Orijen Dog Food

648117

648117

Honored Member
I just bought some Orijen Puppy Food for Holly. I looked at the dog food reviews and it is the best one that is easily available here.

She was eating Royal Canine puppy food before and then had to finish off the last of Paris' Eukanuba (Paris wont eat biscuits anymore, and she's gone off the raw food (K9 Natural) so she has cooked chicken now and raw chicken necks in the morning - maybe not the best diet, but if she will eat it then she can have whatever she wants).

The person at the petshop warned us that Orijen is very high in protein and that she will likely have runny poop for a while as she gets used to it (they seemed to be suggesting that we not go with Orijen O_o )

The high protein content should be alright for her, right?

Even though she is half Pug (and so is likely to be prone to putting on weight - although when people say that a breed is prone to putting on weight I usually think that the people who tend to own that breed are actually prone to overfeeding and under-exercising)
she is doing agility and is definitely not a couch potatoe - she is very active.

Do you think this food is good for Holly?
 
Dlilly

Dlilly

Honored Member
The Dog Food Adviser didn't say anything about the puppy food being bad for puppies... I'll do some more reading in the morning.
 
tigerlily46514

tigerlily46514

Honored Member
Rapid swaps outs of foods can cause diarrhea in some dogs, but, the same food, if introduced slowly, over a week or two, works out just fine.

I'd swap the dog food out slowly, just replacing a few kibbles at a time, over a week or two, not cuz it's a high protein dog food,
but, i would do that with ANY dog food changes, just to be careful,
especially with a puppy. Puppies can dehydrate from diarrhea so so easily.



Orijen is a good dog food, i could not afford it, but, if one has a smaller dog who doesn't eat that much, and they can afford it, it's a good great dog food.
http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-reviews/orijen-dog-food-puppy/



There are discussions, on how a high protein diet is somehow "bad" for dogs, i have heard that many many times. Turns out, this commonly held view might not be true.
http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/frequently-asked-questions/dog-food-protein-faq/


feeding a puppy:
http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/best-dog-foods/best-puppy-foods/
 
tigerlily46514

tigerlily46514

Honored Member
//"so she has cooked chicken now and raw chicken necks in the morning - maybe not the best diet, but if she will eat it then she can have whatever she wants)."//


turns out, feeding raw and keeping it balanced does require a bit of education, making sure dog gets enough bone/(calcium), etc. Lots of raw feeders strive for a 80-10-10,
80% as muscle meat, 10% as bone, 10% as organ meats.
Every raw feeder i know is enthusiastic proponent of raw feeding. I do it as often as i can afford to, but, my prissy dog:LOL: requires i at least sear the meat.:rolleyes: My dog still wont' quite eat raw meat.

Here is a great link that Charmed Wolf gave me once, on how to balance a raw diet:
http://www.rawlearning.com/


There are also several brands of pre-made mixes, which are all balanced,
that you just add meat to:
like Sojo's http://www.sojos.com/products/dog-food/sojos-grain-free-dog-food-mix

or THK's "preference" mix: http://www.thehonestkitchen.com/products/preference/
These are pricey, imo, but, if you can afford Orijen, maybe you could be interested in those mixes for your other meat-eating dog.
 
648117

648117

Honored Member
The problem with Paris is she is dying, her heart is failing which made it so she didn't want to eat and is very thin. :cry:
Our other cavalier (Kiefer) was a pig and had no problems, he was her half brother and died in April last year of the same thing as she has (he died a month after being diagnosed, Paris has lasted about 8 months so far, the vet said she could last up to a year at the most (although Kiefer obviously didn't and he was on the same meds as she is now and was about a year older than her) she isn't going to last a year). :cry::cry::cry:

Paris has never been a good eater, she had to have her tonsils out as a puppy so she has always had problems with what she will and wont eat. Even when young and healthy she would sometimes refuse to eat her dinner, even though it was the same thing as usual (or with cheese added to make it even better), and then the next day she would eat fine.
She would never eat outside of the house, no matter what was offered.
She had home made food for a while when she was really young (a recipe from Kiefer's breeder) because she wouldn't eat.

We got her K9 Natural raw dog food, she ate it for about three weeks and then had a couple of bad days and decided there was no way she would eat it. So we had to give her cooked chicken mince and rice. She eventually decided she wouldn't eat that so she moved on to cooked chicken breast.
Last night she wouldn't even eat that, she wouldn't eat yoghurt off a spoon, she wouldn't eat a piece of cheese with her pills in it. She didn't want anything.
Then today for breakfast she had her chicken necks as usual :unsure:

I don't think nutrition is going to make much difference to her, she can eat anything she wants as long as she eats because she doesn't have long left.


Kiefer was just 9 when he died and Paris just turned 9 in April this year and she still looks like a puppy, they are small dogs so I expected them to live to be old and grey. :cry: (I know it's silly, but I just wanted Paris to be old, grey, cataract eyes, deaf, arthritis and covered in warts rather than looking like a puppy with a bad heart :cry:)
Although I have since found out that cavaliers often don't get to 10, in a lot of ways we have avoided a lot of the health problems that cavaliers are prone to. Perhaps if I wasn't so young when we got them and was able to do the research myself we wouldn't have ended up with cavalier and would have got a healthier more long lived breed (although I wanted an Irish Wolfhound and they don't live long - but my parents would not let me have a big dog, mum chose cavaliers)


It's not so much that we can afford Orijen it's just I'm trying to do the best I can for Holly so she can live forever and getting her the best food will hopefully help (and she is only 5.7kg so doesn't eat so much)

Sorry, a bit of a sad post :cry:
 
tigerlily46514

tigerlily46514

Honored Member
OHhhh, 64, oh, i'm so sorry, i did not know that,:( yes, yes, i'd do the same as you, a dog at that stage gets whatever they will eat, indeed. I am so sorry.
That is the heartbreak of Cavaliers,:cry: is these disorders are so so rampant among that breed. Might be worlds alltime cutest breed, but, so so hard to find a healthy one. Even the ones winning prizes at shows, from the top breeders in the world, are often either suffering from, or carriers of, one of the multiple disorders so rampant among the KC spaniels or cavaliers. It's just so so hard to locate a healthy dog of that breed. so so heartbreaking.

I have no doubt, that your beloved dog, is getting the best life possible in your care. I've been in your shoes, loving a dog i knew was not long for the world, and also severely disabled,
and it is a both a bittersweet and tender time, whatever my dog wanted, i'd do my best to offer. He couldn't get upstairs anymore to sleep beside us,
so we slept downstairs for his last months, so Toby could continue his lifelong habit of sleeping beside us in same room.
 
jackienmutts

jackienmutts

Honored Member
Aww, I'm so sorry. Paris is just precious, and you're right - she still looks just like a puppy. Like Tigerlily, and most likely, lots of others on this forum have done, I also have traveled that rough journey trying to do the very best I could for a dog who I knew couldn't be helped. All we can do is the best we can do - and make the most of the time we do have. Enjoy every minute you have with Paris. Don't look into the future too far (altho easier said than done, I know), cuz sometimes I'd find myself being sad, knowing our time was growing short - and I realized I was missing precious time that I had right now being sad about something that was going to happen in the future. Try and stay happy for Paris - my bet is, she's accepting of her life just the way it is. Enjoy your time - and all your time with Holly too.
 
sara

sara

Moderator
Staff member
I am sorry you are losing Paris. CHD is so hard. My roommates GSD x died from this.

As for protein and Orijen. It's excellent food, and I do feed it in my rotation. High protein isn't an issue, and infact is very good, as it's protein from fresh meat sources and highly digestable. It's high carbs that cause weight gain, and there are very few carbs in Orijen. Watch her weight, if she starts gaining, feed her less. if she acts hungry from getting less food (even though that's all she needs) give her some veggies to bulk up her meals.
 
648117

648117

Honored Member
Well, Holly's been eating Orijen for early two weeks now and we have noticed that her coat has gotten a lot softer (but still not as soft as Paris ;) ).
I don't know if this is from eating better food or due to changes in her coat as she gets older (which would have to oddly coincide with the change in dog food) but it is definitly softer (and we noticed it before she started needing post-dog park baths).

Also, this week Paris decided she would not eat chicken mince with cheese and potatoe chips anymore, she could not take a single bite of it even when hand fed (the vet suggested the chips to try to increase her weight), she will no longer eat cheese at all. Instead she decided she will eat the Orijen Puppy biscuits too O_o
Even when she was younger she wouln't eat plain dog biscuits (she had to have a spoon full of wet food with it and then have it microwaved for 10seconds) so it's kind of funny seeing her eat the biscuits and she keeps eating them when I'm trying to teach Holly to "leave it" and heel past dog biscuits on the floor :LOL:
 
moky adam

moky adam

Active Member
My australian cattle dog loves just about any brands of dog food. While I believe Orijen is a good pet food company, he actually developed intense itches while on the Regional Red. Whatever it is in the regional red, his skin doesn't like it. That's ironic because we thought switch from Eukanuba to this "best dog food in the world" would help ease his problem. Thankfully we only bought a 5 lb bag. Now he is on 6-fish, and he has stopped scratching.
 
sara

sara

Moderator
Staff member
So he obviously has an allergy to a red meat of sorts. Most likely beef, as it's a common protein. The 6 fish is excellent too, I have fed it in rotation over the years to several different dogs, and my cat has it in his rotation too.
 
sara

sara

Moderator
Staff member
That's pretty awesome! My cat is eating orijen in his rotation, but I don't have any for the dogs right now :)
 
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