what do you think of orijen dry cat food?

Hi everyone! My apologies for the typo in the title, I meant to spell cats instead of cost, and now I can't figure out how to edit the title. Anyway! I wanted to get your input on a particular type of cat food - Orijen. I tried to wean my cats off of dry food, and onto wet food and raw food. My boys weren't too keen on not having kibble around at all.... so I got them those little trial bags of Orijen, different flavors.

They seem to like it so far, but I'm very wary of dry cat foods, since I lost one of my boys to FLUTD, which I am positive was caused by the food I fed my cats. I am more aware now, but I don't quite know a lot about feline nutrition like the other people on here. The ingredients all seem good, for the most part, I'm not sure if I'm missing anything there. My boys also get wet canned fancy feast in the morning and evening, and have a filtered water fountain. I give them raw food when I cook meat, I'll slice off some for them. 1-2 times a week. The kibble gets left out during the day, no more than 1/4 cups worth.

Do you all think this is a good diet for my cats? One is a 3 1/2 year old neutered male, and the other is a 5 month old intact male, although not for long.


Pushylady: Edited to change title.

Are you sure they can't make it without the kibble ?  Especially if you want to avoid FLUTD. I'm sorry to hear you lost your boy. I think your idea to get them on wet and raw was great.

If you do stick with dry, Orijen has decent ingredients except that it contains a lot of fish. Also bad for FLUTD and possibly too much mercury.

Well, they could make it, but I get harassed/meowed/pawed half to death the moment they hear a crinkly bag. My schedule isn't stable either, so they get extra hungry some mornings/evenings.

I figure the kibble will keep them topped off while wet food is their main intake. I'll recheck the bags of orijen for fish levels, see which one has the least. Is mercury really a contributor of FLUTD?

The magnesium in fish is what can contribute to bladder issues. I also keep fish to a minimum to keep mercury levels down. Mine do get some seafood but only about once a week.

I wanted to edit this post by saying that it looks like herring and salmon are the main fish in the food. They are low mercury fish.

I'll keep that in mind, and stick with the orijen that has chicken as their main meat... unless I find something better, anyway. What do you feed yours?

I didn't know they had a chicken formula. Last time I saw a bag of Orijen it was "6 fish flavor". The ingredients on the chicken one look good without junky fillers. Some people say alfalfa is not good for cats but I have not researched this myself. Other than that it definately looks like a high quality dry.

Mine eat all wet. Mostly grain free canned with some exceptions. Once in a while a little raw venison. I feed :

Wellness

Organic By Nature

Evo 

Merrick (mostly cowboy Cookout)

Before Grain

 Nature's Variety Instinct

Tiki Cat

Weruva (ocassionally because its high in carbs) 

Blue Wilderness

Precise Holistic

Avoderm

Halo

Evangers

 and once in a while to keep it affordable I feed Fancy Feast classic chicken (high protein/lowcarb) and Trader Joes Turkey dinner. They eat all different flavors of these brands and probably a bunch more I forgot. I like to feed them mostly high protein/low carb and no corn. I try to keep other fillers like wheat gluten and artificial flavors to a minimum too. I rotate brands to balance everything out.

Rotation, huh? Sounds good, I heard that cats do best on a stable diet, which one is better? My bobo has stomatisis, and a sensitive stomach, he pukes easily, and he's had weight issues as long as I've had him. He's never been fat, but sometimes he gets thin, which he did on a mainly wet food diet.

That's alot of brands. Wow. I hope I can find them on the shelves in a Canadian pet store. What are your thoughts on blue buffalo? I originally meant to get that, but the pet store didn't carry that, hence the orijen

melalpha said:

Rotation, huh? Sounds good, I heard that cats do best on a stable diet, which one is better? My bobo has stomatisis, and a sensitive stomach, he pukes easily, and he's had weight issues as long as I've had him. He's never been fat, but sometimes he gets thin, which he did on a mainly wet food diet.
That's alot of brands. Wow. I hope I can find them on the shelves in a Canadian pet store. What are your thoughts on blue buffalo? I originally meant to get that, but the pet store didn't carry that, hence the orijen

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It's fine to rotate wet foods but to avoid stomach issues it's best to stick with one type of dry. I don't have experience with the stomach issues your little guy has but I'm sure others do and might know what could help him. Blue buffalo wilderness is a good food but I don't think it's better than Orijen. If they do well on it I would stick with it.

Your cats are adorable. Bobo is a precious little thing!

Ahh, gotcha. I always stick with the same brands of dry now, after a phase of me buying bags that were on sale and stepping in puke at night. Ick!

And thanks.

Orijen has too much fish, in my opinion. Every Orijen formula has fish. That bugs me.

I used to feed my domestics and hybrid exotic cats, Orijen dry cat food. The formula, I used to use was: Orijen Cat and Kitten (http://orijen.ca/products/cat_kitten). All my cats, did very very well on it . However, it got too expensive for my liking. So, now my cats, are eating Evo, the Turkey and Chicken formula dry (http://www.evopet.com/products/1441). Plus, they are given, whole live prey twice daily .
 

The following is copied directly from the website of Champion Petfoods (company that owns and makes Orijen)
Orijen is an exceptional food, some other foods may be as good, but I don't know of any that are better, in my opinion. I am not a veterinarian or nutrition expert. I'm just an informed cat owner, and I have good research skills. As far as the concern about Orijen not having any artificially added Taurine, this is what the site says:

"ORIJEN cat foods list Taurine in the Guaranteed Analysis but not in the Ingredient Panel. This is because ORIJEN is rich in fresh meats in WholePrey ratios (in which Taurine is naturally present) and therefore no supplementation is required. Compare to conventional pet food ingredients which do not contain sufficient Taurine in natural form (from meat), and must be supplemented with synthetic Taurine ingredients."

These are the ingredients for Orijen's Cat & Kitten food:

Boneless chicken*, chicken meal, chicken liver*, whole herring*, boneless turkey*, turkey meal, turkey liver*, whole eggs*, boneless walleye*, whole salmon*, chicken heart*, chicken cartilage*, herring meal, salmon meal, chicken liver oil, chicken fat*, red lentils, green peas, green lentils, sun-cured alfalfa, yams*, pea fibre, chickpeas, pumpkin*, butternut squash*, spinach greens*, carrots*, Red Delicious apples*, Bartlett pears*, cranberries*, blueberries*, kelp, licorice root, angelica root, fenugreek, marigold flowers, sweet fennel, peppermint leaf, chamomile, dandelion, summer savory, rosemary, Enterococcus faecium . *DELIVERED FRESH

These are the ingredients for Orijen's 6 Fish Cat food:

Whole salmon*, whole herring*, salmon meal, herring meal, Pollock meal, whole flounder*, boneless walleye*, boneless northern pike*, boneless lake whitefish*, salmon oil, herring oil, chickpeas, red lentils, green lentils, green peas, pea fibre, canola oil, sun-cured alfalfa, yams*, pumpkin*, butternut squash*, spinach greens*, carrots*, Red Delicious apples*, Bartlett pears*, cranberries*, blueberries*, kelp, licorice root, angelica root, fenugreek, marigold flowers, sweet fennel, peppermint leaf, chamomile, dandelion, summer savory, rosemary, Enterococcus faecium.
*DELIVERED FRESH

Orijen's 6 Fish is excellent food for any cat to eat, but I believe the main reason they offer this is as an alternative for cats with allergies to poultry. Chicken is one of the most common food allergens for cats. My cats have no problem with any poultry, but I've read that cats with chicken allergies are not uncommon.  

I know that it has organ meat in it that in their raw form are adequate sources of taurine.  Taurine does not hold up well to heat and breaks down with cooking.  The concern that I would have is that there is enough extra in it at the beginning so that there is an adequate amount after processing.

Actually it's muscle meat, not organ meat, that contains the most taurine. You are correct however that all the cooking involved in making dry food, ANY dry food, will destroy the taurine.

Regardless of the claims Orijen makes on their website,the fact remains that it is dry food (one strike) contains too much fish (two strikes) and again, is dry food (third strike).

There is no such thing as a dry food that is "good for urinary tract health". Dry food dehydrates, which means the cat won't pee enough to keep the bladder flushed and causes the urine to be too concentrated.

Heavy metals is not the only reason to avoid fish.

There are as many opinions and cat foods out there, for sure -- from cat owners and the cat medical community as well!

Orijen is a fantastic dry food and I use it as well (chicken formula). I leave 1/4 cup out overnight a few days a week (or if our schedules may be outside our usual norm for feeding times). I have an insanely picky eater, and sometimes I wonder if she eats at all, LOL! If she could live on her Feline Greenies treats alone, she'd be a very happy kitty!

In addition to this minimal amount of dry, our cat gets a small can in the morning and at night. She dislikes all fish, but I can occasionally get some chicken/salmon mixes in there.  I use canned pate turkey/chicken formulas of Wellness, and any chicken/turkey formulas of Weruva, the Turkey formula of Stella & Chewy's rehydrated raw (with the occasional chicken/salmon one as well - oddly for such a "chicken" cat, she stopped eating the chicken formula of this). I have a few chicken and turkey Fancy Feast classics on hand as well. Also have the pouch version of Weruva's chicken (lots of broth).

It has taken a very, very long time and a ton of $$ finding anything reasonably decent that this cat will actually eat on a somewhat consistent basis. (My local rescue's cats have eaten very well in this long process with all the rejected donations!). I am more concerned with my kitty going long periods of time refusing to eat anything. Routine, consistent blood tests and physicals also give me peace of mind about her overall condition. So does monitoring of what I'm scooping out in the litter box (is there enough urine output, poop consistency, etc.).

I have a variety of food and food textures in rotation and for us, this has been a good approach for this particular cat. This is a fantastic site, with loving cat-parents. Soak up all the great info on here, then decide what works best for your particular cat.

I've done a little research about Taurine being destroyed during the cooking process, but I have not found any scholarly sources on the subject. However, Taurine has a melting point of 305.11 °C. Orijen's site says they slow-cook their foods with steam at 90 °C, which is much lower than most other pet food makers. They claim this helps to preserve the natural ingredients in their foods. AAFCO sets the minimum Taurine levels for cat foods at .1% for dry food and .2% for wet food. I'm looking at a bag of Champion Pet Food's Acana Pacifica Cat formula right now, and the Guaranteed Analysis lists the minimum Taurine level at .5% My three cats have been on Orijen and Acana for over three years, since they were kittens, and they have been perfectly healthy, active, happy members of our family ever since. I know many dry cat foods are mediocre at best, and nutritionally lacking at worst, but Champion Pet Foods provides an excellent diet for our canine and feline family members, in my opinion. Again, I am not a veterinarian, I'm just an intelligent person who can research just about anything, and I love animals, as we all do. I'm sure anyone who actually registered to a site called The Cat Site and participated in discussion forums about cat nutrition (us) provides ridiculously exceptional care to their cats. So, our cats are incredibly lucky. There's one reason for that: We care about them. This is one more reason the Internet is so awesome, like-minded people can find each other and trade invaluable information based on their own experiences. This empowers us, the animal-lovers, to the benefit of animals everywhere. That's all I've got for now, best wishes and good health to all of you and your feline family members.

-Ryan

I used Orijen in the past....but had issues with bad batches.  Recently I have come across Boreal....which seems really good.  I have had great luck with Redmoon....which you buy directly from the company.  

@Ryan117S - welcome to TCS and thanks for sharing your experiences with us. As you stated we're all a bunch of crazy cat lovers here.

There is actually a study done by UC Davis on the taurine levels of common foods and a comparison before and after cooking with various methods. Cooking degrades taurine a lot which is why taurine is usually added after cooking in order to meet or exceed minimum AAFCO guidelines. I'm on my phone so can't post a link but a google search should turn it up pretty easily if you are interested.

As for the Acana Pacifica food, the debate about the quality of the ingredients aside, there are 3 issues I have with this food. 1. It's dry, so by definition, it does not provide the moisture that cats need. An all dry diet often causes chronic mild dehydration which is tough on a cat's kidneys and urinary tract (www.catinfo.org if you want more info on that). 2. Although it is grain free, it still contains starches in the form of peas, potatoes an sweet potatoes. It also contains a bunch of other fruits and things that basically have no nutritional value for cat. It's still very high in carbs which cats don't need. Excess carbs can lead to obesity and diabetes in cats. 3. The proteins in this food are all fish based. Contrary to public opinion, fish is not species-appropriate. Fish are often inflammation triggers for cats. In addition, fish can be high in toxins and minerals. Fish can also be highly addictive. Therefore, it is not advised by many vets to feed fish on a regular basis. Check out littlebigcat.org and Dr. Karen Becker at mercola.org.

Here's the study on taurine done by UC Davis that I referenced above. http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/vmb/aal/pdfs/spitze.pdf

The ingredients themsleves are great but as with any dry food, the lack of moisture is a bit of a concern, especially with a high protein food. I've heard a lot about people having problems with high protein dry foods. Having moisture to balance things out is critical.  I'm kind of shocked Orijen hasn't come out with a wet food at least for cats after all this time     

I do admittely have a bag of dry TOTW kibble for those occasional days when I'm rushing out the door, but I don't let it become a huge part of her diet.