# Whole Earth or Blue Buffalo?



## elipsis1 (Aug 14, 2015)

I'm so confused about which to feed our puppy...

(Sorry if this isn't the right forum)

A friend said to go to dogfoodadvisor website and I did... Picked Blue Buffalo Wilderness out.

She seems to be doing ok on it, but then I see all these posts of people saying it is bad...

So I picked up some Whole Earth Farms tonite, which is cheaper and is "made in the USA".

I highly value your thoughts or advice on how I should proceed...

Thanks in advance!


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## wvasko (Dec 15, 2007)

If your pup is doing fine that's all you need. No matter what you feed there will be somebody that disagrees with your choice.


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## TSTrainer (Aug 6, 2015)

Yeah what the previous poster said. There are so many choices, just choose what fits your budget, and what your pup likes. I get the food anxiety, I had it when I first got my cat and see it every day in clients. As long as there are no recalls or obvious problems in you should feed whatever you think is best.


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## wvasko (Dec 15, 2007)

Exactly, one other thing that may be contested is when I have a dogs on food that works for them I do not switch foods at all. But I'm old school and use the "if it's not broke don't fix it" program.


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## OwnedbyACDs (Jun 22, 2013)

Whole earth farms is made by merrick which USED to be a good food until it was bought by nestle purina, I personally wouldnt feel comfortable supporting a food like blue buffalo(who sold out to MARS inc) or merrick (who sold out to nestle purina) because I just cant support a company who preaches how healthy their food is and then turns around and makes crap like beneful.


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## elipsis1 (Aug 14, 2015)

What are you feeding your dog?


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## FaithFurMom09 (Oct 24, 2009)

Blue Buffalo Wilderness gets 5tars, which is REALLY good. 
Whole Earth gets 4, which is still really good! 

now the thing is ingredients. 
WE: Ingredients: Chicken meal, turkey meal, oatmeal, pearled barley, brown rice, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols), chicken, natural flavor, organic dried alfalfa meal, whitefish, dried yeast culture, salt, potassium chloride, choline chloride, minerals (zinc amino acid complex, iron amino acid complex, zinc sulfate, sodium selenite, manganese amino acid complex, copper amino acid complex, potassium iodide, cobalt amino acid complex), salmon oil, vitamins (vitamin E supplement, vitamin B12 supplement, vitamin A acetate, d-calcium pantothenate, niacin, riboflavin supplement, biotin, vitamin D3 supplement, folic acid, pyridoxine hydrochloride, thiamine mononitrate), mixed tocopherols (a preservative), Yucca schidigera extract, cinnamon, dried blueberries, rosemary, sage, thyme, dried Lactobacillus plantarum fermentation product, dried Lactobacillus casei fermentation product, dried Enterococcus faecium fermentation product, dried Lactobacillus acidophilus fermentation product

BB: Ingredients: Deboned chicken, chicken meal, turkey meal, peas, tapioca starch, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid), tomato pomace (source of lycopene), natural chicken flavor, dried egg, potatoes, flaxseed (source of omega 3 and 6 fatty acids), alfalfa meal, potato starch, whole carrots, whole sweet potatoes, blueberries, cranberries, apples, blackberries, pomegranate, spinach, pumpkin, barley grass, dried parsley, dried kelp, taurine, Yucca schidigera extract, l-carnitine, l-lysine, glucosamine hydrochloride, chondroitin sulfate, turmeric, oil of rosemary, beta carotene, vitamin A supplement, thiamine mononitrate (vitamin B1), riboflavin (vitamin B2), niacin (vitamin B3), d-calcium pantothenate (vitamin B5), pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), folic acid (vitamin B9), vitamin B12 supplement, calcium ascorbate (source of vitamin C), vitamin D3 supplement, vitamin E supplement, iron amino acid chelate, zinc amino acid chelate, manganese amino acid chelate, copper amino acid chelate, choline chloride, sodium selenite, calcium iodate, salt, caramel, potassium chloride, dried yeast (source of Saccharomyces cerevisiae), dried Lactobacillus acidophilus fermentation product, dried Bacillus subtilis fermentation product, dried Enterococcus faecium fermentation product

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You want one that has mostly ( if not all) ingredients you can say and arent fillers/bi products. 

I feed 3/5 store brand and 2/5 Blue Buffalo Limited Ingredient but after looking and asking on here im switching to something else better.


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## OwnedbyACDs (Jun 22, 2013)

FaithFurMom09 said:


> Blue Buffalo Wilderness gets 5tars, which is REALLY good.
> Whole Earth gets 4, which is still really good!
> 
> now the thing is ingredients.
> ...


Dog food advisor is a great jumping off point, but at the end of the day, the guy is a (human) dentist, and his page shouldnt be considered scripture when it comes to evaluating dog foods, sure it weeds out the obivous bad ones like pedigree and beneful, but when you get upwards from there it gets confusing. There are many foods on there that he rates 4-5 stars that I wouldnt personally feed, like blue buffalo, and now, merrick, whole earth farms, and castor and pollux (since its made by merrick).

On the other side, there are a few foods that I wouldnt have a problem feeding that he says are not recommended, like Pro Pac, and 4Health (TSCs brand). I feed pro pac ultimates overland red. Yes, it only has one meat meal source, and the rest of the protein is derived from plant sources like peas and garbanzo beans, but that does better for my boy than a food that is meat source protein. I would also recommend Victor dog food, my folks feed the grain free hero formula with the extra glucosamine and MSM because all of their dogs are seniors.


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## FaithFurMom09 (Oct 24, 2009)

well even just looking at the ingredients, which the site cant mess up... they really arent all that hot in general but they arent terrible.


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## OwnedbyACDs (Jun 22, 2013)

FaithFurMom09 said:


> well even just looking at the ingredients, which the site cant mess up... they really arent all that hot in general but they arent terrible.


It doesnt matter, there are foods on the market that have great ingredients but I refuse to feed them because they are owned by a large company. This graphic below shows who really owns all the dog foods ...


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## OwnedbyACDs (Jun 22, 2013)

And this is only a SMIDGEN, it doesnt even show all the companies they recently bought out, or all the dog foods THOSE companies own.


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## philovance (Jan 7, 2009)

wvasko said:


> Exactly, one other thing that may be contested is when I have a dogs on food that works for them I do not switch foods at all. But I'm old school and use the "if it's not broke don't fix it" program.


At long last I've come around to this conclusion myself and it's been a weight lifted, fretting about rotating foods and getting poor results from the "best." I think it's especially important to keep a puppy on a food that "works" and not keep switching. Apart from wanting her growth to be stable and consistent, there are so many other things going on with a very young dog you don't need to be guessing about whether the food is causing a problem.

That said, I like Whole Earth Farms (only if it "works" for your dog) because I think it's one of the better values available. No reason to spend more if your pup is happy with it. But if she's good on Blue Buffalo and you can afford it, stay with it. There are some good reasons not to feed it but they are trumped by your own individual dog's experience.

Overfeeding any food will cause problems so several small meals are best depending on the age of the dog.


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## OwnedbyACDs (Jun 22, 2013)

the only thing that makes me switch (other than the dog not doing well on it) is a buyout like what happened at Merrick, or price (I was feeding earthborn holistic, but they got to be about $63 after tax and while my dogs arent giants and dont eat a lot, its still less painful to pay $35 after tax LOL). 

It mainly was because of the buyout that we all switched (my folks and I), but the other reason was that our dogs (my parents dogs included) just plain werent doing all that hot on the merrick anymore. Sure they were getting on okay, but something told me things could be better, so they switched to Victor GF hero, which is MUCH cheaper and still made in texas. I switched to pro pac ultimates grain free overland red. Now sure, most of the protein comes from plant sources, but I have foundd that Lincoln does much better on a food like that VS a meat based protein food.... I think all the meat is too much for his sensitive system.


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