Home / Dog food / Blue Buffalo / Life Protection Formula Senior Dog Beef and Brown Rice Recipe

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Life Protection Formula Senior Dog Beef and Brown Rice Recipe

Dry food · senior dogs

A formulated-to-meet, deboned-first dry food that's denser than 21% (you feed fewer cups). Cost-per-day isn't available yet — this SKU isn't price-matched.

THE FACTS, ONE SENTENCE — data as JSON · reference dog 40 lb · updated 2026-07-11

Your dogupdates every number on this page
40 lb

Joint, kidney, dental or heart concerns? Labels can't honestly answer those — that's vet territory. Why we don't checkmark them →

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 LabelThe standardized pet-food panel
VPFD № BLUE-B
verified 2026-07-11

Composition — dry-matter basis

why dry matter
Moisture hides the real recipe: kibble is ~10% water, canned food ~78%. Removing water puts every food on one scale, so these are the only nutrition numbers that can be compared across foods. As-fed label values shown small.
Protein Not disclosedlabel min: —% no corpus anchor — value not disclosed
Fat Not disclosedlabel min: —% no corpus anchor — value not disclosed
Fiber Not disclosedlabel max: —% no corpus anchor — value not disclosed
Est. carbohydrates ash not disclosed → 8% assumed, so this is an estimate Not disclosedneeds protein/fat/fiber anchor available once more brands disclose ash
Calcium / Phosphorus extended guarantees: none disclosed Not disclosedcalcium/phosphorus no ratio to anchor

Calories & cost — for your 40-lb adult dog

Calorie density 348 kcal/cup— kcal/kg lighter than 79% of dry foods (median 388) — you feed more cups
Daily serving2¾ cups
Cost per day—
5-lb bag lasts—

Cost per 1,000 kcal not available yet — this SKU isn't price-matched to a current retail listing. Serving math uses standard veterinary energy formulas — see the formula.

Standards & ingredients

AAFCO statement
what this means
Two kinds of AAFCO claims exist. Most foods are only "formulated to meet" nutrient profiles — a paper calculation. A smaller set carry the stronger claim: fed to real dogs in AAFCO-procedure trials ("Animal feeding tests using AAFCO procedures substantiate…").
 Formulated to meet · maintenance
First five ingredients (by pre-cooking weight)Deboned Beef · Brown Rice · Oatmeal · Barley · Chicken Meal
Named animal protein first; named meals onlyYes
Legumes in first 10 (FDA DCM inquiry)2 (peas, pea starch)
BHA / BHT preservativesNone on label
Carrageenan (thickener)None
Ethoxyquin
why unknown
When a fish-meal supplier adds ethoxyquin, U.S. rules don't require it on the finished label — so no label can prove its absence for recipes containing fish meal. We report this as a gap rather than guessing.
 Can't be determined from label

Safety

FDA recalls — Blue Buffalo, since 20235 on record — see recall history
ManufacturerNot confirmed from label
Label transparency 2 of 15 standard fields
Green = verified favorable · amber = gap in the record · red = verified unfavorable · gray = not disclosed / neutral fact.
Source: official label source (official) · 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.

✓
Validated for adult dogsAAFCO statement covers adult maintenance.
✓
Passes our sensitive-stomach checksNamed animal protein first, and no unnamed by-products in the ingredient list.
·
Contains chickenNot selected as a concern for your dog — shown here for reference.

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 Beef, Brown Rice, Oatmeal, Barley, Chicken Meal, Peas, Pea Starch, Potatoes, Potato Starch, Fish Meal (source of Omega 3 Fatty Acids), Powdered Cellulose, Natural Flavor, Miscanthus Grass, Dried Yeast, Chicken Fat (preserved with Mixed Tocopherols), Flaxseed (source of Omega 6 Fatty Acids), Fish Oil (source of DHA-Docosahexaenoic Acid), Dicalcium Phosphate, Potassium Citrate, Calcium Carbonate, Direct Dehydrated Alfalfa Pellets, Choline Chloride, Salt, Dried Tomato Pomace, L-Lysine, DL-Methionine, Dried Chicory Root, Alfalfa Nutrient Concentrate, Potassium Chloride, L-Threonine, Taurine, Vitamin E Supplement, preserved with Mixed Tocopherols, Dried Sweet Potatoes, Carrots, L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (source of Vitamin C), Glucosamine Hydrochloride, L-Carnitine, Zinc Amino Acid Chelate, Zinc Sulfate, Vegetable Juice for color, Ferrous Sulfate, Iron Amino Acid Chelate, Chondroitin Sulfate, Blueberries, Cranberries, Barley Grass, Parsley, Turmeric, Dried Kelp, Yucca Schidigera Extract, Niacin (Vitamin B3), Calcium Pantothenate (Vitamin B5), Copper Sulfate, Biotin (Vitamin B7), Vitamin A Supplement, Copper Amino Acid Chelate, Manganese Sulfate, Manganese Amino Acid Chelate, Thiamine Mononitrate (Vitamin B1), Riboflavin (Vitamin B2), Vitamin D3 Supplement, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B6), Calcium Iodate, Folic Acid (Vitamin B9), Sodium Selenite, Oil of Rosemary

Wet ingredients like fresh deboned beef shrink once cooked — which is why named meals appearing high on the list matter: they keep meaningful animal protein after moisture is removed.