Blue Buffalo - not keeping their promises ...

Djammy

Another discussion here has inspired me to start this one.

I had owned an EBT for 14 yrs and have dealt with a lot of skin issues of my dog.
When she became older and the problems added up, vets started to point out that nutrition may be a big part of the problems.
First I found that hard to believe - until I started my own research. Boy was I wrong about pet food!
It kind of haunts me even today that I may have accidentally “fed my dog sick”, just because I did not question the statements on the package and could not even imagine what a huge role modern manufactured pet food can play in a row of ailments of our pets.

Luckily I got educated enough to rule out the “obviously low quality foods” today. But what about the facts I can’t know, because they are “company secrets”?

We switched our girl to higher quality, grain free food, only to find out later that this manufacturer got involved in a law suit about false advertising.
The Brand is Blue Buffalo.

While this food probably still was 100 times better than what I had fed before, I was confused and angry to find out that false advertising had lead me to pay more for something that turned out not even to be in the package: ONLY the PROMISED ingredients.

The real sad thing about this is, that this manufacturer just hit bad luck when they aggressively tackled the competition with their advertising and obviously upset one of them so much with it that this competitor did some testing on their products.
So, THEY got caught lying, still trying to get out of that tight spot. Who knows what else remains unrevealed with this or other manufacturers.

Needless to say I am no longer buying their products.
But what makes me really sad is that as a consumer I have basically no choice than believing what’s printed on the package until I find out otherwise. Not only a problem with pet food, but with food in general.

We have switched Djamila to raw food, which we meanwhile supplement with a high quality kibble (Merrick), because of her high energy level. On her 47lb she needs the calories of a 65lb dog and the kibble helps her to feel a little fuller than with her raw food only, which seems to be absorbed by her body in no time producing almost no remains.
I have decided to ask the manufacturer of the kibble a few questions about it and am curios, if and how they will answer me.


For all who want to follow the fuss about Blue Buffalo and draw their own conclusions, here are some links:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/05/13/1384354/-WTF-Blue-Buffalo-Caught-Lying-About-Pet-Food-Ingredients#
http://www.poisonedpets.com/blue-buffalo-admits-to-bullshitting-consumers/
http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/blue-buffalo-says-supplier-mislabeled-some-ingredients/article_3902b014-e04c-5ae8-90f3-ab601b674bd2.html

The information released by the competitor Purina:
http://www.petfoodhonesty.com/test-results.php
http://www.petfoodhonesty.com/

Quinnofhearts

I personally have always been wary of Blue Buffalo. Having previously worked at a dog resort (it was a VERY nice dog kennel/hotel) I got to be around a lot of different kinds of dog food and got to see how these dogs looked on their respective foods. The pieces of kibble were a good indicator of the quality of food...I don't know how to describe it but the better quality foods have a different look about them in my opinion. Blue Buffalo also has these "Life Source" bits in them...I always thought it looked like rabbit poop.

Anyway, very interesting that Blue Buffalo got caught. They can't expect to call out so many competitors and not have someone challenge them. I just have a hard time accepting a lot of the foods that are sold at PetSmart because I believe them to be of lower quality. Last time I went into PetSmart (I usually go to locally owned, better quality stores) I don't remember seeing any of what I would consider quality foods (Orijen, Acana, Merrick, Fromm, Taste of the Wild). Looks like the best they offer is Wellness and Nature's Variety. Blue has done a pretty good job at making people believe they are a good option, and while they are undeniably better than crap like Bil-Jac, I still wouldn't feed it to my dog.

BulliesofNC

While Blue Buffalo may have been identified for a discrepancy within their listing it does not take away from the detailed analysis results from unbias reviewers like DogFoodAdvisor who have given it 5 stars with excellent reviews. http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-reviews/blue-buffalo-dog-food-wilderness-dry/ 

Wellness rates in at a 4 Star food - http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-reviews/wellness-dog-food-super-5-mix-dry/

Natures Variety Instinct rates as a 5 Star but with slighter lower marks within nutritional value. http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-reviews/natures-variety-instinct-dog-food-dry/

I think with any product, especially those with a high reputation and on top of the market, competitors will do their best to find fault with them in order to hinder their reputation and sales thus making better business for themselves.

I'm not trying to stick up for Wilderness but it is an excellent food that provides dogs with an exceptional well balances and nutritious diet unlike many foods offered. Personally I prefer Victor as my choice of kibble for my Bullies but I can't knock Blue Buffalo Wilderness. I will say though, there is a big difference when comparing Blue Buffalo Wilderness to other brands of Blue Buffalo that do not achieve 5 star reviews. Often companies will focus on the qualities of one particular brand in order to discredit the entire line up. Kind of like saying Chevrolet makes poor quality cars after reviewing the Chevy Cobolt instead of the Chevy Corvette.

Anyhow, the best food for any dog is the brand they do well which can vary per dog. I think if every dog were the same we'd all agree on what food was the best but this will never happen due to the differences within every dog. It's just best to endure a high end grain free food (for those using kibble) is the starting point for proper health and nutrition.

Djammy

I guess, everybody will get to their own opinion in this case.
My personal intention behind posting this case was actually not to label Blue Buffalo a bad dog food.
As I already said, it’s probably 100 times better than many low-cost, low-quality foods.

I also know about the rating. But I guess, if dogfoodadvisor had been aware of the fact that Blue Buffalo Life Protection Chicken & Brown Rice contained over 20 % (!!!) of poultry by-product meal, they would probably have come to a different conclusion at the time of evaluation.
This ingredient is not listed in their evaluation, because just ad the customers they did not know either, I guess.
http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-reviews/blue-buffalo-dog-food-life-protection-dry/

The test initiated by Purina revealed otherwise.
Btw. I’d also not buy Purina, because of the composition of their dog food. But that’s a different story.

While it’s not considered to harm dogs, poultry by-product meal is in fact considered a low-quality and cheap ingredient. And Blue Buffalo just DID NOT DECLARE it.

This is what actually upsets ME.
The company in fact has aggressively advertised against the competition, claiming in their so called “true blue test” - among other - that other than their competition Blue Buffalo does NEVER contain chicken or poultry by-products.

They have used the rising awareness of pet owners to charge a pretty Dollar for products that contained EXACTLY what aware customers try to avoid by buying those upscale products instead of cheap ones.
And the customers have NO chance of knowing what they really feed to their dogs, if it's not listed on the label. Manufacturers know that!

In this case it may have caused no harm. But with this ingredient the product was likely overcharged and more importantly the manufacturer LIED about the ingredients and used the desire of people to feed GOOD quality to their pets to charge big for lower quality.

THAT is the reason, why I will never buy Blue Buffalo again.
Even when confronted with the allegations Blue Buffalo denied them for a long time instead of admitting “Ok, you got us! We have made a terribly wrong decision!”. As I heard they started their own law suit for defamation against the suing competitor - if I got that right - and tried to label their supplier the scape goat, when they no longer could deny that the test results were true and they had actually used the ingredient in their dog food.
Foods are getting controlled and analyzed during the production process. They can’t tell me, they did not know, sorry!
If they really had no chance of knowing, because they are not testing their batches, I honestly don’t want to buy their products either, because how will they discover salmonella contamination and other hazards that can happen in time then????

In my opinion it is the first and foremost duty of a manufacturer who advertises to sell “high quality” and “healthy” to actually provide exactly that for the Dollars they charge and to label correctly, no matter if its a pet food or human food. Putting something in they claim they did NOT, sorry, in my opinion is fraud.

BulliesofNC

I agree with @Djammy, they should not have mislead people. I'm sure their are many others that mislead people in regard to what ingredients are or are not in their foods. I also think if many people knew what crap is added to a high percentage of dog foods they'd be utterly shocked. the again I think if knew where are own food came from we may not eat many of the foods we do either. Seeing how animals are cared for at slaughter houses and how they are prepped prior to packaging is enough for many to consider becoming a vegetarian. We have a lot of Butterball turkey farms around my area and if people got the chance to walk in one it they may never eat a turkey again.

Hopefully I will never hear any negative feedback about Victor. They seem to be a company that doesn't try and advertise and compete with other but allow those that research quality foods to find their reviews and allow word of mouth to sell their product.

 

philsergeant

If everything follows the path of just about every other single thing in this world about now... We'll probably find out in 5 years time that dog food advisors has been getting huge bribes from brands to pump up the volume on their product.... Just sayng

BulliesofNC

You know, you could very well be correct.   :-B

Quinnofhearts

I do understand that Wilderness is different than other varieties of Blue, but I do appreciate brands of food that ensure that ALL of their lines are top quality. Acana and Orijen achieve this, I believe Merrick does a great job. I actually had not heard of Victor until I came to this forum (perhaps it's just not sold in this region). But even though I say that I would not feed my dog Blue Wilderness (because I have better options) I would still absolutely select Blue over any kind of Purina, Eukanuba, Iams, Science Diet, etc. I just hope that the crazy dog people keep putting pressure on these companies to improve and the kibble will only get better.

Or they'll just get more creative with lies. :-\"

BulliesofNC

I agree. Blue Buffalo has some making up to do before I give them business. I'm very happy with Victor and there are no negative reviews on their company. However, the only true review that is important to me is MY review and thus far the review I see with my Bullies is very satisfying.