Home / Dog food / Blue Buffalo / BLUE Natural Veterinary Diet Dry Dog Food NP Novel Protein Alligator
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BLUE Natural Veterinary Diet Dry Dog Food NP Novel Protein Alligator
A formulated-to-meet dry food that's cheaper per calorie than 4% of the dry foods we've priced and denser than 38% (you feed fewer cups) — $4.86 a day for your 40-lb adult dog.
THE FACTS, ONE SENTENCE — data as JSON · reference dog 40 lb · updated 2026-07-12
The evidence
The Verified Label
Every food on this site gets this exact panel — same fields, same order, sourced from the official label — so brands finally become comparable. Dots show where this food sits among all 494 dry foods we've verified.
verified 2026-07-12
Composition — dry-matter basis
why dry matter
Calories & cost — for your 40-lb adult dog
Cost per 1,000 kcal: $4.94 — cheaper than 4% of the 360 dry foods we've priced (median $1.93). Serving math uses standard veterinary energy formulas — see the formula.
Standards & ingredients
what this means
why unknown
Safety
Source: official label source (official)· price: Amazon, 2026-07-12 · anchors: 494 verified dry dog foods (360 priced) · how to read this label
The fit
For your dog, specifically
Checked for a 40-lb adult with a sensitive stomach — the same published criteria our finder uses. Change your dog above and these update.
The source material
The full ingredient list
Every flag on the Verified Label is computed from this list. Ingredients are ordered by pre-cooking weight — the first five carry the most information.
Deboned Alligator, Peas, Pea Starch, Alligator Meal, Pea Protein, Tapioca Starch, Potato Starch, Canola Oil (source of Omega 6 Fatty Acids), Flaxseed (source of Omega 3 Fatty Acids), Natural Flavor, Pea Fiber, Dicalcium Phosphate, Fish Oil (source of DHA-Docosahexaenoic Acid), Potassium Chloride, Salt, Pumpkin, Dried Kelp, Dried Chicory Root, L-Threonine, Choline Chloride, Direct Dehydrated Alfalfa Pellets, DL-Methionine, Calcium Carbonate, Vitamin E Supplement, L-Tryptophan, Zinc Amino Acid Chelate, preserved with Mixed Tocopherols, Iron Amino Acid Chelate, L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (source of Vitamin C), Copper Amino Acid Chelate, Manganese Amino Acid Chelate, Niacin (Vitamin B3), Calcium Pantothenate (Vitamin B5), Biotin (Vitamin B7), Vitamin A Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate (Vitamin B1), Riboflavin (Vitamin B2), Vitamin D3 Supplement, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B6), Calcium Iodate, 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, Folic Acid (Vitamin B9), Sodium Selenite, Oil of Rosemary. This product was made using alligator that was sourced in the United States in full compliance with the provisions of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES)
Nutritional twins
Cheaper close matches
Verified foods with a closely matching label at a meaningfully lower cost per 1,000 kcal.
Label-composition matches only: same species, form, and growth stage; same primary protein where both are known; grain-free preserved; protein within 4 points and fat within 4 points, and estimated carbs within 8 points, on a dry-matter basis. Not a medical or quality recommendation.
The maker
Who makes this — and how they back it up
The four questions the WSAVA nutrition guidelines tell you to ask a pet-food company. Every answer is sourced or marked as an undisclosed gap — never guessed. This is the "is it made competently?" axis that star-rating sites skip.
Same source also states: 'Blue Buffalo sources and produces everything from its own facilities or from partners across the United States.' Indicates a mix of own facilities plus third-party co-manufacturers.
source →Blue Buffalo's professional site states doctorate-level animal nutritionists on staff. dvm360 (via search, not fetched) reports Laura B. Gaylord, DVM, DACVIM (Nutrition) — a board-certified veterinary nutritionist — and Matt Panasevich, PhD, work at Blue Buffalo; the true value rests on the fetched bluevetconnect quote.
source →15 of 443 verified labels in our corpus carry an AAFCO feeding-trial substantiation statement.
source →14 PubMed-indexed papers carry this brand's name in an author affiliation — but without a recognized pet-nutrition research arm we can't confirm these are the company's own studies rather than unrelated name matches (surnames, the taxonomic family "Canidae", institutions). We don't count it as confirmed research.
source →Full company scorecard, sources, and every SKU we've verified for this brand: Blue Buffalo brand page →