I have been feeding Orijen & Acana to my labs for over 4 years, and they have been doing wonderful on it. Champion pet foods who makes the food is having production issues, and it is becoming harder and harder to get. I have a Senior boy and 2 younger females (4 yo & 15 months)

I prefer to feed grain free (please don't blast me on my choice to do this), and have been looking at other grain free foods, but a lot seem to have turkey as the main protein (which has been a cause for ear problems in my one boy in the past).

I am looking for suggestions for food - grain free or not - I know each dog is different, but interested in what is working for everyone else.

Thank you in advance -

Lynn

You might try Earthborn Holistic. It has a few grain-free products. I have been using Coastal Catch for a dog that can't eat chicken, ever since I couldn't get Acana Pacifica back this summer. Coastal Catch, Great Plains, and Meadow do not have turkey.

Natural Balance is another grain-free food that is supposed to be good.

Canidae Pure Land is Bison and Lamb.
Canidae pure Sea is Salmon.

I like to mix it up a bit and will rotate varieties.

I personally perfer the
Canidae Pure Sky Duck and Turkey
or Canidae Pure Elements Chicken Turkey Lamb and Fish but my Mom'd dogs do better without Turkey too so the Land is what she prefers to feed her dogs.

I have been feeding my girl Blue Buffalo turkey and potato for 5 months. Prior to that she was itchy, losing patches of hair, ears and feet were a mess. She was miserable. I was bathing her with antibacterial soap from the vet twice a day, cleaning ears twice a day. I know there is some contraversy about the Blue Buffalo. If it hadn't worked I'd be doing the raw diet. Good luck.

We have tried the Fromm Tuna based grain free and the Nutrisource Seafood Select with our dogs and they have done well on both. Good coats on both foods too. Nutrisource is less expensive than the Fromm. Fromm also makes other grain free products, but we haven't tried them.

Champion had a fire which knocked out production for a couple of months. They're saying they should be back in full swing by the end of January. I used some EVO for our light formula, but have been lucky getting all the other formulas. They also suspended the requirement to buy all seven bags at once for the the breeder program. We can mix and match to get the seven bags until they get back online.

Orijen says that they are back in production. We are finding it more and more often in NJ. Cherrybrook has it. See the company's link.
http://www.championpetfoods.com/faq/#kitchen-repair
OTH, I don't like the change in ingredients in Acana or in Merrick grain free foods: more legumes.
I very much liked how my dogs did on the old Acana formulas.

I have not tried the grain free version, but I do like old Annamaet with grain for the dogs who do fine on grain. Annamaet is labeled for all life stages. Cherrybrook may be stocking it, as they had a demo at one of the stores last week. It has tiny kibble in the grain inclusive original formulas. My sled dog friends have used it for decades.

Thanks, Everyone. I had not been on their website for a bit, so i did not realize things were operational again. The distributor that I get it from said they were having problems getting it over the border again, I will check other places.

Charlotte, I agree with you on the Acana change. My labs did wonderful on the old formula, but not so well on the new. I have my oldest on the Duck & Pear, that has oatmeal as a grain, but he is doing better than ever on it (at age 13). I put the younger ones on the Orijen adult and they seem to be doing well. In case they have problems again I want to have a fall back plan. I will look into the Annamaet, that is one I have not heard of before.

Thanks again everyone for the reply's.

I have been an Orijen and Raw feeder for years.
Just recently tried a bag of Natures Variety Grain Free Instinct-with Boost Kibble( some dehydrated raw bits) Venison and Lamb meal I believe....I had a 10 dollar off coupon...... expensive food but WOW.. do my dogs look and work great on it.
They also make this in other protein choices I believe.

I like to feed raw but also want my dogs be be used to kibble for travel and ease of feeding at times.

I switched from Acana to Fromm (mostly whitefish and potato formula) because of the availability problems with Acana. Dogs have been doing great on the Fromm.

Acana still has the classic formulas. They just added the regionals.

I went through the same experience this fall. I've been an avid Orijen 6 Fish supporter for over 6 years. I still cannot get the food at my local supply stores, and after doing much research tried Fromm's Grain Free Surf N Turf and Beef Frittata. While good ingredients, I've never cleaned up so much stool!! There was a HUGE difference, and I didn't see them keeping on the weight and coat quality was not as great. I switched about 2 months ago to Evo Herring & Salmon and have been very happy. Coats are great, amounts I feed are about the same if not less than Orijen as the kcal/cup is higher in the Evo Herring & Salmon than Orijen, and the ingredients are the closest I've found to the Orijen Fish. I am a little concerned with the inconsistency that Champion has been delivering....from the need to install new fans this summer due to complaints from the smells from production, to the recent fires. I haven't been comfortable going back to the product as I cannot rely on getting the volume of bags I need to feed my gang. Crossing my fingers I can stick with one food again for some time. So far, Evo Herring & Salmon is working for me.

Has anyone tried Regal dog food? It has no wheat, no corn and no soy.
http://www.regalpetfoods.com/dog_food.html

First I've heard of it. Why does it have mineral oil in the ingredieint list of all it's varieties???

Used it many years ago and dogs did well. Can't remember why I switched but I am the type that likes to switch just for variety. It was long enough ago that the formula is surely different though.

I ran out and bought the Blue Buffalo Turkey and Potato and now I see it has flaxseed oli as about the 5th ingredient :( Would any of you feed this in light of the fertility problems that have been linked to flaxseed?

If your trying to avoid the phyto-estrogen in flax, it's in the seed coating, flaxseed oil is ok. Unless you have been feeding a diet with flaxseed or flax meal high up on the list I wouldn't worry about it.

I would not recommend feeding a diet that has high pea content. Fromm's has a couple of pea heavy diets that may significantly effect reproduction. One diet I tried had pea protein, pea flour and whole peas all in one formula. I see now that has changed as they took out the pea flour. I've noticed that they make subtle changes in their formula often too, sometimes just switching the order of ingredients ie. cheese keeps getting further down the list. When I was feeding Fromm's I wasn't planning a breeding but my girl's cycle was not typical on this food. I called the company and found out they don't have a certified nutritionist on staff and what they do have is lacking. Your best bet is to go with a company that tests their food long term and has research to back it up, a certified nutritionist. The smaller companies that just formulate their food to AAFCO requirements aren't in your best interest when it comes to breeding.

I'm curious to find out what you think are the best Dog Food companies?

I've noticed that the size of kibble and color varies between my shipments of Orijen. I buy in lots of three bags and the next batch of three bags a month and a half later will be slightly different. Last batch had small dark kibbles. This next batch that I got last week has larger more flatter kibbles and is slightly lighter in color. Last summer they were small and lighter. All batches smelled fine. Dogs are eating it and they look fine.

But I wonder about this variation in texture size and color?

The answer to your question about the size and variation of the kibble is answered on the Orijen website :


Q: ORIJEN 80.20 KIBBLE LOOKS DIFFERENT

A |


The organic shape of ORIJEN 80-20 results from the very high FRESH MEAT INCLUSIONS that give our kibble its unique shape, smell and color.

Unlike conventional, mass-produced dog and cat foods which are mass produced from highly refined, commodity ingredients, ORIJEN is produced in small batches from natural, unprocessed ingredients. With almost 50% of ORIJEN’s ingredients arriving FRESH each day (never frozen, no preservatives), a natural variation occurs and affects the color, size and shape of ORIJEN kibble.

REMEMBER, IF EACH KIBBLE LOOKS THE SAME, HIGHLY PROCESSED INGREDIENTS WERE USED.

Is the quality of the Acana the same as Orijen?

Which food would you choose between Orijen and Acana:
-Want a grain free fish based food
Is the price very different?
Any reason you would choose one brand over the other.
Trying to decide. Any help would be great!
Thank you.

Acana and Orijen are made by the same company. We fed Orijen for years and then decided to try the Acana Pacifica (grain free fish based) food a few years ago. Luv both brands and the dogs love the Pacifica and look great. Acana is slightly cheaper than the Orijen I believe. Give it a try!

In Texas we have a locally mfg dog food now

http://www.victordogfood.com/

I use the GF Yukon River Salmon & Sweet Potato
They have 3 or 4 grain free products
I pay $37 (includes tax) for a 35# bag
Only able to get it at the feed store & it flys off the shelves

Girls coats are looking very nice & breath is also really nice
Seems to be working

Anyone have thoughts about Fromm fish based foods?

We fed Origen for a while but it was too rich for a couple of the dogs. Acana is cheaper and all the dogs did well on it. We tried Earthborn and the dogs did fantastic too but then I read that peas are used as a natural form of birth control. I have not been able to substantiate that but only use it now with older dogs. Many of the high protein, grain free foods seem to use peas now.

I read that they use peas as a fiber fill - if I find the article I will share

Article I found re: pea fiber

http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2012/05/16/pea-fiber-on-pet-food.aspx

Most of Acana's formulas have peas as well. So does Orijen.

Do we really have to worry about peas with fertility in our dogs?

Does anyone have more info for us to research?

I have read that this may be false info where humans are concerned.

This is a good topic and one I would like to learn more about.

Look into Canine Caviar, it is grain free and limited ingredient. Feed this food and love it

Am feeding Fromm's Four Star Whitefish and Potato.
Dogs love it, nice firm stools, good coats.

I was just looking at the ingred. in the treats I give and see Ground Flaxseed high up on the list maybe 5th.

Does anyone think the small amt of treats I give (I break them into little pieces) would be an issue for fertility?

I notice someone posted above that Flax oil is not a problem.

There is no flaxseed or flaxseed oil in the food I feed.

That's fine, except that this latest batch (2 large sacks) has big kibbles about the size of a dime, small kibbles the size of a pea and formless blobs the size of a half dollar

I really like this food. I'm willing to accept some variance in kibble size, but the blobs have me concerned. They must have been semi-liquid when formed? Seems like a quality control issue in appearance anyway. Nothing else seems to be wrong. Good product. Dogs like it. Dogs look good. No issues there.

Good product? Maybe you mean good ingredients. Poor quality control doesn't equate to a good product. Hopefully you don't have any issues. I wouldn't care to feed a food that had globs in it. Champion needs to get it's act together.

Are you referring to Acana or Orijen?

I'm assuming "inconsistency in kibble size" is talking about Orijen. (3 posts up)