Orijen - worth the money?

Katie&Stella's thread in praise of Orijen made me check to see if we can get it in the UK.

We can but it is ruddy expensive unless I buy it in huge bulk.

The info on the website sounds great.

So - does anyone else use Orijen? Or have you used it in the past? Any adverse effects?

I'd welcome your honest opinions before I go shelling out for 3 months' supply!

LOVE IT! While I don't feed my own dogs kibble, my fosters have all done well on it with very few exceptions. If the protein level worries you, the same company makes Acana which is lower in protein. I only use the fish formulas and I don't feed senior formulas.

Interesting that you find it so expensive as in Canada it's not the most expensive grain free kibble out there.

If I buy it 13 kilos or so at a time then it works out £ for lb at roughly what I am already paying for the totally grain free I switched them to recently. But any smaller sizes are way, way more than what I am used to paying.

I don't mind paying more initially on a trial basis as I don't want to get stuck for months on something that does not agree with them, but the smaller the bag the more hideous the cost.

I think Orijen has not been over here all that long.

To be fair I will actually pay whatever is necessary,but I'm sure you know what I mean when I bellyache about it. I am loath to go totally to raw because it is difficult when we take the boys out to hotels to stay and it is also hard because my pugsitter is very squeamish. So if we can do a good diet that does not involve total raw feeding it will be best for us.

Orijen is great, i know many many pugs that eat it very well. The low carb seems to help pugs keep their weight down too.

Snifter&Toddy wrote:I am loath to go totally to raw because it is difficult when we take the boys out to hotels to stay

I've taken two Pugs (we hadn't acquired izzie yet) eating all raw on many many soccer trips and whatnot staying in hotels and i've not had a problem or an inconvenience with it. All their meals we prepack into containers or baggies and we just simply requested a mini fridge in the room and kept a cooler in the car if we were going out and needed the food with us. I just wanted to point out that it can be done very easily (of course maybe they don't have fridges in hotels over there?).

I feed Orijen to both of my pugs. They both do wonderfully on it. I have to either drive an hour to get it, or have it shipped. I wouldn't think of changing because of the results we've seen with it. Justice was started on it as soon as we brought him home, (gradually switched over of course) but Liberty was on a terrible food for awhile before I learned better! She acts and looks so much healthier now, and I know it's because of the Orijen. They also both get Missing Link and canned pumpkin too.

I can't add anything to the actual Orijen discussion, because that's one that I haven't tried yet. I did want to say though, that once you determine if it works well for your boys, 13kg doesn't seem like an unreasonable amount of food to buy at one time for two dogs.

Completely off-topic, though... this quote was great.

Snifter&Toddy wrote:If I buy it 13 kilos or so at a time then it works out £ for lb at roughly what I am already paying for the totally grain free I switched them to recently.

I've never known the origin of the term "pound for pound." I've always thought about it as being similar to comparing apples and apples and oranges and oranges. It never even occured to me that it meant the monetary unit, but that completely makes sense!

Penny has thrived on Orijen. No more ear infections, her weight is, well, maybe a pound heavy, but the best it has ever been, and her fur is black velvet. I heart Orijen, and Penny should be their poster child.