Just thinking about changing foods and wondering about Orijen. Do the people that use it find it's enough for Labradors? Do you find you have to compromise condition or coat for the food?

Looking for good and bad experiences.

TIA

It's been the topic of many threads here. We've used it and Acana for years and our dogs do great on it. JMHO.

We've used Orijen and Acana as well for years. The only problem we've encountered is loosened stools if the dog is overfed; you feed less than with other foods and the dogs are well-muscled, great coats and skin, full of energy and bright-eyed.

As examples, we have 70+ lb bitches that get 1 cup twice daily. Males 90+ lbs get a slightly heaping cup twice daily.

We interchange between the puppy formulas, as well as the adult formulas, with no gut troubles.

We've had no problems with dogs' ears or allergies in the past; we use the food because we believe in the premise behind feeding as little grain as possible. I do not believe in feeding purely raw, so this is the next best thing.

We also like the fact that all the ingredients in Champion foods are locally, Canadian sourced. No worries about tainted products from foreign countries with less stringent regulations.

If any food is overfed, I've found the stools to become looser.

Adults will eat too much if allowed. I find puppies eat what they need and will leave over some food if it's too much.

Absolutely; my point was that you feed less of these foods as compared with other brands that adults need 2 cups or more per meal of. Orijen/Acana are truely nutrient dense, and those nutrients aren't made up of grains - they are meat.

And I do find that if puppies overeat they get loose stools; I never have food left over in the bowls.

My dogs and pups do great on it. Great coat, bright eyes, energy, maintain proper weight.

My dogs did ok on it, never fed it to puppies.

"We also like the fact that all the ingredients in Champion foods are locally, Canadian sourced. No worries about tainted products from foreign countries with less stringent regulations."


Have you ever heard of MAD COW DISEASE? I believe there have been nearly a dozen cases in the past 10 yrs.


Remember this, not one head of beef, one chicken, one lamb, or one fish is raised for dog food. It is the parts of the animal which cannot be sold to humans. That is true here and in canada. If a 15 week old steer comes off the truck to the veal plant, and is dead or dying, it is marked and sent out for dog food.

The organs, the bones, the dead animals, the ground up waste from grain producers and meat producers waste and excesses are sent to the dog food companies.

Wrap your head around that for a moment.

Georgie, have you ever been to Champion products web sites? Ever really investigated their products? Ever tried them for your dogs?

A quote from the Orijen site:

"Different from conventional pet food makers, our Biologically Appropriate focus means our foods are formulated to nourish dogs and cats in keeping with their evolutionary and anatomical adaptation to protein-rich diets that include a broad variety of fresh meats.

That means we don't buy the bulk commodity ingredients found in conventional pet foods.

Instead, we start with fresh, never-frozen meats that are sustainably farmed, fished or ranched within our region by people we know and trust. Considered too expensive by conventional pet food makers, our fresh regional ingredients are unmatched in any other dog or cat food on earth.

From free-run poultry, to wild-caught fish to free-range red meats, our regional ingredients are approved 'fit for human consumption' by the Government of Canada and arrive at our door fresh each day — so they're preservative free and bursting with goodness to nourish your dog or cat completely.

In today's world of multinational and marketing companies (that sell but don't make their own foods), we're proud to stand apart as an independent and authentic pet food maker. And because your trust means everything to us, we never allow our foods to be produced or packaged in any facility other than our own."

And from an independent news web site:
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/May2010/03/c8168.html


Wrap YOUR head around THAT.

Do breeders have to fight over dog food too? I thought that was over with.

Come on, cut it out already. Feed what you want and your dogs like. You don't need to *wrap each others heads around it* do you. That's the first time I've seen that on this list. It will become *the flavor of the month* retort.

This is marketing all the companies do it, some are better than others. Did you know they use farmed salmon when needed? If the government says consumption of farmed salmon by people should be limited to one or two meals a month, how healthy is it for a dog that eats it everyday? There is traces of ethoxyquin in their food. Of course you have to dig on their site to find this stuff and it's hit or miss if it's on there, they frequently change things. A sample of their food analyzed at Midwest Laboratories showed their stated calcium levels to be considerably off. No one is policing them, dog foods are self-regulated in Canada.

They've had recalls. Two in N. America, one in 2003 for BSE (mad cow disease) and a recall for large bone shards in 2008. Read this and discover how they handled the toxic pet food they exported to Australia in 2008: http://wherearethepetfoodchampions.com/web/Orijen_Recall.html

Hey, I fed the food with bones in it. Had no problems. I am aware of the previous problems you mentioned, as well. Doesn't worry me; we still eat human products that others have gotten sick from, too, or that others don't trust.

Bottom line, we all feed what we like for the dogs, and what we are comfortable with and what works. I have no complaints with Champion foods or their products, personally. Nothing but good results happening here.

Talk to the folks at Orijen. That is NOT what they use for food ingredients. They are using fresh human grade food sources. That is also why it is $70 per bag.

Did you read that link? It was the Australian gov't irradiating the food that caused the animals to be sick, not the food itself. Had the product been fed directly out of the bag without the dose of radiation, the dogs and cats would have been fine. The government regulations are what did that to those poor animals.

I fed orijen for a while and was getting the same results coat, ears, stool, condition-wise that I was with pro plan, so I couldn't justify the cost difference. Despite those claiming you feed a ton less, I was having to feed similar amounts here, ~3cups for girls (65-75lbs) and ~4cups for boys (75-85lbs).

Yes, call them, ask them directly if they use farmed fish. Farmed fish is human grade but it's recommended that people only eat it 1-2 x's a month. Some of the fish are seasonal and they were experiencing shortages, this is why they add farmed fish. Do you remember when Orijen 6 Fish was hard to get?

They state in the faq that they set their ethoxyquin standard to not exceed 5ppm. Many people switched feeding other brands that had levels lower than this. The same level is set for BHA and BHT (5 ppm). They don't add these ingredients but they are there from the feed that their chickens are fed. Their chickens are free-run not free range.

The farmed fish is the deal breaker for me, there's a lot of salmon in their foods. Delivered fresh and preservative free, never frozen doesn't mean it's not farmed. If you look closely at the faq you will read this "...salmon are wild or farmed, according to season." Once they took the plunge to use farmed fish I'm sure they are using more and more of it over time because it's more economical. Is their salmon meal from farmed salmon too? Probably. If people are supposed to limit their consumption of farmed fish, where do you think it all ends up?

My dogs didn't do any better on Orijen than other more moderate foods but they always picked at it towards the end of a bag (after just a couple of weeks). Champion says "When kept in a sealed or tightly closed bag, ORIJEN will remain stable for months." Obviously my dogs didn't think the food remained fresh because I tightly closed the bag and put it in a sealed container. After I heard of other dogs getting sick on Orijen I decided to listen to my dogs and stopped feeding it.

Orijen is an ok food but it's not the end all, be all of dog foods. There are other foods that will give you equal or better results for a better price.

It's how Champion handled the issue. If you ever have a problem with their food you will find out for yourself how their customer service responds.