The scores
Royal Canin Labrador Retriever Adult: C (56/100) — Below average. Brewers rice first, chicken by-product meal second, with corn and wheat gluten rounding out a filler-heavy top five.
Blue Buffalo Life Protection Large Breed: B (80/100) — Above average. Deboned chicken and chicken meal lead the formula, backed by brown rice, oatmeal, and barley.
How the ingredients compare
The top six ingredients reveal the entire story:
Royal Canin Labrador: Brewers Rice, Chicken By-Product Meal, Corn, Wheat Gluten, Chicken Fat, Corn Gluten Meal
Blue Buffalo Large Breed: Deboned Chicken, Chicken Meal, Brown Rice, Oatmeal, Barley, Pea Starch
Royal Canin’s first ingredient is brewers rice — a low-cost milling by-product, not a protein source. Its second is chicken by-product meal, which includes necks, feet, and organs rather than clean muscle meat. Positions three through six add corn, wheat gluten, and corn gluten meal — that’s five filler-heavy ingredients in the top six. The formula reads like it was designed around cost, not nutrition.
Blue Buffalo starts with deboned chicken (real muscle meat) and chicken meal (a concentrated protein source). The grains that follow — brown rice, oatmeal, barley — are whole, nutritious carbohydrates rather than cheap processing remnants. Pea starch in position six is the one filler, and it’s far less concerning than Royal Canin’s multi-filler stack.
Where Blue Buffalo pulls ahead
Real protein foundation: Two named chicken sources in the first two positions versus a by-product meal buried behind brewers rice. This is the single biggest differentiator and the primary reason for the 24-point gap.
Quality grains: Brown rice, oatmeal, and barley are whole grains with fiber, vitamins, and slower-digesting carbohydrates. Royal Canin uses brewers rice, corn, wheat gluten, and corn gluten meal — cheaper ingredients that pad the formula without comparable nutritional value.
Omega-3 support: Blue Buffalo includes flaxseed, a quality plant-based omega-3 source for skin and coat health. Royal Canin includes fish oil further down its list, but the overall fatty acid profile is weaker given the reliance on chicken fat and vegetable oil as primary fat sources.
Lower price: Despite scoring 36 points higher, Blue Buffalo Large Breed typically costs less per pound than Royal Canin Labrador Retriever. You get better ingredients and pay less for them. Shop on Amazon →
Where Royal Canin holds its own
The joint support package is genuinely comparable. Royal Canin includes glucosamine hydrochloride, chondroitin sulfate, and L-carnitine — the same trio Blue Buffalo offers. For a breed as prone to hip dysplasia and obesity as the Labrador Retriever, these supplements matter. Royal Canin also adds FOS prebiotics and dried beet pulp for digestive support, plus taurine for heart health.
The breed-specific angle is Royal Canin’s main selling point. The kibble is shaped and sized specifically for a Labrador’s jaw, and the calorie profile is calibrated for Labs’ tendency to overeat and gain weight. If your Lab is a particularly fast eater, the kibble shape may slow them down slightly. But this is a design feature built on top of a weak nutritional foundation — and it doesn’t come close to bridging a 24-point ingredient quality gap. Shop on Amazon →
The bottom line
This is one of the most decisive comparisons we’ve published. A 24-point gap spanning a full letter grade leaves no room for debate. Both formulas target large breed dogs and both include the same joint support supplements — glucosamine, chondroitin, and L-carnitine. The difference is everything underneath: Blue Buffalo builds those supplements on top of real chicken and quality whole grains, while Royal Canin builds them on top of brewers rice, by-product meal, and corn fillers. If your Lab needs large breed joint support, Blue Buffalo Large Breed delivers the same functional supplements with vastly better base nutrition — at a lower price. Read our full reviews of Royal Canin Labrador and Blue Buffalo Large Breed for the complete breakdown.