Thinkin' bout switchin' from Evo to Orijen

[my boy boris]

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....

yeah, any company that has directly caused the number of pet deaths that diamond has doesn't deserve a 2nd chance in my opinion

[my boy boris]

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.

thank you, love the info.

[HappyPuppy]

Not trying to defend them but I'm sure they've 'awakened' after that incident.... How much is Orijen roughly?

[Misskiwi67]

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....

yeah, any company that has directly caused the number of pet deaths that diamond has doesn't deserve a 2nd chance in my opinion

I guess I'd rather feed a food from a company that has learned a lesson and performs testing to ensure a repeat does not occur than to use a small company who does not.

Granted, Innova products did a lot of testing before it was bought out by proctor and gamble, so thats a non-issue, but there are a LOT of small dog food producers out there doing minimal quality control testing.

[mtlu]

Not trying to defend them but I'm sure they've 'awakened' after that incident.... How much is Orijen roughly?

Up here, both Orijen and Acana are around the $65-75 depending on the formula.
Steep - yes, but Molly is an only child

[my boy boris]

i hear ya, but there are companies that never needed to learn from such extreme mistakes. i'm not saying that i'm totally against diamond, i would just rather not support them. as far as price of orijen, at my local feed store for the 30lbs bag it is $71 for the poultry, fish and eggs formula and i think $85 for the red meat formula

[Misskiwi67]

i hear ya, but there are companies that never needed to learn from such extreme mistakes.

True - not YET anyway. The melamine incident was a huge wake-up call about not knowing what is in the food even when you think you know.

ANY company can have something bad happen, vigilance is the best option, and never totally trust the label. Its shocking how things can get cross-contaminated. Even companies who produce food from local ingredients are susceptible to salmonella etc. I even saw a pet a few months ago that we were heavily suspicious had salmonella from its raw diet. It was deathly ill and we started antibiotics before we were able to get permission from the owner to test though, so its just a heavy suspicion.

I feed TOTW because my dogs look amazing on it and its price allows me enough money in my doggie budget to afford rawhides etc. If you read back to posts when Diamond first came out with TOTW, I was extremely skeptical and not very nice about TOTW (how could it possibly be good at that price??), but time and seeing how many dog do so well on it has changed my opinion.

To be more helpful in regards to your question, I've never been a fan of EVO. They were the first to attempt to put too much protein into a dry food, and I've seen a lot of dogs have problems on it. Its on my do-not-recommend list right along with 'Ol Roy and Pedigree to be perfectly honest.

I have not tried Orijen or Acana, but so far have not seen any patients doing poorly on it either, or at least none that I can remember.

[my boy boris]

I feed TOTW because my dogs look amazing on it and its price allows me enough money in my doggie budget to afford rawhides etc. If you read back to posts when Diamond first came out with TOTW, I was extremely skeptical and not very nice about TOTW (how could it possibly be good at that price??), but time and seeing how many dog do so well on it has changed my opinion.

To be more helpful in regards to your question, I've never been a fan of EVO. They were the first to attempt to put too much protein into a dry food, and I've seen a lot of dogs have problems on it. Its on my do-not-recommend list right along with 'Ol Roy and Pedigree to be perfectly honest.

I have not tried Orijen or Acana, but so far have not seen any patients doing poorly on it either, or at least none that I can remember.

it is funny to me how skeptical we are with anything that seems under priced or "too cheap", i do the same thing when i go to eat somewhere and the prices are so low curious, is the high protein in EVO the only reason you're not a fan of it? thanks

[Enigma]

Orijen is not a horrible food just because some dogs don't do well on it, there's absolutely no food out there that would be good for ALL dogs. My friend has been feeding her two shelties Orijen since they were puppies and both do great on it, shiny coat, solid poops, no health problems at all and lots of energy (both are agility dogs). Orijen can be too high in protein for some dogs (I know a dog on Orijen who had elevated liver enzymes which went away when they switched her on a lower protein food), but there are lots of dogs who do really well on it. You just have to try it and see what works best for your dog.

I prefer Acana, I've been feeding Pacifica or Grasslands over the year and Light&Fit during the winter to my senior Brina for the last couple of years and she has been doing GREAT on it, defenitely the best food I've tried with her and I've tried a bunch of them over the last 6 years.

[Adrianne]

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....

yeah, any company that has directly caused the number of pet deaths that diamond has doesn't deserve a 2nd chance in my opinion

In all honesty I bet they now have stricter rules than companies that have never had an incident.

[PitFriend]

I've been very pleased with the Orijen fish formula. I have also fed Blue Wilderness (grain free) formulas in the last year, and my dogs have done well on it also. My girls are 10 years old so we do blood panels twice yearly and so far have seen no problems.

[Savage Destiny]

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.

Speaking of flourishy language and tons of marketing, aren't you a Science Diet fan? Talk about a food that's not worth the huge price tag... people pay $80 a bag for peanut hulls.

[my boy boris]

oh wow, i hope no one is a science diet "fan", it's one thing if that is all that is available but to actually choose it...

[AllisonPibbleLvr]

Wow, such hostility.
Savage Destiny, if I've personally offended you, I apologize but I don't see how I could have. As such, how about YOU not personally attack me?

I feed j/d. In the past I have fed Orijen, Acana, Natures Variety, California Naturals, Natural Balance, TOTW...

I prefer to feed a food that had been through a feeding trial, not just "formulated to meet the needs of all life stages". That's my personal choice, these are my personal opinions and there's absolutely no reason for you to be so confrontational and rude.

Unless I'm mistaken, I'm still entitled to my opinion, even if they do differ from the popular consensus here.

[Savage Destiny]

Sorry, but I absolutely hate it when someone comes into a thread about a food, toy, jacket, or anything else and just throws a minor hissy fit about how awful it is, and not give any real evidence as to why. I also hate that you're so hypocritical about it- you say you don't like Champion because of their marketing tactics, yet you feed one of the very worst offenders for using money and marketing to sell food.

You try to use scare tactics and loads of negativity to scare people away from a perfectly good food because you have some personal issue. Just because you don't know dogs who have done well doesn't mean that there aren't tons of dogs that do great on Orijen. We sell it where I work, and it's one of our best selling foods. We have many, many clients that have been feeding it for years, with amazingly healthy dogs. That's why I always stand up against you when you start railing against it- you act like you are the be-all-end all on it, and dismiss anything anyone else has to say.

If you don't want "confrontational and rude", perhaps you shouldn't come into a thread and make a very negative, confrontational, and rude post.