# Royal Canin vs Blue Buffalo



## zeefraug

I really want to feed the best quality food I can afford to my furkids.

I switched to Blue Buffalo for my older dogs about 6 months ago and they love the food. Recently got a puppy and was discussing food with our vet and she had never heard of Blue Buffalo (really?) and to her credit, she didn't really say one way or another, but she recommended Royal Canin. Now I'm reading that Royal Canin is not really better than BB or any other food, just more expensive.

Thoughts?


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## kafkabeetle

I agree that it's not better and fairly expensive for what it is. If your dogs are doing well on BB I wouldn't switch. Vets aren't trained in nutrition so I would generally disregard their advice/recommendations unless their is an actual medical problem (in which case I *would* take their nutritional advice for specific medical treatment).


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## luvntzus

Blue Buffalo is definitely better. All you have to do is read the ingredient list. It's telling that the vet hadn't even heard of BB. She obviously is not up to date on nutrition choices.


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## xxxxdogdragoness

Vets aren't nutritionists, so it doesn't surprise me that they don't know which food to feed. I feed TOTW pacific stream. I k ow Diamond makes it but their other food which bears their name isn't a terrible food either. But I have seen royal canin ranked pretty low on some DF analysis sites, I have also seen BB rated pretty low on others as well so it can be confusing lol.


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## lil_fuzzy

RC is not a very good food. I know people who haven't heard of anything else advocate it as the best possible food to feed your animal. I used to as well, because where I used to live it was the only good quality food you could get.

People who swear by RC are very hard to convert for some reason.


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## vbud88

bolo has been on royal canine all his life thats what the breeder feeds her golden retrievers, he loves it , his coat is great and he has never had an upset tummy, even with all the other rubbish he eats on his walks like leaves soil rabit poo ect..he is coming up for 5 months now


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## Fuzzy Pants

I switched mine from Wellness to BB which she seems to like better. I have a free bag of RC laying around that I refuse to feed her since the ingredients aren't that great. Sooner or later I'm just going to donate the RC to a shelter since beggars can't be choosers. Most vets try to push low quality/high price foods like RC or Science Diet which is also crap because they are visited by marketers that really push it and the vets are either too busy or don't care to research nutrition. Not to mention they get so many free bags and from the company that they then get to turn around and sell for a 100% profit. Also the companies will give the vets and techs free stuff with their brand logo on it like bags, t-shirts, leashes, dog food can caps, etc. I worked at a vet clinic years ago that pushed SD for the above reasons.


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## zeefraug

luvntzus said:


> Blue Buffalo is definitely better. All you have to do is read the ingredient list. It's telling that the vet hadn't even heard of BB. She obviously is not up to date on nutrition choices.


I was a bit surprised that our vet had never heard of BB and she had also never heard of Innovo either. I really like my vet and I'm just a bit disappointed, but I'm still going to use her as our vet.

Actually, I've been reading a bit on this forum and now I'm wondering if other dog brands might be better...such as Innovo or Wellness? I know it's hard to make a choice, but I was wondering what you guys thought.


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## luvntzus

I like Innova better than Wellness. From all accounts that I've heard, a lot of dogs don't handle Wellness very well, even though the ingredients look good.


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## LazyGRanch713

zeefraug said:


> I was a bit surprised that our vet had never heard of BB and she had also never heard of Innovo either. I really like my vet and I'm just a bit disappointed, but I'm still going to use her as our vet.
> 
> Actually, I've been reading a bit on this forum and now I'm wondering if other dog brands might be better...such as Innovo or Wellness? I know it's hard to make a choice, but I was wondering what you guys thought.


It honestly depends on the dog and how they handle the food. My GSD looked ridiculously awful on a lot of the really "top of the line" foods, but did very well on Royal Canin (I can't justify the money for it, and he does equally well if not better on Diamond Naturals, so that's what we're going with). My oldest dog (who usually has an iron gut) seems to not do well on Natures Variety Instinct. No idea why


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## jiml

Vets aren't trained in nutrition so I would generally disregard their advice/recommendations unless their is an actual medical problem >>>

they get limited basic training. Some choose to go further in post grad some much further. Same as MDs, DCs, DOs ect...

not all vets should be lumped together many are great in NUt others surgery etc


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## kafkabeetle

jiml said:


> Vets aren't trained in nutrition so I would generally disregard their advice/recommendations unless their is an actual medical problem >>>
> 
> they get limited basic training. Some choose to go further in post grad some much further. Same as MDs, DCs, DOs ect...
> 
> not all vets should be lumped together many are great in NUt others surgery etc


What is required is sponsored by Hills so it isn't very accurate. I didn't say vets couldn't get more training if they wanted, but just not to assume any given vet knows any better about nutrition than you do. I also never said that not knowing much about nutrition would make a vet bad. It would just put nutrition outside their area of expertise, and so you might want to do your own research and not just trust their advice.


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## clickitdog

Well I will add my 2 cents here. I feed my dogs Science Diet; despite all the negative information I have heard about it; but since I can remember and after I started buying dog food for my dogs (my parents use to buy until I landed my first job at 13 years old) I have used science diet with no issues. My dog's have beautiful coats and teeth and is considered very healthy when visitng the Vet for their annual check ups. 

I did try Royal Canin with my Pomeranians last year for about 6 months, but It was causing 3 of them to loose lots of fur and vomit every so often and their stool was always soft eeeeesssssccccchhhhhh difficult and messy for pickup. I switch them back to Science diet with no issues. 

I have done lots of research on 3 dog foods - Sicence Diet, Royal Canin and Blue Buffalo. 

I would say Blue Buffalo gets high ratings, not sure about if dogs would eat the antioxidant bits and if they dont they might miss essential vitamins from the dog food or that is need.

But I would say stay with what makes your dogs happy. 

But I say what


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## ksand

RC made my dog vomit and after several trips to the vet, it was suggested that I switch to another food. We tried them all... Everything from Blue Buffalo to Wellness to Science Diet.. with poor results. If it wasn't vomit or runny poo, it was excessive scratching and hairloss.It seemed the higher quality of the food the less he liked it and the more problems we had. Now he is on a raw diet and thriving. All dogs are different and what may work well for some doge, may not work well for others. If your dogs are doing really well on a food and you are pleased with the results, then stick with it!


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## jiml

It would just put nutrition outside their area of expertise, and so you might want to do your own research and not just trust their advice.>>>>

maybe you should re read and try to comprehend.


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## kafkabeetle

jiml said:


> It would just put nutrition outside *their* (the average vet's) area of expertise, and so *you* (individual looking for nutrition advice) might want to do *your* (you who are looking for nutrition advice) own research and not just trust their (often uninformed or corporate influenced) advice.>>>>
> 
> maybe you should re read and try to comprehend.


Well, that was kind of rude. But let me clarify so YOU can comprehend. By the way, there is a quote feature.


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## xxxxdogdragoness

Fuzzy Pants said:


> I switched mine from Wellness to BB which she seems to like better. I have a free bag of RC laying around that I refuse to feed her since the ingredients aren't that great. Sooner or later I'm just going to donate the RC to a shelter since beggars can't be choosers. Most vets try to push low quality/high price foods like RC or Science Diet which is also crap because they are visited by marketers that really push it and the vets are either too busy or don't care to research nutrition. Not to mention they get so many free bags and from the company that they then get to turn around and sell for a 100% profit. Also the companies will give the vets and techs free stuff with their brand logo on it like bags, t-shirts, leashes, dog food can caps, etc. I worked at a vet clinic years ago that pushed SD for the above reasons.


Yeah same here, I also worked at a vets as a tech & they did the same thing. It was hey hard for me to keep my mouth shut as I watched ppl by that crap which has CORN as the first darn ingredient. But we were told that if we didn't push the food we would be fired & I needed the money, plus I liked working with the animals.


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## Fuzzy Pants

dogdragoness said:


> Yeah same here, I also worked at a vets as a tech & they did the same thing. It was hey hard for me to keep my mouth shut as I watched ppl by that crap which has CORN as the first darn ingredient. But we were told that if we didn't push the food we would be fired & I needed the money, plus I liked working with the animals.


I liked working with the animals too but hated that vets office because only one out of the 4 vets did it for love of the animals. The other 3 vets were purely profit driven. In addition to pushing crap food we were even forbidden from telling clients that bought their pet from a pet store about the danger of puppy mills. You really have to research before deciding on a vet otherwise you'll end up taking your pet to a place that puts dollar signs in front of your pet's health.


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## SOKAIBA

I just recently switched my 2 dogs and my cat to BB Wilderness from Orijen. Orijen was just too rich for my pup, but I have to say they are all doing better on the BB then Orijen which happily shocked me since BB is a lot easier to come by. And for the record, whenever my Vet says one of the pets needs to be on a bland diet, I gladly cook them chicken and rice over Science Diet, and I wouldn't touch RC either.


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## kafkabeetle

SOKAIBA said:


> And for the record, whenever my Vet says one of the pets needs to be on a bland diet, I gladly cook them chicken and rice over Science Diet, and I wouldn't touch RC either.


I'm not in love with Royal Canin, but I would definitely feed it before I'd feed Science Diet. Check out these reviews: Royal Canin, Hills Science Diet

Both are very overpriced for what they are.

EDIT: Whoops, I misread your post. I thought you were saying your bland diet would consist of science diet mixed with chicken and rice. Now I understand you were saying you'd RATHER feed chicken and rice THAN SD. Neeeeeevermind.:redface:


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## jiml

What is required is sponsored by Hills >>>>


this is actually not true. the books are not written by the dog food co's this is internet BS. Im sure they sponsor seminars but a friend of mine is in vet school his teacher has a BS and PhD in nutrition, as well as a DVM no affiliation w a dog food co. Her first nutrition class textbook i believe is this http://store.markmorrisinstitute.org/product_p/mmi-pub-3.htm


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## kenRC51

Blue Buffalo is better than Royal Canin, look at the ingredient list...you really don't need to question yourself after reading whats in the list. Heres a list of premium kibbles which I rotate sometimes, Innova EVO, Wellness core (for Stitch), and Taste of the Wild. 

Melanie is on Blue Buffalo Basics Salmon, she was on Innova EVO red meat but I think she has food allergy to one of the meat product. She loves the Blue Buffalo and I think this company has good concept with their lifesource. They cook their vegies and vitamins in a lower temp so it retain most of the nutrient lost buy the higher temp if cooking in the same kibble as the meats.


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