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Orijen v Acana

32K views 43 replies 20 participants last post by  buddy97  
#1 ·
Why is Acana considered inferior to Orijen when they're both made by Champion? Inferior ingredients? Processing? Recipes?
 
#4 ·
this is from orijens web sight

Orijen is~70% meat, 30% fruit & vegetables… and no grains whatsoever.

Acana is ~60% meat 40% fruit and vegetable...no grains whatesoever.

While there are many differences between ACANA and ORIJEN, both diets reflect our belief in “Biologically Appropriateness, and “Fresh Regional Ingredients”.

Five of the main points of difference are summarized below:

MEAT CONCENTRATION: ORIJEN is made with 70-75% meat ingredients while ACANA has between 40 to 65%, depending on the formula.
AMOUNT OF PROTEIN: ORIJEN diets range between 38% and 42% protein, while ACANA features protein levels of 29-34%.
AMOUNT OF CARBOHYDRATE: ORIJEN diets range from 18-22% of carbohydrate, while ACANA diets are typically in the 28-30% carbohydrate range.
AMOUNT OF FRESH MEAT: ORIJEN is made with 28-35% of fresh meats, compared with ACANA which ranges from 9-15% of fresh meats.
VARIETY OF FRESH MEAT: ORIJEN contains a minimum of 5 fresh meats, compared to ACANA which contains 3 different fresh meat ingredients.

Put simply, we believe ORIJEN is the best dry dog or cat food available worldwide. Although lower in protein and total fresh meat content than ORIJEN, ACANA provides unbeatable value and a price point that makes Biologically Appropriate pet foods accessible to a wide range of pet lovers.
 
#5 ·
The statement that Acana has no grain is not true. In fact the company's best foods have grain in them and are relatively good values. Acana actually has more foods with grain than without.

Wags, don't take this the wrong way, but those dogs could slim down a bit.
 
#6 · (Edited)
i consider their best foods by far to be their most meat inclusive by far, and those are the grainless foods:

acana pacifica
acana grasslands
acana wild prarie

while they do make grain inclusive foods that are decent they do not (by acanas admisson) have as much protein or as much animal product in them. additionally, im not sure any of the grain inclusive line has much availability inn the U.S. yet.

to the OP, i dont think any of us here consider Acana inferior to Orijen, just a tiny step below, but still better than most other offerings out there.
 
#7 · (Edited)
Derek,
That's my feeling about ACANA, also. The only other Canadian based food that comes close is GO Endurance. BTW, I'm switching my 15 year old Siberian Husky to Orijen Senior from Innova Senior Plus because of the P&G takeover.My Standard Poodles are getting a mix of ACANA Wild Praire and GO Endurance.
All my dogs are rescues.My red SP is my therapy partner
 
#11 ·
The grain inclusive line of Acana is not available or ever will be available in the U.S.
 
#12 ·
It's really too bad that Legacy changed their Adult fomula. It was a 6* on dogfoodanalysis.com. I fed it. Since the change it has dropped off their radar. Dogfoodadvisor.com gives an excellent review of what ingredients are in dog foods. With dog food recalls still happening, I've decided to only use foods with no questionable (red) ingredients. Trouble is there ain't very many of them to choose from.
 
#15 ·
I would like to just point out that saltydogs and myself ARE NOT the same person.

I read saltydogs first post and thought to myself...."What the hell did I write?" "Was I on crack or drunk?"....."oh wait, someone added an S to my screen name.....great"


Thanks for letting me clear this situation :biggrin:
 
#26 ·
I sure will never confuse you two!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:biggrin::wink:
 
#19 ·
pretty funny:biggrin: I was confused, because your post reccomend Orijen and the other salty is orijens arch enemy. Will the real salty please stand up
I am not Orijen's enemy but I find the company has no particular expertise other than marketing and many of the ingredients have no proven or even anecdotal reason for being in there. Marigold petals? Corn Silk? Fennel? Angelica Root? Licorice? LOLOL

The way many of you drink the KoolAid, if Orijen came out and said you know what the guys at Cornell, Penn and all the other schools are right, corn is much better than potato you all would be running for corn. Corn should never be the primary source of anything for a dog but it should be in there over the other choices including brown rice. How many people know that corn has 3 times the cancer figthing antioxidants of broccoli?

I don't think many people know that most of the real protein in Orijen comes from plants in the Southern US and that just a few years ago Champion made food for supermarkets.
 
#22 ·
I am not Orijen's enemy but I find the company has no particular expertise other than marketing and many of the ingredients have no proven or even anecdotal reason for being in there. Marigold petals? Corn Silk? Fennel? Angelica Root? Licorice? LOLOL
You totally missed the point. Orijen has mostly meat! Who cares about the other ingredients.

The way many of you drink the KoolAid, if Orijen came out and said you know what the guys at Cornell, Penn and all the other schools are right, corn is much better than potato you all would be running for corn. Corn should never be the primary source of anything for a dog but it should be in there over the other choices including brown rice. How many people know that corn has 3 times the cancer figthing antioxidants of broccoli?
Sorry dude, you got the wrong person here. I don't have any trust in modern medicine, as well as the rest of the corporations :mad:
 
#23 ·
I agree that most of the additional ingredients are marketing gimmicks.. however if the amount of meat/animal protein stays the same, then it is still a great food. I feed raw but use Orijen as training treats.

And don't comment on people's dogs weights, that's just mean. So what if one is a bit 'portly', their coats shine and obviously are being well cared for :biggrin:
 
#27 ·
Well they may have all these non essentail ingredients, but look at the bag, it's trace amounts...0.001% or something in that range. How can you ignore the fact that people who put there dogs on this food see an improvement in their coat, skin, teeth, and overall health.
 
#28 ·
For me using Acana vs Orijen was a matter of stomach issues. From what I'd read both in articles about dog food and reviews from dog owners Champions is the best company with Orijen being the best overall kibble. I was really excited to put Zoe on Orijen but even with a slow transition (3 weeks) two different times her tummy just can't handle the Orijen and I was stuck with really runny poops. I was told by the pet store to switch to Acana because it still grain free but less protein. Sure enough that did the trick. So for me it wasn't a cost issue but a tummy issue. But if Zoe could handle Orijen she'd be eating that. I'm just glad Champions made another grain free food.
 
#29 ·
did u switch from a grained food to orijen? that might have been why. leave her on acana for a while and try orijen again\\\for you, what is the price difference in orijen vs acan
 
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#30 ·
@ rctriplefresh5

Yes the switch was from Merricks Chicken Pot Pie which does have grains to Orijen. But we did a super slow transition....3+ weeks going from 75% old food and 25% Orijen and then the last almost full week was about 85% Orijen and 15% Merricks which she was doing ok on but sure enough when it got to 100% Orijen the runny/soft poops started. So strange but true. And we tried two different times. But that is a great suggestion to wait a while and then try to transition her from Acana to Orijen. I will definitely try that.

The cost difference between a 29 pound bag of Acana and Orijen where I shop is only about 5 bucks a bag.
 
#37 ·
I think Saltydogs was banned.. haven't seen him in awhile. He, I am pretty sure, just liked to disagree on EVERYTHING just to get a reaction. He must have a boring life. :biggrin:
 
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#38 ·
Hallelujah, although I'll miss correcting his ridiculous comments.
 
#40 ·
Not to call saltydogs out(the guy with the weimraners) but i suspect he amde the alternate account (troll saltydogs) to stir things up....

reasons-
1- troll salty dogs posted a reply from champion...it said DEAR DEREK....respected saltydogs name

2- saltydogs has not posted anything on here in like 3 months....then all of a sudden troll saltydogs comes on which was suspicious enough.....then we all hate on him and say has the respected salty turned? and then the respected salty all of a sudden comes on here to post again.

3- I know respected salty had problems with adult orijen, so i can see him saying engative things about it to users.


just something to consider
 
#41 ·
I personally think your way off base! But I could be wrong.................
 
#43 ·
I just transitioned my dogs to Acana Prairie and they did great, no stomach issues at all. I'm really pleased as I could never get them to accept or tolerate EVO-- even way back when before P&G. I can buy Acana online and it ships very quickly. I live in a super rural area and couldn't get Acana before. I'm very happy with it.

I use Ziwi Peak (air dried raw) as training treats so they get a little extra protein with that as well. It makes excellent training treats because it is tiny squares of jerky and it doesn't dry up or crumble in your pocket. Don't waste your money on the Ziwi "treat" formulas, just order the regular daily diet.....they are so similar and the daily diet is much cheaper. A one kilo bag goes a long, long way.....probably 2 months of training treats for 4 dogs. That's a lot cheaper than most other treats in the long run.

Carol in AZ