Which Premium Dog Food?

[oceanaussi]

I feed Eagle Pack in the moment with a combination of fresh cooked food. Now I've heard about Orijen and Artemis and was wondering which one would be the best to feed???

My old girl Hera, a nearly 9-year-old Kelpie x GSD has a bit of arthritis and is a bit overweight (ever since she was desexed).

Quentin, my 4-month-old Weim pup is very active but doesn't seem to put any weight on. His poos are smelly and runny even if I just feed him on EP. That's the reason why I'm looking into a different food. He also farts constantly and they're really, really smelly.

edit to say, if you have any other suggestions on dry food, please let me know and I add them to the poll.

Edited May 6, 2008 by oceanaussi

[laffi]

My dogs do the best on the grainless foods. They were on Evo for almost a year, until Orijen and Artemis bacame available here. They don't seem to like Artemis as much as Orijen, so we sticked to Orijen. They love it and do great on it (small poops and no farts).

Before Evo they were on RC and the poops were big and my golden puppy was farting heaps

[Legacee]

there are lots more premium dry foods than you have listed. I feed RC and are very happy with it

[kelpiesrule]

I feed Eagle Pack in the moment with a combination of fresh cooked food. Now I've heard about Orijen and Artemis and was wondering which one would be the best to feed???

My old girl Hera, a nearly 9-year-old Kelpie x GSD has a bit of arthritis and is a bit overweight (ever since she was desexed).

Quentin, my 4-month-old Weim pup is very active but doesn't seem to put any weight on. His poos are smelly and runny even if I just feed him on EP. That's the reason why I'm looking into a different food. He also farts constantly and they're really, really smelly.

edit to say, if you have any other suggestions on dry food, please let me know and I add them to the poll.

Try Pro Plan... I use that on my dogs, I never have a fart out of them and their poos are nice and small and dont smell any where near others do. In my opinion it is the best premium food that I have used for my dogs. I have another friend who feeds a different premium food and her dog is rotten when he is in the car !! Even worse if she feeds him meat too (Ive had to ask her to stop feeding him meat before we go to shows !! ) . My dogs travel in the car with me and when you have four of them for hours of driving and not one fart, that is pretty good

PS just wondering why you cook your dogs food and dont feed it raw?

[4 Paws]

I used to feed Nutro and have changed to Orijen.Dogs are doing very well on it.Less shedding and coats are looking brilliant.

Have tried samples of the other 2 mentioned and dogs seemed to like them as well but haven't feed them,both good foods though and I hope to try a bag of the artemis soon to compare

Have discovered that Orijen is suitable for dogs with EPI which may help some owners

Edited May 6, 2008 by 4 Paws

[oceanaussi]

Thanks guys! I know there're heaps more premium foods, these ones I haven't tried and heard of before. I've tried RC, Eukanuba ect. I was looking for soemthing different.

@4 Paws: I like the 'less shedding' part! What's EPI?

@kelpiesrule: My old girl never farted either. just the pup. I only cook the rice or pasta - not the veggies or meat (except for liver).

[goldielover]

I've recently switched from EP to Artemis - too early to tell if there's any positive results, but the girls love it!

[4 Paws]

Thanks guys! I know there're heaps more premium foods, these ones I haven't tried and heard of before. I've tried RC, Eukanuba ect. I was looking for soemthing different.

@4 Paws: I like the 'less shedding' part! What's EPI?

@kelpiesrule: My old girl never farted either. just the pup. I only cook the rice or pasta - not the veggies or meat (except for liver).

EPI description https://www.vetconnect.com.au/5min/data/05740575.htm

Defiantely less shedding .They were shedding all the time on previous food,had loose hair on there coat all the time despite constant grooming.Got them on Orijen and it all stopped. after about 3 weeks.

Have put them back on Nutro at the moment as I sell pet products and had quite a few samples left after Nutro announced they were no longer importing into Aust and after about a 10 days,they're shedding again so it has to be the Orijen stopping it,not just seasonal

Edited May 7, 2008 by 4 Paws

[jaegertheweim]

Which EP are you feeding? I've fed both the Super Premium (purple bag) and Holistic Select (green bag) types and prefer the Holistic one. The other one contains corn and gives Jaeger bulky soft poos.

I feed Roma (who will be 8 this year) Proplan and am happy with it. She was a little bit overweight when she came to live with us last year but has now lost those extra kgs and is maintaining her weight nicely.

[Poodle wrangler]

Whatever you decide, make sure to get the extra weight off your older girl.

Losing weight is one of the best things you can do for arthritis.

Cut her food in HALF until she reaches a healthy weight.

Arthritic dogs can benefit from being leaner than normal weight as long as you provide plenty of cushioning on bedding/ mats.

It may be a matter of trial and error with your weim.

Many premium brands offer a money back guarantee if your dog doesn't like it.

[oceanaussi]

@4 Paws: I definetly will try Orijen on my old girl. Shs's got the GSD coat and sheds all the time. I vaccum every single day and after each shake of her it looks like there's a carpet.

@jaegertheweim: When I first got Quentin I used the purple one and then changed to the green bag. No probs at the begining but now (not sure when it actually started actually).

@Poodle wrangler: Yes, I know. She's about 52cm tall and weighs 25kg. She only gets one cup a day and walks 3 hours every day and she also does flyball. I've tried everything to take a couple of kg of her - nothing works. I've tried feeding her only half a cup a day but she didn't loose any weight either. She had an operation for her HD and is better now.

I had an interesting discussion with people from the German Weimaraner Forum earlier this morning which I will post seperately and I'm curious to hear your thoughts.

[jaegertheweim]

Have you tried adding cooked pumpkin to Quentin's kibble? Before we switched Jag to EP he had problems with soft runny poo. People on Weimaraner forum suggested I add cooked pumpkin and the fibre helped a lot to firm up his stools.

[oceanaussi]

Yep, tried that too.

[4 Paws]

here's a recent pictures of my girls coats after being on the Orijen for just one bag

[GoldD]

Have swapped Diesel from EP Holistic to Artemis. Been about a month now, perhaps a little soon to tell but all seems to be going well. He loves it, coat is shinning and good, energy great, eats much less than EP which is great for the purse.... now if they could just come up with a nutirent which would stop him from ripping his bed up to a million pieces all would be well

[goldielover]

Yeah, somehow that ingredient remains elusive! LOL

[k9katz]

I feed Eagle Pack in the moment with a combination of fresh cooked food. Now I've heard about Orijen and Artemis and was wondering which one would be the best to feed???

My old girl Hera, a nearly 9-year-old Kelpie x GSD has a bit of arthritis and is a bit overweight (ever since she was desexed).

Quentin, my 4-month-old Weim pup is very active but doesn't seem to put any weight on. His poos are smelly and runny even if I just feed him on EP. That's the reason why I'm looking into a different food. He also farts constantly and they're really, really smelly.

edit to say, if you have any other suggestions on dry food, please let me know and I add them to the poll.

When comparing Orijen & Artemis, it must be remembered that the entire Orijen range is grain free, whereas ONLY the Maximal in the Artemis range is grain free, the rest of the range is not but does not contain any corn. The protein level in the Orijen is 42% (Large Puppy & Senior). The Artemis Med/Large Puppy Protein level is 27% and for the Med/Large Senior is 18%. The fat level should be taken into account also for both your dogs, they are at the more critcal ends of the age group when it comes to selecting foods In the Orijen the fat level in the Large Puppy is 16% and in the Senior its 14%. In the Artemis the M/L Puppy is 13% and the M/L Senior is 10%

For your 'more mature' girl even though both Orijen & Artemis include glucosamine and chondroitin - Orijen has 800mg/kg of G and 150mg/kg C ...Artemis has 1200mg/kg of G and 400mg/kg of C, I would still rather see a dog supplemented with a product such as Joint Guard for the arthritis.

I am not going to tell you which brand to feed but hopefully the above information will help you to see the substancial differences. Both Orijen and Artemis use very high quality ingredients so coatwise you should see about the same results.

[oceanaussi]

When comparing Orijen & Artemis, it must be remembered that the entire Orijen range is grain free, whereas ONLY the Maximal in the Artemis range is grain free, the rest of the range is not but does not contain any corn. The protein level in the Orijen is 42% (Large Puppy & Senior). The Artemis Med/Large Puppy Protein level is 27% and for the Med/Large Senior is 18%. The fat level should be taken into account also for both your dogs, they are at the more critcal ends of the age group when it comes to selecting foods ;) In the Orijen the fat level in the Large Puppy is 16% and in the Senior its 14%. In the Artemis the M/L Puppy is 13% and the M/L Senior is 10%

For your 'more mature' girl even though both Orijen & Artemis include glucosamine and chondroitin - Orijen has 800mg/kg of G and 150mg/kg C ...Artemis has 1200mg/kg of G and 400mg/kg of C, I would still rather see a dog supplemented with a product such as Joint Guard for the arthritis.

I am not going to tell you which brand to feed but hopefully the above information will help you to see the substancial differences. Both Orijen and Artemis use very high quality ingredients so coatwise you should see about the same results.

That is a lot of information! Not sure if I understood properly, so you're saying the amount of G and C in Artemis is a bit high? I do feed her Pernese Powder. I might order them and trial both of them.

With my pup Im not to sure. Since he's on the RC Sensitivity Diet, he's improved but he's always hungry. But his stool (amount, frequency and consitency) has improved. I will keep him on this diet for another 5 weeks and then start introducing food to him.

[k9katz]

When comparing Orijen & Artemis, it must be remembered that the entire Orijen range is grain free, whereas ONLY the Maximal in the Artemis range is grain free, the rest of the range is not but does not contain any corn. The protein level in the Orijen is 42% (Large Puppy & Senior). The Artemis Med/Large Puppy Protein level is 27% and for the Med/Large Senior is 18%. The fat level should be taken into account also for both your dogs, they are at the more critcal ends of the age group when it comes to selecting foods In the Orijen the fat level in the Large Puppy is 16% and in the Senior its 14%. In the Artemis the M/L Puppy is 13% and the M/L Senior is 10%

For your 'more mature' girl even though both Orijen & Artemis include glucosamine and chondroitin - Orijen has 800mg/kg of G and 150mg/kg C ...Artemis has 1200mg/kg of G and 400mg/kg of C, I would still rather see a dog supplemented with a product such as Joint Guard for the arthritis.

I am not going to tell you which brand to feed but hopefully the above information will help you to see the substancial differences. Both Orijen and Artemis use very high quality ingredients so coatwise you should see about the same results.

That is a lot of information! Not sure if I understood properly, so you're saying the amount of G and C in Artemis is a bit high? I do feed her Pernese Powder. I might order them and trial both of them.

With my pup Im not to sure. Since he's on the RC Sensitivity Diet, he's improved but he's always hungry. But his stool (amount, frequency and consitency) has improved. I will keep him on this diet for another 5 weeks and then start introducing food to him.

No I am not saying that the levels of G & C are too high, in fact the levels in the Artemis are quiet good but for a dog with arthritis its best to supplement with more. For example the jointguard has 500mg of Glucosamine per 2.5g and 400mg Chondroitin per 2.5g, to give you an idea my GSD gets 1 scoop per day of Joint Guard (5g) which represents 1000mg and 800mg respectively per day. Way more than is in ANY dry foods. Its a nice addition on the part of the dog food manufacturers but the amount thats in the foods is really no where near enough to make a huge difference. I cant give you the values of the Pernaease sorry as I cant actually find that info! Its so simlilar to Sasha's blend but they dont have the values listed either.

Good luck with both your dogs.

[oceanaussi]

No I am not saying that the levels of G & C are too high, in fact the levels in the Artemis are quiet good but for a dog with arthritis its best to supplement with more. For example the jointguard has 500mg of Glucosamine per 2.5g and 400mg Chondroitin per 2.5g, to give you an idea my GSD gets 1 scoop per day of Joint Guard (5g) which represents 1000mg and 800mg respectively per day. Way more than is in ANY dry foods. Its a nice addition on the part of the dog food manufacturers but the amount thats in the foods is really no where near enough to make a huge difference. I cant give you the values of the Pernaease sorry as I cant actually find that info! Its so simlilar to Sasha's blend but they dont have the values listed either.

Good luck with both your dogs.

Ok, I understand. Thank you!