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Not to be the "cheap loser" of DK, but I have had a bag of the Orijen large breed puppy in my online Chewy cart for days and I don't know whether to purchase it! What's making me hesitate is the large number of posts about it giving loose stools and being too high in protein content. It's too costly to purchase and then toss if it's a loose stool nightmare.
My breeder will send home a bag of the current puppy food (no idea what it is) when we pick him up mid-January, and I was going to start switching him right away. I know no one can say for sure how he will do on the Orijen, but if you were me, would you go ahead and purchase the Orijen or start him on a puppy food that's high quality but also has grains?

Thanks!

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Replies to This Discussion

Also, Orijen is not really more expensive than many foods with lower price tags, because you feed a lot less. You can go thru 3 bags of a "cheaper" foo d in the same period of time that you'd only use 2 bags of Orijen. We also have many discussions here about this, a few price comparison discussions with the actual costs, and the numbers are surprising. . 

Our breeder feeds the pups the Costco brand (4 stars somewhere and not recommended here) and we switched right away to Orijen large breed at 9 weeks. Our puppy has been doing fine with it and no loose stools at all.

The first weeks he would poop 5 to 6 times a day. Now, he's doing it 4 times consistently and firm.

The only "weird" thing  is that suddenly he gets super, super thirsty and he must drink two bowls of water in one sitting like once a day (well, last night he was desperately barking at 2am; I opened his crate and went running to the bowl of water, finished it and asked for another one).

On the cost side, when he was 9 weeks and 11lbs, he would eat 1.3 cups a day; today, he's 15 weeks and 23lbs and he eats 2.5 cups a day. For what I see, the bag of Orijen will last exactly 7 weeks; bringing the cost to 10.x a week or 1.5 dollars per day. You can compare that to some other brands having the cost per bag and the recommended cups per day.

If it hopes, Chewy is awesome with credits/returns.  I called to say I could not use the 10 cans left from an open case of wet food. They immediately gave me credit and asked I donate the rest of the food.  

First, THANK YOU to everyone for their replies and experience!
Second, Karen, your knowledge and advice is so, so impressive. Honestly. I know I wouldn't get near the quality of advice and guidance from a veterinarian or other "professional". You are amazing. If at no other time of the year, let me say on this Christmas Eve, that I really do thank God for wonderful, caring people like you in the world. So, THANK YOU Karen! :)

Sara, thank you so much for the kind words. I'm very glad to help. 

With all the info we've shared here in this discussion, the one topic that hasn't come up is the fact that most veterinarians receive little to no nutritional education in vet school, and what information they do get is in the form of voluntary seminars hosted by (drumroll, please) Hill's Science Diet and Purina. That continues once they are in practice, which is of course a conflict of interest, as has been documented by Marion Nestle, PhD.

Vets and doctors study medicine, not nutrition. The big difference is that your doctor doesn't recommend or sell brands of food, lol. Most of us here have learned not to take advice about food from our vets, however much we may like them or trust them on medical issues. :) 

It took a couple of weeks of loose stools (as I remember) when I transitioned Riley to Orijen. That was over three years ago and I haven't looked back. I have both boys on it with no problems.

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