[saintnoel]

I've been beating my head on the counter trying to figure out what food i should feed my 35lb husky. I wanted to ask people who feed Orijen if they feed less than what they have with other brands of food. i see that Orijen recommended amount is less than most any other dog food. She's on Natural Balance right now and i feed her 2 cups per day, if i fed her the same amount on Orijen the 29.7lb bag would last me 2 months which makes it more affordable.

[Independent George]

Natural balance has good quality ingredients, but the meat content isn't nearly as high as Orijen, and is therefore less calorie dense. Like some of the other brands of high-end kibble, Orijen has a very high calorie density (483 kCal/cup).

Before I got my dog, I put together a spreadsheet comparing the calorie density of different brands in order to calculate the true cost of feeding. Orijen, Innova, Innova EVO, Go! Natural, Timber Wolf, and Canidae Grain-Free had the highest calorie densities. All (except Canidae) were a bit more expensive based strictly on weight, but you also go through each one a lot slower due to their density.

Orijen actually has the lowest calorie density of these brands, and Go! Natural had the highest. Canidae ended up with the best value of in terms of calories/dollar. After trying out some samples with my dog (you can order free samples online from K9 Cuisine, I finally settled on the EVO.

[PureMutt]

Holy Crap, that was really informative. You think you upload that file somewhere so we can all check it out?

[saintnoel]

Great info! thanks Ind. George

[AkiraleShiba]

I would think George is right. We feed orijen fish because of Akira's intolerences but I know that with it we feed more than if we were on another high quality kibble.

Still, Akira eats four time less on Orijen than on a grocery store kibble. The results are really good here and his coat looks amazing.

[Independent George]

Originally Posted by PureMutt

Holy Crap, that was really informative. You think you upload that file somewhere so we can all check it out?

Done. Please keep in mind that this was an estimate for the dog I was looking for (adult 40-50 lbs.), shipped to my postal code, and all the pricing info was built around that. K9 Cuisine ships free on orders over $50. They're based in downstate Illinois, so my calculations also included the 9% IL sales tax.

I was targeting 1,050 kCal/day, assumed the kibble weighed in at 4 oz per cup, and estimated in 1/8 cup increments (I figured this was the smallest unit I could measure consistently). You can tweak these assumptions as you see fit.

The hilarious part is that, after putting all that effort into comparing the pricing & delivery charges, I found a phenomenal neighborhood pet store that beats all of those prices. They're literally a 10 minute walk from my apartment; I take my dog there every week.

[InkedMarie]

Originally Posted by AkiraleShiba

.

Still, Akira eats four time less on Orijen than on a grocery store kibble. The results are really good here and his coat looks amazing.

I sometimes feel like I'm beating my head against a wall when I talk to people IRL who feed grocery store food. They just do not understand that you feed less of quality food. Of course, if they bought high quality kibble, they'd probably feed what the bag says.
My neighbors have an overweight diabetic black lab and two Chi's. They feed Merrick to all three, the lab gets 1.5cups a day. A couple weeks ago, they came over a few times to let our dogs out and feed them when we were gone, he, I think, thinks we're underfeeding our dogs. My 25lb sheltie gets 1/2 cup of Core, my other larger sheltie gets 3/4 cup of Core and my pbgv gets 2/3 cup of Orijen. They have large bowls because I water their food, I admit it doesn't look like much food but if I fed them what the bags say, I'd have chunky dogs! He'd probably have a heart attack if he saw that they get The Honest Kitchen in the morning, not exactly kibble!