# Orijen & Acana: What is the benefit for one or the other?



## Jacksons Mom (Mar 12, 2010)

Jackson ranges between 15-16lbs typically. He's either a Yorkie or Silky Terrier, don't exactly know. Anyways, he's been eating Acana Grasslands and seems to do fine on it. I also bought a small 1lb bag of Go! Endurance and he seemed to really eat that up and enjoy it alot more than Acana.

I'm probably not gonna switch him but I started looking at Orijen Regional Red. I was just curious what the major benefit _or _downfall could be? Orijen, when looking at the ingredients, just seems sooo much better to me. So much more meat. All around, it seems like it's better than Acana? But I know each dog is different.

I've read a few reviews on Orijen about runny poops and some dogs it just doesn't work for. 

The protein content in Orijen RR is 38%, compared to Acana Grassland's 33% and to me... it doesn't seem like *that* much of a leap. Orijen has a min. of 18% crude fat and Acana has 17% crude fat. Overall, the guaranteed analysis doesn't seem like it's that big of a difference but the overall ingredients DO seem better.

Yorkies are 36x more likely to get a liver shunt than all other breeds combined so the high protein content scares alot of Yorkie and small breed owners. I understand it doesn't _cause_ liver issues but I guess in the back of my mind, I am a _bit _worried sort of.

I would love to feed Orijen but don't know if it's too rich for Jackson? He gets walked M-F for about 30 mins. per day. Pretty much every Saturday he spends 2 hours at the dog park running around. About 3 days per week we go to my dads fenced in back yard with his 2 dogs and swimming pool. He runsrunsruns over there and usually swims about 20 minutes or so 3x a week there and runs pretty hard. He's in great physical shape and condition so I tend to think Orijen would be fine for him.

Ack, sorry for the loongg rant and post. I searched and couldn't find an Acana vs. Orijen type thread, though I'm sure it's there and I searched wrong. 

For reference:
Orijen: http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/showproduct.php?product=2297&cat=8
Acana: http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/showproduct.php?product=2256&cat=3 (ingredients need to be updated on Acana because the first 3 ingredients are now meat).
I was just curious on the issue. Thanks for any help.


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## Michiyo-Fir (Jul 25, 2009)

I think Orijen would be fine. The Regional Red formula is one of the best dog foods I've ever seen in terms of ingredients. I just can't feed it to Nia because it contains pork and Nia absolutely cannot eat pork. She will throw up and have diarrhea for a week.

Honestly I'm feeding Acana right now because that's what I feel safer with as well. There shouldn't be any bad effects of high protein at all but it makes me feel better to feed a slightly lower protein.

I like that Orijen has more omegas than Acana. There's salmon meal pretty high up in the ingredients and it makes Nia's coat nice and shiny. Acana seems to have slightly less omegas.

Orijen has less fiber so the poop might be a little less hard but Nia ate it fine, no loose stools or anything. Orijen makes Nia poop a little less (very minor) than Acana it seems.

You should get a bag and just try it with him and see how he does and how he likes it. Both are great and they're around the same price, might as well go for the better quality one unless you're too worried about the protein problem.


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## jiml (Jun 19, 2008)

Orijen is available by me, Acana - Less so. My dog LOVES acana, Orijen- Less so


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## Jacksons Mom (Mar 12, 2010)

Well, the local store near us carries Orijen Regional Red (I went to one the other day that carried all the others, except the RR) so I bought a little .88lb bag to try  We'll see how he likes it!


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## lucidity (Nov 10, 2009)

Just FYI, the dogfoodanalysis site is VERY outdated... the ingredients they list for Acana are wrong. You can get the updated version on the Champion Petfoods website.. it has much more meat in there than dogfoodanalysis says 

I also like Orijen a lot. I don't really see much of a difference in terms of body condition etc. feeding either food. To me, it's always good to rotate so putting Regional Red in there would be great! Also, Orijen is pretty rich--I noticed that if I overfed Cadence ever, he would have really disgusting, watery poo; so watch out for that.. lol.


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## That'llDo (Apr 13, 2010)

I like both a lot. Orijen is really rich, and going on to it, my more sensitive dog has a couple of not-great days, but it helps a lot to go onto it slowly and give him some yogurt. Pixel has a digestive system made of steel, so he's fine on it, but his coat starts to get a little oily on it. If I rotate between Acana and Orijen, both dogs look beautiful and shiny.


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## john47 (Apr 5, 2010)

both my dogs got really soft poo on orijen but do awesome on acana. i feed a rotation of the grain free formulas. every once in a while i'll also use lamb & apple or large breed.


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## Jacksons Mom (Mar 12, 2010)

lucidity said:


> Just FYI, the dogfoodanalysis site is VERY outdated... the ingredients they list for Acana are wrong. You can get the updated version on the Champion Petfoods website.. it has much more meat in there than dogfoodanalysis says
> 
> I also like Orijen a lot. I don't really see much of a difference in terms of body condition etc. feeding either food. To me, it's always good to rotate so putting Regional Red in there would be great! Also, Orijen is pretty rich--I noticed that if I overfed Cadence ever, he would have really disgusting, watery poo; so watch out for that.. lol.



Thanks! 

I did know about the dogfood site... they really need to update that! 

I think I've finally found 3 good foods that work really well with him that I can rotate between bags. Acana Grasslands, Go! grain-free, and hopefully Orijen.

He ate some of the sample of Regional Red for dinner, I mixed it with the Acana and his poop was perfect tonight. (heh, never thought I'd be inspecting dog poop!) so I'm hoping I can add it into our rotation!


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## piritos (Nov 16, 2010)

Here´s a link to Acana´s Grassland ingredient information from Champion Petfoods in Alberta Canada

http://www.championpetfoods.com/acana/show-product.php?formulation=gfd


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## josh83 (Jan 26, 2010)

I rotate on the 3 Orijen formulas and my dogs poop is fine its not lose at all. I also have a 16LBS dog and have had her on Orijen for almost a year and have had no problems. a good site that may be more update then dogfoodanaylis is www.dogfoodadvisor.com

Hope that helps


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