Smelly poop and nasty farts

[Lyzelle]

Alrighty, on the laptop so here we go. I'm sorry if this ends up super long, especially since it wasn't what you were looking for.

Blue Buffalo info. Let's start with the company first. The company was founded by the same man who owned SoBe. He's a typical business-type ass, simply put. Whenever any legal claims come across his desk, he throws a bunch of money around to keep it hush hush and lets everything slide under the table. He tries hard to keep his company in the spotlight with shady business. In the past, this included recalls and as I said before, legal claims such as false advertising. Blue Buffalo has a lot of consistency issues with their food, and it is regularly noted each time it is inspected. It never reaches recall status because the inconsistencies are never enough to "cause any serious issues". Vit D recall of 2010, anyone? Claims of sick dogs were going on for months before it ever hit the news, and even then it was a "volun-told" recall. They had the option of pulling their products or the products were going to be pulled for them. Company is all about the good image, so they pulled them voluntarily. Something similar happened in 2007 with the melamine contamination.

After the 2010 Vit D recall, there was a brief period where BB was no longer sending out their stock to stores and retailers. Word down the ladder was that there wouldn't be any new stock until the first of the year. Regardless, Reps were instructed to tell customers that new stock would be in soon, and to keep checking back or switch to a different formula of Blue. It was assumed that they were assessing the issue and checking their product for further issues.

By January of 2011, they had completely re-introduced their products to the market. Unknown to the public, these products had many changes in the formulas and their packaging, and a few new formulas were set for release - including Wilderness Puppy, Wilderness Senior, and a few Small Bites variations on some products as well as others. More dogs got sick, questions were asked, no answers were ever given and no answers have been given since. Eventually it faded out to what the BB market is today.

Nothing seems to have changed since then. There are still dogs getting sick from the formulas and BB is still covering their tracks and refusing to address these issues.

Here is a quote from one of their false advertising issues that never made it to media light...

NAD'S SELF-REGULATORY PROCESS
The staff of FTC's Division of Advertising Practices conducted an
investigation into whether representations made by the Blue Buffalo
Company, Ltd. regarding its pet foods violated Section 5 of the Federal Trade
Commission Act. This investigation came about after a referral from the
National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus
(NAD). Blue Buffalo had participated in NAD's self-regulatory process and
appealed one of NAD's adverse findings to the National Advertising Review
Board (NARB), which agreed with the NAD decision.
CLAIMS BROUGHT TO FTC STAFF’s ATTENTION BY NAD
FTC staff reviewed claims brought to its attention by NAD as well as some
additional claims. This review included Blue Buffalo's claims that its pet
foods—
• contained "no animal byproducts,"
• contained human-grade ingredients,
• helped protect pets from age-related diseases, and
• contained ingredients that had been proven to provide a number of
significant health benefits for pets.

FTC didn't recommend enforcement....

CONTINUING CLAIMS
In addition, FTC staff reviewed, at NAD's request, Blue Buffalo's
continuing claims that its pet food ingredients provided superior antioxidant protection, after Blue Buffalo promised to stop doing so.
Accordingly, FTC staff determined not to recommend enforcement action
at this time. Among the factors that FTC staff considered were—
• Blue Buffalo's substantial website changes, which included the
removal of age-related disease claims, establishment claims, and
human-grade ingredients claims; and
• Blue Buffalo's removal of "no animal by-products" claims from
its website and packaging.

So yeah. It's a pretty sucky company, and not a food I would ever be comfortable feeding.

Could you maybe post your dogs' needs in a new thread, or PM me? and I'll gladly go food hunting for you. BB is way overpriced for what you are getting.

[JacksonsMom]

Originally Posted by Lyzelle

I've been telling people BB is crap for years. You learn interesting things when your mom works for the company.

I'm on my phone now so I can't elaborate too much but I'll come back and explain their issues and what I commonly see.

I briefly worked for them as a sales rep... wasn't impressed.

I mean, I still think they're one of the better options at Petsmart. But otherwise, just hear of constant GI issues, and really don't think their quality control is all that great. Didn't dogs die because of a vitamin D over-dose or something? They didn't seem to really change anything, or seem too concerned. Not to mention they're made in like 5 different manufacturing plants. Just not sure I trust they have employees at EVERY factory over-seeing EVERY little thing they do.

[JacksonsMom]

BB is pretty expensive around here.

California Natural is much cheaper, and a more simple option. Nutrisource/Pure Vita is another good one.

Even Earthborn has a few good formulas that are REALLY good price points and most are fairly simple ingredient-wise...

[Lyzelle]

Yes, dogs died from the Vit D issue, and some have died from G.I. issues, kidney issues, etc, too. Zander got deathly ill over Wilderness. It was a LONG, several month process to get him rehabbed.

Funny thing about Wilderness, though. It's for ACTIVE dogs, but they push it towards nearly all dogs. And then the dogs get sick. Go figure.

Also, it's been a long standing theory (okay, maybe two year theory) of mine that extremely active dogs/breeds react poorly to Oats/Oatmeal with symptoms ranging from mild/moderate/severe GI issues to what some would imagine typical "allergies" would look like. Itchy face, yeasty ears, etc. Wilderness has oats/oatmeal in it, as does their other formulas.

[JacksonsMom]

Originally Posted by Lyzelle

Yes, dogs died from the Vit D issue, and some have died from G.I. issues, kidney issues, etc, too. Zander got deathly ill over Wilderness. It was a LONG, several month process to get him rehabbed.

Funny thing about Wilderness, though. It's for ACTIVE dogs, but they push it towards nearly all dogs. And then the dogs get sick. Go figure.

Also, it's been a long standing theory (okay, maybe two year theory) of mine that extremely active dogs/breeds react poorly to Oats/Oatmeal with symptoms ranging from mild/moderate/severe GI issues to what some would imagine typical "allergies" would look like. Itchy face, yeasty ears, etc. Wilderness has oats/oatmeal in it, as does their other formulas.

So sad.

Are you sure you're talking about Wilderness? They contain no oats; the line is grain-free.

[Lyzelle]

Originally Posted by JacksonsMom

So sad.

Are you sure you're talking about Wilderness? They contain no oats; the line is grain-free.

Oats are typically overlooked for "grain free". Wilderness is oat-free now, but in prior years included oats.

[momto8]

We tried out BB over the summer, was not impressed. Courtney, Sierra and Roxy did not tolerate it, they got diarrhea alot, Courtney had blood in her runny stools, I panicked took them to the vet for fecals, vet suggested changing food, we did and everyone was fine. They weren't really gassy though.

[Southpaw]

I would say BB is actually the food Juno has done the best on. Out of the like... 10 different brands we've tried.
Only reason I don't go back to it is because, as well as she did on it, if I'm going to pay $60 for 30lbs of food, I want more than just a grain-inclusive chicken based diet.


I do remember months ago though a customer having diarrhea issues with her boxer that was on BB. She was a freak though and thought I was an idiot because when she said she wanted "something organic like BB", I kept telling her WE DON'T CARRY ORGANIC DRY FOODS. BB IS NOT ORGANIC. (And then she goes "well what does organic mean?" omg.) If I recall though, switching foods did not fix her issue but I can't remember what she switched to or how long she tried it. We ended up telling her to try Solid Gold Seameal but I don;t know how that went.

ANYWAY. What I am trying to get at is that I wouldn't freak out about the BB and change it, if this is a problem that he's had on other foods too.

[PWCorgi]

Originally Posted by skittledoo

Ya I'm definitely interested in reading more about the brand. Honestly if I could find a brand that is comparable to blue buffalo pricewise that all three dogs could do well on I would be more willing to switch food even though its annoying to switch again. I know Cricket has her allergies so we stay away from poultry products for her.

Once we get into our own house and can get a chest freezer I'm going back to raw. Sooo much easier to just feed raw as long as I can buy in bulk. By easier I mean easier to know exactly what my dogs are eating.

I know you can get Fromm, have you looked into Fromm Gold for Bamm and Joey? At least here it's $20+ cheaper for a bag and way better...

[JustaLilBitaLuck]

Originally Posted by Lyzelle

Oats are typically overlooked for "grain free". Wilderness is oat-free now, but in prior years included oats.

I have never, ever seen a dog food that is marketed/labeled as "grain-free" contain oats - and I see a LOT of dog food. Oats are still grains.

Originally Posted by Southpaw

I do remember months ago though a customer having diarrhea issues with her boxer that was on BB. She was a freak though and thought I was an idiot because when she said she wanted "something organic like BB", I kept telling her WE DON'T CARRY ORGANIC DRY FOODS. BB IS NOT ORGANIC. (And then she goes "well what does organic mean?" omg.) If I recall though, switching foods did not fix her issue but I can't remember what she switched to or how long she tried it. We ended up telling her to try Solid Gold Seameal but I don;t know how that went.

This is one of my favoritest things - people who are all caught up in the "organic" thing, but don't have a clue as to what "organic" truly means.

Originally Posted by PWCorgi

I know you can get Fromm, have you looked into Fromm Gold for Bamm and Joey? At least here it's $20+ cheaper for a bag and way better...

This. I ***9829; Fromm.