[Jodi O]

Hello everyone,
I have an 11 week old black lab puppy that came home on Purina Pro Plan and was doing great. Last week we decided to switch to the large breed puppy Orijen kibble. Right now we are on a 60/40 split of Purina Proplan/ Orijen. He has had really runny poops basically since the switch. I know the Orijen is really rich but I thought it was the better kibble. Suggestions? Do I go back to the Purina Proplan solely? I would appreciate any insight. thanks!

[zcRiley]

A food can’t be too rich; however, your pup has an intolerance to one or several of its ingredients.

Glacierpeakholistics.com is a great allergy testing panel. Both my pups had to get off of Orijens due to chicken allergies and a slew of other ingredients. It changed their lives!

[Rusty T]

I switched from Blue Wilderness Rocky Mountain Red Meat for Large Breeds to Orijen Red Regional about 3 months ago. My GSD was fine with it, but my Husky/Shepard/Border Mix wasn’t thrilled. I switched to the Orijen Tundra. Mr. Picky loves it. (There’s no chicken.) When we first brought the GSD home from the animal shelter, I did notice loose stools the first couple of months which I figured was from the change to the Blue Wilderness and better quality diet. (We also feed each a half can of Holistic Select Beef and Duck Pate mixed with a cup of kibble). Both my dogs are now doing well on the Orijen Tundra. I never had problems with the Blue Wilderness Rocky Moutain Red Meat, but had always wanted to switch it up. My black lab who passed away last year however, refused anything but the Blue Wilderness for Large Breeds.

[Jackie S]

We attempted to switch our golden retriever to Orijen LBP when she was about 9 weeks old. We went gradually (probably not gradually enough) and she had bad diarrhea. We went to chicken/rice/pumpkin (homemade) which cleared it up. Then, we started to bring in the LBP very gradually. Didn’t work, as she got diarrhea again. Our vet prescribed metronidazole, saying it would clear up the inflammation in her intestines and told us to stick with 100% of the food we wanted her to eat. We did that with the Orijen and she has had pretty perfect poops ever since (7 weeks later). I am not usually one to jump to medication, but I knew our dog needed the nutrition from a balanced food and not just pumpkin/rice/chicken.

I hope this serves as an alternative perspective to the ones above. I don’t think ours has an intolerance, I think her gut bacteria was not suited to digest the LBP, maybe.

Good luck!

[Susan W]

My dogs were having issues with the food I was feeding them so I switched to homemade food – which was good until I didn’t have the time to do it anymore. I looked around & did lots of research. I settled on VeRUS. Their itchiness & overall health improved greatly w/o digestive issues. They have a large breed puppy food and they publish their ingredient list & nutritional profiles on the website. If you have questions, they actually take the time to answer them. If you contact them, they’ll send free samples. I get my VeRUS food via PetFlow which will give a discount if you auto-ship. It’s very good dog food and the cost is in line or less than some of the other premium foods. You can find them by searching for VeRUS pet foods.

[Max R]

I had a similar situation when my dog (half lab mutt) was a puppy and I switched him from a less protein rich food to Orijen Large Puppy. He loved the food but had loose poop.

Then I switched from Orijen Large Puppy to Acana Wild Prairie. That’s was made by the same company (Champion). Now that they have changed their formulas and relocated production to Kentucky, I believe the equivalent food is Acana Meadowlands.

Honestly, I think he preferred the Orijen to any other food, but he just wasn’t tolerating it well. The Acana fixed the problem and he liked it fine.

Once he matured (I know that’s an iffy word with any lab lab/based dog), I wanted to see if I could ramp up the protein again. After going through a series of other brands (Merrick and Evo before both were bought out), I ended up with Orijen Adult which he was now able to tolerate very well.

Maybe not completely relevant, but the new version of “Adult” is Orijen “Original.”
It has less fiber and it was just not enough for my dog. So now I’m transitioning him to Wellness Core Wild Game (another poultry based food) and he seems to be doing well.
I like Champion Foods – especially Orijen – but it looks out of the picture for me now.

The company did suggest Acana Meadowlands as an alternative to Orijen Original. It’s the Acana chicken based food. Haven’t tried it. They’re mailing me samples.

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