# orijen



## coolstorybro (Nov 3, 2010)

ive been doing a lot of research on dog food ever since i adopted my 4 month old labrador/mix. its seems like orijen is on the top of the dog food industry. my question is, what makes it so good? does it really make a difference compared to other well named brands such as wellness, TOTW, innova, etc? is it really worth the extra bucks? discuss. thanks!


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## SaltyDog (Mar 10, 2010)

Well......for starters, they actually make their own dog food in their own family owned plant and source their ingredients themselves. This puts a level of trust in the people who purchase the food and I believe this is trully the key to their success and the main reason why people choose it.

They use plenty of protein rich meat ingredients from fresh meats and meat meals. The higher price tends to lead you to believe of the high inclusion of meats. Take TOTW for instance....how can a kibble that claims to have high meat inclusion, be so inexpensive? Go to the grocery store, meat isn't cheap.

Wellness has become the giant of the boutique brands. It is probably the only boutique brand that can play with the big boys.....Purina, Proctor and Gamble (Iams, Eukanuba, Natura), Mars (Pedigree, Royal Canin), Del Monte (Milkbone, Gravy Train, Kibbles N Bits, Natures Recipe). Although Wellness is not as lucrative as the other four mentioned, it can still certainly market itself as such. My concern with Wellness, although it is extremely better than all the foods just listed, is that it is copacked by 6 different plants across the country. That's a lot of hands in the pot to have things go wrong. Just my opinion.

By searching on this forum and over the internet, you'll find few if any, adverse effects by feeding Orijen.





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## SamWu1 (Oct 15, 2010)

SaltyDog said:


> Well......for starters, they actually make their own dog food in their own family owned plant and source their ingredients themselves. This puts a level of trust in the people who purchase the food and I believe this is trully the key to their success and the main reason why people choose it.
> 
> The use plenty of protein rich meat ingredients from fresh meats and meat meals. The higher price tends to lead you to believe of the high inclusion of meats. Take TOTW for instance....how can a kibble that claims to have high meat inclusion, be so inexpensive? Go to the grocery store, meat isn't cheap.
> 
> ...


As Saltydog has said, not all grain-free "premium" kibbles are created equal. There are numerous GF products out there that has high protein levels that are aquired through other means other than animal products.

Champion Pet Foods may be one of the only companies that discloses everything from sources to manufacturing practices. Here's a video..YouTube - Acana & Orijen: The Champion Pet Foods Story

If there's another company that's as straight forward, I would love to see it. I don't feed kibble but if I did, it undoubtingly be either Acana or Orijen, particularly their Regional Red formulation.


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## coolstorybro (Nov 3, 2010)

SaltyDog said:


> Well......for starters, they actually make their own dog food in their own family owned plant and source their ingredients themselves. This puts a level of trust in the people who purchase the food and I believe this is trully the key to their success and the main reason why people choose it.
> 
> The use plenty of protein rich meat ingredients from fresh meats and meat meals. The higher price tends to lead you to believe of the high inclusion of meats. Take TOTW for instance....how can a kibble that claims to have high meat inclusion, be so inexpensive? Go to the grocery store, meat isn't cheap.
> 
> By searching on this forum and over the internet, you'll find few if any, adverse effects by feeding Orijen.



very cool that it is family owned/run. i want whats best for my puppy, but i am on a budget. i feel bad for not researching about dog food when i had my 20 year old shih tzu. we fed her purina 'moist and meaty', and recently took a look at their ingredients and couldn't believe what we were feeding her. we had to put her down last September. :frown: (respiratory problems.) 

now i got a brand new 4 month old labrador/mix and dont want to make a mistake with his diet. the shelter was feeding him science diet, and i made the switch to blue buffalo recently. his stool comes out hard, but its really soft when you feel it. i dont know which bag i should try next, but if orijen is really worth the price, im willing to put my pup on it.


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## SaltyDog (Mar 10, 2010)

coolstorybro said:


> very cool that it is family owned/run. i want whats best for my puppy, but i am on a budget. i feel bad for not researching about dog food when i had my 20 year old shih tzu. we fed her purina 'moist and meaty', and recently took a look at their ingredients and couldn't believe what we were feeding her. we had to put her down last September. :frown: (respiratory problems.)
> 
> now i got a brand new 4 month old labrador/mix and dont want to make a mistake with his diet. the shelter was feeding him science diet, and i made the switch to blue buffalo recently. his stool comes out hard, but its really soft when you feel it. i dont know which bag i should try next, but if orijen is really worth the price, im willing to put my pup on it.




For a large breed pup, my favorite kibble is Orijen Large Breed Puppy. You can find every post on this forum I've ever written. I've never waivered from this statement. It is my belief, their is NO other comparison to it, in the large breed catagory.

You can find it online for $62 for the 29lb bag. As far as a budget friendly Large Breed Pup formula? I wish I had a stand out recomendation....but I don't :frown: You can go to a grain based formula, but you're only going to save yourself a maximum of $10 a bag for a good food. So I honestly in good faith can't recommend it.

Buying in bulk will always save. doggiefood.com always has bulk discounts. Click on their promotions tab.





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## SamWu1 (Oct 15, 2010)

coolstorybro said:


> but if orijen is really worth the price, im willing to put my pup on it.


I don't feed kibble but if I had to, it would only be Orijen. Yes it's horrendously expensive, I began my experience as a dog owner thinking it would cost me $20.00 a month to feed a 100lbs. dog and now I've discovered it costs more to *properly* feed a dog well and to keep him/her healthy.

If you want to save money and don't mind an hour of prep work a month, go PMR. You can feed nothing but leg quarters with a bit of organ meat thrown in couple times a week and it'll be better than any kibble on the market regardless of cost or quality. 

I was feeding Orijen 6 Fish and then times got hard and $70.00 a bag was no longer realistic. I was at Walmart shopping and saw 10lbs. bags of leg quarter for $6.00 and that's how it all started. He ate 30lbs. a month so it cost me $18.00 a month plus a little organ meat which was less than $5.00 a month = $23.00 a month for *fresh* food vs. expensive dried pellets. Not a bad trade off.


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## josh83 (Oct 24, 2010)

I feed Orijen to my dog however she is only 16LBS so she gets a total of 1 cup a day half in the morning and half in the the evening. I get the 5LBS bags which cost me roughly 27$ and lasts a little over a month. Then again she is a much smaller dog so she is cheaper to feed. There is also Acana which is made by the same company as Orijen which I think is a little cheaper.


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## RCTRIPLEFRESH5 (Feb 11, 2010)

i think instinct is a good choice..perhaps better than orijen sicne its american


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## CorgiPaws (Mar 31, 2009)

RCTRIPLEFRESH5 said:


> i think instinct is a good choice..perhaps better than orijen sicne its american


NV does outsource some ingredients. 
The extent of which, I'm not sure. 
I know for sure their rabbit is out of China.


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## RCTRIPLEFRESH5 (Feb 11, 2010)

if nv didnt use canola oil..id get it...
wtf is up with that.


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## cast71 (Sep 16, 2010)

rofl ahahahahaha


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## CorgiPaws (Mar 31, 2009)

RCTRIPLEFRESH5 said:


> if nv didnt use canola oil..id get it...
> wtf is up with that.


wait, wait, wait. 
You're ok with ingredients coming out of China...
but tripping on some Canola Oil?
Please, do explain.


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## xxshaelxx (Mar 8, 2010)

cast71 said:


> rofl ahahahahaha


I concur. :biggrin:


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## PUNKem733 (Jun 12, 2009)

RCTRIPLEFRESH5 said:


> if nv didnt use canola oil..id get it...
> wtf is up with that.














Please never, EVER leave this forum.


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## PUNKem733 (Jun 12, 2009)

Also wanted to mention that you know a company is good when they can literally make millions on canned foods, yet they won't enter that market cause they can't make it in their plant at this time.


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## cast71 (Sep 16, 2010)

xxshaelxx said:


> I concur. :biggrin:


Is that quoted form a movie? It's ringing a bell ahahaha


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## m&mluvpugs (Feb 7, 2010)

cast71 said:


> Is that quoted form a movie? It's ringing a bell ahahaha


catch me if you can??


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## cast71 (Sep 16, 2010)

m&mluvpugs said:


> catch me if you can??


Oh yeah thanks, im a little burnt:biggrin:


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## RCTRIPLEFRESH5 (Feb 11, 2010)

_Attacks and threats deleted by CorgiPaws
_


CorgiPaws said:


> wait, wait, wait.
> You're ok with ingredients coming out of China...
> but tripping on some Canola Oil?
> Please, do explain.


no, i never said that..i thought it was implied that that was known to be bad by all on this forum...and I think that's just the rabbit formula...i guess my post wasnt clear.. isaid if canola oil wasnt there, i;d buy it...so i can see how it was unclear...but I meant the duck..assuming I got a guarantee that it was chinese free.

although I will be honest, I don't know the extreme specifics on why Chinese ingredients are bad...I know their meats are sometimes filled with harmful ingredients though, and that's enough for me.

but yeah im really into switching shane to a duck food, maybe...i jsut cant get over a golden retrievor eating something else than a bird


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## Caty M (Aug 13, 2010)

Getting sick of all the bashing on this forum.. like 2/3 of threads end in name calling and insults.. 

Anyway, Orijen is great because most of the protein is animal based, and there is no fillers at all.. some of the botanicals imo are marketing gimmicks.. but overall a great food for a kibble.. if I didn't feed raw I would feed Orijen (and it is what my cats eat at the moment.. allergic to corn and wheat..)


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## SaltyDog (Mar 10, 2010)

CorgiPaws said:


> wait, wait, wait.
> You're ok with ingredients coming out of China...
> but tripping on some Canola Oil?
> Please, do explain.




lol :biggrin:


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## RachelsaurusRexU (Sep 4, 2010)

bishopthesheltie said:


> Getting sick of all the bashing on this forum.. like 2/3 of threads end in name calling and insults..
> 
> Anyway, Orijen is great because most of the protein is animal based, and there is no fillers at all.. some of the botanicals imo are marketing gimmicks.. but overall a great food for a kibble.. if I didn't feed raw I would feed Orijen (and it is what my cats eat at the moment.. allergic to corn and wheat..)


Not to get off topic, but how do your cats do on the Orijen? Do you know what it runs for the smallest bag? One of my cats wouldn't transition to raw and wasn't even eating very much of his canned, so now we do dry and canned mixed. I have him on Merrick BG dry and Blue Seal canned at the moment but I know there's better food out there yet. The hard part is going to be getting my boyfriend to fork out the $$ (it's his cat that he moved in with) because he was fine with feeding Friskies, bleh! I just want something that's grain free but far more meat than potato or pea, ya know?


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## Caty M (Aug 13, 2010)

They do really well on it.. and actually don't get tired of it  They don't like the fish one, just the regular orijen adult.

I live in Canada so my prices are probably different.. but it's $27 for the smallest bag.. about 4.5lb I'd say.

I used to feed Whiska's.. and they eat far less than half of what they used to on that. They have shinier fur and more energy too!


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## RachelsaurusRexU (Sep 4, 2010)

Thank you for the info! I reckon I'll try it out, even if I'm the one who ends up paying for it! :tongue:


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## CorgiPaws (Mar 31, 2009)

RCTRIPLEFRESH5 said:


> isaid if canola oil wasnt there, i;d buy it...so i can see how it was unclear...but I meant the duck..assuming I got a guarantee that it was chinese free.


Thank you for clarifying that. It seemed a bit odd the way it was previously worded. 
I have no idea where their duck comes from. 
Taste of the Wild Wetlands is duck & chicken, by the way. 



RCTRIPLEFRESH5 said:


> but yeah im really into switching shane to a duck food, maybe...i jsut cant get over a golden retrievor eating something else than a bird


 I think that no matter the breed, variety is really important, so I wouldn't disregard a good red meat, fish, etc formula to stick with bird.
Then again, I'm sure you already considered that and my ramblings are pointless.:smile:


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## RCTRIPLEFRESH5 (Feb 11, 2010)

CorgiPaws said:


> Thank you for clarifying that. It seemed a bit odd the way it was previously worded.
> I have no idea where their duck comes from.
> Taste of the Wild Wetlands is duck & chicken, by the way.
> 
> ...


would switching shane to earthborn hollistic be considered variety? its similar to canidae grain free, but not much


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## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

Usually the variety that people are looking for in kibbles are the protein sources. Alternate the different protein sources and you should be good to go.


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## CorgiPaws (Mar 31, 2009)

RCTRIPLEFRESH5 said:


> would switching shane to earthborn hollistic be considered variety? its similar to canidae grain free, but not much


Their Primitive Natural formula appears to be the only grain free one, and having the same protein sources as canidae grain free, I would say that no, this isn't really adding variety. 
If you want to add variety to Shane's diet, it would be adding something like red meat or fish kibbles in a rotation with the canidae grain free. Canidae makes a grain free salmon formula, have you considered that one?


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## cast71 (Sep 16, 2010)

Since burning my brain out on this site the past couple of months, I've stocked 7 different bags of food. Here's the current rotation for the next 7 months. Yeah I have problems ahahahaha

TOTW pacific (going to swap with canidae grainfree fish)

Instict chicken

TOTW prairie

Evo turkey and chicken

TOTW sierra mountain (probablly wont use again, going to replace with earthborn primitive)

ACANA wild praire

TOTW wetlands


I know it's not the best line up, but I think it's decent. Plus it's affordable for me;0) I'm averaging around $44 a bag, when averaged together including shipping. Not bad when I use to spend $46 for TOTW at tractor supply, plus wasted gas. Thanks doogfoodchat!


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## coolstorybro (Nov 3, 2010)

cast71 said:


> Since burning my brain out on this site the past couple of months, I've stocked 7 different bags of food. Here's the current rotation for the next 7 months. Yeah I have problems ahahahaha
> 
> TOTW pacific (going to swap with canidae grainfree fish)
> 
> ...


hey would you say totw wetlands/pacific/and prairie are ok to feed my puppy? or are the cal/phos levels a bit too high?


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## cast71 (Sep 16, 2010)

coolstorybro said:


> hey would you say totw wetlands/pacific/and prairie are ok to feed my puppy? or are the cal/phos levels a bit too high?



The only TOTW formula with the right calcium/phosphorous levels, are the sierra mountain formula. Sierra Mountain has calcium max at 1.6% and phosphorus max at 1.0%. You want to feed a large breed puppy, calcium levels at around 1.5% and under and phosphorous levels at around 1% and under. Don't worry about rotating foods now. Just stick to a LBP formula until he's around 1 year old. That's about when they've finished doing most of there growing. Than you can switch to whatever you like. More importantly than calcium and phosphorous levels is body weight. You want to keep him slim, especially while he is growing. It's better to be underweight than overweight. Also labs have a tendency to become overweight, when there older. It's probably lazy owners not exercising there dogs and overfeeding. Keep him lean now, so you don't have problems in the future.

The TOTW pacific formula has low protein levels for a grainfree, however my dog does excellent on it. I am going to try the canidae grain free salmon formula instead and see how that goes. Also switching to TOTW from BB might solve your dogs itchy skin problem. I've seen many dogs with allergies do great on TOTW ;0)


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## coolstorybro (Nov 3, 2010)

cast71 said:


> The only TOTW formula with the right calcium/phosphorous levels, are the sierra mountain formula. Sierra Mountain has calcium max at 1.6% and phosphorus max at 1.0%. You want to feed a large breed puppy, calcium levels at around 1.5% and under and phosphorous levels at around 1% and under. Don't worry about rotating foods now. Just stick to a LBP formula until he's around 1 year old. That's about when they've finished doing most of there growing. Than you can switch to whatever you like. The TOTW pacific formula has low protein levels for a grainfree, however my dog does excellent on it. I am going to try the canidae grain free salmon formula instead and see how that goes. Also switching to TOTW from BB might solve your dogs itchy skin problem. I've seen many dogs with allergies do great on TOTW ;0)


thanks! ya, he's been itching every since i got him blue buffalo. he was doing ok on science diet, but we all know how poor quality science diet is. ive never seen him like this! he goes crazy with the itching lol. is the sierra a large breed puppy food? or is that for all life stages?


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## cast71 (Sep 16, 2010)

coolstorybro said:


> thanks! ya, he's been itching every since i got him blue buffalo. he was doing ok on science diet, but we all know how poor quality science diet is. ive never seen him like this! he goes crazy with the itching lol. is the sierra a large breed puppy food? or is that for all life stages?



It's an all life stages formula. Just keep him lean for life! Lots of exercise! Don't over due the exercise until he's around 1 years old. Gradually build up the exercise as he gets older. Labs can develop hip dysplasia, so this is important. I think that if you switch, the itching will go away. Make sure you do a slow transition. new food to old food ratio: 25%:75% 50/50 75/25 over at least a week. Buy the smallest bag first, just to make sure your dog does good on it. This way your not stuck with a big bag. They make a 5lb. bag. It will probably last you almost 2 weeks. I know its not economical, but its the best way to try a different food. Let us know how it's working out. Good luck man!


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## coolstorybro (Nov 3, 2010)

cast71 said:


> It's an all life stages formula. Just keep him lean for life! Lots of exercise! Don't over due the exercise until he's around 1 years old. Gradually build up the exercise as he gets older. Labs can develop hip dysplasia, so this is important. I think that if you switch, the itching will go away. Make sure you do a slow transition. new food to old food ratio: 25%:75% 50/50 75/25 over at least a week. Buy the smallest bag first, just to make sure your dog does good on it. This way your not stuck with a big bag. They make a 5lb. bag. It will probably last you almost 2 weeks. I know its not economical, but its the best way to try a different food. Let us know how it's working out. Good luck man!


thanks! i will either go with orijen lbp, or totw sierra. i walk him usually 30 minutes a day around the neighborhood, is that too little? and yes i will transition his food the first week, i didnt do that w/ bluff buffalo which is why his poop was a bit saugy the first couple of days.


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## cast71 (Sep 16, 2010)

coolstorybro said:


> thanks! i will either go with orijen lbp, or totw sierra. i walk him usually 30 minutes a day around the neighborhood, is that too little? and yes i will transition his food the first week, i didnt do that w/ bluff buffalo which is why his poop was a bit saugy the first couple of days.


orijen lbp would be a better choice. The good thing is there both grainfree. You can probably walk him a little more than that. Maybe 3 times a day for 15 min each. Than say when he gets to 6 months you goto 20 min. Than at 9 months you goto 30 min. At one year walk him until he's tired. It's also better to walk on dirt rather than cement. Cement puts alot of stress on there bones. If you have a park near you, that would be best.


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## coolstorybro (Nov 3, 2010)

cast71 said:


> orijen lbp would be a better choice. The good thing is there both grainfree. You can probably work him a little more than that. Maybe 3 times a day for 15 min each. Than say when he gets to 6 months you goto 20 min. Than at 9 months you goto 30 min. At one year walk him until he's tired. It's also better to walk on dirt rather than cement. Cement puts alot of stress on there bones. If you have a park near you, that would be best.


ya its either 1 of the 2, but im leaning more towards totw sierra b/c of my budget. ahh i didnt know about that cement. whenever i walk him, he is either on the cement or on the grass, he switches off lol. ill try to keep him more on the grass next time!


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## cast71 (Sep 16, 2010)

Either one will be fine. I'm on the budget plan too:wink:


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