Orijen Vs Reddog Raw

scylla

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Hircines getting switched either to orijen dry food or reddog which is a local frozen raw food for dogs and cats. So give me your opinion or tell me how your cat is doing on it!!

But have my thoughts...
On one hand I know that for sure orijen will be 30 bucks a month for him (he was 13lbs when he saw the vet last but has gotten bigger since then so we are thinking closer to 15 or 17lbs), and I would rotate the bags each month.
Hircine will still need wet/raw suppliment because he had urinary issues when we first acquired him.

Reddog might end up being the same price or more depending on what rotation i go with and since he's allergic to turkey that removes one of the cheaper birds from that rotation.
And unfortunately the cat diets all have veggies in them unless I go with the meat/organ ones but those have no bone so I would have to suppliment that, but he hates large pieces of meat so he wont eat raw meaty bones.

My worry is that the veggies wont help with the whole carb craving part but in general raw would be better for him because raw food lol
but orijen/acana is really good and I know he likes it from trying out the small trial bags.

Plus right now everytime i give him raw to see if he'll even consider it as food it's fun watching him go WHERE MUH CRUNCHIES :eek: so i put a couple kibbles in just to show him yes this is food before he eats it.

And the main reason I want to switch him is he's obsessed with sugars/carbs and tries to drink/eat anything with carbs and sugars so im worried that maybe his kibble is affecting his cravings?
Weird cat I'm not sharing my slurpee or tea with you i know that if i let you sniff this you actually eat it :0

Anyways halp meeee :help: the food he's now I get a discount on and he likes it but like hes going crazy for sugars and carbs haha
 

mrsgreenjeens

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OK, here's my thought. If he has urinary issues, the Orijen might not be too good, since it's FISH. (I don't see that orijen has anything other than fish for cats, but could be wrong.

The Red Dog/Blue Cat is only 2% vegies, which would be appropriate to what cats in the wild would get when they consume a living creature, presumably, and consumer their prey's stomach and what might be in there :wink: (if I'm explaining it correctly) Of course, getting him to eat it is another story. When I switched over to raw, I had to make little tiny lambballs (I was using ground lamb) and roll each one individually in powdered Wholelife freeze dried chicken to get them to eat it. This went on for what seems like weeks :lol:. It can be a slow process, but eventually they transitioned to where I didn't need any toppers, even when I switched up the proteins

As to "crunchies", you could give him freeze dried raw as "treats". That's what I do. I use Stella and Chewy's. It comes in nice sized pieces for treats. I just don't rehydrate them if using as treats, but I don't give them too many that way. Or yu could give things like Purebites or Wholelife 100% pure meats that have been freeze dried.
 
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scylla

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Orijen has a bunch of non fish recipes for example they also have regional red which is all red meats, or tundra which has a mix of meats that you could imagine in a colder region.
But you are right my worry is that the kibble in general isn't the best for him long term? He's been good so far with wet/raw food once a week for about 4 months so if he's on kibble he's still getting raw and wet foods

he gets very sick of raw food so far and just refuses to touch food, he's more interested if I put some hot water in to make it smelly but that kinda makes me feel like im defeating the purpose? He also likes FDR and i have been mixing some in to male it smell/taste better So maybe i'll try tripe mixes :D

He likes stella and chewy's and primal but he kinda still looks for crunchies because its fairly soft (but the weirdo hates chewing bones) plus like kibble addiction which will be fun dealing with if I do raw

I have been using stella and chewy and primal mixed in with raw to get him switched over but he just looks for fdr dust now :p

plus if I'm being honest FDR is very out of my budget long term since here its the cost of the orijen per month's worth if not more haha

but yeah for now I'm basically trying both out on different days because I really don't know which he's going to adjust to better


EDIT: Oh oh almost forgot I've tried so many different treats like purebites and even tried some really stinky only1 whole sardines???? He won't touch anything :( he's eating just fine but apparently he's too good for chicken breast and liver
 
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mrsgreenjeens

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Adding water to raw doesn't defeat the purpose. I used to do that because my furries liked it better that way. Some raw (rad cat) is VERY runny, and primal is quite the opposite, so I added water to the primal to make sure they were getting lots of water.

Know what you mean about the cost of the FDR. But as treats only I figure I can afford that. Certainly not as full time meals:tongue: But nothing wrong with taking one of those little cubes and crumbling it on top of the frozen raw to spice it up a little and get his juices flowing. I do use them sometimes as toppers.
 
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scylla

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Adding water to raw doesn't defeat the purpose. I used to do that because my furries liked it better that way. Some raw (rad cat) is VERY runny, and primal is quite the opposite, so I added water to the primal to make sure they were getting lots of water.

Know what you mean about the cost of the FDR. But as treats only I figure I can afford that. Certainly not as full time meals:tongue: But nothing wrong with taking one of those little cubes and crumbling it on top of the frozen raw to spice it up a little and get his juices flowing. I do use them sometimes as toppers.
No I mean like hot enough to make it almost cook haha he's really weird about food? He's fine eating it without it being warm if it has FDR in it lol And yes im currently using it as toppers! Sparingly right now but he's not really adjusting to raw yet...but I'm going to keep trying only been at it for 3 weeks or so!
 

Adam Robinson

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I wouldn't get a raw food that is specific to both animals and dogs - they need different balances and needs. Try to find a raw cat food specifically made for cats. I started using the salmon from http://foodfurlove.com/ its shredded in tiny pieces and I am getting good results.
 

valentine319

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The breeders I know switched the male cats from orijen to acana. I would go raw but if you do kibble go acana (think it's the same company but a slightly lower protein). Something about the males had less urinary issues with the acana chicken compared to orijen. But on that note a raw or wet is so so much better for them.

I did see somewhere that some people grind up the dry and use it like a light breading (think light dusting not dipping every piece) to get a cat switched to raw.
 
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