# Blue Buffalo vs Nutro Max vs Innovo



## larry1984 (Jul 21, 2009)

Which food is best for puppy and what suggestions for when switching to adult food


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## nico8 (Jul 16, 2009)

I've fed Blue Buffalo but not to a puppy. I'm not sure how different their puppy formula is but my dog did well on their adult lamb and rice formula. I recently switched to Wellness Core when I realized that ,while a good food, I could be getting more for my $. Hope this helps a little.


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## Kina_A (Jun 8, 2009)

Nutro has had to many recalls and really isn't a great food. I really don't trust the stuff. Out of the three you suggested, I would go with Innovo or Blue Buffalo.

Good luck.


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## nac1089 (Jan 18, 2009)

Quality wise IMO I think Innova would be the best. Blue Buffalo would be my 2nd choice. Like Kina_A posted, I wouldn't feed Nutro. They have had recalls and the food has been blamed for many illnesses and deaths in dogs & cats.


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## luvntzus (Mar 16, 2007)

Nutro Max is a mid to low grade food and I wouldn't feed it at all. Blue Buffalo is very good and I like Innova even better. I love the ingredients and also they have so many specific formulas that I think you can find just the right one. This is the one that I would feed:

http://www.innovapet.com/product_line.asp?id=1672


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## Dogluvr (Feb 14, 2008)

I would never feed nutro. Blue Buffalo's wilderness formula is very nice. Innova is a good company and I especially like the EVO.


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## Donna5503 (Mar 13, 2009)

Blue Buffalo dog food is great ---(as my dog loves it & is thriving on it!)


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## DIRTY PAW (Jun 8, 2009)

I fed both of my pups nutro and they hated it. They puked, very soft stools, and they never wanted to eat it. I switched to blue buffalo puppy and what a difference. No puke , great poop, and they love it!!


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## tefobuch (Jun 7, 2009)

Oooh aah. I thought I was seeing things for a minute there.

How can Nutro be included in the same short sentence as Blue Buffalo and Innova 

Seriously though, there is no comparison. Blue and Innova are top quality dog foods and Nutro ............ NOT!!!!

To help you, here's a list of all the top dog food brands.
http://www.dogfoodscoop.com/best-dog-foods-ranked.html

And there's also loads of other info on the site, like what to quickly look for on the labels, etc., so in future you'll be able to tell within 5 seconds what's good and what's not.

You definitely won't go wrong with Blue or Innova though!


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## lightforce18 (May 6, 2009)

i feed my puppy innova large breed puppy for now. I might keep him on innova or wellness for adult food.


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## Hurshie (Jul 1, 2009)

Make sure you test out the Blue Buffalo using a small bag. My puppy ate everything except for the "Life source bits (round black pellets)" that they put in. He would pick them out and eat the other pellets. I switched to Wellness Super5Mix and it has been great so far. It's the same price as the other brand but was rated higher from the reviews. His stools are great with Wellness compares to soft ones with Buffalo. 

Just try them out slowly with a small bag, eventhough you can return whatever you have left for a full refund at the stores due to these companies money-back gaurantee.


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## joeyjoe9 (Feb 28, 2009)

My dog is currently on TOTW and has been for awhile, but now he doesn't seem to go crazy for the flavor. I was considering Innova EVO vs. Wellness Core. My only concern is the high protein in EVO. Any suggestions?


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## Pepper (Jan 27, 2008)

I was concerned about how high protein EVO was too, but someone with a lot of dog experience(25+ years in rescue work), who also feeds raw, said ignore the numbers and just look for a balanced good diet.


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## Dogluvr (Feb 14, 2008)

joeyjoe9 said:


> My dog is currently on TOTW and has been for awhile, but now he doesn't seem to go crazy for the flavor. I was considering Innova EVO vs. Wellness Core. My only concern is the high protein in EVO. Any suggestions?


EVO and CORE are nice foods. Dogs are carnivores so they are designed to digest a good amount of meat/protein, and have no nutritional need for grains. If your dog has kidney, liver or pancreas disease, a lower protein diet may be recommended, but otherwise a high protein diet is not a concern. 

I feed EVO and have been very happy with it.


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## Billiie (Jan 16, 2008)

I feed Sarge (my 12 week AB) the Blue Buffalo, and he does well on it  When he gets older, I do want to put him on TOTW because it is grainless, but for now he does good. Also, AB's aren't suppose to have really high protein, esp. as pups because it can cause joint damage.. the BB puppy food is 28% protein, and usually for AB's it should be around 26%.


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## Michiyo-Fir (Jul 25, 2009)

I've always fed my puppy Innova puppy food. She didn't care much for the taste and won't eat it with vigor but she does eat it.

She does great on it, nice coat, firm stool. However, when I started switching her to adult formula, I chose Orijen and my gosh she LOVES it! She will completely finish every meal I give her when before she often eats only half or leaves a few kibble.


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## paux (Jul 26, 2009)

Innova EVO and Blue Buffalo's "Wilderness" are both very good as far as kibble is concerned. I would not feed Nutro Max to my dog at all though. Also, keep in mind that it is recommended that kibble be rotated. So, perhaps buy a bag of Innova EVO and once that's gone, buy a bag of Blue Buffalo Wilderness, then a bag of Orijen... and so on. This method keeps dogs from developing food allergies, it provides nutritional variety, and keeps their food interesting.


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## Pepper (Jan 27, 2008)

> Also, keep in mind that it is recommended that kibble be rotated


Not actually switching kibble brands, just switching protein sources.


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## tefobuch (Jun 7, 2009)

I don't think I saw Acana on this list. I've just tried it for the first time (Pacifica ... the fish flavor) and it's been a big hit with my pooch. It's made by the same people as Orijen and is grain-free but a little lower in protein ... around 33%.

Quality ingredients and it's now been successfully added to my rotation list. I can recommend it ... and it's particularly good for any picky "fishy" guys, such as my pooch is!


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## pennylane (Aug 18, 2009)

i feed my puppy blue buffalo. i switch between the chicken and lamb to give her variety. i also feed her the blue buffalo biscuits. she seems to love the food. i put in a medium size kong and has a blast.


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## waterkeeper03 (Aug 18, 2009)

Innova stand above the other two for 1 solid reason. They own their own manufacturing plant and produce the food/ source the ingredients themselves.

Blue would be second on the list.

Nutro is now owned by Mars/m&m and I wouldn put anything past that company, stear clear of the nutro.


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## hbowen87 (Aug 4, 2009)

I had to laugh a little when reading this thread, because all of your guy's opinion's on nutro confirmed my suspicions. When I got my puppy the shelter made me buy nutro to feed her since "that's what she's used to." I agreed and decided to immediately wean her off of it, so got the smallest bag they sold and started changing her food a few days later. The lady looked at me like I was crazy for only buying a small bag, and told me how high a quality food it was, more nutrition, and it would even make her poop smell better! That first night and the following two nights my dog had accidents in the kitchen. I've smelled some stinky poop before, but this beat it all! I about fell over, the smell hit me like a brick wall. I had to laugh and ask myself what she was talking about, if it made her poop smell better, then without this food her poop probably would have killed anyone that smelled it. I noticed while switching her to a better food her poop got progressively better too. Imagine that.


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## maquignon (Oct 21, 2009)

Nutro should not be mentioned in the same breath as Blue Buffalo and Innova. It would be a bad food even without the menadione. Blue Buffalo and Innova are both very good foods.


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## waterkeeper03 (Aug 18, 2009)

I didn't see it mentioned. Innova owns their own plant and manufactures their own food. this means they also source their own ingredients and gives them a higher quality control than other brands.

I'm told Blue Buff is also manufactured in house, but i didn't see any mention of this in their website, brochure or packaging.

Nutro has been all down hill since the recalls and has changed hands a few times since then, now owned by a candy company. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

EDIT:
I also didn't realize I already commented on this post 9 months ago... sorry :$


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## luvntzus (Mar 16, 2007)

larry1984 said:


> Which food is best for puppy and what suggestions for when switching to adult food


Of those choices I would go with Innova. Blue Buffalo is the same quality, but ridiculously expensive. Nutro Max is a lower quality food. Right now I'm feeding Merrick and I'm really happy with it. Other good foods IMO:

Orijen
Evo
Before Grain
Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover's Soul
Canidae
Fromm 4 star
Nature's Variety

I just noticed that this is a really old thread. Oh well, my advice still applies. lol


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## maquignon (Oct 21, 2009)

I keep seeing people say that Blue Buffalo is more expensive than Innova. I see Innova advertised on internet sites for $53 - $56 for 30 pounds. Blue Buffalo is $46.99 at PetSmart and 49.99 at Petco for a 30 pound bag in Ga and South Carolina where I live. Is it more expensive in other parts of the country?


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## Greydog (Apr 28, 2010)

I would go with Nutro Max, they have a new Lamb food out in the Max line. All the ingrediants from Nutro for the dry is all made in the USA, and now is the wet as well. Blue Buffalo will not give you that answer, and I called....Nutr will answer you. My dog is on the Venison. Blue Buffalo was to holistic for my dogs stomach. I prefer Venison or Lamb because of all the steriods and antibiotics that is our food, which goes into the dog food as well. I would go with a puppy lamb and rice :0)


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## Enhasa (Feb 6, 2010)

To be honest and really frank.

I think Nutro is pretty much equivalent to crap. The only time I can understand anyone really having to feed this is because of its price and they have budget constraints.

However, there are BETTER foods even at this price, such as Costco brand etc.

I will say you are fine with either Innova or Blue Buffalo.
Personally I prefer Blue Buffalo over Innova. But if you include Innova Evo into the equation, it will certainly be my top choice.

Just really a personal preference. Blue and Innova are both good. You will be fine with both.


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## waterkeeper03 (Aug 18, 2009)

I wanted to correct my post. I talked to the people from blue last night.

Blue Buffalo actually has quite a few different companies manufacturing their food. depending on which formula you are using, someone else is making another... cat, dog, cans, wilderness, it's all made in different places and it seemed like it was easier for them to say where it wasn't made


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## Enhasa (Feb 6, 2010)

waterkeeper03 said:


> I wanted to correct my post. I talked to the people from blue last night.
> 
> Blue Buffalo actually has quite a few different companies manufacturing their food. depending on which formula you are using, someone else is making another... cat, dog, cans, wilderness, it's all made in different places and it seemed like it was easier for them to say where it wasn't made


this is always the case pretty much with bigger companies.

or basically companies that need to manufacture a lot to get into mainstream chain stores, such as petco, petsmart etc.
look at the no. of petco there are in the states. imagine every single store that needs about 5-10 bags of each type of flavor of each brand of food in stock. 
that is certainly A LOT of manufacturing to be done.

Smaller companies like blue buffalo, wellness, canidae do not have the capital to be setting up so many mega-factories to churn out such high amounts of food at once. So they outsource production.
If I am not wrong, some of the bigger brands outsource production too, but companies like P&G, Purina are so big they probably have enough capital to do everything by themselves.

And to be honest, I do not really mind production being outsourced, even though it is quite a plus to have them manufacture it themselves so they can have better quality control in check. What really matters is that the outsourcing factories have good quality controls as well, do not use ingredients from dubious sources and process their food in sanitary conditions. Hard to achieve, and mistakes happens. Best way is to go with a company that has no proven record of such issues/recalls.


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