Dog Foods: Blue Buffalo vs. Orijen?

One thing to consider when looking at dog food is not just what the ingredients are - when possible, try to find out what the QUALITY of ingredients are. It's important to note that grains in general are not bad for dogs but the quality and quantity is what will cause issues. Some notes: whenever possible, use foods that use ingredients that are "approved for human consumption". There is a difference between "fit for human consumption" and "human-grade" - "fit (or approved) for human consumption" means that at the time of manufacturing the food is the same quality and freshness as what you would buy for yourself at the grocery store. "Human-Grade" could be anything that at one point in time was destined for human consumption but fell off the line somewhere (expired/spoiled/contaminated).

About the pet food processing methods - the most common processing method is called extrusion - I won't go in to details, but you can find a lot of good info on the web - the basics though, is that the ingredients are combined and cooked under extreme pressure and heat. This virtually destroys all the original nutrients in the ingredients and leaves a high ash content (ash causes the body to become acidic which can lead to cancer). After processing (which only takes a few seconds per kibble at this high heat) the kibble is cooled and then sprayed with fats, flavor enhancers, and vitamins and minerals to make up for what was destroyed in the cooking process. It's important to note that most dogs would not touch extruded kibble without the added fats and flavor enhancers.

There are a few products on the market that claim to be baked, but those too are actually extruded, just not at quite the high temperatures of typical extrusion. Take a look at the kibble, if the pieces are pretty much all the same size (or multiple shapes like kibbles and bits) it's almost a guarantee that it's extruded.

The other process (and the one that i think is by far the best) is dehydration. Dehydration preserves the food without destroying the nutrients and burning off all the ingredients. Some foods do require you to rehydrate the food before feeding to your dog, but one that I know of, called CaniSource leaves it in a kibble form so you don't have to hydrate it. This is by far the best food (aside from RAW) that I have come across. ALL of the ingredients that they use are approved for human consumption, there are no added fats or flavor enhancers, and the food is dehydrated. It's a really palatable food too - my dog is such a picky eater and she LOVES her CaniSource! She's been on it for 2 years and has never left a kibble in her bowl. She's so much healthier now too. Sorry if I overwhelmed you with all this info, but I'm very passionate about my dog and her food is integral to her well-being.

Oh, and one more thing - be careful of foods that use meals (chicken meal, etc). A meal is basically a powdered form of meat - but to make it, the protein source goes through intense heat and other forces to get all the moisture out. Again, this destroys all the good nutrients that would be present in that source leaving you with basically a very high form of protein with no added benefits. Also - most (if not all) dog food manufacturers get their meals from a 3rd party so they have NO control over what is going into those meals. Buyer beware... remember the melamine scare??

Orijen Large Breed Dog Food

We feed our Collie/Shepherd mix Acana's Large Breed. Acana is a secondary brand owned by Champion Pet Foods who also produce Orijen. Orijen is 100% grain free... Acana has about a 20% inclusion of grain (Steel Cut Oats), which is a great source of fibre and is SO MUCH better than rice or other grain fillers used by other companies.

With Blue and Orijen, they are both very HIGH in protein, which some dogs may find hard to break down in their system. That's why we use Acana, I find with the fibre mixed in, it's a great recipe and is all human grade product.

Orijen is going up in price. again......

I would not feed ether to my dogs.

i love this site (dogfoodproject.com) It has helped me so much.

The people that you were talking about should never try to persuade you one way or the other. That is their opinion. I saggiest you do some research for your self.

Good luck

EDIT

I personally don't like blue buffalo or orijen. but that is my opinion. yes meat is to be the first ingredient in a dog food.

I feed raw lamb natures variety. I am just saying that there are other dog foods out there that have the same ingredients as blue buffalo and orijen that don't cost as much.

Orijen is better than blue buffalo. Many people suggesting blue buffalo is superior don't know anything about orijen products

I use orijen and have for a few years now. the problem I found with some is, though the dogfood is good, my dogs may not eat it cause they don't like the taste, I have tried lots. Also my one dog has an allergy it seems to some foods, he gets itchy, dry skin. and he is much better with orejin. that is the original way I ended up trying the orejin. I was trying for a food because of his itchiness. I have also tried lots of others, and have wasted lots of money cuz they were usually kindy of pricey and he would not eat them. So bottom line, even if it is a good food, if they won't eat it, then it doesn't really matter, lol

I don't know much about the processing either, but I do know that Orijen is better then Blue Buffalo.

Look :

http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/

Search for Blue Buffalo and Orijen, 6 stars is the best food.

I would say Orijen. Blue buffalo is good, but Orijen is better. You could try it out with your dog to see if he/she does better on it. :)

I feed my dog Chicken Soup For the Dog Lover's Soul made by Diamond. My dog used to have seizures before I switched to this food. She does really well on it but due to all the recalls (Diamond has a lot of them) I have two bags on hand. One is a month older than the other. I figure that way I will find out if there is a recall before I start feeding my dog the food.

Orijen is a higher quality food but Blue Buffalo is still pretty good- and less expensive.