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Orijen

reviewed by ncpalehorse

A high protein, low carb, grainless food.

ncpalehorse
07/13/2009

Orijen 4

We have a 11 yr old bully mix who has pretty severe food allergies and a sensitive stomach.

A few months ago we had rotated from TOTW Pacific Stream to Orijen 6 Fish. Our dog was doing very well on the TOTW, but seemed to be doing phenomenally well on the Orijen. His coat was remarkable, eyes clear, firm, appropriately sized stools and high energy level for a 11 yr old dog.

That was until several weeks ago when we purchased a new bag and learned that, aside from the subtle name change from 6 Fresh Fish to 6 Fish, the formula has changed some. The ingredient changes probably would have been transparent to us, but our dog is no longer able to tolerate this food as he started having horrible diarreah as soon as we started feeding from that new bag . We even purchased another bag from another lot# thinking that perhaps we just got a bad bag, but still had the same results. We took him off the Orijen and put him back on the TOTW and his stools improved overnight.

We were hoping that his issue was not related to the formula change, but apparently it was. Now as I mentioned, our dog has a VERY sensitive stomach, so slight formula changes that other dogs might never notice, can cause a major disturbance with ours.

Still, this has been a major disappointment as our dog was doing so well on this food prior to the change.

I don't know the reasons for the formula change and perhaps Orijen feels that it is an improvement over the previous formula, and it very well may be. I just wish they would have made it publically known that the formula had changed, either by indicating "new and improved formula" on the bag or at least on the Champion Foods website. It would have saved us some aggravation in trying to figure out why our dog could no longer tolerate this food. In fact, I went into 2 different stores in my area that sell Orijen and neither one of them seemed to be aware of any formula change either.

Anyway, I still think Orijen is a fantastic food and I'm not here to bash Champion Foods. If our dog could stomach the new formula, we'd still be feeding it. I just hadn't seen much discussion about the formula change and wanted to post about our experience with the new formula in case anyone runs into a similar situation.

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BonBonMom commented 137 days ago.
I did not know the formula changed till I read your post. I called the retailer that I bought his food and ask them to check with the Orijen rep.

I will hate to change this food because my dog is doing extremely well on Orijen too. Have you tried gradually introducing your dog to the new formula?

ncpalehorse commented 137 days ago.
(Edited 137 days ago)
BonBonMom -

If you're doing is still doing great on the Orijen, then no reason to change. Only reason we made the change is because our dog did a complete "180" once we started feeding the new formula. Unfortunately, we did not have any more of the old formula to mix in with the new for a gradual change over, but I'm not sure it would have made much of a difference. Once we switched back over to TOTW cold turkey, our dog's digestive issues improved immediately. Again, our dog has a VERY VERY SENSITIVE stomach and our issue may very well just be an extreme exception to the norm. FWIW, our dog has never tolerated the Wellness Core Ocean or Wellness Super 5 Mix Whitefish/Potato formula either which are well regarded kibbles as well.

As far as differences in the formula are concerned, here are some of the major changes I was able to ascertain from the labels (using the ingredient list on DogFoodAnalysis.com for the old formula and the ingredient list on the Orijen website for the new formula). I am not an expert on the subject matter, so these are my novice observations and some of the ingredients may be re-named or included in other forms.

Notable removals from the old formula include Cod, Sunflower oil, Irish Moss, Dulse, Bladder Wrack, Leeks, Crab Shell, Lecithin, Zea Mays, Rose Hips, Choline Chloride.

Notable additions to the new formula include Peas, Deboned Flounder, Pumpkin, Carrots, Spinach, Turnip Greens, Cranberries, Saskatoon Berries, Sea salt.

Also, numerous ingredients have either moved up/down on the new label, but I'm not an expert and don't really know how much of an impact that really has.

The protein % has decreased by 4% and Carbohydrates increased by 2%. Glucosamine and Chondroitin have increased substantially and the Omega ratio seems to have changed a bit.

Vitamins, Aminos, Minerals and Botanicals seem to have some variations within each group as well.

It would be interesting to see DogFoodAnalysis.com review the new formula to get a more knowledgeable explanation of the changes.

chihbbs commented 130 days ago.
Can you tell me what's TOTW?
My dog (7 years old lab) is on Blue Senior now.
Seems to have some gas problem.
He has sensitive stomach too, I don't know what to feed him now.
thanks.

ncpalehorse commented 130 days ago.
chibbs -

TOTW = Taste of the Wild. You can read analysis of their ingredients on www.dogfoodanalysis.com. TOTW is generally thought of in the upper echelon of kibble brands, although probably not quite as highly acclaimed as Orijen, but it is a quality kibble and priced very affordably.

Our food allergy and sensitive stomach dog seems to do well on TOTW Pacific Stream formula. We have not tried the other TOTW formulas as our dog seems to have the least food allergy symptoms on fish protein based foods. YMMV. Good luck!
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