and if they should be giving Blue Buffalo dog food to their dogs.
One of the more common questions that we have noticed people asking recently is do vets recommend Blue Buffalo?
As we have seen so many people reaching out and asking about Blue Buffalo dog food and if vets actually recommend it or not, we have decided to publish our own dedicated article on the topic.
Our main hope is that we will be able to help as many of our readers as possible who are considering using Blue Buffalo as their primary dog food and help you make a more informed decision on the quality of the food.
Although our regular readers will already be aware, we usually recommend that you try to use a custom made dog food for your dog that has been specifically designed to meet its nutritional requirements.
If you order using the monthly subscription services then the custom, tailor made dog food services can work out to be a similar price to some of the best off the shelf dog foods too.
Do Vets Recommend Blue Buffalo?
The majority of veterinarians do not recommend Blue Buffalo as there have been a number of times when Blue Buffalo has changed the ingredients in their dog food without adding anything to the packaging to indicate that the recipe has been changed.
Due to almost half of all dogs having some type of allergen that is commonly found in dog foods, this did cause the Blue Buffalo brand to lost a large amount of trust amongst the community.
Although Blue Buffalo has not broken the law in any way and they are free to change the ingredients in their dog foods, it would have been better if they clearly labelled “New Recipe” on their products after the change.
As this has happened multiple times, the majority of veterinarians see this as a potential risk when competing dog food brands who vets actually recommend have a much better track record for making changes to their recipes.
Our allergin charge above shows the main food types and the relative percentage of dogs with allergins to them.
A huge number of dog owners are still not aware that so many dogs can have such a wide range of allergies to their food but swapping in dairy products into a dog food mix is becoming increasingly popular.
As around 17% of dogs do have allergies to dairy products this can easily take a previously fine dog food recipe and make it unsuitable for a large number of dogs.
What Is The Healthiest Dog Food Recommended By Vets?
The three most commonly recommended dog foods by veterinarians are Hill's Science Diet followed by Royal Canin with more and more vets recommending a custom dog food as the services improve.
We were unable to find a single veterinarian across all surveys that we could find who recommended Blue Buffalo dog food.
The most commonly recommended dog food by veterinarians was Hill's Science Diet due to it having the best reputation amongst dog owners due to using the best possible ingredients and having consistently stuck to them for decades it is not surprising that so many vets choose it.
The second most commonly recommended dog food was Royal Canin due to similar reasons to why so many vets have chosen to recommend the various Hill’s dog food products.
Although they are a relatively new service so many of the surveys on the dog foods that vets recommend were conducted before they were even available, tailored made dog foods are quickly becoming the standard, especially if your dog has any health conditions.
On top of that, you are also able to use a Pet Food Intolerance Test on your dog to workout exactly what foods your dog has allergies to and customise the dog foods you feed your dog to avoid anything that may cause issues.
Is Blue Buffalo Actually Good For Your Dog?
Although Blue Buffalo dog food gets a bad rap, it can be one of the better options for your dog at that price point in the market.
A large number of dog owners are on a budget and Blue Buddalo does tend to be one of the more popular options within the price range of most of our readers with it usually offering everything your dog needs.
We have a dedicated article going over the blue buffalo diarrhea theory that a number of dog owners have but as we covered earlier in this article, it is usually due to the dog food having clearly labeled ingredients in it that your dog has allergies too rather than the actual dog food brand causing your dog to vomit or have diarrhea.
The thing that goes against Blue Buffalo here is that they have changed the ingredients in their products multiple times and although they update the ingredients chart on the food, they don’t make it obvious that there has been an ingredient change to the food resulting in some dogs ending up with diarrhea and vomiting.
This is why we usually recommend that any of our readers looking for a dog food product for their dogs at the price point of the Blue Buffalo range actually go with Taste Of The Wild rather than Blue Buffalo.
Taste Of The Wild have a great reputation and also retail their products at a similar price point to Blue Buffalo making them the ideal alternative.
Why Is Blue Buffalo Not Recommended?
The main reason that veterinarians do not recommend Blue Buffalo is due to the seemingly random changes to the ingredients in the dog food noticed with minimum notice being given to their customers.
There have also been a small number of issues with quality control too but this has since been corrected.
In such a competitive market where there are much better options out there for veterinarians to recommend, it is easy to see why so many veterinarians simply recommend competing dog food brands to their clients.
We doubt that this will be changing anytime soon too due to brands like Hills and Royal Canin having such an excellent reputation when it comes to the quality of their dog food and the ingredients that they use.
The issue with brands that make dog food is that a single incident can easily be enough to totally ruin consumer trust and with Blue Buffalo having had a number of reported incidents, it’s easy to see why so many people are sceptical about using them.
Thankfully though, there are a huge number of other dog food brands on the market that have pristine reputations that you are able to use for your dog food instead.
Conclusion
That brings our article going over if vets recommend Blue Buffalo or not to an end. We hope that we have been able to clearly explain why so many vets tend to avoid recommending brands like Blue Buffalo and tend to stick to recommending Hills, Royal Canine, and the custom made dog food services. We doubt that this is going to change anytime soon due to the level of quality control that Hills and Royal Canine are known for too and expect to veterinarians to keep recommending these products to their clients for many years to come.
