I work a couple of days a week in a local pet food store here in Victoria, which is great because it helps me to keep a finger on the pulse of the commercial pet food industry.
My regular readers know my stance on kibbled dog food and that I feed my dogs a raw meaty bones diet. If this is your first time stopping by Doggy Bytes, you can read about raw feeding here.
So when customers come into the store looking for a new dog food, or ask what dog food that I would recommend, my answer is either Orijen or Evo. Here’s why;
Orijen
Orijen is my favourite (as far as kibbled dog food goes), for a few reasons.
- Orijen is Canadian made (Edmonton, Alberta)
- 4 of the first 5 ingredients (Regional Red formula), are protein sources – fresh deboned wild boar, fresh deboned lamb, lamb meal, russet potato, fresh deboned pork
- Orijen sources it’s ingredients locally (to me, more or less), either from Alberta or British Columbia
- Formulations are high in protein
- Animal protein sources are Free Range, Wild Caught, Non-Medicated
- Grain & Gluten Free
- Ingredients fit for human consumption
What I don’t like about Orijen
Formulations include russet and sweet potato when in their own white paper they quote Dr. David S. Kronfeld who says; “carbohydrates need not be supplied to adult dogs, even those working hard as the liver is easily able to synthesize sufficient glucose (from protein and fats).”
All in all though, they’ve gone to great lengths to make a truly high quality product, recognizing a dogs nutritional requirements based on canine biology and physiology.
If I weren’t a raw feeder, I’d be feeding Orijen to my dogs.
Evo
Evo produces a high protein, high quality kibble (assuming there is such a thing), that are;
- High in protein (44.17% in their Red Meat Formula compared to 38% in Orijen’s Regional Red formula)
- Low in carbohydrate (according to their listed product analysis) as compared to Orijen
- Grain Free
What I don’t like about Evo
They don’t state whether or not their protein sources are free range. One would have to assume that if they were, that information would be plastered all over their website and product packaging.
Their Red Meat Formula
lists significantly lower in carbohydrate at 14.85% while Orijen’s Regional Red lists at 22% (Max), but . . . Evo doesn’t tell us if that number is minimum or maximum.
They don’t do a great job via their comparison page, of convincing me that they have a better product than Orijen. Actually the only Orijen listing available for comparison is the Orijen Adult Dog. Comparing Evo’s Red Meat Formula to Orijen’s Adult Dog, isn’t really a fair comparison. A better comparison would be to compare Evo’s Red Meat Formula against Orijen’s Regional Red formula.
For either Orijen or Evo you’re going to pay more. But if you have to feed your dog kibble, I don’t think there are too many brands that can compete on quality with Orijen or Evo.
Homework Assignment
Take a look at the ingredient list on your dog food bag. In the comments below, list the brand name of your dog food along with the first 5 ingredients listed on the bag.
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