Brinkley Will Be Trying Orijen Tonight

[Heather & Brinkley]

I know that many people feel "strongly" about what food their Doodle consumes. I've always seen references from you guys regarding the fillers that are put in Science Diet, Purina, etc. but I had never really taken the time to really check it out.  Well, one of my vet tech friends posted a link with a list of many popular foods that rated each one.  Not that I doubted you, but you all were totally right! That stuff is filled with grains and fillers.  So we went out and bought a bag of Orijen for Brinkley. He'll try it tonight! Yay!

 

P.S. Brinkley had nice long shaggy hair and I had been doing a really great job brushing him and keeping him mostly mat-free. Well, he swam for hours at day car in a treated pool and it made his fur sticky.  I think the water coupled with the massive amounts of rough play turned him into a matty doodle! :) So it's now winter and he's short haired again.  Sigh :) I love my moppy Doodle!

[Lisa, Daisy & Dexter]

Hi Heather, I hope Brinkley is not a picky eater...Daisy did not like Orijen, actually picked at it the 2nd day and would not eat it so the next recommendation was for Acana, same manufacturer, a little less expensive and comes in 3 or 4 flavors...Daisy loves the Pacifica (Salmon), if you need to move on. Hopefully he loves it though.

Sorry about the matted doodle, Daisy had to be shaved down once...never again. Though she is not really shaggy or long, her hair is super fleece so it just curls.

[Heather & Brinkley]

Thanks!  He's not one to chow down on his food but I wouldn't call him picky. He'll normally eat anything. I'll let you know!

Yeah, Brinkley has a longer coat-- it doesn't curl tightly-- more shaggy.  He didn't have to be shaved but he was cut pretty short! Oh well, it's already growing back and I know he fells better.

[Barbara B., Sasha & Oliver]

When you switch him over to the Orjen, give him a little at a time.  When I switched foods on my Doodles I would do a 1/4 cup of new food mixed with the remainder of the old food a few days, then increase to a 1/2 cup for a few days then 1/2 old half new for a few more days then if everything is ok I will use the new food completely.  My process takes about 2 1/2 weeks but Oliver has a sensitive tummy so I have to be real careful.  Sasha has a stomach of cast iron so I usually take about 6 days to switch her.  She is on Wellness and Ollie is on BlueBuffalo grain free wilderness and he loves it - hopefully I will not have to switch again.  The supermarket food is crap...  I hope Brinkley likes his new food :)

[Heather & Brinkley]

Thanks! We will try this!

 

[Christine & Shelby]

Ditto.... I've had to do this with my Shelby too.... very sensitive system.    Hope he likes the Origen.... Shelby was on it when she was younger, but now she is on Fromm....

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

You can expect some loose poop until he is fully transitioned, but after that you should be very happy, and so should Brinkley!

Make sure you read the feeding guidelines carefully. Orijen is much more calorie dense than the current food, and Brinkley will need a lot less. For this reason, along with the fact that the two foods are so different in content, nutrient percentages, lack of grain, etc., you may want to try switching cold-turkey, rather than the slow transition Barbara suggested. You're going to have some digestive issues anyway, it may be easier to just do it quickly.

It took JD 4 days to adjust to a cold-turkey switch to Orijen, although he was already getting a high-quality food anyway, but not a grain-free.

[Heather & Brinkley]

Thanks-- I just realized I was spelling it incorrectly!  Whoops!  And I would have never thought about the calories being different.  He would have been given the same scoops as before. Thanks!

 

[Chelsea and Bailey]

Bailey also did not do well on Orijen! I have heard lots of great things though. The one thing we did notice was the rank "gas" she emitted while eating it.  And this purely was from the Orijen. In fact the other day she went to play with a friend and ate some of his Orijen.... she farted us off the couch for the next two days! Haha! With TOTW she is virtually "odorless" lol

[Nicky, Riley & Boris]

It took Riley two weeks of loose poops on Orijen before it all settled down.  I wouldn't feed anything else now and he's thriving on it with no issues at all.

[Nicky, Riley & Boris]

forgot to mention the smelly gas too!!! that's gone now too.

[Heather & Brinkley]

I'll be looking forward to it. :) lol

[Bonnie and Kona]

I do not feed Orijen but I can tell you that Kona suffered (or rather we did) with gas on his grain-free food. I ended up giving him a probiotic called ProZyme for almost a year. Now we have no gas problem even though I am not giving the ProZyme anymore. Maybe it just requires a period of adjustment. If I had to do it over again and believed it was just a matter of a period of adjustment, I would still use the ProZyme. Seriously, who needs that if there is a way to avoid it. Hope this helps.