Should I Give Up On Blue Buffalo? - UPDATED

[Camilla and Darwin]

I am sorry if this post is redundant... but I did a bunch of searches and couldn't find a situation that was similar enough...  I am not sure how to actually search inside the food groups discussions... short of browsing through all 45 pages.. 

So, we recently changed Darwin from Holistic Select to Blue Buffalo. It was the better choice for numerous reasons, including quality, price, and availability. We changed him gradually, and he did okay for the first week, although his stools were pretty soft. However, a week in, he started having bad diarrhea. I figured this was just due to the change and we put used either white rice or some pumpkin to help his tummy out. They helped, but as soon as we stopped the rice or pumpkin, he was back to explosive diarrhea.

 I was confused. We fed him two different formulas of HS, chicken and rice, and lamb and rice. Well, the Blue Buffalo we switched him to was Chicken and Rice... so they had similar ingredients. Was the tummy upset from the food? This went on for THE ENTIRE bag. (a big bag) We had to put pumpkin or rice in his food every single day or he would get the runs. And even with the rice or pumpkin, his poop was soft. He had to go out twice as much as usual. Not at all like it used to be. I was worried he was sick with something because it had lasted through the entire BB bag... 

I decided to get a bag of Holistic Select. If his poop went back to normal, it probably meant he wasn't sick and it was the food upsetting him. Well, the 1st day he was back on Holistic Select, his poop was PERFECT again. Without pumpkin or rice. He is currently back on HS. 

Any advice? I wouldn't think the differences in the food would be that great, since they were similar formulas... but he didn't do well at all on BB, for the whole bag. Should we try another formula? Should we stick with HS? 

UPDATE: We have now completely switched him over to Wellness. It is the "Core" line, grain free. He is doing great. His poop is nice and firm (yay!) and he LOVES it. It is so much more readily available, and a better food so we are happy campers here! 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

It may have something to do with the fiber sources. I'll have to take a look at the HS and see what I can figure out.
The BB isn't agreeing with him, for whatever reason. Did you have any other choices you were considering when you switched from the HS?
Honestly, now that there have been some recall issues with BB, minor as they are, I don't think you're all that much better off with it than the HS. Let me take a look at the two and see if i can figure it out. In the meantime, I don't see any reason not to go back to the HS for now.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Analysis of micronutrients is pretty similar. But the HS does have beet pulp, and that darned beet pulp does seem to help create firmer smaller stools in some dogs. That doesn't mean there isn't a food out there without beet pulp that won't work for Darwin. It just meaqns BB isn't the right one for him. Ordinarily, I'd say try the BB Wilderness grain-free. But I'm not recommending that right now. Not for my Darwin, lol. Let's wait until they get these recall issues straightened out.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

We switched our guys to Taste of the Wild from EVO and we haven't had diarrhea but we do have looser and and more frequent poops lots of gas. It isn't a bad reaction like yours and TOTW may work for Darwin. We miss EVO and hope that P&G haven't changed the formula. If it appears that they are keeping it as a high quality food, we would love to go back to it.

[Camilla and Darwin]

We want to use Fromm so badly... but we would have to order it online. I am not ruling out that option, because it's a great food... but it is inconvenient. I am not sure of what other brands I should look for honestly. They sell a brand called Pinnacle at the food store we went to... and the ingredients look alright. But a lot of the formulas are grain free and I've never tried a grain free with Darwin. So... what is the story on Wellness? Any recalls, because I am not remembering any... maybe I need to go search through the recall stuff. Is it better than HS?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

At this point, I would say yes; but you should go with the Core grain-free formulas. The Super-Five Mix formulas gave JD very loose poop, the worst of all the premium foods we've tried. Although every dog is different and it might not do that for Darwin.

[Kyoko]

I have been using Wellness for sometimes now for Charlie. She was on Super 5 mix, but recently switched it to Core - grain free.( First time on grain free food )
Charlie's poop has been fine. The reason for the switch from Super 5 mix to Core was because the Core kibbles seem to be more crunchy than Super 5 mix. I thought chrunchy kibbles may be helpful to the dental health. ( Kind of stupid rational... I know.) I have used Fromm, Halo, etc... but I could only get Fromm from one pet store and it was sort of inconvenient. Plus the kibble size. I started using kibbles for training some time ago, so Fromm's and Halo's kibbles were too tiny for me to handle. Wellness's kibbles are just right size for me.

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

Crunchy is better for dental health. That is not stupid rational. This is an issue I am running into with Taquito. I have to put water in his food to help his hydration levels (he doesn't drink a ton during the day) for his kidneys. So a chihuahua with bad teeth is getting NO help from crunchy kibble. Ha! Can't win. Had to vent...sorry....

[Kyoko]

If you contatct the manufactures, they should send you some sample food. This is how I found out Core fomula of Wellness food is crunchier than Super 5 Mix. :-)

[Camilla and Darwin]

Thank you, I will definitely do this!

[Camilla and Darwin]

I've contacted them and they are sending the core formulas, both the fish and original samples. Thanks for the suggestion, I'm excited for him to try them! And I'm all about the crunchy kibbles, I am hoping it will help scrape tartar off more than his current kibble....

[Kyoko]

Also the Online pet store "Smartpak" will send you 5 serving or so worth of samples as well. http://www.smartpakcanine.com/Category.aspx?CATID=485
My old Chow has been eating Wellness "CORE' every now and then now, and he is doing well on it too. ( He normally eats home cook meal due to the sensitive stomach from the old age.)

[Jerri Hubbert]

I have been through it with my dogs as well. I lost two of my babies with the food recalls and have been vigilant ever since. I have been so careful not to get them upset.
The biggest lesson I have learned is "it depends on the dog". Not everything will work for every dog. I can say that if your dog had the runs and you had known it was from the food, maybe you should have switch out sooner, (I know how I feel when I am having tummy trouble-YUCK!).
I am finding that sometimes when I use BB or anything else, I have to switch them out. I also found that if I set down a specific mealtime and mixed the dry with canned BB it worked out much better for them and the problems come less often. When the tummy troubles happen, I have been cutting the food down-backing off to about half for one day, (no snacks except for milkbones for a couple days) and then seeing if it helps. If it doesn't, then we start with the vanilla frozen yogurt and generally helps correct things. My vet also suggested a food for senior dogs (and it did the trick), I was able to get my dogs back on schedule. It can take up to 4 days to get them right again when it starts. As long as they are not getting dehydrated, are playful and still eating I do not take them to the vet. Any longer than that I do. Good luck!