Orijen revisited

[Angela]

After a couple of months on Orijen I had to take Gracie off it. She had gained about 10 lbs and I was only giving her 1 cup morning and evening, sometimes only 3/4 cup.
Has anyone else found wt. gain in an older Newf on it?

 

[charlieinnj]

Is the Orijen the ONLY thing she ate (i.e., no treats, etc.)?

 

[Angela]

She ate the treats that she was getting when she was on Eagle Pack, which weren't very many.
Now I have put her on Innova reducing diet!

 

[Blacknewfs]

Yes. All of mine had to be cut back when we switched from Eagle Pack to Orijen, but we have been able to maintain healthy weights.

 

[Angela]

How old is your eldest Sandra?
I cut back also with Nicholas and Evan, but 3/4 - 1 cup twice a day for Gracie seemed so little (in her big bowl!!!!!)

 

[charlieinnj]

Oliver is on the Orijen 6 fish and he has put on a couple pounds since the switch over to Orijen, too. He will be 3 in January and like your Gracie, only gets 1 cup 2X day. Since she's appently not getting extra calories from treats, what about cutting the Orijen amount in half and making up for it with the Innova and/or a half cup of veggies?

Are Nicholas and Evan on Orijen too? How much to they eat?

 

[Angela]

Nicholas and Evan get 3 1/2 cups daily, they are 5 and 4 yr, but Gracie is 9 yr and can't afford to gain the wt. I usually give veggies to all, as Dudley is on raw so they all get veggies.
I will try a bit of the Orijen with her Innova and see what happens.

 

[ozzysma]

ozzy gained some weight start and then i had to watch how much he was fed. he is not very food motivated and lost it again. since getting stevie who will eat all!! i have been giving him 2 in morning and night to get a bit more weight on him as he was very skinny. he is looking good now and was just wondering about cutting him back some.

 

[NessaM]

Some weight gain with Nanook - (dooooooom!) - I'm switching him onto a single source kibble anyway since his allergies are a nightmare lately.

Pooka - weight LOSS! Why me? He's eating 6 cups of the Orijen a day, his coat looks fantastic, and he lost 5 pounds. *laughing* Gah.

 

[noblenewf]

Gabe actually has lost weight since on the Orijen as well. He's on 4 cups daily and he looks great! He will be three in December.On a side note...for those of you who switched from EP...was there a particular reason you switched? Any problems? Due to financial reasons I may have to look for an alternative to Orijen. Just wondering about Eagle.

 

[Bär]

Bär [16 months, 3 weeks old] is eating 3-4 cups a day Orijen & so far his weight seems fine. We did have to take him of the 6 fish though because he develped a shell fish allergie. He is now on the Orijen puppy & doing good.

 

[Henrys Mom]

I tried to switch Henry to Orijen and he had such horrible diarrhea that I had to take him off. I guess I am glad I didn't wait to see if he would gain weight as he tends to do that easily!

 

[Blacknewfs]

How old is your eldest Sandra?

Marin is 8 - she has thyroid dysfunction, hip dysplasia, arthritis all along her spine so doesn't exercise as much as the rest of them. She has always been overweight since the day we rescued her, but with her thyroid function under control we have been able to manage her weight ok. When we switched her to Orijen she actually toned up a bit, putting on muscle mass. She is a bit chubbier right now since during the summer we hike less and swim more, and she doesn't swim like the others do. Once hunting season ends and we can safely venture out into the forest again the weight will drop off quickly. She eats 1 c twice daily. I probably should have cut her back a touch over the summer, but didn't.

Neptune on the other hand, is almost 5 and skinny as a rake - that boy doesn't gain weight no matter what we do! He eats about 4 c daily (he won't eat more than this) plus we give him extras

2 yr old Floyd eats 2 c daily and is lean and muscular; 6 yr old Zoe eats 2 c daily and is very lean, I've considered bumping her up a bit for the winter since we hike more; 3 yr old Matilda eats 3 c daily and this is a nice maintenance amount for her - she gained a lot of weight on 4 c daily for about 6 months during her recovery from malnutrition and near starvation.

for those of you who switched from EP...was there a particular reason you switched? Any problems?

Our gang did well on EP but they do amazing on Orijen. We switched because I wanted them on a low carb, high protein diet free of filler. Cost wise, since we feed about half what we used to feed of EP, and given that the price difference between the two brands is not that much, we spend less now on food feeding Orijen than we did feeding EP.

 

[noblenewf]

Thanks for the input Sandra! My two are doing the best I have ever seen them on the Orijen. I'm very hesitant to switch.Since I have to order the Orijen online and have it shipped to me it comes out to about $67 a bag and I go through that every two weeks. Not too bad but The Hubby is starting to complain...huffin' and puffin'about the cost. But then again he's from the old school thinking that dog food is dog food. This is where we disagree! ;-)

 

[charityd]

Jess, tell him that good food will save you a ton on vet bills. It's true!

 

[Abbey]

After all the wonderful recomendations from the people here I switched Abbey and Zeke to the 6 fish. Zeke developed horrible diarrhea after a week or so. Thinking it was caused by something else we took a sample to the Vet. They did a full workup on it and came to the conclusion that it was the food. We switched back to Natural Balance and the diarrhea went away in a matter of 24 hours. I'm not sure what the problem was, too much fish or too much protein? Zeke lost about 10 pounds and Abbey gained about 5 pounds in 2 weeks.

 

[ardeagold]

We found that we really had to cut back on the food, or they'd develop diarrhea.

Ours did well on Orijen, but we switched to Taste of the Wild because of cost. With 16 big dogs...cost is a factor. It's still a grain free food, and the dogs do great on it. The protein isn't quite as high, and they have three versions.

 

[ozzysma]

donna i notice that the taste of the wild has about 110 cal less per cup than the orijen, did you have to up the quanity you give your pups??

 

[kagricola]

Sundance has been having bouts of diarrhea on and off for the last few months. I had just decided to take him off Orijen to see if it was the cause when I read this thread. The odd thing is he will be fine for a week or so at a time, so I am always running through in my head what else he might have eaten that day. Daisy is doing great on it, and both have such nice coats now, but the poor boy woke us up three times to go out last night.

 

[Faye]

when we switched to orijen they all had diarrhea until I figured out I had to lower the amount they were eating. after that, no problem at all.