Taste Of The Wild vs. Blue Buffalo

Picking out a dog food that best fits the needs of your dog can be tricky, especially with all of the different dog food brands available. Sometimes, you may ask yourself what the difference between all of the food brands are and why one food is better over the other.

To help you with your researching adventure of different dog foods, we will go over the difference between two different, yet similar-looking dog foods, Taste of the Wild vs. Blue Buffalo.

For this particular review, we will go over who makes the different dog food brands, if they have had any recall history, what makes up their diets, as well as give a short review on some popular flavor within the brands.

By the end of the article, you should have a better idea which of these two similar dog foods will fit your dog’s diet the best, as well as what makes the foods different from each other.

Who Manufactures Blue Buffalo & Taste of the Wild Dog Food?

Taste of the Wild

Now let us turn to Taste of the Wild. Taste of the Wild was created in 2007, and since its creation, it has remained a family-run pet food brand. While still being a family run pet food brand, their foods are manufactured by Diamond Pet Foods, Inc, which is owned by Schell & Kampeter, Inc., which has been around since the 1970s.

Taste of the Wild makes all of their dog food in the United States of America. They have five state-of-the-art facilities across the United States that are responsible for making their pet food brands, two in California and one each in Missouri, Arkansas and South Carolina.

They only source their ingredients from reputable resources that they have established long term relationships with. Some of their ingredients are sourced locally while others globally, but you can always be sure that their ingredients are of the highest quality.

Blue Buffalo

Let’s start with who manufactures Blue Wilderness. Blue Wilderness is a line of dog food offered by Blue Buffalo, which produces all of their dog foods in the United States of America, except their BLUE Chomp ‘n Chew treats, which is made in Ireland.

Blue Buffalo was founded in 2002 in Wilton, Connecticut by Bill Bishop. Currently, though, Blue Buffalo is owned by General Mills, a popular cereal company who is aiming to create better dog food by using natural ingredients.

For the majority of their ingredients, Blue Wilderness uses their resources or seek out aid from partnering companies, like Ainsworth, ANI/Vita-Line, CJ Foods, Triple T Foods, and Tuffy’s, for specific ingredients.

For the smaller ingredients used, Blue Wilderness is not as precise on where their ingredients are sourced, so it is not sure that they are entirely sourced in the United States of America or not.

Recall History of Each Brand

Taste of the Wild

Taste of the Wild is still a young dog food brand since it was established in 2007, compared to Blue Buffalo that was established in 2002. But in their short time Taste of the Wild has only had one case of a recall.

In May of 2012, Taste of the Wild recalled both dog and cat foods with production code have a “2” or a “3” as the ninth digit and the letter “X” as the tenth or eleventh due to a risk of salmonella contamination.

For being a young company, having only one recall case is this positive as the case occurred long after they were established, and they have not had another recall case as of then.

Blue Buffalo

The most recent recall incident that Blue Wilderness has had was in March of 2018. Blue Wilderness recalled their Blue Wilderness Rocky Mountain Recipe Red Meat Dinner Wet Food for Adult Dogs due to the wet food being at risk of elevated levels of naturally-occurring beef thyroid hormones in the beef used for the diet.

In the same month, they also had a recall on their Blue Wilderness Trail Trays, and BLUE Divine Delights due to a quality issue with the foil seal of the trays. In November of 2015, the Cub Size Wilderness Wild Chew Bones were recalled due to salmonella contamination.

In October of 2010, Blue Wilderness Chicken dry food was recalled due to toxic levels of Vitamin D. While the Blue Wilderness food line has had no other reports of recall, the Blue Buffalo brand has had eight total, including the Blue Wilderness, recall cases, recall cases from 2007 up till 2017

Key Ingredients of Each Brand

Each brand of food uses a variety of key ingredients in an attempt to make them stand out amongst other similar brands. We will go over four of these key ingredients and how both brands use them.

Protein – Blue Buffalo Wilderness

Blue Wilderness uses a wide variety of animal proteins in their diets to both encourage dogs to eat, and to make sure that there is a flavor preference for every dog. Blue Wilderness does tend to mix animal proteins in their diets as a way to keep dogs from getting bored of only eating a single flavor.

Here is a list of all of the animal proteins Blue Wilderness uses.

• Chicken
• Beef
• Menhaden Fish Meal
• Dried Egg Product
• Duck
• Salmon
• Bison
• Rabbit
• Alligator
• Catfish
• Venison
• Halibut
• Trout
• Turkey
• Quail
• Duck

Protein – Taste of the Wild

Taste of the Wild does not have as extensive of an animal protein list, but that does not mean that their ingredients are a lesser quality. Taste of the Wild seems to focus on making diets with one or two animal proteins, except some flavors, to prevent dogs from having an allergic reaction to the food.

Here is the list of animal proteins that Taste of the Wild uses.

• Venison
• Bison
• Salmon
• Beef
• Lamb
• Boar
• Trout
• Turkey
• Fowl
• Chicken
• Ocean Fish Meal

Fats – Blue Buffalo

Blue Wilderness tends to use Chicken Fat as one of the leading fat giving ingredients in their diets. While Chicken Fat is not a harmful ingredient for dogs, some dogs can have allergies to poultry.

Since the majority of their dry food contains Chicken Fat, those flavors cannot be eaten by dogs with poultry allergies, thus eliminating a broad spectrum of pets from being able to eat the dry food.

Fats – Taste of the Wild

Taste of the Wild does also tend to add extra fat to their dry food diets, but it is later down the list as they are confident that the natural fat provided by their choice proteins is enough to help your dog develop strong muscles and have the energy they need for day to day life.

Antioxidants – Blue Buffalo

To provide your dog with the Antioxidants that they need, Blue Wilderness tends to add some variety of fruits and vegetables to their dry food, but they tend to be tried and not as diverse as some dogs can benefit from eating.

Here is a list of fruits and vegetables that Blue Wilderness use to give your dog an Antioxidant boost.

• Peas
• Pea Protein
• Pea Starch
• Dried Tomato Pomace
• Flaxseed
• Dehydrated Alfalfa Meal
• Sweet Potatoes
• Carrots

Antioxidants – Taste of the Wild

Taste of the Wild also uses a variety of fruits and vegetables to give your dog the antioxidants that they need, but they also lack some in the variety department. They do have a few extra fruits in their mix compared to Blue Wilderness, but there is room for improvement.

Here is a list of fruits and vegetable Taste of the Wild uses.

• Sweet Potatoes
• Potatoes
• Peas
• Lentils
• Dried Chicory Root
• Tomatoes
• Blueberries
• Raspberries
• Yucca

Blue LifeSource Bits and Species-Specific Probiotics

Since Blue Wilderness is a Blue Buffalo diet, it has the exclusive LifeSource Bits added to it. 

These LifeSource Bits contain a hearty blend of antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals chosen by holistic veterinarians and animal nutritionists aimed at supporting your dog’s immune system health, Life Stage requirements, and provide a healthy oxidative balance.

Taste of the Wild offers its unique ingredient to their dry food in the form of Species-Specific Probiotic. Every pound of Taste of the Wild contains around 80-million live, active cultures that are meant to support a healthy digestive and immune system.

They are added after the cooking process to ensure the highest viability possible.

Blue Buffalo Wilderness Vs. Taste Of The Wild Reviews