Blue Buffalo Dry Cat Food

brubst00

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I've been feeding my indoor cats Science Diet Optimal Care dry cat food for years at my vets recommendation. I recently read an article on all the by products and fillers in Science Diet and was shocked especially given the price I pay for a bag. I was at PetSmart the other day, and they were having a sale on Blue Buffalo, so I picked up a bag and have been transitioning my cats over to it. They seem to really like it, and I thought it sounded like a great product, given that it advertises no by products or corn. However, I googled reviews and was horrified! It seems this brand has made a lot of pets sick and I am thinking I should just revert back to Science Diet. Has anyone out there had a bad experience with Blue Buffalo dry food? Any thoughts on what I should do?
 

2cats4me

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I've been feeding my indoor cats Science Diet Optimal Care dry cat food for years at my vets recommendation. I recently read an article on all the by products and fillers in Science Diet and was shocked especially given the price I pay for a bag. I was at PetSmart the other day, and they were having a sale on Blue Buffalo, so I picked up a bag and have been transitioning my cats over to it. They seem to really like it, and I thought it sounded like a great product, given that it advertises no by products or corn. However, I googled reviews and was horrified! It seems this brand has made a lot of pets sick and I am thinking I should just revert back to Science Diet. Has anyone out there had a bad experience with Blue Buffalo dry food? Any thoughts on what I should do?
@Brubst00   , I have never fed BB so I don't know much about it .. There are however several threads on TCS about it . 

See them here :  http://www.thecatsite.com/newsearch...all&containingforum[0]=64&type=all&advanced=1

I would suggest if you are  still uneasy about feeding the BB then return it to Petco and go back to the SD until you do some research and find a food you are comfortable with ..  

Also if you go to the Review Section on this site you will see many member reviews on cat foods , Dry & Wet ..
 

dena81

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i'm having the same debate myself.  Most of the cats i tried with blue didn't seem to take it.  But I never remember having an issue with Science diet and my vet recommended it as well, so I'd suggest stick with SD...plus it's a heck of a lot cheaper
 

lokhismom

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Vets recommending Science Diet and Hills which  they sell in at their business doesn't mean its the ideal food for your cat.

I'd do research on what is best to feed them.  There are links at the top of this page which are worth a read. 
 

dena81

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My vet never sold Science Diet in his office at the time when he had recommended it to me.  
 

xcourtney3

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If you have a Petsmart I would suggest Simply Nourish Source. It's low carb, high protein, grain free. It comes in different flavors. I used to feed the chicken and turkey before I switched my cats to all wet, and now I feed the rabbit as treats. They love both flavors. 

Rabbit

http://www.petsmart.com/food-health...d36-20985/cat-36-catid-200028?var_id=36-20985

Chicken and fish

http://www.petsmart.com/food-health...d36-25936/cat-36-catid-200028?var_id=36-25936

Fish and shrimp

http://www.petsmart.com/food-health...d36-25937/cat-36-catid-200028?var_id=36-25937

Chicken and turkey

http://www.petsmart.com/food-health...-36-catid-200028?var_id=36-2556&_t=pfm=search
 

js124

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My cats have been on the grain free freedom dry for a couple of years and have no issues

they also eat the wet and have no problems.
 

tabbysia

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I've never tried the Freedom, but I do feed the Basics dry duck food and have no problems. I'm a little uneasy about the reviews too and started a similar thread about my concerns, but since the food works for my cats, I've decided to stick with it for now. Cats are different. A food that makes one cat sick may be just fine for another. As for all the claims of cats getting sick, the food might not always be the culprit. I do feed wet also--not Blue though.
 

cprcheetah

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Science Diet is full of fillers and ingredients that cats simply cannot digest.  Cats are carnivores and have no room in their systems for corn and other carbohydrates.  I have fed Blue Buffalo in the past with no issues.  Personally I feed raw or high quality grain free canned food.  My personal belief is cats need moisture in their diets and dry food simply cannot provide that.  Even Fancy Feast the ones that are grain free would be better than Science Diet dry food. 
 
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gottaluvem

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Our three cats on Blue Buffalo dry "Weight Control" formula suddenly showed great disinterest with that cat food.  Even the "thief" among them not only stopped stealing from his comrades' bowls, but stopped eating all of his own portion, something he has never failed to vacuum all up.  And he started an almost daily pattern of regurgitating some or all his "cookies".  Also, our little, but full-grown "Baby" began doing the same.  This all started around January-February 2015, after at least a couple of years on that Blue Buffalo formula.  Hmmm....

We also read on Consumer Affairs that a test had been done by someone's veterinarian, where a cup of some variety of Blue Buffalo dry cat food was soaked in water for 24-hours, to dissolve the kibble.  What became then visible was hair and rocks (perhaps the "ash" of cooked/burned meat?), neither of which being good or safe for the digestive or urinary tracts.  Again, hmmm....

When we started these three on BB, their coats became much better: softer, fuller, cleaner, just beautiful pelts, er, coats.  (Yes, only kidding.)

We also find that similar good results and bad complaints exist for other brands, including Iams, and the likes of Purina, etc.

(Incidentally, I worked at t chicken processing factory in northeast Georgia after college, the night shift, where we cleaned up after 144,000 chickens had been processed each day.  With high-pressure hoses, we washed chicken parts -heads, innards, feet/claws, etc.- and even the cleaning solvents and rubber gloves, into a series of drainage troughs, and guess where those troughs went to?  A Purina dog food plant!  This is no lie.  I will obviously never use Purina anything!)

So this post, so far, being nothing more than a comment without conclusion, we are at a quandary: to continue with BB, or to switch (slowly, as is proper technique) to something else that is meat-based.  Suggestions are of course welcomed.

As of today, 3-10-2015, we served Science Diet's "w/d" cat food formula, as an intermediate food to transition them to something else.  (Again, suggestions are welcome!)  All three of them ate "normally", meaning their previously normal serving size; no one vomited; and they all went curling up to sleep- content for the first time in a week or more.  Obviously something in Blue Buffalo turned them off, and made them hurl, even though they were content with it, and improved from it, for the past two years.

Our vet said that wet (canned) food would be best, though more expensive, and that cats are indeed carnivores, but to take that thought into perspective.  When a cat eats a mouse (not a toy one!), he/she gets meat and hair and bone and innards, and cats can handle that.  He also reminded us that, by percentage, a mouse's meat, if separated from the rest of the mouse (which could be called "filler"), is actually a small percentage of the cat's meal, when compared to the filler portion of a mouse.  While this may sound sick, it is a lesson in not over-protein-feeding our cats.

All this being said, our vet's final advice was (1) buy American-MADE cat food, NOT merely "American-Distributed"; and (2) buy cat food from one of the only four companies that actually do the research and testing of their products.  (Those four companies are, in no particular order of recommendation, only as my memory recalls what the vet said!, Purina Pro-Plan, Iams' high-end product, Science Diet, and ... which is where my memory stops! Someone else can fill in the missing company/-ies.)  We are still doing research, so we have not yet settled on a wise decision.
 
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js124

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I guess every vet and person has their different views.
My cat got violently sick from purina pro plan.
I would never give any animal I owned purina after that.
I think whatever works for your cat.
 

catpack

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I fed BB's limited ingredient diet briefly 2 yrs ago when I was doing Max's food trial and it was the only commercially available single protein food I could find. While no one experienced vomiting or GI upset, half the cats gained weight and half lost. I learned then about carb content and that the BB food I was feeding was primarily a potato-based food. =\

I did some research and settled on Nature's Variety Instinct for dry and haven't looked back. I also use the Pride by Instinct line of dry. I also feed canned (it's 1/2 and 1/2) and use BFF, Fromm, Simply Nourish, NV and had recently added in Purina's Muse line, though I might be taking that out due to the recent findings with Beneful (and the above mentioned story!)
 

mum of two

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I would advise you to stay away from Blue Buffalo, I've read bad reviews about their dog food. I've also contacted them wondering why they refuse to export their products outside the US, they just wouldn't give an answer.

Orijen from the search I did is the best dry food.
 

manemelissa

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I've fed my cat Blue Buffalo indoor dry for a year now with no issues. She likes it and gobbles it down, no bowel issues, no vomiting. I also feed her wet food as well (Fancy Feast, Authority, and Nutro), so her diet is 50/50 wet/dry. I don't have a ton of money, so I try to get the "better" of the economical varieties. Honestly, as long as you find a food that doesn't make your pet sick, that they will eat, and doesn't have corn as its main ingredient, you're doing pretty good! Some cats are so picky, they don't give their owners many choices, lol!
 
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