Buy Blue Buffalo Weight Control Formula Dry Dog Food, 30-Pound BagBlue Buffalo Weight Control Formula Dry Dog Food, 30-Pound Bag Product Description:
- Provides the added protection of BLUE?s exclusive LifeSource® Bits, a precise blend of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.
- Includes only the finest natural ingredients and contains NO chicken or poultry by-product meals, artificial preservatives, corn, wheat or soy.
- A sensible alternative to a raw diet
Product Description
Dogs love our tasty chicken, and it provides them with essential amino acids they need every day. Wholesome Whole Grains: Hearty whole grains like brown rice, barley and oats supply the complex carbohydrates that your dog needs for energy. Healthy Garden Veggies: Whole carrots, sweet potatoes and garlic are three of the nutrient-rich vegetables that your puppy will get in every bite of BLUE.
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
34 of 36 people found the following review helpful.
Low fat, but not Blue's lowest calorie formula
By Jennifer
Note: Blue Buffalo no longer makes "Weight Control" dog food and instead makes "Healthy Weight" dog food in the "Life Protection line. Healthy Weight has 415 calories per cup and 3.290 calories/gram. Compared to the Longevity line for adult dogs, Healthy Weight has more calories per cup but a fewer calories per gram, meaning that Healthy Weight has more grams per cup than Longevity. Looking at the order of ingredients (which is by pre-production ingredient weight), I am concerned that too much of Healthy Weight's protein may come from whole grains, which do not contain all of the amino acids that a dog must get from his or her food (dogs cannot synthesize all the amino acids they need from plants and grains the way humans can.) De-boned chicken is the first ingredient, but, because it contains 75% water before processing, it is not the heaviest final ingredient. Chicken meal is a high quality protein, but it is listed as the fifth ingredient.Also: At the bottom of this review I name a brand of food that ultimately helped me meet my dog's goals.Overview of Weight Control: While I did not do all I could to make Weight Control work for my dog, it ultimately did not help my dog reach his ideal weight. Blue Weight Control is nutrient rich, very low in fat, and uses high-quality protein sources. Unfortunately, Blue Weight Control has 444 calories per cup, which is pretty calorie-dense. I believe it was over 4 calories per gram, which, in human food, is the caloric density of cheddar cheese. My dog may have been able to eat a satisfying quantity of this food if he only needed to maintain a healthy weight, but he needed to lose weight, and the portions I had to feed him were too small. Fortunately, Blue Buffalo makes an excellent food called Blue Buffalo Longevity Dry Food for Adult Dogs, 24-Pound Bag, and the adult food has a more reasonable 354 calories per cup, allowing my dog to eat a more satisfying quantity of food per day.Details: My dog weighed 50 lbs. and needed to get to the maximum ideal weight for his breed --44 lbs.-- as determined by my vet and the American Kennel Club. According to several dog nutritionists, the calories a dog should consume per day to lose weight is computed as follows: 1)Convert his goal weight in pounds to kilograms by dividing the pounds by 2.2. For my dog 44 lbs over 2.2= 20. 2 Multiply her weight in KG by 30. For my dog 20*30 is 600. (3)Add 70. In my dog's case, that meant 670 calories per day. This number represents the dog's caloric needs while on a weight loss diet, assuming the dog has no special needs, such as pregnant or whelping, being a puppy, being a toy breed, working, or living outdoors in cold weather. The formula only is valid if the dog weighs between 5 and 99 pounds. Check with your vet to make sure the daily calories you compute are in the right neighborhood.The reason Blue Weight Control was not the best Blue Buffalo food for my dog was because it is is relatively calorie dense-- 444 calories per cup. To feed him 670 total calories per day, I could only feed him 1.5 cups per day, meaning that each of his two meals could only be 3/4 cups, and that was without even a tiny buffer for a single green bean as a treat. (Later I explain why I had to add-in other foods. I ended up only feeding him 2/3 of a cup for each meal, and that really worried me about the adequacy of his nutrition. This quantity of food is well below the feeding guidelines on the bag. My dog was miserable and begged constantly. He would even lick his empty bowl between meals. I tried feeding him a 1/3 cup (10 calories) of plain no-added-salt canned green beans as a snack, just to help fill his stomach, but he was not content and eventually turned his nose up at the green bean snacks. I should have added warm water to his dog food and stirred in the green beans, but I wasn't smart enough to do so at the time. My dog kept acting hungry and begging for more dog food. He would actually walk over to the bag of dog food, put his paw on it, and look at me while whining softly! Other members of my household would sneak table food to him because he begged so persistently, and the "diet" was a abysmal failure. My poor dog ended up actually gaining 4 more pounds from all the human cheating!I was glad I found Blue Longevity adult food. It has 354 calories per cup as opposed to 444. It has 3.384 calories/gram. I gave my dog 1.8 cups per day (in 2 meals) for 640 calories. A saleswomen at Petsmart explained that I could help increase my dog's feeling of fullness even more by adding warm water to to his food, enough to just cover the kibble, and letting it sit on the counter a minute so that the kibble would swell up. I should then stir in 10 calories (a little less than 1/4 cup) of no-added-salt green beans to make it an even more filling meal. I did all of these changes together, so I can't separate the effects. My dog stopped the whining and began to lose the weight.I budgeted him only 10 calories per day for treats. The problem was, I had to find something to give as a treat at least 3 times per day. See, my dog lived in a no-kill shelter for 18 month, so I had to use treats to re-housebreak him. Now he refuses to do #2 unless he is guaranteed a treat (if he doesn't get one immediately after he goes, he lies down on the ground and makes us carry him home--even if we are two blocks from the house and it is dark and pooring down rain. Welcome to my world of loving an Australian Cattle Dog.) I was surprised to learn that small sized Milk Bones have 20 calories each and contributed to him getting overweight to begin with. Even breaking one in half wasn't enough to make his treat calories reasonable. I found a bite-sized treat that is only 1-2 calories called Premier Liver Biscoti Dog Treats, Original Recipe, Original Bite Size, 8oz. Bag). They were fine as a substitute for Milk Bones. I recently found a 2-calorie treat that my dog is crazy about called Zuke's Mini Naturals Salmon Dog Treats (not to be confused with the 10-calorie each Zuke's Mini Bakes Chicken N Cherryz, 16 oz. My dog would probably walk through fire for the Salmon flavored ones, but he also likes the peanut butter flavored ones.Update: I eventually found a web site called DogFoodAdvisor.com. Through it, I found another food called Premium Edge Healthy Weight I Weight Reduction Formula Adult Dry Dog Food, 35-Pound that has the same calories per cup as Longevity but that has twice as much protein (also from high quality sources!) It is also grain-free (dogs don't need grains in their diet at all) and a little less expensive per pound. It helped my dog build muscle and lose weight.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful.
Great Product
By Robert
We have been using the Blue Buffalo Weight control formula for one of our Beagles because she started to gain a lot of weight (due to a medication she is on). We've been feeding this to her for a couple of months now and she has lost a healthy amount of weight and has had a lot more energy. Her skin and fur is clean, feels looks really good (not greasy), and her stool is solid. Once she looses another couple of pounds we'll switch her over to another Blue Buffalo formula, probably the Fish and Sweet Potato.It is a quality product for the price and it shows.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful.Good food.
By Willie
My dog loves this food and he's lost a few pounds since he's been on it.
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