# Orijen vs. Acana for small puppy?



## seashells (Oct 11, 2012)

I'm thinking about switching Tyrion to Acana after we finish his current bag of Orijen. I have no _major_ issues with it, but just wonder if he really needs to be on something quite so high-protein. He's also eating grain-free canned and I'll likely be introducing raw soon, so the kibble isn't the only thing in his diet.

The main issue I'm having with the Orijen is the huge bag size. My dog is currently 4 lbs and he'll likely be 6lbs max when full-grown (he's 6 months old now), so the smallest bag still takes us forever to go through, and while I've done my best to store it as safely as possible, I'm worried it's going to go bad before we can finish. It looks like Acana comes in smaller bags? That'd be ideal for us, especially if we ever want to rotate formulas in the future.

One thing I am wondering about, is I see the Regionals are labeled as "For adult dogs..." and there's no puppy formula. Are the Regionals not all life stages? I see the Classics make a Small Breed Puppy formula, but I wanted to try and keep his kibble grain-free. He has no specific issues with grain that I know of at the moment, so it's not imperative, I'd just feel better about it.

So people, especially small-breed owners, with experiences with both these foods, what do you think? Stick with Orijen? Try Acana? Have you been happier with one vs. the other?


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## zontee (Oct 12, 2012)

as a trainer most of the hyperactive dogs i deal with are on orijen and i think it is because its high protein and as soon as the protein is cooked the body uses it diffrently. i would say go for accana they make a really good high performance food that is inbetwnn the 2 for protein levels.


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## CorgiPaws (Mar 31, 2009)

I wouldn't worry about feeding Orijen to a small breed puppy. They don't have the fragile growth process that large and giant breeds do. 
I've worked professionally (daycare/grooming/training/boarding) with dogs for several years, and I've never heard that Orijen makes dogs hyperactive. Ever. In fact, most of the bouncing off the wall psycho dogs I deal with seem to be on Beneful and other sugar/carb loaded foods.

I don't think you can go wrong with either choice, as both are good quality and made by a reliable company. Especially since the kibble does not make up your dogs entire diet, either would be reasonable choices.


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## domika (Jul 15, 2012)

If you're looking to add raw into the diet, it's going to be much higher in protein than Acana and closer to Orijen levels, but probably higher than that even. 

Acana Regionals are All Life Stages food unless they changed it when the formula change. You could feed a small breed puppy an adult food probably right away anyways. I think most of the time the kibble is smaller and higher in fat content and protein. If you want to switch to Acana that is a fine choice, but staying on Orijen is not bad either since you said you had no major issues. 

As for the size of bags, Orijen is 5.5lb bags at the smallest and Acana is 5lb bags. .5 lbs isn't going to make a huge difference in my opinion.


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## seashells (Oct 11, 2012)

It comes in 5.5 lb bags? If I could get Orijen in that size, I'd probably just keep it in my rotation and do that with Acana! I wonder if I can request my store to carry smaller bags...the smallest I've ever seen there is 15.5 lbs.  They do have the 5 lb bags of Acana though. 

Also yeah I'm actually seeing now on the Analysis PDF they have on the Acana site it says for all life stages...not sure why it says "For adult dogs" on the website.


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## CorgiPaws (Mar 31, 2009)

domika said:


> If you're looking to add raw into the diet, it's going to be much higher in protein than Acana and closer to Orijen levels, but probably higher than that even.


This is incorrect. In actuality, because a raw diet is heavy in moisture, the actual protein content is rarely above 25%. 
You can not compare the nutrient profile of fresh whole meat to a processed dry product. Apples to oranges.


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## doggiedad (Jan 23, 2011)

feed your dog Acana and Orijen. Acana and Orijen are packaged
in 0.88 lbs (14. something onces). i've never fed puppy food to my dogs.


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## domika (Jul 15, 2012)

CorgiPaws said:


> This is incorrect. In actuality, because a raw diet is heavy in moisture, the actual protein content is rarely above 25%.
> You can not compare the nutrient profile of fresh whole meat to a processed dry product. Apples to oranges.


I guess I was under the impression raw had more protein then that. Thanks I'm still a bit of a newbie


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## DaViking (Sep 27, 2011)

domika said:


> I guess I was under the impression raw had more protein then that. Thanks I'm still a bit of a newbie


You are both right actually. Dogs eating commercial dry food drink water too  So, yes to the protein level is lower at dry levels and yes, to the protein portion of the daily intake of food can be relatively high. Relative as in relative to kibble eating dogs.


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## murbanski (Sep 25, 2012)

I read that comparing the protein levels of kibble and comparing the protein levels in raw meat isn't the same. Sure, if you compare them as they are, the raw meat has a lot less protein in it. But when kibble and raw meat contain the same amount of water (say if you dehydrated the raw meat to the same water content as the kibble) the raw meat would have significantly more protein in it.


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