Food Friday: Orijen Large Breed Puppy

Orijen Large Breed Puppy Food is a dry kibble specifically formulated for growing puppies. This is a very high-quality grain-free food made from chicken, turkey, eggs, fish, peas, and lentils. The ingredient are sourced from local farmers in Canada, and used fresh without being frozen or preserved in any way.

Many dog food companies like to offer a wide range of diverse products for different life stages. This is almost entirely marketing rather than science, though. The only nutritional profiles actually recognized and regulated are for growth (also known as "all life stages"), adult maintenance, and large breed growth. Foods advertised for these life stages must meet specific requirements based on large bodies of scientific evidence. Foods advertised for seniors, small breeds, weight management, etc do not have to meet any different or special requirements, the manufacturers are free to slap those labels on any of their foods.

Large breed puppies have special nutritional requirements that have been intensively studied since the 1970's, according to Dog Food Logic. For dogs that will grow to over 50 pounds, less calcium and fewer calories will reduce the risk of developing one disease. Large breed puppy foods are therefore lower in calcium than regular puppy food or foods labeled for all life stages. They also tend to be lower in calories so big puppies can eat more without getting too much.

Orijen is made by Champion Pet Foods, and is widely regarded to be The Best Kibble. It is produced in Champion's own facilities. I consider it to be the highest quality kibble on the market mostly because it is made out of meat, meat, and more meat.

That said, I do think that Orijen is guilty of using ingredient splitting to make their already impressive list even more amazing. Most pet foods can be assessed by examining the beginning of that list, usually the first seven ingredients. Orijen Large Breed Puppy Food's ingredient list looks like this:

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, red lentils, green peas, green lentils, chicken liver oil, chicken fat, sun-cured alfalfa, yams*, pea fiber, chickpeas, pumpkin*, butternut squash*, spinach greens*, carrots*, Red Delicious apples*, Bartlett pears*, cranberries*, blueberries*, kelp, licorice root, angelica root, fenugreek, marigold, sweet fennel, peppermint leaf, chamomile, dandelion, summer savory, rosemary, Enterococcus faecium

The first 10+ ingredients are all identified animal parts, that's awesome. The second ingredient on there is chicken meal, which contributes way more to the finished product that the uncooked meats. That's also awesome. But would the list be as impressive if we called all the non-meal chicken parts just "chicken"? Here's how it looks:

Chicken, chicken meal, chicken, fish, turkey, turkey meal, turkey, eggs, fish, fish, chicken, chicken, fish meal, lentils...

So the first seven ingredients end up being chicken, chicken meal, fish, turkey, turkey meal, eggs, fish meal...and not necessarily in that order. Actually it looks like Orijen is guilty of almost the opposite of ingredient splitting. Most companies use this tactic to make their lower-quality ingredients appear further down on the list, i.e. listing peas as "green peas, yellow peas, pea starch, pea fiber..." to make that ingredient appear lower on the list than their meat ingredients even if their food is, in fact, made almost entirely out of peas. This food has a ton of meat in it, and listing the specific parts of the animals doesn't make it look more impressive than it is. It's just that impressive.

I'm not currently raising a large breed puppy, but this is the food I would choose if I needed to grow a healthy Irish wolfhound or something. Who is the biggest dog you know?