[christine_72]

Is Orijen still one of the most popular foods, or has it fallen out of favour?

 

[blujacket]

Hope you get some feedback. This site isn’t very active unfortunately. Looks to be good food. Expensive though

 

[christine_72]

I'm curious where people go.. Years ago this site was extremely busy, just like many other dog forums, and now they're mostly all dead. Some folks say Facebook took over, but there aren't any pages like this on FB that I'm aware of.

And i hear you on Orijen being expensive, it'll be $50 for the 2kg (4lb) bag, but my dog only eats 1/2 a cup a day, so it'll be doable. The largest bag will be around $180 :faint:

 

[sydneynicole]

I don't feed it currently, but by no fault of its own. Just because it's not in my rotation right now as they are mostly raw/cooked fed at the moment and I supplement with a kibble I got in bulk on sale.

I haven't heard anything that would have made it fall out of favor, aside from the lawsuit that is currently happening, but the company seems to be very firm and confident that they will not lose the suit. From the small amount of research I've done, I'd say I think they will end up winning, but their reputation will be knocked down a coupel pegs regardless, after all the bad press, which is unfortunate.

Another thing to consider is that they have been really fleshing out their Acana lines, and I think those may be more popular than Orijen at this time, due to the more attainable price point and vast array of options, along with it agreeing with more dogs than Orijen does.

 

[Canyx]

I used to feed it and had no complaints. I only switched on the rumor that they might sell to Purina. Turns out, my dogs did same or even better on the brand I'm feeding now (Victor Ultra Pro) and it's so much cheaper. So there's no reason for me to go back to Orijen, though I totally would if need be.

 

[ForTheLoveOfDogs]

I got away from grain free foods about a year ago when breeders were complaining about infertility on them. Now there are issues with taurine deficiency/DCM and even though they are warning about "grain free" I am starting to think it is more about "badly balanced" with said ingredients. Owners are posting taurine results on a fb group document and I am not so impressed with how badly Acana's taurine scores are doing. Orijen even has some low marks. So.. IMO I don't care for Champion anymore. I liked them before they changed formulas a few years back. Their foods are extremely high priced and I was honestly shocked to find my dogs could do better on other foods.

I feel like Farmina is a comparable food ingredients-wise that appears to be better balanced for keeping away taurine issues.

 

[Canyx]

Interesting! Is the document public? I'd love to see info for my current brand, though taurine is listed as an ingredient...

 

[ForTheLoveOfDogs]

Yes. It is not definitive and is not scientific evidence. It is just owners (lots of them Goldens) submitting their results of taurine tests and the foods they were on. The data is honestly all over the place.. but it's something to keep in mind.

Unfortunately having taurine in the food does not seem to be combatting the issue. Also was shocked raw feeders were having low scores as well. The FB group is absolutely nuts and completely Purina and Royal Canin gung-ho because they are the brands that are "actually tested through feedings trials" and such but.. I still can't get on board with feeding my dogs "balanced" corn balls.

Click "Here" for one of the tables.

 

[Canyx]

Huh, it has me log in and then it goes to "something went wrong".
How are owners testing for taurine? And... in raw??? I thought feeding heart was a big part of raw. And what do you mean by added taurine isn't combating the issue? Like, dogs on foods with good Taurine amounts are still having heart problems?

ETA - I am just realizing, they are testing DOGS for taurine amounts, not the food
ETA2 - I wonder if dogs testing low for taurine end up not having heart issues too...

 

[christine_72]

I'm a bit concerned with the Taurine issue too. But i feed plenty of raw meat, which includes heart so hopefully that'll offset it, if it is indeed an issue...

We have a grand total of TWO decent Australian made and owned dog foods, neither of which are even close to Orijen ingredient/macro wise. I would be like a kid in a candy store if i lived in the US, you guys have so many dog foods to choose from, and so cheap!!

 

[ForTheLoveOfDogs]

Hmm. Edited to go straight to a table, lemme know if that worked.

You can also check out the FB taurine deficiency group for more info. But like I said.. they are super crazy. Ha.

Yes, the dogs are being tested. Not the food! My bad for not being clear. I honestly figured everybody pretty much knew about this already! You can have your own dog's bloodwork done for it and sent off even but it's expensive.

And yeah you would think that raw would have the highest levels of taurine but that's why my own conclusion would be that maybe the diets lack balance moreso than just grain free being the big issue. The speculation right now is that heavy peas/legumes and potatoes etc actually inhibit taurine absorbtion.. meaning added taurine of any sort would be pretty much useless. So Acana/Orijen having heavy peas/lentils poses an issue. I have no idea for sure.. but just spouting what I've been reading.

Zignature seems to be an awful offender right now for a lot of dogs with actual cases of DCM.

 

[Canyx]

Thanks! The link works now. Very cool to see folks contributing to a pool of knowledge.

 

[DaySleepers]

Orijen/Acana are pretty pricey for my budget, even compared to the commercial raw grind we feed. We do pick up a small bag of their cat food here and there for treats, because it's a nice small kibble size and highly palatable and the cost isn't bad compared to what most equivalent treats are. Still more expensive than homemade though. We've never fed it as an exclusive diet.

Next time we pick up a kibble, I think we're going to pick a grain-inclusive brand, just to have something in the rotation that doesn't have legumes or potato. Even with feeding half raw, I like to rotate the kibble brands and protein sources.

 

[Jen2010]

I think there are just so many other good choices out there these days that not everyone is feeding the same thing. Feed what works for you and your dog. Orijen didn't work for us - it was too "rich" and gave the dogs diarrhea. We do feed Acana though (made by the same company) and the dogs do well on it.

And i hear you on Orijen being expensive, it'll be $50 for the 2kg (4lb) bag, but my dog only eats 1/2 a cup a day, so it'll be doable. The largest bag will be around $180

If you're not feeding very much it's probably a good idea to stick to the smaller bags since the big ones could get stale before you can use it all up.

Hope you get some feedback. This site isn’t very active unfortunately.

I haven't really noticed that. Certain threads don't get as much response for various reasons, but I wouldn't call the site inactive.

 

[MarieLovesChis]

I stopped feeding it after all the changes they kept making to it. I'm not interested in feeding a food with so many plant ingredients that are high in protein. I make sure majority of my dog's protein comes from animal vs plant. The newer formulas produced massive poop from my small dog too. Nowadays I mainly only feed foods made here in Europe anyway.