Thinkin' bout switchin' from Evo to Orijen

by **my boy boris** » Sat Mar 10, 2012 9:21 pm

never sat well with me when p & g bought Natura. if anyone has any thoughts i'd love to hear them

by **dogs4jen** » Sat Mar 10, 2012 10:20 pm

I try to rotate foods pretty often, and haven't noticed anything different with California Natural when I've fed it to the dogs since P & G bought it, but I only get it once in a while, and have never fed Evo at all. The sale did make me a bit nervous too.
I did try Acana for Roscoe and Austin, and Roscoe came down with stud tail and a uti on it, but Austin seemed to be fine with it. I'm not getting it again though. Have you tried Taste of the Wild? I feed that probably most of the time and so do a lot of other people here.

by **my boy boris** » Sun Mar 11, 2012 12:27 am

well TOTW is a great price but i wouldn't trust any food put out by Diamond foods.

by **Curly_07** » Sun Mar 11, 2012 12:32 am

I used to feed Evo back in the day. It was great. I've tried over the last 2 years to go back to it, but it no longer sits well with Curly's allergy issues. I now feed TOTW and haven't had any issues with it in the last 2 yrs. I also rotate foods. I try to see every few months what's out there. TOTW is the only one I keep coming back to...so far.

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by **Celesteandthebullies** » Sun Mar 11, 2012 12:34 am

I think Orijen is fantastic food, if I could afford it I'd feed it.

by **Curly_07** » Sun Mar 11, 2012 12:38 am

Oh, I forgot to answer...I also think Orijen is a good food. You really have to just see what fits with your dog. I've tried to feed much higher grade kibble, but Curly just doesn't do well on anything but TOTW so far. Lady also does better on it.

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by **my boy boris** » Sun Mar 11, 2012 1:06 am

thanks all, it does seem that the price of Orijen is the biggest deterrence to most. I'm glad so many have had great results with TOTW, like i stated i just don't trust Diamond. Curious on how the quality of Solid Gold is these days, been a long time since i've heard much about them

by **Mya&theSiebenDackels** » Sun Mar 11, 2012 1:37 am

Fromm is what I feed my dogs and they are doing wonderful on it! It really just depends on your dog and what food works best for them. I went though several different brands of dog foods until I found what worked best for my dogs which was Fromm.

by **AllisonPibbleLvr** » Sun Mar 11, 2012 1:58 am

I think Origen is terrible, both from personal and professional experience and for the fact that Champion Pet Foods doesn't stand behind their products in the least.

by **Adrianne** » Sun Mar 11, 2012 9:15 am

I have no Orijen experience, sorry.

my boy boris wrote:. Curious on how the quality of Solid Gold is these days, been a long time since i've heard much about them

I just switched back to Solid Gold sun dancer (?) and thus far I'm happy with it. I only add a cup here and there with my THK & raw but it's not given me a reason to be upset yet. Poop looks good, smells fine, no allergies, no behavioral changes, no skin/breath changes.

My dogs could not eat TOTW, it have my oldie tear stains and my mals smelled funny on it. I also disliked they said not every bag is a guarantee of its protien due to availability of their source.

by **Savage Destiny** » Sun Mar 11, 2012 10:33 am

my boy boris wrote:thanks all, it does seem that the price of Orijen is the biggest deterrence to most. I'm glad so many have had great results with TOTW, like i stated i just don't trust Diamond. Curious on how the quality of Solid Gold is these days, been a long time since i've heard much about them

If you're not okay with Diamond, don't go for Solid Gold- while Diamond doesn't own the food, they do manufacture it for SG.

Allison, you're always a little ridiculous in threads about Orijen. Plenty of dogs and cats do absolutely fantastic on it, and Champion has always been great working with us about their foods. Perhaps you get bad vibes from them because you're so negative.

by **AllisonPibbleLvr** » Sun Mar 11, 2012 11:17 am

I'm negative about MOST commercial pet diets and skeptical about almost all methods of feeding. I'm also not the only one who I know who has had a difficult time getting any reliable information from them. I pick on them especially because of my PERSONAL experience, as I said, and because in my line of work I haven't seen any dogs do well on Orijen. If I did, I would give them their due but I don't. And several clinics I know have been attempting to gather more information about commercial diets, their ingredients and their methods and Champion pet foods has been the most extreme difference between their claims and the reality.

So yep, not at all a fan of a company that uses flourishy language and tons of marketing to sell a food thats not worth it's huge price tag.

And since this is a forum, and everyone is entitled to speak their opinion, that is mine.

by **HappyPuppy** » Sun Mar 11, 2012 12:39 pm

my boy boris wrote:well TOTW is a great price but i wouldn't trust any food put out by Diamond foods.

Why? Because of what happened a few years ago? I'd like to try Orijen or Acan sometime but never have....

by **mtlu** » Sun Mar 11, 2012 12:44 pm

We've tried quite a few different brands of kibble for Molly as kibble is still the best option for our household for various reasons. We started with Canidae, switched to Nature's Variety Instinct, then TOTW Pacific Stream, then Wellness Core Ocean and currently, we have been alternating between various formulas of Orijen and Acana.

When I first started getting TOTW for Molly, it was not yet a part of Diamond and Molly did really well on it. The Pacific Stream formula did great things for her skin and coat and it is a good single-protein source food (part of switching feeds early on was a process of discovering she is allergic to beef). After Diamond bought TOTW, I continued to feed TOTW and for the most part, was happy with it. There were some ingredient changes but I did not feel like the food had changed in any way that had a negative effect. BTW, I was concerned with Diamond owning TOTW but note that in California, there is one huge manufacturing facility located in Lathrop (near Stockton) and they manufacture food for several of the Diamond-owned brands in addition to Wellness Core. The recalls that happened several years ago with Diamond were centered around their manufacturing facilities in the mid-west and I don't recall seeing the CA plant mentioned as being suspect in the contamination findings.

Anyhow, one of the concerns with feeding fish-based food is the presence of ethoxyquin – a preservative that is added to fish after they have been hauled out of water and are in transit to being put to market. While most companies can say that they do not add ethoxyquin to their fish-based food, it is something that enters the "food chain" during the sourcing process and not during the manufacturing process. For a while, I was very concerned about this and wound up trying Wellness Core as a result. Molly did not do as well on Wellness Core (lost weight despite feeding more than the recommended amount) and after some more digging/reading of fine print, discovered that they are also manufactured in Lathrop, CA even though the parent company of Wellness is not Diamond. So, I stopped feeding Wellness Core not only because it did not work for Molly but also because I was paying a premium price for a kibble that was manufactured at a plant that makes a gazillion other foods. This is part of what sucks about feeding kibble - much like processed food for human consumption, a lot of production is done by huge plants that produce for multiple labels. One can pay a premium for price for something that comes from the same plant that makes Ol' Roy.

So, I finally broke down and tried Orijen – starting with their Regional Red formula (which contains no beef despite the name) and is lower in protein than their 6-Fish formula (which I think is too high in protein for Molly). I find their marketing no less florid and "empty" than marketing language of most other brands. Molly did well on two or three bags of that and then I switched to Acana High Prairie (also a multiple protein source formula). She did not do so well on that so we went through another bag of Regional Red and now are on Acana Pacifica (their fish formula). I've been happy overall with the formulas of Orijen and Acana (aside from High Prairie) and may try another formula in the future as long as it doesn't contain beef. One of the things I appreciate most about their food is the packaging (no, not the label design) – the food is vacuum sealed and the bags are less air-permaeble material so there is less likelihood of oxidation while bags are in transit and sitting on shelves in a store/stockroom. This detail with packaging is something I will continue to look for when I research/try other foods for Molly.

This was really long and I've actually left out a ton of other details as to why I switch around formulas and whatnot - feel free to ask questions if you want.

by **my boy boris** » Sun Mar 11, 2012 12:55 pm

so many opinions, i love it. thanks for all the input, this is why i started this thread. had no idea solid gold was made by diamond, i used to feed solid gold to my boys 20 years ago. i got a small "test" bag of orijen 80/20 poultry and fish and my boy boris gobbled it up like he hadn't eaten in a week (i'm sure it's cause it's a new taste). we will see how he does after a week or so