I have put my papillon puppy and elderly Belgian shepherd onto Orijen as I was impressed by the ingredients listed.They absolutely love it but I just wondered if anyone else had tried it and what are your experiences?

I think Ktee has her dogs on it

Hi Helen

I've been feeding Orijen since it became available here,it has the best composition of any dry food in the UK IMHO,there's nothing else like it!
My dogs love it which is hard to say genuinely about a 'dry food'.A couple of friends of mine with fussy eaters have had great success with it as well. I just wish it was available in pet shops so more people would become aware of it!

I've fed the fish one (just a small size bag). My dog loved it but I was hesitant about the use of citric acid as a preservative as the Purdue study found that kibble with citric acid that was soaked by the owner increased the incidence of bloat by 320%. I have a deep chested breed prone to bloat so am not happy to fed it dry and, after reading that, am not happy to soak it either! The meat one looks great and I don't think it contains citric acid, but flaxseed gives my dog the terrible squits so it's a no-go. I'm also not sure about the use of alfafa as that is another thing to avoid in regards to bloat - I read that it's very "gassy".

Thanks for replying.My dogs do seem to be doing well on Orijen,they have lots of energy and their coats are great.I am training the papillon for agility so use some of her daily ration as titbits.I also give her tuna,chickenand beef when I'm training her and always give her a small amount of fresh veggie juice(carrot,cabbage,celery,peppers,parsley etc)every day,mainly because I have it myself.I would say the meat and veggie juice probably makes up 1/3 of her ration,the rest is Orijen.Do you think this is going to unbalance her diet at all?

Regarding Zarah's comments about bloat,I have found that as Orijen is oven baked not extruded,it doesn't swell up at all when water is added,I'm not an expert on bloat but maybe this would actually reduce the risk?

I'm just waiting for the puppy version to arrive for Esme, and thought I'd try Orijen because of the lack of grain (she came to me on Beta and Pedigree tinned). I never fed the Pedigree, I added some Naturediet instead and she is now on ND predominantly (which I want to wean her off, again due to the grain content). All my other dogs are raw fed now and I will eventually feed Esme that way, I'm just not confident to go the whole hog now and the Orijen seems a reasonable compromise. I'm going to add some Bozita wet to it, has anyone tried that?

I'm not sure to be honest. I thought the main reason for soaking kibble was that is slows down the dog's eating meaning that they are less likely to bolt the food and gulp in lots of air with it. I don't think soaking or not soaking kibble increases or decreases the chances of bloat directly, but it increases the likelihood of gulping etc, which then increases the chances if you see what I mean. I think the main thing with bloat is a build up of gases which are then trapped in the stomach, which is why it's recommended to avoid gas-producing foods inc. alfafa, brewer's yeast, soya, etc. I think the citric acid link is because it produces gas also.

I did email Orijen (twice!) about my concerns over a month ago now, but haven't received a reply. They were only too quick to reply when I emailed about purchasing the food, so the lack of response only served to put me off further. Shame as it's a really good food in other regards!

Zarah,you obviously know a lot more than me about bloat then.The only expeience I have of bloat was a GSD that died overnight at a rescue kennels that I worked at.The dogs were fed on a cheap,nasty flake food-you know the type that comes out looking the same as it went in.In winter the dogs were just fed then shut away for the night,really bad practice I know.

Oh, that is sad :( Hope he didn't suffer too much. The feeding rountine was probably the way it's done in most kennels though I would imagine. I don't have firsthand experience of bloat thankfully, and hope I never do. The thought terrifies me!

Hi I am just changing my 19 week old cairn terrier to orijen puppy at the moment. He seems to love it and I will be watching to see how well he does on it over the next few weeks.  Like you I was impressed by the ingredients and will wait to see how it goes

where can you buy this from?

https://www.zooplus.co.uk stock Orijen. Esme is getting on really well with it and I've just ordered a 13.5kg sack after using the trial size packs. I'm very impressed with it (and that takes some doing for a raw feeder!).

thanks for link.

Seems like good stuff but very expensive!!!

I've just been looking at this http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/showproduct.php?product=913&cat=8 and am now completely confused :rolleyes:

Everyone here is raving about Orijen and how wonderful it is - and I'm not disputing that it sounds great - but how can they market a puppy food that is not suitable for puppies?

Where do you get teh impression that it isn't suitable for puppies?

This is what it said:

ORIJEN Puppy has a biologically correct (70/30/0) ingredient ratio of 70% meat, and 30% fruit and vegetables (with 0% grain) that are low temperature cooked at 90c to preserve their natural goodness.

My emphasis on correct, though I have no idea what that statement is based on.

The only caution we would make on this food is that the high protein content may make it suitable for adult dogs only, particularly in the case of large breeds

That statement is repeated twice in the review beneath the analysis of the food.

That is weird as it is puppy foods that are usually the highest in protein, and only giant breeds are advised to perhaps not encourage fast growth, but the issue is usually the mineral balance and not so much protein..

>but the issue is usually the mineral balance and not so much protein..

That's correct :) The calcium:phosphorus levels are what counts in this instance.Sometimes the higher protein foods also have higher calcium levels,but this is not the case with orijen.

Now I'm completely lost ! So is this  'puppy' food suitable for puppies or not?

Yes it is,as is the ALS version! What breed do you own?

I have Patterdales. What is ALS?

ALS= All Life Stages.As in can be fed to puppies as well as adults.

Thanks!

If you look at the other 5 and 6 stars it is the same repeated message I think it is just a precautionary warning if you have a breed of quick growth to be careful .. The food is decently quality so would be fine for all I think.. 

Well my boxer has stopped throwing up of late :-)

This Orijen does seem to be good.My 12 year old BSD is a lot more energetic and mobile on it.Am wondering whether its because of the Glucosamine and chondroitin in it or maybe the grains in the food I was feeding him before were making him slightly arthritic? Although its more expensive I find I am only feeding about 2/3 the amount of his previous food.Very impressed.