Blue Buffalo Life Protection Formula Large Breed Adult Chicken & Brown Rice Recipe

The average dog food we reviewed has 39 total ingredients, with 1 controversial ingredient. This product has 1 controversial ingredient on the food label, more on that below.

Top 5 Ingredients

Dog food ingredients are listed in descending order of weight. So when looking at dog food label, take a close look at the first 5 ingredients. They make up about 80% of the total weight.

• Deboned Chicken
  Chicken is generally a healthy dog food ingredient that provides nutrients like protein, fat and B vitamins. Raw meat contains about 75% water which is cooked off during the making of dog food. This leaves only a fraction of the protein content in the final product's weight. We recommend looking for dog foods that also include meat meals in the first five ingredients (pre-cooked meat powder that contains four times the amount of protein). De-boned simply means that the bones have been removed.

• Chicken Meal
  Meat meals are the result of cooking. Water is removed from meats to create a protein-rich meal powder. Meat meals contain about four times the protein meats do, so generally, they're a good source of nutrients. Chicken meal is generally a healthy dog food ingredient.

• Brown Rice
  Brown rice is whole-grain rice with the inedible outer hull removed. It provides calories, complex carbohydrates and a few other nutrients to dogs. We generally consider it a quality dog food ingredient.
  
  
• Oatmeal
  Oats are a cereal grain and a source of carbs, protein, dietary fiber, several B vitamins and dietary minerals like manganese. They are a high-quality dog food ingredient that can potentially help with colon health. Oatmeal are oats that have been ground or cut.
  
  
• Barley
  Barley is a type of grass and a cereal grain. It is a source of calories and several nutrients, including protein, dietary fiber, B vitamins, niacin and various minerals. Barley provides carbs, energy, fiber and other healthy nutrients for dogs. Barley is generally a healthy dog food ingredient.

‍

‍Controversial Ingredients

1. Fish Oil (Source of Epa-Eicosapentaenoic Acid)
2. Fish oil in general is very nutritious, supplying healthy Omega fatty acids and other nutrients to your dog. However, this ingredient doesn't show which animal(s) it's actually made from, making it less transparent and potentially low-quality. Because of that, we consider it a controversial ingredient.

‍Country of Origin

This Blue Buffalo product is made in the United States.

Meat & Fat Quality

As pointed out above, this product has a far below-average amount of protein. From looking at the ingredients, we can assume that quite a bit of this protein is coming from plant-based sources. Although we can’t tell exactly how much of this food is meat based, we can at least see the meat is coming from the named sources: Deboned Chicken, and Chicken Meal. While the meats are providing a lot of the fat source, we do see Fish Oil listed. With any meat or fat we want to see exactly where its coming from, and unfortunately “fish oil” is not specific so its considered a lower quality source of fat. Another fat listed is Chicken Fat, this is an example of a higher quality fat source because we know its specifically coming from a chicken.

Artificial Preservatives

Blue Buffalo does not use any of these artificial preservatives in this product which is great. It’s good to know that ‍not all artificial preservatives are bad. That’s because they serve an important purpose, which is to prevent food from spoiling. However, we consider 11 artificial preservatives as controversial because of their potential link to cancer and other serious health conditions.

Artificial Colors

This formula does not use any unnecessary artificial colors.

Artificial Flavors

This formula also does not use artificial flavors. It’s great that Blue Buffalo did not choose to use any artificial preservatives, colors or flavors in this product.