Orijen Tundra - thoughts?

[Deborah Brown]

I'm going to assume that some of us here will be getting the free sample from Chewy.  I wonder what the rest of you think of it?

The food comes in light weight patties or "medallions".  There are the same consistency as the small Orijen beef and lamb treats.  These,of course, have a long list of ingredients instead of just being meat.  If you break apart a medallion, they crumble a bit.  The directions say to rehydrate with water before feeding.

I broke up one medallion and fed the pieces dry as a treat.  The doodles seemed happy to gobble it up.

The problem with this food is the amount you'd need to feed and the cost.  The feeding guideline only goes up to a 33 lb dog but if I extrapolate, one of my dogs would need to eat the whole sample bag to make a meal.

[Rosemary (Ro) and Enzo]

I actually just placed an order for Orijen and that offer for the free bag did not come up. I emailed them about it, their reply was the offer has ended. But true to Chewy customer service, they gave me 10% off my next order.

[Vivian & Mojo]

I received the sample and really like the food but it is pricey, Mojo gets a raw meal in the morning (Darwins) and grain-free Orijen for evening meal.  I'm going to order a bag for when I'm traveling and may decide to keep him on it because the ingredients are excellent and my Dood went crazy over it.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Yeah, next time around I'm getting a dog who's under 30 lbs so I can afford to feed the really good stuff. :)

(I'm only partly kidding.)

JD was once given a sample of a Stella & Chewy's patty at a pet supply store and I've never seen him act that way about any food, even people food. He actually started trying to get behind the counter, from whence the goodies had come, looking for more. 

I looked at the package and asked the clerk why the feeding guidelines only went up to 30 lbs, and she said "Because nobody could afford to feed it to a bigger dog." 

[Vivian & Mojo]

LOL Karen Mojo licked the bowl for a long time but he is 70 pounds and it will cost too much to feed it often but I will once in a while and when away.

[Deborah Brown]

It's not a bad idea to use for travel.  My dogs eat Orijen for breakfast and homemade for dinner.  Something like Tundra would be a good substitute when they are boarded.  

Chewy sent me two bags since I had two Orijen regular large bags in my order.  Maybe one night, I'll split the two bags between them and see how they do.

[Deborah Brown]

I just took another look at the Tundra package.  Each medallion is 74 calories.  The breakdown is 30% from protein, 62% from fat and 8% from carbs (fruits and veggies).  This is definitely a food for very active dogs.  In my homemade food, I try for a 50/30/20 split.  Most commercial dog foods don't come close to this.  In fact, you rarely see this type of breakdown advertised.  Dog foods will give a protein percent or tell you the percentage of "meat" but you never see the calorie breakdown.  It takes some calculation to figure it out since there is a percentage of water which does not impact the calorie content.

Orijen adult dry food calories are 38% protein, 41% fat and 21% carbs.  I bet you'll find a lot of commercial foods are closer to 50% carbs. 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Many, many commercial foods are more than 50% carbs. :(

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

What I wonder though is whether those are percentages by volume, or percentages of the calories. Fat has more than twice the number of calories per gram as protein and carbs. So if they are saying that 62% of the calories come from fat, and 30% of the calories come from protein, that would mean that there is still as much protein as fat in the food by volume, approximately 5 grams of each per serving, by my calculations. 

[Deborah Brown]

Yes, exactly.  You rarely see this type of breakdown on a dog food package.  It is listed under Calorie Content on the package but I don't see it on the website.

"ME (calculated metabolized energy) is 4940 kcal/kg (74 kcal per medallion) (15g) distributed to support peak conditioning with 30% from protein, 8% from fruits and vegetables, and 62% from fat."

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

So it does sound like they are percentages of the calories. Say that you had 5.5 grams of protein, 5 grams of fat, and 1.5 grams of carbs per patty. In terms of calorie, that would be

Protein 22 cal.

Fat       45 cal.

Carbs    6 cal

Total    73 calories. I came pretty close, lol. 

[Deborah Brown]

Good job.  :)  For my homemade food, I've been buying meat from a local butcher.  He will sell me 15 pounds of turkey that consists of dark meat AND the skin plus about 5 pounds of organ meat.  You just don't find the combo in the grocery store.  Humans want the 95% lean ground turkey.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I usually make the turkey wings for myself. I love the skin and they're cheap,  lol. I was just thinking the other day that it might not be terribly expensive to use turkey wings for homemade dog food, if someone didn't have a local butcher as accommodating as yours.