Blue Buffalo vs. Eukanuba

I was asked by someone who has a puppy that's on Eukanuba to compare the two foods. I thought I'd share my response here.

The exact formulas I compared are Eukanuba's Small Breed Puppy Formula and Blue Buffalo's Chicken & Rice Puppy Formula.

Before I make any suggestions, I want you to know where I stand on pet foods and current trends. There is a very real focus on ingredient quality and labeling instead of on actually balanced nutrients. For instance, I fed a top of the line food for a long time and chose it because of the holistic claims, the veggies, etc. What I didn't take into account was the high calorie content and now am working on slimming down a pudgy pooch. The bandwagon for holistic, organic, etc is good, but has its drawbacks as well. Plus, if you give treats or people food, you can "unbalance" the food you choose.

Also, in considering the two foods, I take into account the research and studies and feed trials. Did you know that in order for a pet food to meet AAFCO standards for feed trials, they only have to use 8 dogs and feed them the food for 6 months. The unbelievable part is that only 6 of the 8 dogs have to survive in order for the food to pass. Wow.

The Blue Buffalo product looks excellent from an ingredient standpoint. It is, however, a fairly new product. Eukanuba has been around a long time and is a solid food, though the ingredients might be of a lower quality.

Blue Buffalo Chicken & Rice for Puppies has 456 kcals per cup and Eukanuba's Small Breed Puppy has 502.

Eukanuba's Guaranteed Analysis:
Crude Protein not less than 32.00 %

Crude Fat not less than 21.00 %

Crude Fiber not more than 4.00 %

Moisture not more than 10.00 %

Blue's Guaranteed Analysis:
Crude Protein 27.0% min
Crude Fat 16.0% min
Crude Fiber 4.0% max
Moisture 10.0% max

The decision is really yours, but here are a few things to consider:

1. You can feed less Eukanuba with higher calories.

2. I don't really like the corn in Eukanuba. Dogs don't digest it. It's filler.

3. The ingredients in Blue are a better quality.

4. Eukanuba has a proven track record in pet health.

5. Blue has chelated minerals which the body absorbs better since they are attached to proteins/amino acids.

6. Blue has probiotics to aid in digestion.

7. Eukanuba has chicken by-product meal and Blue has chicken meal. There's a difference.

Meat By-Products - clean parts of slaughtered animals, not including meat; can include lungs, spleen, kidneys, brain, liver, blood, bone, partially defatted low-temperature fatty tissue, and stomach and intestines freed of their contents. It does not include hair, horns, teeth and hooves.

Meat Meal - the rendered product from mammal tissues, exclusive of blood, hair, hoof, horn, hide trimmings, manure, stomach and rumen contents except in such amounts as may occur unavoidably in good processing practices

If it were my puppy and these were my two choices, I would stick with the tried and true Eukanuba you're already feeding until it's time to switch to an adult formula. No sense switching now, and then again in a month or two when your pup is ready for adult food. At that point, I'd do more research, get some samples for my dog to taste, and choose the best one I could out of those my dog really liked. I hope that's helpful.