Verus and Pets Plus
 

For the past couple months I have been searching for a food that both my dogs can eat. Buzz was eating Canidae and Ranger Iams (ala Seeing Eye). Canidae did not agree with Ranger so I was going to try TOTW. Went to Pets Plus and the nice woman there said, "oh, you don't want to get that, you want Verus. It is not a big brand that is made at a bunch of plants." So I went home and looked it up and both dogfoodanalysis and dogfoodadvisor place it middle of the road. So I didn't buy it and decided to try BB. Both dogs are doing fine on BB so I went to Pets Plus to buy a big bag of BB and a young man there said "oh, you know that BB was just bought out and their quality is going to go down. You want Verus." The manager walked by and confirmed the wonders of Verus - one factory, one owner who cares about quality, yada yada...

So what is e deal with Verus? Is it made in one place? Does that warrant some merit?

What kind of deal does Pets Plus have with Verus?

Do you think quality will decrease for BB?

A side not - Pets Plus sells puppies and I hate to go there at all. But they did have the best price on BB so I broke down and decided to get food there. The manager and the young salesman both told me "we feed all our puppies Verus." To me that was like the kiss of death on Versus. I figure they are looking for the cheepest option when feeding their puppies. I just hate to look at those poor pups. They had a super skinny GSD. :(

Can't speak for Pets Plus but I know that BB does not yield good earnings for other pet stores, it's basically nothing.

Versus can be bought in other places so it's not their brand. Not sure why they would be pushing it so much but I bet it is the food they make the most money on.

That said, it doesn't look like all that great of a food.

Thanks for your response. I guess when I think about it the really important question is was BB bought out and has quality suffered?

Well, I can confirm that VéRUS is a small, privately owned company. Their foods are not manufactured in-house, but are manufactured by only one manufacturer, and a very good one at that. It is made by Ohio Pet Foods, who also manufactures for Dr. Tim's, and Annamaet, among others. Ohio Pet Foods, as far as I know, has never had a recall on any of their products, is privately owned, and has an excellent reputation as a manufacturer of pet foods.

By ingredients alone, Blue Buffalo may look like a better food ... and by ingredients, perhaps it is. Ingredients don't necessarily tell the whole story though, and personally, I'd happily feed VéRUS before I'd feed anything made by Blue Buffalo.

I feed Verus and my dogs do well on it. They did poorly on BB, had frequent diarrhea.

Thanks for your input. I guess Verus is fine, which is actually what I figured. I guess what turns me off is the obvious hard sell by Pets Plus. Especially since I explained that I had tried several foods and both my dogs are doing well on BB. Why would I want to change that right now. Maybe in a couple months I can try a new food if I think it might meet their needs as well. But while they are both healthy and pooping solid not soft I am not sure why they would encourage me to change except for their own profit.

Here is their ingredient list for Life Advantage. With 2 rice ingredients back to back it is pretty rice heavy and is very grain heavy. Dried Beet Pulp and Tomato Pomace are fillers (some people just hate these 2), both used for their high fiber, which control bad poo. Sodium Selenite and Natural Flavors are both controversial ingredient's, but to bad. Overall it is a fair product, but I really recommend adding fresh meat. Would I feed it, NO, it's to grain heavy and Tony gets eye goo and rough fur when he eats rice.


Chicken Meal, Ground Oats, Ground Brown Rice, Rice Bran, Chicken Fat (preserved with Natural Mixed Tocopherols), Dried Beet Pulp, Sun Cured Alfalfa, Flaxseed, Tomato Pomace, Natural Flavors, Salt, Potassium Chloride, Calcium Carbonate, Chicory Extract, Kelp, Yucca Schidigera Extract, Choline Chloride, Folic Acid, Vitamin E Supplement, Zinc Amino Acid Chelate, Ascorbic Acid, Copper Amino Acid Chelate, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Vitamin A Acetate, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Riboflavin, Niacin, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Manganese Amino Acid Chelate, Sodium Selenite, Thiamine Mononitrate, Calcium Iodate.

3toestony, is Life Advantage BB or is it Verus? Each brand has so many foods I can't keep them straight.

The food that 3ToesTony posted is one of VeRUS's formulas.

I'm not sure where the people you talked to at Pets Plus got their information, but as far as I know, Blue Buffalo has not been acquired by anyone. They are still privately owned ... perhaps they were thinking of another company? The only reason I could see Blue changing their foods for the worse is just profit, pure and simple.

The only big acquisitions I can think of in the pet food market recently are Proctor and Gamble's purchase of Natura Pet (the makers of Evo, Innova, California Naturals, etc.), and Merrick's purchase of Castor and Pollux (the makers of Organix).