Blue Buffalo Cat Food Review
For our Blue Buffalo cat food review we’ll take a look at the Healthy Living formula, a grain-based formula for carnivorous cats. If you want to know more about the grain-free offerings from Blue Buffalo then have a read of the Blue Buffalo Wilderness review.
Blue Buffalo Healthy Living cat food review
What the marketing says
The key marketing words for Blue Buffalo Healthy Living cat food are, yes you’ve guessed it, “Healthy Living”. You’re already being told this product is good for your cat, but as a marketing term it can bare no relation to what’s actually in the food.
Healthy Living is labelled as a Chicken and Brown Rice Recipe, and the Blue Buffalo website tells us “Real Chicken First Ingredient”. It’s a great marketing term and doesn’t necessarily mean the product is overflowing with tasty chicken.
They offer a “True Blue Promise” which states NO Chicken (or Poultry) By-Product Meals, NO Corn, Wheat or Soy, and NO Artificial Flavors or Preservatives. They’re definitely plus points, so there’s hope yet with this cat food.
Keep reading our Blue Buffalo cat food review to find out what the ingredients really say…
What the ingredients really say
So, we’re told real chicken is the first ingredient, but it’s possible the first seven are in equal portions. That gives us 2 meat ingredients, 2 pea ingredients, and 3 grain ingredients. You may wonder what the difference is between peas and pea protein, as generally we just refer to peas as peas.
Based on the above assumption the composition of the main ingredients would look more like this:
Given cats are obligate carnivores it means the red section represents the most important ingredients (meat), and what your cat will get the most benefit from. The green section are both peas, which they’ve split into two ingredients (split peas!). Splitting is a labelling technique which in this case puts peas way down the ingredients rather than at the top.
The grey area shows how much grains there can be in Blue Buffalo Healthy Living cat food. Although I consider oatmeal, barley, and brown rice three of the best grain inclusions in pet foods, it’s still something we should only find in moderation in a diet for meat-eating obligately carnivorous cats.
When we look at the possible composition of main ingredients above, it appears peas can be in an equal amount to the meat, and the grains very likely outweigh the meat content.
Truth is, grains (and also non grain/non meat ingredients) are used to keep production costs down and profits up.
So, is Blue Buffalo dry cat food bad? Well, compared to other cat foods it actually isn’t that bad. Most cat foods are made from cereals and cereal by-products which are much worse.
There’s some nice minor inclusions in Blue Buffalo cat foods, such as menhaden fish meal, dried egg product, flaxseed, and fish oil. These should go some way into boosting your cat’s health, wellbeing, skin, and coat. But even at this level we find more ingredients not ideal for a carnivore such as potato, sweet potato, more peas, and the commonly found natural flavor which will be some form of animal digest and should be listed as such.
The guaranteed analysis of 34% protein, 18% fat, and I estimate around 31% carbs is moderate for a cat food.
Blue Buffalo cat food (in terms of the grain-based Healthy Living formula) sits somewhere between average and better than average. Although cats don’t need grains, the included grains are better than others. It’s possible peas are in the same proportion as meat, but again you can get worse ingredients than peas.
If Blue Buffalo Healthy Living is what you feed your cat then you can be thankful there are much worse choices, but there are also better choices more species appropriate.
Where to buy Blue Buffalo cat food
Ingredients
Ingredients of Blue Buffalo Healthy Living dry cat food are as follows:
Deboned Chicken, Chicken Meal, Brown Rice, Barley, Oatmeal, Pea Protein, Peas, Chicken Fat (preserved with Mixed Tocopherols), Dried Egg Product, Menhaden Fish Meal, Pea Fiber, Natural Flavor, Flaxseed (source of Omega 6 Fatty Acids), Calcium Chloride, Fish Oil (source of Omega 3 Fatty Acids), DL-Methionine, Calcium Sulfate, Choline Chloride, Potatoes, Potassium Chloride, Dehydrated Alfalfa Meal, Dried Chicory Root, Alfalfa Nutrient Concentrate, Taurine, Calcium Carbonate, Salt, Cranberries, preserved with Mixed Tocopherols, Sweet Potatoes, Carrots, Vegetable Juice for color, Ferrous Sulfate, Niacin (Vitamin B3), Iron Amino Acid Chelate, Zinc Amino Acid Chelate, Zinc Sulfate, Vitamin E Supplement, Blueberries, Barley Grass, Parsley, Turmeric, Dried Kelp, Yucca Schidigera Extract, Copper Sulfate, Thiamine Mononitrate (Vitamin B1), Copper Amino Acid Chelate, L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (source of Vitamin C), L-Lysine, Biotin (Vitamin B7), L-Carnitine, Vitamin A Supplement, Manganese Sulfate, Manganese Amino Acid Chelate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B6), Calcium Pantothenate (Vitamin B5), Riboflavin (Vitamin B2), Vitamin D3 Supplement, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Folic Acid (Vitamin B9), Dried Yeast, Dried Enterococcus faecium fermentation product, Dried Lactobacillus acidophilus fermentation product, Dried Aspergillus niger fermentation extract, Dried Trichoderma longibrachiatum fermentation extract, Dried Bacillus subtilis fermentation extract, Calcium Iodate, Sodium Selenite, Oil of Rosemary.tion product.
Guaranteed Analysis
Guaranteed analysis of Blue Buffalo Healthy Living dry cat food (Vitality formula):
| Protein | (min) 34% |
| Fat | (min) 18% |
| Crude Fibre | (max) 4% |
| Carbohydrates * | Estimated 31% |
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Nope, this brand lied about not having toxic lead. Won’t ever buy from them. They’re full of lies.
Some years ago, we used to not have access to high quality pet food where we live, so after much research, I thought I was doing a good thing to drive 80 miles round trip just to buy Blue dog food/cat food for our two dogs and three cats. I gradually transitioned them to the new food, as recommended. All of them loved it, but the two dogs had constant diarrhea that did not go away until I finally switched them to another brand. They have never had diarrhea since. I continued to feed the cats Blue. One of them vomited every day for a year. Since the other cats were fine, and this one had some health issues that sometimes caused him to vomit, I just thought his health was getting worse. However, when the recession hit and I lost my job, I had to switch to a less expensive food (myself included). Imagine how horrible I felt when the vomiting stopped completely and I realized that it had been caused by what I had been feeding him. He is now gone and I can’t help but wonder how much I shortened his life by feeding him something that made him vomit several times a day. While some animals can tolerate Blue, I would have to say not to risk it. Three out of five of my pets did not. Since then, I have had to switch brands a number of time because of either finances or availability and Blue is the only one that made any of them sick. I cannot recommend it.
While I can see why Blue Buffalo is seen as “tops” based on the content the amount of recalls for some of their foods should probably be taken into account. I was personally told by my vet that he’d rather I feed my pets a shit choice like meow mix over blue because of how many pets it has made sick. He said based on ingredients he would defiantly love to support it but because of their severe lack in quality control he couldn’t recommend it as a safe diet. I don’t know about you but when my vet says it isn’t safe over using a word like unhealthy I’m not able to risk my pet over a trendy new food.
I have been feeding my cat BB healthy living for the 5 years I have had her (she’s a rescue) but, I am now switching her to either Wilderness or Orijen depending on what she will eat and what I can afford (Orijen is costly). I recently learned that studies have shown whole rices such as brown rice deplete a cat’s taurine – not good! Read the labels carefully on the packages and avoid brown rice.
Hi Sally, cat’s don’t need grains period. They’re obligate carnivores. Sadly high carbohydrate foods do cause damage, which is the case for most kibbles especially those high in grains such as rice.
Tami the Tabby says “Science Diet isn’t fit to eat, Royal Canin isn’t great, but Blue Buffalo
Kitten Healthy Growth is delicious!” My new 4 month old kitten would not touch the Science Diet, the adoption agency gave me some Royal Canin and Blue Buffalo, she always took to Blue and really seems to love it. Checking out the ratings here it appears that Blue is very nutritious. Blue sure isn’t cheap, but it’s a good food and she loves it, so Tami’s a Blue Buffalo girl, and she sure couldn’t be any healthier. It only makes good sense to feed your kitten an excellent quality food that she likes, we wouldn’t eat low quality food so why should our animals? Aren’t they’re worth the extra expense?
I went from Iams to Blue Buffalo cat food and my cat ate it for the first time and purred while he ate it. Excellent switch. I’m sticking to Blue Buffalo for my kitty.
My adult male cat has a history of urine crystals. Due to his condition he has been on Urinary S/O diet. He went off it once and the problem came back. My other cat is on Blue Buffalo Indoor dry food. Do you have any recommendations for my cat who is prone to get urine crystals? I want to make sure that he is on the best diet possible, which also will help him with his condition. Please kindly advise.
Hi Hannah, what you’re looking for here is “water”. In this situation I’d recommend looking at wet foods and/or ensuring your cat has clean fresh water available at all times. Royal Canin Urinary SO isn’t a bad food apart from the corn content, it’s about 3 stars in my opinion. If your cat doesn’t seem to drink enough water then it could be worth wetting the kibble and seeing if that works, and perhaps gradually transitioning to a better food over time (such as the Blue Buffalo).
I must say that so far I love this food. I have been feeding it to my two male cats since they were kittens. They are always very happy and have never turned their noses up to it. They both are very healthy, have beautiful soft and shiny coats with very very minimal shedding and their litter boxes never smell.
My cat ate this cat food when she was a kitten, but eventually she no longer fancies this food. It turns out she likes royal canin, because I fed mixed cat food. She picked out the Blue Buffalo and set them aside. I have a favor to ask. Can you review Blue Buffalo Wilderness?
Hi Selene, here’s a review of Wilderness – Blue Buffalo Wilderness Dry Cat Food.
What about the S/O I index? Must keep in mind our male cats.
Hey there! Will you ever review Blue Buffalos Wilderness dry cat food?
I’ve been wanting to feed my cat better. Going from purina one, to iams, to Rachel Rays Nutrish, and now I recently bought a bag of the BB Wilderness.
She doesn’t seen too keen on it yet (I’m mixing it with old food like I’m supposed to)
I’ve had trouble finding a wet food that doesn’t make her sick too. I’ve been mostly sticking to Iams Purrfect Delights (corn, wheat, and soy free) but she still vomits from it on occasion. She won’t touch the Blue buffalo wilderness wet food but she seems to love the Chicken Soup for Cat lovers soul a lot. 🙂
hi I have a 2yr old cat that keeps throwing his food after he eats is the same happening to your’s?
Here you go –
Blue Buffalo doesn’t seem to have a diet tailored for my cat (8years) with early stage Kidney disease. Are you aware of any? It appears that all the dry foods have a high protein content (around 30%) which is bad for this disease. The wet foods in general are much lower (around 9 and 10% protein). I’d switch over to wet but my cat won’t! Is there dry food that has lower protein content?
Hi Hank,
I’ve answered your first comment here – https://www.petfoodratings.org/dry-cat-food/taste-of-the-wild/
I’m not a believer in high protein foods causing continuous damage to kidneys, it’s not proven. I see more health benefits in feeding a decent food, and that includes foods such as Blue Buffalo and Orijen. Low phosphorous and low sodium foods should have health benefits.
I have three cats that range in age from two years to fourteen years old. I have to say that I tried an experiment with five different cat foods: purinia one, blue buffalo, iams original, nature’s recipe and hill’s science diet – each the chicken flavor. Prior to this my cats were eating iams and science diet. They would absolutely not touch the blue buffalo! Every bowl would be empty and instead of eating the blue, they would just cry and ask for food. The order in which the bowls were emptied: nature’s recipe, iams, science diet, purinia one.
If you put candy and veggies in front of a child, would you be surprised at the results?
Hi Karen – that’s an interesting test, I like it!! It’s worth considering that cats can take a while to adjust to a new food. It’s not so much they don’t like a new food, more that they could be confused by it. It smells and tastes different. There’s also little correlation with your test between what the cats like and what’s healthy for them. For example, if you gave a child a McDonalds and a Caesar Salad, you may find they go for the McDonalds first ;o)
I now understand why my cat vomit after eating the Blue Buffalo. Blue has a good reputation so I have been wondering why. Because of the amount of grain, she can not digest well. I think that this may be good food but this may not good for her. Thank you for the information.
Try using grain free. I switched from a vet prescribed diet to a Blue Buffalo grain free and my cats are now healthier, more energetic than ever before. My oldest is 13 years old and since switching over a year ago he has more energy and is playful again.