Blue Buffalo is one of the best dog food brands on the market. Dog food is incredibly important to your dog’s overall health, but when your dog is a puppy, giving them the right food can greatly impact their cognitive development and their regular growth into adolescence.
Food Affects Your Dog’s Overall Health
What your dog eats has a huge impact on its overall health. The specific ingredients and nutrients can impact different parts of their health in their food. One of the most overlooked ways dog food affects your dog is the way it affects their behavior.
Feeding your dog the right amount of food in multiple controlled portions throughout the day is the best way to keep them feeling chipper, full, and healthy. Some ingredients in dog food, like DHA, are also found to increase cognitive health, making puppies that digest this nutrient easier to train and overall better behaved. One study found that dogs over the age of seven that ate antioxidant-enriched food were found to have fewer age-related behavioral changes associated with cognitive decline. Choosing the right food and ingredients can also prevent health issues that lead to behavioral problems down the road. Some dogs with urinary tract issues become much more irritable and grumpy, leading to unanticipated behavioral issues. All of these things can be improved upon by choosing the best food possible for your dog’s health.
Your dog’s skin and coat health needs a properly balanced diet to give them plenty of omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids. These important ingredients provide your dog with sheen and smooth hair. Fatty acids also have anti-inflammatory effects, which can help your pet if they suffer from itchy skin issues.
Another important part of your dog’s diet is their physical health. A dog’s muscle tone and body condition need plenty of proteins to maintain cell health and heal any damaged cells. Young, growing, or pregnant dogs especially need protein since these things are vital to building and maintaining strong muscles. This is why one of the first few ingredients in your dog’s food label should always be a protein source like chicken, salmon, lamb, beef, etc.
If your dog is to have healthy eliminations and digestion, they need plenty of carbohydrates to aid their systems. Carbohydrates include tons of nutrients, including fiber, which is necessary to digest all nutrients in your dog’s food properly. Fiber is great at cleaning your dog’s digestive system and slowing their digestive process, which allows them to benefit from their food all the much more.
Vitamins and minerals are necessary for your dog’s diet to help strengthen their immunity and prevent many diseases from occurring. Vitamins repair damage done to your dog’s body cells and help regulate their body, whereas minerals promote normal bodily functions and help cells maintain their health. These things are vital in your dog maintaining a healthy metabolism and helping them keep their good mental health.
A Dog’s Daily Food Needs
Different factors determine your dog’s daily calorie needs, and treats can take up to 10% of your dog’s daily calorie counts. However, their needs can be changed and are usually determined based on their breed, height, weight, age, sex, activity levels, and other health conditions present.
If your pet has a lot of energy, they might need extra food to support their exercise levels. If your pet is obese, you’ll need to readjust their calorie needs to help them lose weight.
When you’re choosing the right food for your pet, there are many factors to consider. You’ll need to take note of the product’s name, net weight, and the name and address of the manufacturer. All of this information can help you determine the quality of the food you’re giving your beloved pet.
Knowing the list of ingredients and the intended species the food is made for. There should be feeding guidelines and a statement of nutrition adequacy.
Food with excellent nutrition will give your dogs the necessary building blocks and energy components to help them reach their highest potential of development. These foods can change their activity levels throughout their lives and alter their growth throughout their adolescence. Wet and high-quality dry dog food are great options when it comes to delivering these needs to your pet, although there are many options when it comes to delivering these needs.
The Importance of Feeding Your Pet at Certain Times
Another important factor when it comes to feeding your pet is the frequency of meals. There are a few different strategies for dog owners when it comes to giving them food.
Timed feeding involves choosing a portion of your dog’s diet every day and allowing it to be available in their bowl for a specific period of time. Some owners will choose to leave half of their dog’s daily dietary needs in their pet’s food bowl for a thirty-minute period. Then after the thirty minutes is up, if your pet hasn’t consumed its food, you remove it from the bowl. This method is one of the most common ways to feed puppies and breeds that do not tend to gorge themselves on their food.
Another option is something referred to as a meal feeding method. This method means splitting your dog’s diet into two meals a day. This works great for dogs that overheat if they’re allowed time feeding methods or if they’re given free-choice feeding.
Free-choice feeding is when your dog’s food is available at all times of the day. You would allow excess amounts of food to be available, but this method only works with breeds that don’t gorge themselves on food. This is the least popular food option since most dogs will overeat and become obese as a result.
In fact, the meal feeding method is the method most often used. This is because it controls your dog’s eating habits and makes it easier for you to record what times they eat and how much they eat. Creating specific feeding times makes it easier for your to remember your dog’s habits, and since dogs are creatures of habits, it can make them feel much more comfortable with their eating habits.
Also, many dogs are at risk of bloat, a dangerous, life-threatening condition. Dogs are typically at higher risk of this condition if they’re larger and have deep chests. Vets and scientists don’t know the cause of this condition, but they know many factors that can increase its risk. Eating a lot of food in one sitting can increase the risk of this condition, which is also why the meal feeding method is the safest method since it splits your dog’s food into multiple portions. You can even add more mealtimes if you have a large dog.
How to Choose the Best Dog Food for Your Dog
Your pet’s dietary needs should be based on the number of proteins, fats, fatty acids, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals present in their food.
Proteins are made up of complex molecules made from amino acids that are necessary for cell growth and maintenance. Fats are a huge concentrated source of energy in canine dies. Fatty acids are one of the most important building blocks for important substances, and they’re essential in maintaining normal health in cells. Carbohydrates break down in the digestive system. The digestive system converts these into necessary glucose found in whole grains, iron, minerals, fibers, and other kinds of beneficial nutrients.
Many dog foods have vitamins made from organic sources or artificial vitamins that are derivatives of these organic substances. These substances are also converted to calories and energy boosts that aid immunity and other bodily processes. Minerals are inorganic nutrients that make up less than 1% of a dog’s body weight, but they’re absolutely vital to your dog’s health for strong bones, healthy teeth, and other growth. Look at your dog’s food ingredient list and ensure they have proper nutrients to support your pet and their needs.
Blue Buffalo Puppy Food: Is It Right for Your Dog?
1. Blue Buffalo Life Protection Formula Natural Puppy Dry Dog Food
This specific dog food comes in three different flavors to target any dog’s specific taste preferences and allows animals with food allergies to have multiple choices. The Blue Buffalo life protection formula offers chicken & brown rice, lamb & oatmeal, and chicken flavor bases. These bags come in five different sizes, a 5-pound, 6-pound, 15-pound, 30-pound, and 34-pound bag option. This diet targets the canine species and is recommended for medium breeds, although it can be fit for all breed sizes.
Blue Buffalo understands the importance of real meat and has high-quality protein to help your pet build and maintain healthy muscles. Also, the whole grains, garden veggies, and fruits in the ingredients list promote proper growth for puppies.
Puppy dog food, like this product, needs to have specially formulated ingredients to ensure puppies grow at a healthy pace and don’t eat too much of any substance. The DHA and ARA ingredients are special fatty acids that are found in dog mom’s milk, and they support special cognitive function and retinal health.
This blend also contains a rich source of antioxidants, including vitamins and minerals carefully selected by holistic veterinarians and animal nutritionists. This way, the food can provide as much bodily support as possible. Dogs in this early life stage need a lot of healthy oxidative balance to maintain health.
This brand makes these foods with the finest natural ingredients that are specially enhanced with specific vitamins and minerals. It doesn’t contain any chicken or poultry by-products that many worse dog foods use, and this food doesn’t use any by-product meals, corn, wheat, soy, preservatives, or artificial flavors. Blue Buffalo protection formula has an ideal kibble size for smaller jaws, making it great for growing puppies.
by Blue Buffalo
2. Blue Buffalo Wilderness High Protein, Natural Puppy Dry Dog Food
Blue Buffalo wilderness targets special protein needs for growing puppies. This variety of dry dog food comes in a few different flavor options. Blue Buffalo Wilderness offers a red meat chicken-free flavor, chicken grain-free flavor, chicken with grain flavor, and a turkey & chicken flavor. If you have a smaller puppy breed, you might want to buy less of a quantity, and this product comes in many size options, including a 4-pound, 4.5-pound, 11-pound, 22-pound, and 24-pound pack. As a brand, Blue Buffalo recommends this specific product for medium breeds, but it can be fed to all breed sizes.
The recipe uses healthy ingredients, including real chicken, to satisfy a dog’s carnivorous dietary needs. This product is made with a lot of protein, and this helps encourage strong muscles and growth. The ingredients also include DHA and ARA; both are found in a mother dog’s milk and are vital to support a growing puppy’s health. These fatty acids support cognitive development and retinal health. Professional veterinarians and animal nutritionists select the antioxidants and vitamins, and minerals in this food. These experts choose ingredients that support a puppy’s immune system health as well as promote a healthy oxidative balance.
One of Blue Buffalos’ greatest strengths is the fact that it boasts an all-natural ingredient list. This formula is created with specific enhanced vitamins and minerals, and they refuse to include poultry by-products. This food-specific product doesn’t include corn, wheat, soy, preservatives, or artificial flavors in their food either.
by Blue Buffalo
3. Blue Buffalo Life Protection Formula Natural Puppy Small Breed Dry Dog Food
This small breed puppy dry dog food comes in three size options. Pet owners can purchase a 5-pound pack, 6-pound pack, or 15-pound pack to support their small breed’s dietary needs. Blue Buffalo dog food recommends this is only used for small breeds. The special Blue Life Protection formula uses real chicken for its high-quality protein, which helps a dog build and maintain healthy muscles. Good Blue Buffalo puppy food will contain only the finest natural ingredients, including wholesome whole grains, vegetables, and fruits.
Great quality puppy pet food will have DHA and ARA since these fatty acids are found in the mother dog’s milk. These nutrients support a puppy’s cognitive function and retinal health. This Blue Buffalo pet food also contains antioxidant-rich life source bits. This means a precise blend of antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals is carefully selected by professional experts like holistic veterinarians and animal nutritionists. They ensure the food supports a growing dog’s immune system, especially because the puppy life stage is incredibly important, and a puppy that isn’t given all of its proper nutrients won’t grow into the strongest adult dog it has the potential to become.
This natural dog food has a limited ingredient list, but it’s made with only the best dog food ingredients. Thanks to its enhanced vitamins and minerals, this Blue Buffalo protection formula for small dogs refuses to use any poultry by-products. They don’t include any artificial flavors, corn, wheat, soy, or preservatives, making this one of the best pet food options for small breed growing puppies.
by Blue Buffalo
4. Blue Buffalo Life Protection Formula Natural Puppy Large Breed
Similar to the Blue Buffalo life protection formula for small breeds, this excellent product contains only the best natural ingredients. The real chicken meal provides the best protein sources for your growing puppy. As the name suggests, this product is designed specifically for large breed puppies, and these dogs need many more nutrients to support their large growth spurts.
This large breed blue Buffalo pet food offers a dog plenty of essential vitamins and omega fatty acids. A dog owner can rest assured knowing a professional veterinarian and animal nutritionist designed this to promote healthy growth in large breed puppies.
The best dog food will contain wholesome grains, fruits, and garden vegetables to make sure dogs get all of their needs met, including the types of vitamins you can only find in fruits and vegetables.
This will help these dogs grow into strong animals with only the healthiest of muscles, and they’ll maintain their health well into adulthood.
This product also contains DHA and ARA, two fatty acids that are usually provided through a mother dog’s milk. This supports cognitive function and retinal health. The antioxidants present in this are great at helping your dog’s immune system and creating an oxidative balance for this puppy’s life stage.
As with the previous products, this specific dog food doesn’t use any poultry by-products, wheat, soy, corn, preservatives, or artificial flavors.
by Blue Buffalo
Conclusion
When choosing the right Blue Buffalo product for your puppy, there are many important factors to consider. A dog food advisor would tell you to look for the correct fatty acid ingredients, make sure it contains some animal protein and promotes things like healthy skin. The best dry dog food brand will include all of these qualities. When it comes to choosing Blue Buffalo food for a new puppy, any pet parent can understand that this brand’s dry food can offer your growing puppy everything they need and more to promote some of the healthiest qualities in their breed, no matter their size.
