Every responsible pet parent knows that pet food is not just about quantity but also quality. The health and physical well being of your canine of feline is undoubtedly affected by what he or she eats. Some even say that the life span of breeds can be positively altered by good nutrition. .
It is necessary to gather enough information before settling for a pet food brand for your dogs and cats. This is because not all food brands are suited to your pets in terms of flavor, ingredients, taste, nutritional content and its compatibility with age levels and lifestyle of the pet.
Luckily for you, we have done all the digging. In the course of this article you will get exclusive information on what to look out for when buying pet food from your local store.
We are comparing two renowned pet food brands to give you a feel of the essential and significant parameters when comparing two brands.
Here is all the information you need on two of our most exotic pet food brands, Natural Balance and Blue Buffalo.
After you are done with this awesome comparison check out Natural Balance and Blue Buffalo here to see the different flavors and pricing.
Contents:
- 🤔 Natural Balance vs Blue Buffalo FAQ
- ⚖️ Natural Balance and Blue Buffalo Pros and Cons
- 😻 Types Of Pet Food
- 🥕 Nutritional Value Comparison
- 💰 Price Comparison
- 🤤 Ingredients and Flavors
- 🏡 About Natural Balance and Blue Buffalo
- 🙀 Product Safety and Recalls through History
- 🏆 Natural Balance Vs Blue Buffalo: And the winner goes to…
🤔 Natural Balance vs Blue Buffalo FAQ
What is guaranteed analysis?
The concept of guaranteed analysis on pet food products is to assure purchasers of the precise nutrient content of each consumable. Emphasized by AAFCO, guaranteed analysis by food labels must meet certain requirements such as an exact value for the minimum percentage of crude protein and fat, as well as the maximum percentages of crude fiber and moisture on the basis of dry matter obtained. All of the percentages that I use in this comparison are averages of dry matter basis. Learn about dry matter basis here.
Which one has more protein?
The Natural Balance brand has more protein in its cat foods than the Blue Buffalo brand whereas the Blue Buffalo has more protein in its dog foods than the Natural Balance brand.
Which one is cheaper?
The wet foods of Blue Buffalo are slightly cheaper than the wet meals of Natural Balance. While the dry cat foods of Natural Balance are cheaper than Blue Buffalos’, the dry dog foods of both brands are of exactly the same price.
Which one has more flavors?
The Blue Buffalo brand has a wider range of flavors than the Natural Balance brand. While the Natural balance focuses more on quality than diversity
Which one has received more recalls?
Both brands have received quite a good number of recalls. Natural Balance has received five recalls whereas Blue Buffalo has received nine recalls.
Check out the current prices, recipes and flavors for Natural Balance and Blue Buffalo
⚖️ Natural Balance and Blue Buffalo Pros and Cons
Natural Balance Pros:
Natural Balance Cons:
Blue Buffalo Pros:
Blue Buffalo Cons:
😻 Types Of Pet Food
| Product (Dog Food) | Natural Balance | Blue Buffalo |
| Dry Food | 27 recipes | 85 recipes |
| Wet Food | 31 recipes | 101 recipes |
| Treats | 33 treats | 51 treats |
| Product (Cat Food) | ||
| Dry Food | 14 recipes | 40 recipes |
| Wet Food | 39 recipes | 47 recipes |
| Treats | ❌ | 15 recipes |
| 😻 See all Natural Balance recipes | 😻 See all Blue Buffalo recipes |
Natural Balance and Blue Buffalo have quite a number of recipes, however, the Blue Buffalo has much more flavors (339 flavors) across all food types when compared to the Natural Balance that has only 144 flavors without any treat for cats.
🥕 Nutritional Value Comparison
In as much as we love that our dogs and cats eat with us during dinner, lunch or breakfast, we do not want them becoming overweight from the table scraps they consume or malnourished as a result of a nutrient deficiency in the human foods we feed them out of excitement.
We should stick strictly to pet foods with exceptional nutritional value and to do so we must be acquinted with the nutritional needs of our pets and compare them with the type and amount of nutrients supplied by the pet foods we purchase for them.
The nutrient composition also known as the guaranteed analysis, along with feeding plan and other instructions and information are provided on the pet food label as required by the AAFCO. So let us compare the data of both brands using protein, fat and fiber.
| Natural Balance | Protein(dry) | Protein(wet) | Fat (dry) | Fat(wet) | Fiber (dry) | Fiber (wet) |
| Dog | 26.6% | 38.8% | 12.9% | 19.1% | 5.4% | 7.1% |
| Cat | 37.1% | 47.4% | 14.3% | 19.1% | 5.6% | 6.9% |
| Blue Buffalo | ||||||
| Dog | 28.5% | 40.4% | 15.0% | 25.2% | 7.1% | 7.5% |
| Cat | 37.0% | 45.4% | 16.3% | 24.7% | 6.4% | 8.2% |
| 🥕 See more Natural Balance info | 🥕 See more Blue Buffalo |
Protein
The protein source of our pet foods can either be plant or animal based but only proteins of animal origin are complete. This is because they contain most or all of the essential amino acids required by our dogs and cats. Some of the complete protein source are whole milk, lean meat and others.
Protein is key to the health of our pets as it is needed in all four life stages of dogs and cats to prevent and repair damaged cells, tissue and organs, aid blood flow and formation, disease prevention, as well as improve immunity.
Cats are obligate carnivores and require twice the amount of protein consumed by dogs daily so a brand that compromises on its protein content will make a bad choice for your pet.
Fat
This is a major source of energy for outdoors dogs such as guard/police or hunting dogs as the fat consumed provides the warmth they need. The nutrient is responsible for maintaining a healthy and shiny coat and fur on our furry friends as well as improving the overall taste of the pet food.
The most common sources of fat in pet foods include pork, chicken, sunflower oil, soybean, safflower oil, and beef. From the comparison table above, the Blue Buffalo brand provides an average of 5.56% more fat than the Natural Balance brand.
Fiber
Most scientist do not consider this a nutrient however a pet’s diet is incomplete without adequate amounts of fiber because of the role it plays in the digestive system of dogs and cats.
A fiber deficient pets diet will result in loose stools because there is absolutely nothing holding the stool together and when the fiber is in excess, a less efficient digestion and compacted/hard stool will result. The latter could cause bleeding in the anal region of the pet if not addressed in good time.
💰 Price Comparison
Ever wondered how much of your pet care budget goes into pet food? Do you need to switch from an old pet food brand to a new one but do not know how to compare the cost of both brands?
Whether you’re on a tight budget or you are changing your cat or dog foods, Natural Balance and Blue Buffalo are two pet food brands that you can rely on because they have great price and offer 100% money back upon customer’s dissatisfaction.
To compare the cost of both brands, the cost per calorie metric and cost per pound metric could be used but it is advisable to stick with the cost per calorie metric because it gives the cost of only the dry matter of the meal.
| Dog Food | N B (Dry) | N B (Wet) | B B (dry) | B B (wet) |
| Per pound | $2.61 | $4.91 | $2.16 | $4.29 |
| Per calorie | $0.0017 | $0.0100 | $0.0016 | $0.0088 |
| Cat Food | N B (Dry) | N B (Wet) | B B (dry) | B B (wet) |
| Per pound | $3.39 | $6.30 | $3.88 | $5.54 |
| Per Calorie | $0.0021 | $0.0148 | $0.0023 | $0.0112 |
| 💰 See the best Natural Balance Prices | 💰 See the best Blue Buffalo |
So where is the best place to purchase these brands? Good question! Overall, chewy.com has the cheapest prices.
They also offer 30% on your first autoship order which saves you a good chunk of change and makes your pet food ordering process automatic. Overall, this has saved me a ton of time.
🤤 Ingredients and Flavors
With the large number of taste buds in dogs and cats, the pet food manufacturers are producing as much flavors as possible to make sure they entice at least one pet in the home of every pet parent. Some use artificial flavors, many utilize digests while others rely on the natural ingredients of their recipes to provide the desired flavor intended for their products.
Natural Balance
This brand uses the best locally source ingredients ranging from exotic minerals to premium grade vitamins to produce 144 flavors for dogs and cat foods. Some of the ingredients used include but not limited to salmon, legumes, chicken, lamb, sweet potato, venison, pea protein, canola oil, salt, potato protein and fibre, flaxseed and natural flavors.
The brand is popular for a wide range of controversial ingredients like giblets, brewer’s rice, canola oil preserved with citric acid, lactic acid and mixed tocopherols, and much more.
Popular flavors
- Sweet potato and Salmon
- Ocean fish formula
- Duck and Turkey roll
- Sweet Potato and Chicken treats
Blue Buffalo
The Blue Buffalo pet food is famous for its large number of variants over the years and all 339 flavors are gotten from the artistic combination of pumpkin, deboned turkey and turkey meal, potato, salmon oil, fish oil, salt, dried chicory root, turmeric, kelp, blueberries, barley grass, and much more.
Caramel, powdered cellulose, garlic and pea protein concentrate are some of the few controversial ingredients used in the formulation of Blue Buffalo pet foods.
Popular Flavors
- Turkey and Chicken grill
- Chicken and Duck
- Chicken and Trout
- Chicken and Brown rice recipe
- Flaked Chicken entree
- Chicken with garden vegetables
Check out the current Natural Balance and Blue Buffalo recipes here
🏡 About Natural Balance and Blue Buffalo
Natural Balance Information
This American brand is owned and operated by the J. M. Smucker Company, a subsidiary of the Big Heart Pet Brands, whose sole goal is to make available pet foods, it was founded on nutritional truths and scientific principles. The brand was founded in 1989 by Dick Van Patten and the headquarter is at Burbank, Los Angeles, California.
Natural Balance has four product lines, L.I.D. Limited Ingredient Diets, Vegetarian, Wild Pursuit high protein diets and Original Ultra Whole Body Health,
Blue Buffalo Information
This brand was found on the pursuit of providing an all-natural ingredient diet for a dog called BLUE by its parent, Bill and Jackie Bishop in 1993. The pet food is currently owned and operated by Blue Buffalo Company in Connecticut, United states.
The brand has five product lines with over three hundred recipes. Some Blue Buffalo recipes are Wilderness chicken, Wilderness rocky mountain, Wilderness duck, Life Protection chicken and brown rice, Life Protection lamb, freedom Indoor Chicken and others.
🙀 Product Safety and Recalls through History
Companies make scheduled recalls on products that may have a foreseen defect or safety issues. The importance of a recall is to conduct further safety tests in order to effect changes to
Natural Balance Recalls
- July 21st, 2007 – presence of botulinum toxin
- May 4th, 2012 – Salmonella contamination
- June 18th, 2010 – Salmonella contamination
- April 27th, 2007 – Traces of Melamine
- April 17th, 2007 – Traces of Melamine
Blue Buffalo Recalls
- Nov. 25th, 2015 – Salmonella
- Nov. 6th, 2015 – Propylene Glycol
- May 31st, 2016 – Mold contamination
- March 18th, 2017 – increased beef thyroid hormone
- Feb. 14th, 2017 – Aluminum
- March 3rd, 2017 – Packaging issue
- Oct. 8th, 2010 – high amount of vitamin D
- April 19th, 2007 – Traces of Melamine
- April 26th, 2007 – Traces of Melamine
🏆 Natural Balance Vs Blue Buffalo: And the winner goes to…
This has been a very interesting and competitive comparison between pet food brand, especially because both brands have almost the same quality and I could confidently call this a tie. However, if you have pets that want a variety of flavors on every meal, then with the Blue Buffalo brand you’ve got your furry friend covered, but if you’re easily thrown off by a large number of recalls, then you should stick to the Natural Balance pet food.
- 🥇 Check out the best prices for Blue Buffalo here
- 🥈 Check out the best prices for Natural Balance here
| If you want | Then you should choose |
| Higher levels of protein | Blue Buffalo |
| A cost effective option | Both Brands |
| A wider variety of flavors and ingredients | Blue Buffalo |
| Safety, based on number of recalls | Natural Balance |
| A balanced diet for all age levels | Both Brands |
References:
https://bluebuffalo.com/for-dogs/lifestage/puppy-food/
https://www.naturalbalanceinc.com/dog-formulas/delectable-delights
Winner: Natural Balance
Thank you for doing the comparison between natural balance and blue I’ve used natural balance forever and it’s still holds up with the recalls I remember a lot of animals dying lot of pets dying thank you for the info keep up the good work please give us more info and comparisons I will stay with natural balance it has been a favorite of the cats and they don’t throw up as much as with the blue thank you Sandra