Food Friday: Orijen Large Breed Puppy

Orijen Large Breed Puppy Food is a dry kibble specifically formulated for growing puppies. This is a very high-quality grain-free food made from chicken, turkey, eggs, fish, peas, and lentils. The ingredient are sourced from local farmers in Canada, and used fresh without being frozen or preserved in any way.

Many dog food companies like to offer a wide range of diverse products for different life stages. This is almost entirely marketing rather than science, though. The only nutritional profiles actually recognized and regulated are for growth (also known as "all life stages"), adult maintenance, and large breed growth. Foods advertised for these life stages must meet specific requirements based on large bodies of scientific evidence. Foods advertised for seniors, small breeds, weight management, etc do not have to meet any different or special requirements, the manufacturers are free to slap those labels on any of their foods.

Large breed puppies have special nutritional requirements that have been intensively studied since the 1970's, according to Dog Food Logic. For dogs that will grow to over 50 pounds, less calcium and fewer calories will reduce the risk of developing one disease. Large breed puppy foods are therefore lower in calcium than regular puppy food or foods labeled for all life stages. They also tend to be lower in calories so big puppies can eat more without getting too much.

Orijen is made by Champion Pet Foods, and is widely regarded to be The Best Kibble. It is produced in Champion's own facilities. I consider it to be the highest quality kibble on the market mostly because it is made out of meat, meat, and more meat.

That said, I do think that Orijen is guilty of using ingredient splitting to make their already impressive list even more amazing. Most pet foods can be assessed by examining the beginning of that list, usually the first seven ingredients. Orijen Large Breed Puppy Food's ingredient list looks like this:

Boneless chicken*, chicken meal, chicken liver*, whole herring*, boneless turkey*, turkey meal, turkey liver*, whole eggs*, boneless walleye*, whole salmon*, chicken heart*, chicken cartilage*, herring meal, salmon meal, red lentils, green peas, green lentils, chicken liver oil, chicken fat, sun-cured alfalfa, yams*, pea fiber, chickpeas, pumpkin*, butternut squash*, spinach greens*, carrots*, Red Delicious apples*, Bartlett pears*, cranberries*, blueberries*, kelp, licorice root, angelica root, fenugreek, marigold, sweet fennel, peppermint leaf, chamomile, dandelion, summer savory, rosemary, Enterococcus faecium

The first 10+ ingredients are all identified animal parts, that's awesome. The second ingredient on there is chicken meal, which contributes way more to the finished product that the uncooked meats. That's also awesome. But would the list be as impressive if we called all the non-meal chicken parts just "chicken"? Here's how it looks:

Chicken, chicken meal, chicken, fish, turkey, turkey meal, turkey, eggs, fish, fish, chicken, chicken, fish meal, lentils...

So the first seven ingredients end up being chicken, chicken meal, fish, turkey, turkey meal, eggs, fish meal...and not necessarily in that order. Actually it looks like Orijen is guilty of almost the opposite of ingredient splitting. Most companies use this tactic to make their lower-quality ingredients appear further down on the list, i.e. listing peas as "green peas, yellow peas, pea starch, pea fiber..." to make that ingredient appear lower on the list than their meat ingredients even if their food is, in fact, made almost entirely out of peas. This food has a ton of meat in it, and listing the specific parts of the animals doesn't make it look more impressive than it is. It's just that impressive.

I'm not currently raising a large breed puppy, but this is the food I would choose if I needed to grow a healthy Irish wolfhound or something. Who is the biggest dog you know?

Treat Tuesday: Orijen Freeze Dried Alberta Lamb Dog Treats

These Orijen Freeze Dried Alberta Lamb Dog Treats are some of the highest-value training treats I have found. They are light, easy to break into pieces, and stinky without being disgusting. These particular treats are made from various bits of lamb, and therefore safe for Brisbane, who is allergic to chicken, turkey, duck, and eggs. Most of Orijen's freeze-dried treats are actually Brisbane-safe, which means we get to have some variety.

Good For: High-value training treats that leave my hands dry. Dogs with food allergies that require limited-ingredient treats. Dogs on grain-free diets.

Not Good For: Staying in one piece on my pocket. Not crumbling into oblivion if I try to break them up too small.

How Much We Like Them: There is a bag in my pantry, one in the glove box of my car, and another hiding behind the toaster on the kitchen counter. I'm pretty sure my place of employment is only stocking these because I buy them.

Food Friday: Orijen Six Fish

Orijen Six Fish is a very high quality kibble that is poultry-free, egg-free, and awesome. When someone asks me what the best kibble available is, this is my answer. Unfortunately, Orijen only makes this one food that Brisbane can eat. I always liked the Regional Red variety, but unfortunately it contains eggs. So tragic.

The ingredients list for every Orijen food basically reads like this: meat, meat, meat meal, meat, meat meal, organ meat, meat meal, more meat, fat, meat...There are some plant ingredients in there, but those are way down the list and usually after at least a couple of named meat meals. They recently added a new variety, Tundra, which uses primarily goat, but also duck meat. No Tundra food for Brisbane. Such disappointment.

Orijen Six Fish is made from 80% fish ingredients, and uses both fresh fish and fish meals so we know they're not cheating by using enough of one type of fresh meat to put it first on the ingredients list when the food is actually based on a completely different type of protein. Those six fish are: salmon (fresh and meal), herring (fresh and meal), Pollock (meal only), flounder (fresh), walleye (fresh) and northern pike (fresh). The fish are all caught in northern Canada or in the coastal waters off Vancouver, British Columbia. This regional sourcing means that half the ingredients don't even need to be dried, ground, or stored before they are used to make the food.
Questionable Claims
Orijen's website makes heavy use of the "whole prey model" of feeding, with lots of references to wolves and their anatomy. Too bad there's not any actual scientific study verifying this method of feeding. Still, it certainly appears to make sense, and a low-carb, low-glycemic diet is probably good for most dogs.

Following the Trail

Orijen makes their own food in their own facility. They source all of their ingredients themselves, acquire them all from domestic Canadian sources, and do not make food for anyone else. There is no shady co-packing, and surprisingly little marketing. This food is so good, it sells itself based largely on its reputation.

The Good Stuff
It's all good stuff. Orijen food is awesome. The problem is that they pack so many different types of meat into their foods that they inevitably include chicken, turkey, duck, or eggs. Six Fish is the only variety that Brisbane can eat. This is a nutritionally dense food, with 478 kcal per cup. I find it to be reliably sourced and believe it would be a good choice of kibble if I had to pick just one thing to feed my dogs. It rates five stars on Dog Food Advisor, of course. I'm not crazy about the smell, though. It really, really smells like fish.