Is Orijen human grade

By Isabella Storyclaire

last updated September 16, 2024

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ORIJEN
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ORIJEN foods and treats

Q. How do i transition my pet to ORIJEN foods?

Unfortunately, dogs and cats are often fed the same food for a long period of time, which means a sudden food change makes it difficult for their digestive systems to adapt. Thats why its important to introduce new food gradually. Going slowly will give your dog or cat time to adjust to their new food and will also reduce the chances of digestive upset.Start by mixing 25 percent new food with 75 percent old food. Slowly increase the new food proportionately over 10-14 days until you are feeding 100 percent new food.Check our diet selector. For more specific dietary needs, please contact our Customer Care department.

Q. What is a rotational diet? Can I do this with ORIJEN?

Rotating between ORIJEN formulas prevents your dog or cat from getting tired of eating the same thing day in and day out, while offering them a great variety in proteins and fats. A good place to start is rotating by the bag when you have finished one formula, you can try a different recipe.The first time you introduce a new food for rotation, mix the food 50/50 just to make sure your pet transitions well to the new ORIJEN. However, if your dog or cat is more sensitive, do a full transition when introducing a new ORIJEN food after that you can change at will.

Q. HOW DO I CHOOSE BETWEEN ORIJEN PRODUCTS?

There are so many options! You can mix and match any way you like, so experiment and see what works best for you and your dog. Our ORIJEN dry kibble, freeze-dried foods or canned foods can be fed as a complete meal on their own or used in combination for a delicious meal. Some options to try:

100% Dry Kibble: Our ORIJEN Dry Kibble options offer a complete and balanced meal that can be fed just on its own.
100% Canned: Does your dog love soft food? Maybe you find that canned is easier for your dog to eat. Whatever the reason, ORIJEN canned food is a great choice to provide optimal nutrition and flavor.
100% Freeze-Dried Food: Freeze-dried animal ingredients provide your dog with a rich, concentrated source of protein and nutrients, similar to a raw diet but in a convenient, dry form. Medallions should be rehydrated with warm water to be fed as a complete meal.
Canned or Dry Combo:You can feed an ORIJEN dry recipe in the morning, and switch to one of our canned options when the dinner bell rings. This is a great way to keep your dog interested and excited about mealtime.
Canned or Freeze-Dried Food As a Topper: Do you have a dog that is sometimes a little bit picky and you need to entice them, or do you want to add a delicious mix in to change up mealtime? Feeding ORIJEN dry recipes with a topping of our canned recipes or Freeze-Dried Foods may be a great fit that your dog will thank you for with tail wags galore.

Q. Why does Champion reformulate or enhance its ORIJEN diets at times?

Champion Petfoods has a history of innovation when it comes to our ingredients and our foods, and changes are made with the intention of improving them. As part of this work, we will from time to time make minor changes and enhancements to our foods.

Adjustments over the past year have been focused on enhancing our packaging to better tell our premium nutrition story.

While our ORIJEN packaging looks a bit different, formulation variations in the last year have been minimal and we have made them for a variety of important reasons including:

Greater focus on ingredient sustainability
As challenges occur across our global supply chain, we have made some adjustments to ensure a consistent supply of premium ingredients
As regulations evolve, we need to adapt to ensure our foods remain in compliance
Other updates are made to ensure our products have consistent naming conventions

At Champion Petfoods, maker of ORIJEN, we are always evaluating and evolving our products to ensure we are meeting the highest quality standards. The exciting new changes to some of our ORIJEN pet foods further improve digestibility, palatability and responsible sourcing; and continue our commitment to include at least 85% animal ingredients, the first five being fresh or raw. These changes incorporate enhanced levels of probiotics, B and E vitamins, and antioxidants, plus we have increased the amount of sustainable wild-caught salmon in place of mackerel. Since 2021, we have been preparing these changes and we now are pleased we can offer pet lovers an even better pet food to help their pets thrive for a lifetime.

Q. Do you have any feeding tips?

We recommend you feed twice daily. Simply divide the amount suggested on the feeding guide into two meals, spaced eight to 12 hours apart. For example, if the feeding guide calls for 1 cups per day, we recommend feeding a cup in the morning and a cup at night. You may need to adjust portions as you learn your pets ideal daily maintenance amount. These amounts may change over time as your pets age and activity levels change. Always keep in mind a lean dog or cat is a healthy pet.

Many dogs and cats have large appetites and will eat everything you feed them. As ORIJEN foods are highly palatable, you need to be careful not to overfeed, as this can cause issues such as loose stool or unwanted weight gain.

Q. How many treats should I feed?

We all love to give our pets treats. However, treats should be given in moderation and should represent 10% or less of your pets daily food intake. The rest should come from a nutritionally complete feeding program. When using treats frequently, such as during training exercises, try to use small pieces.Feeding Treats.pdf

NOURISH AMAZING

Our Biologically Appropriate ORIJEN premium pet foods are made with high-quality fresh and raw ingredients. Our fresh ingredients use refrigeration as the sole method of preservation, and our raw ingredients are frozen at their peak freshness. Our dog and cat foods are inspired by your pets ancestral diet, including WholePrey animal ingredients like meat, poultry or fish, organs and bone. Premium ingredients like protein-rich meat, free-run poultry, and wild-caught and/or sustainably farmed fish mirror the quantity, freshness, and variety of animal ingredients that dogs and cats have evolved to eat. When it comes to free-run poultry, our free-run chickens and turkeys are not housed in cages and are able to move in a barn without outdoor access. ORIJEN premium dog food recipes are made with the most nutrient-dense, succulent parts of the prey and are ideal for dogs of all ages, including puppies, adult dogs, and seniors. ORIJEN premium cat foods are packed with animal protein and include diets specially formulated for kittens, adult cats, and senior cats. Packed with quality animal ingredients, ORIJEN pet foods are beyond comparison, and ORIJEN food for dogs was voted the best dog food by Business Insider Magazine in 2021.

Orijen Dog Food Review

Written By: Dr. Sarah J. Wooten, DVM: Renowned Veterinarian

Orijen foods emphasize whole prey ingredients and biologically appropriate foods, incorporating richly nourishing meats, organs and cartilage in ratios that bring Orijen ever closer to Mother Nature. Orijen is made by Champion foods in Alberta, Canada, and the company has won awards for the food as Pet Food of the Year from the Glycemic Research Institute in Washington, DC. The company has also been named Manufacturer of the Year/Western Canada, and won a Growing Alberta Leadership Award. They are very proud that they have their own kitchens and dont sell their food to other companies, and this pride is reflected in the high price of the products.There are 5 dry adult formulas available, and two dry puppy formulas. There are also 3 freeze dried formulas. We will review the adult dry dog and one freeze dried diet.

The website states that they focus on ingredients that are sustainably raised within our region by people we know and trust, approved fit for for human consumption, and delivered our kitchens authentically fresh each dog. No other dog food can match Orijens fresh ingredients.

This labeling can be confusing, as there really is no FDA regulation or enforcement on the terms human-grade or fit for human consumption in the United States.The term Made with Human-Grade Ingredients does not mean that a finished product is actually, legally, human grade either. An ingredient (lets say, a carrot) may start off being fit for human consumption, but once that carrot has been shipped to a pet food plant and processed in accordance with regulations for feed-grade products, the human-grade term can no longer legally be used. By definition, that carrot is now feed-grade.

In addition, even IF Orijen has the freshest ingredients, that doesnt mean it is the freshest dog food. Pet food can legally be sold up to two years after manufacturing. How do you know how long the bag of food you purchased was sitting on the shelf in the pet supply store? Sitting in a distribution center? Sitting in a hot tractor trailer waiting to be off-loaded into a pet store? These are the intangibles that savvy dog owners need to ask themselves when choosing a food for their dog.

Side Note:Lifes Abundanceis the only pet food company I know of that controls their product from manufacturing to consumer as it is made in small batches and shipped direct to consumers.

Back to Orijen

Orijen states, Evolved as carnivores, all dogs are biologicallyadapted to thrive on a varied diet of fresh whole meats, with small amounts of fresh fruits, berries and grasses.

This is Simply Not True

Where do they get this stuff from?Genetic studies reveal that dogs were domesticated 11,000-16,000 years ago, and have lived scrounging around on scraps discarded by humans ever since. And since we know that proteins and fats were difficult to come by for our ancestors, dogs evolved gastrointestinal tracts that are highly efficient at digesting and utilizing grains.

What happens when you take an animal that has biologically adapted itself to survive in a unique and symbiotic relationship with humans and you suddenly start feeding it something it has not evolved to eat?

You get problems. In clinic, we are seeing higher numbers of pets fed high protein and grain free diets with abnormal gut flora, higher pH of urine and increased numbers of struvite crystals in the urine. The funny thing is, when the pets are taken off these diets and switched back to standard high quality maintenance diet, the problems disappear.

On the Orijen website FAQ section, Orijen addresses questions about urinary health with this answer:

Due to the high meat content and low magnesium content, Orijen is naturally acidic and helps promote a healthy bladder.It is important that pets that are prone to urinary tract infections or developing urinary crystals are allowed all the fresh water they can drink to help flush the urinary tract and dilute the urine. As Orijen is much higher in protein and highly nutrient dense, more water intake may be needed to facilitate digestion. Orijen foods have a pH between 5.5 and 6, which is naturally mildly acidic and well suited to the maintenance of healthy bladder function in both cats and dogs.

An acidic, concentrated urine can predispose dogs to developing calcium oxalate crystals and urinary stones. These stones can not be dissolved by diet: they must be surgically removed.As a veterinarian, I strongly caution all pet owners to research what they are feeding their pets and not believe the marketing hype.

Here is the ingredient list for the freeze dried adult dog formula:

Chicken (ground with bone)*, turkey (ground with bone)*, whole herring*, chicken liver*, chicken heart*, whole eggs*, spinach greens*, pea fiber, turkey liver*, turkey heart*, whole flounder*, ground sunflower seeds, pumpkin*, Butternut Squash*, Imperator carrots*, cranberries*, blackberries*, blueberries*, Red Delicious apples*, Bartlett pears*, Red Heart plums*, Tilton apricots*, brown kelp*, mixed tocopherols, chicory root, dandelion root, summer savory, peppermint leaf*, ginger root*.

The protein appears to be mostly animal-product based, but there are also sunflower seeds. Carbohydrate sources are squash, pumpkin, fruits and veggies.

I am not sure what ingredient is the prebiotic. If it is pea fiber that is an insoluble fiber that can have laxative effects, as a veterinarian, I dont believe it is a good prebiotic. We are seeing a lot of problems in clinic of dogs on foods with pea fiber that are having intestinal problems such as soft stool or excessive gas.

The whole food sources and chelated forms for vitamins and minerals are good.

Again, the high level of protein and meat concerns me. Many dogs on high protein diets are having urinary problems as mentioned above.

The formula states that it has omega-3 fatty acids, but I ask what is the quality control for ensuring these fragile molecules are delivered to the pet in a bioavailable and undamaged manner? For those of you who are familiar, omega 3 molecules are very fragile, and are oxidized in the presence of light, heat, or oxygen. They actually transform from beneficial cis-fats to trans-fats.

Trans Fats

That means if the bag of Orijen that you have purchased (for a lot of money) sat in a hot tractor trailer or warehouse before going into the pet store where you purchased it, or has sat open in your house, then the omega 3 molecules have long since oxidized and are no longer providing any benefit to your dog.

When protecting these fragile ingredients, storage, packaging and climate controlled delivery is necessary to ensure your dog is getting the nutrition he or she needs.

In addition, the ratio of Omega 6:3 is very low. I would like to see a higher amount of omega 3 FA included in the food.

The Unknown

You can only glean so much information from an ingredient label. There are other important questions to ask yourself when choosing a food to feed your dog:

How are the ingredients cooked? For Orijen, this is unknown. You want to look for a food that is slow cooked at a lower temperature to preserve the integrity of the ingredients.
Where are the ingredients sourced from? As we all learned from the deadly pet food recalls due to melamine contamination in 2007, where the ingredients come from matters. Yes, , but where do the ingredients come from? This is unknown.
Are the rollers cleaned in between batches? If your pet has a grain sensitivity, how do you know whether Taste of the Wild is manufactured on equipment that has been cleaned? Many different types of pet food is made in one manufacturing plant, and if a food that utilizes corn or wheat has been run on the rollers then Taste of the Wild can have trace amounts of these grains in the food.

While Orijen may better than many foods out there, there are other foods available that can give similar or superior nutrition and better peace of mind for less cost.

The descriptions and analyses expressed in this and every article on this website represent the views and opinions of the author.

We do not test dog food products. We rely almost entirely on the integrity of the information posted by each company on its website. As such, the accuracy of every review is directly dependent upon the quality of the test results from any specific batch of food a company chooses to publish.

Although its our goal to ensure all the information on this website is correct, we cannot guarantee its completeness or its accuracy; nor can we commit to ensuring all the material is kept up-to-date on a daily basis.

Each review is offered in good faith and has been designed to help you make a more informed decision when buying dog food.