# Orijen Red, TOTW, or ?



## Max's Mom (Feb 24, 2009)

Hi all, Max has some minor allergy issues that have been ok for the last 8 months or so but now he's scratching again. I currently feed Orijen Adult and was thinking of switching to Orijen Red (he doesn't like fish based foods). TOTW looks similar but cheaper. Any thoughts or recommendations? I'm open to other brands or formulas. I strongly suspect that his issues are with turkey. Thanks in advance.


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## brandiw (Jan 20, 2010)

I used to feed TOTW to my dog with food allergies, but it was the fish based version. She did very well on it, but she got a bit chunky so we switched to solid gold because it has lower calories. My other two dogs still eat TOTW, either the High Prairie or the Wetlands formula. They really seem to love it and they do very well on it. If you suspect the problem is with turkey, you should probably avoid the Wetlands formula of TOTW as it contains turkey.


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## CorgiKarma (Feb 10, 2009)

Orijen Red is a great food. TOTW is good for the price but Orijen is superior.


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## dieterherzog (Sep 28, 2009)

When I was feeding kibble, my dog would go NUTS over Regional Red - he did NOT do well on TOTW High Priarie (gassy and anal glands starting working up). Word of warning, the main ingredient in regional red is wild boar and that might not work well for some dogs.


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## Max's Mom (Feb 24, 2009)

Thanks for the input! Looks like I'll try Orijen Regional Red.


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## kailaq (Nov 12, 2009)

I just bought some Regional Red last night for my puppy. He was on Orijen Puppy but I wanted to switch his food around (but stay in the Orijen line) for variety. I guess it takes a while for dogs to get used to new food (this is my second dog and for my first dog, we were feeding her human food), I mixed in a bit of Regional Red to his Puppy food this morning and he would pick out the Regional Red (bigger size kibble than the Puppy) and would jump and charge at it, seriously straight out of a cartoon. 

Let us know how your dog does with Regional Red. I'm so curious.


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## ioreks_mom (Oct 1, 2008)

I feed Regional Red to my guys. I was feeding raw for a year with my older dog who I am pretty sure has both food and environmental allergies. The last little while on raw he was scratching every second that he wasn't either sleeping or playing - and even then he would stop playing to scratch! He was eating only chicken at the time because he was on some meds and was getting a bellyache from them and chicken is supposed to be easier to digest. I am thinking that he may have a chicken allergy. 

I switched them to Regional Red and things have been going quite well. They switched on the 28th of December. My pup is gaining weight nicely and Iorek is scratching less (and I think his tear stains are getting less!! ) I really like this food. I plan to rotate with the 6 fish formula. 

I hope that the Regional Red works out as well for you as it has for us! Good luck


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## lilmiss1990 (Feb 27, 2010)

my dogs are o red right now and since its all red meat ie) boar and bisson they love it ! and its makes their coat very healthy !


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## Enhasa (Feb 6, 2010)

i would definitely chose orijen over totw....that is just me. main reason being orijen is ethoxy free, and has never been affected by any pet food recalls.


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## iim7v7im7 (Feb 1, 2010)

Hi,

A couple thoughts...

You need emperically to determine what the source of the allergy is. Many _Orijen_ formulations have many ingredients in common. I have listed the main ingredients below (those listed before the fat is added).

*Orijen Adult*
_Fresh deboned chicken, 
chicken meal, 
turkey meal, 
russet potato, 
fresh deboned pacific salmon, 
herring meal, 
sweet potato, 
peas, 
fresh deboned lake whitefish, 
fresh deboned northern walleye, 
chicken fat, _

*Orijen Regional Red*
_Fresh deboned wild boar, 
fresh deboned lamb, 
lamb meal, 
russet potato, 
fresh deboned pork, 
peas, 
salmon meal,
whitefish meal*, 
herring meal, 
fresh deboned bison, 
fresh whole eggs, 
potato starch, 
fresh deboned salmon, 
alfalfa, 
sweet potato, 
fresh deboned walleye, 
salmon oil, _

*Orijen Six Fish*
_Fresh deboned salmon, 
salmon meal, 
herring meal, 
russet potato, 
fresh deboned lake whitefish, 
sweet potato, 
peas, 
salmon oil_
You might consider a kibble with a unique protein source. I would recommend that look into _Nature's Variety Instinct Rabbit Meal_

*Instinct Rabbit Meal*
_Rabbit Meal, 
Salmon Meal, 
Tapioca, 
Chicken Fat,_

Good Luck!


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## lilmiss1990 (Feb 27, 2010)

Enhasa said:


> i would definitely chose orijen over totw....that is just me. main reason being orijen is ethoxy free, and has never been affected by any pet food recalls.


actually once they were, i guess ppl were finding tiny shards of fish bone in the fromula so they stopped production and they fixed the machine, that was doing it. but it all fine now !


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## amdeblaey (Jun 27, 2009)

My dogs do great on TOTW-I haven't tried Orijen Red though. I switch them back and forth between the duck/fowl, and the High Priarie.


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## Enhasa (Feb 6, 2010)

lilmiss1990 said:


> actually once they were, i guess ppl were finding tiny shards of fish bone in the fromula so they stopped production and they fixed the machine, that was doing it. but it all fine now !


to be honest i'm fine with tiny shards of fish bone in the kibbles. wellness used to have that issue too but my dog just ate it down just fine. as long as its extremely small and not sharp on the edges, that is fine w/ me i guess. i had broken apart some kibble in the past to test that. there are also several youtube videos regarding it.

humans eat fish bone too and digest it pretty well, as long as it isn't too big/long and sharp. 

about diamond pet food on the other hand, what im worried is the fact that totw's parent company was affected by the pet food recall in 2007 due to melanin being present in dog foods. while totw wasn't affected, i still do not feel 100% secure as 1 company often would reuse the same source of supplier even for different products.


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## lilmiss1990 (Feb 27, 2010)

Enhasa said:


> to be honest i'm fine with tiny shards of fish bone in the kibbles. wellness used to have that issue too but my dog just ate it down just fine. as long as its extremely small and not sharp on the edges, that is fine w/ me i guess. i had broken apart some kibble in the past to test that. there are also several youtube videos regarding it.
> 
> humans eat fish bone too and digest it pretty well, as long as it isn't too big/long and sharp.
> 
> about diamond pet food on the other hand, what im worried is the fact that totw's parent company was affected by the pet food recall in 2007 due to melanin being present in dog foods. while totw wasn't affected, i still do not feel 100% secure as 1 company often would reuse the same source of supplier even for different products.


are u crazy ? lol they can rupture a dogs intestine ! and these were sharp as glass ! there were ALOT of them ! ppl would stick there hand in the bag and get cut !


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## ioreks_mom (Oct 1, 2008)

lilmiss1990 said:


> are u crazy ? lol they can rupture a dogs intestine ! and these were sharp as glass ! there were ALOT of them ! ppl would stick there hand in the bag and get cut !


I think that you are exaggerating.


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## lilmiss1990 (Feb 27, 2010)

ioreks_mom said:


> I think that you are exaggerating.


actually im not ! they were as sharp as glass !! and it was all over the food in the bags....just email them they will tell you ! it was mostly in the senior food but there were also a few bags of the puppy formula that had it in there to !


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## Enhasa (Feb 6, 2010)

humans eat fish bone too. u dont see us dying from it as long as the bone isn't extremely sharp or large in size relative to our throat's width/size.

same thing for dogs.

for a kibble size like wellness, even my pomeranian (currently 1.9pounds) takes it down easily. if its a kibble size like canidae, i would then worry for a small dog. if you have a big dog, it really doesn't even matter.

i have really never seen such "hard bones like glass" in kibbles. they are usually all broken down to small pieces when being conformed into the small kibble sizes.

yes bones can cut one's throat, regardless of whether animal or humans. but nobody is asking you to force a big piece of sharp bone into your throat. a bone that large wouldn't be in the dog food too.


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