ORIJEN™ foods

Q. How do i transition my pet to ORIJEN™ foods?

The first time you transition your dog or cat to ORIJEN™, we recommend selecting a recipe with a meat-type that matches the food you are currently feeding. This will help allow for the easiest transition and also minimize the risk of gastrointestinal upset. For example, if your dog is currently on a poultry-based diet, you may want to try the ORIJEN™ Original recipe.

Start by mixing 25 percent new food with 75 percent old food. Slowly increase the new food proportionately over 10-14 days until you are feeding 100 percent new food.

For more specific dietary needs, please contact our Customer Care department.

Q. What is a rotational diet? Can i do this with ORIJEN™?

After initially transitioning to ORIJEN™, many Pet Lovers do a method of feeding known as Rotational Feeding. Rotating between ORIJEN formulas prevents your dog or cat from getting tired of eating the same thing day in and day out, while offering them a great variety of proteins and fats. A good place to start is rotating by the bag – when you have finished one formula, your next bag will be a different recipe. The first time you introduce a new food for rotation, mix the food 50/50 just to make sure your pet transitions well to the new ORIJEN™ food. However, if your dog or cat is more diet-sensitive, do a full transition when introducing a new ORIJEN™ food – after that you can change at will.

 

Q. HOW DO I CHOOSE BETWEEN ORIJEN™ PRODUCTS?

The first time you transition your dog or cat to ORIJEN™, we recommend selecting a recipe with a meat-type that matches the food you are currently feeding. This will help allow for the easiest transition and also minimize the risk of gastrointestinal upset. For example, if your dog is currently on a poultry-based diet, you may want to try the ORIJEN™ Original recipe.

• 100% Dry Kibble: Our ORIJEN™ Dry Kibble options offer a complete and balanced meal that can be fed just on its own.

Q. Do you have any feeding tips?

We recommend for most pets, you feed twice daily. Simply divide the amount suggested on the feeding guide into two meals, spaced eight to 12 hours apart. For example, if the feeding guide calls for 1 cup per day, we recommend feeding ½ a cup in the morning and ½ a cup at night. You may need to adjust portions as you learn your pet’s ideal daily “maintenance” amount. These amounts may change over time as your pet’s age and activity levels change. Always keep in mind a lean dog or cat is a healthy pet.

Many dogs and cats have large appetites and will eat everything you feed them. As ORIJEN™ foods are highly palatable, you need to be careful not to overfeed, as this can cause issues such as loose stool or unwanted weight gain.

Q. What does biologically appropriate mean?

The Biologically Appropriate concept is simple: mirror the quantity, freshness and variety of animal ingredients that dogs and cats are evolved to eat.

Q. What does wholeprey mean?

Nature matched the nutrients in whole animals to perfectly meet your dog or cat’s biological needs. ORIJEN™ WholePrey incorporates meats, organs, and bone to reflect the natural diet, eliminating the need for long lists of synthetic ingredients.

Q. What is meatmath?

MeatMath is designed to help you assess if your food is Biologically Appropriate. Biologically Appropriate foods are formulated to match the eating anatomy of the animal they are intended for. Dogs and cats are evolved as carnivores, which means they require high concentrations of meat, high inclusions of fresh meat, and a rich diversity of meat.

Is your food Biologically Appropriate?

Answer the three meat questions: How Much? How Fresh? How Many?

• How much meat is in a recipe? Our recipes feature 85-90%* quality animal ingredients.
• How much fresh or raw meat is in a recipe? ORIJEN™'s animal ingredient content contains 2/3 fresh or raw.
• How many meats are included in a recipe? Each ORIJEN™ recipe contains a minimum of 6 different animal ingredients

*approximate and derived from the pre-processed state of the ingredients.

 

Q. Are ORIJEN™ foods supplemented with amino acids, vitamins, or minerals?

ORIJEN™ foods feature WholePrey amounts of fresh muscle meat, organs, and bone to reflect the ancestral diets and eliminate the need for long lists of synthetic ingredients. Organ meats are a concentrated, natural sources of virtually every nutrient your dog or cat needs to thrive, including all essential vitamins, minerals, healthy fats, and vital amino acids. Organ meats such as kidney, liver, and tripe are loaded with minerals such as iron, copper, magnesium, and iodine, and provide important fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K, all of which nourish dogs and cats as nature intended. This is why you will find a majority of our amino acids, or minerals, on the guaranteed analysis or typical analysis but not on the ingredient list.

Q. Where do you source your ingredients?

We believe making the world’s best pet foods requires using the world’s best ingredients. That’s why we collaborate with a specially curated group of leading farmers, ranchers, and fisheries we know and trust. Trust is earned by demonstrating an ongoing commitment to quality, food safety, sustainability, and communication.

Our strong network enables us to source only the best, including lamb from New Zealand, fish from Scandinavia, and other quality ingredients from our neighbors. No matter what, every ingredient we choose is selected for its nutritional value, digestibility and superior flavor.

Our commitment to trust and transparency has led to a robust supplier vendor audit approval program and detailed ingredient traceability system.
Click to learn more about our ingredients.

Q. Fresh, raw or dried – what’s the difference?

FRESH: Our fresh ingredients meet the AAFCO standard of refrigeration as the sole method of preservation.
RAW: Our raw ingredients are the same as our fresh, but are frozen at the peak of freshness to preserve nutrients.
DRIED: Dried fish and meat ingredients are made of flesh, bones and cartilage, and provide a concentrated source of protein, with their bone content providing a very rich source of minerals. Dried ingredients are made by removing water from the meat, bone, and cartilage ingredients through a cooking process.

Q. Who formulates your diets and what are their credentials?

Our talented team of animal food scientists and nutritionists lead the development and research of our pet foods. They possess a wide variety of education and experience including degrees in Doctorates of Veterinary Medicine, PhDs in Animal Nutrition, PhDs in Food Science, Masters of Science degrees in Animal Nutrition, Food Science, Meat Hygiene and Food Microbiology. They also hold Bachelor’s degrees in Animal Science, Biochemistry, and Veterinary Medicine.

We also partner with numerous Doctors of Veterinary Medicine as consultants. We have always created Biologically Appropriate pet foods and are proud of the research we conduct.

Q. Who makes ORIJEN™ foods and where are they made?

ORIJEN Dried foods are made by Champion Petfoods in our own kitchens.

Q. Do you perform any type of animal testing?

Our position on animal testing is simple – we only conduct tests that we would allow our own companion dogs and cats to participate in. We perform various research trials such as palatability tests (taste), digestibility testing (through stool analysis only), and AAFCO feeding trials.

If it’s not OK for our dogs and cats, then it’s not OK for any other dogs and cats.

Q. Tell me about your Quality Assurance Protocol

Built to reflect our commitment to Pet Lovers everywhere, NorthStar kitchen has achieved the internationally recognized Safe Feed/Safe Food (SFSF) and HACCP certifications. Our NorthStar and New NorthStar Kitchens are also two of very few North American pet food facilities that are European Union certified.

Our track-and-trace system tracks ingredients throughout our kitchens at each step in the process. All of this information is stored in databases that link to a finished product lot code, which enables trace back to an individual ingredient supplier or any step within our kitchens’ processes.

Our Quality Assurance department follows testing protocols from the time ingredients enter our kitchen through production and packaging. Our Quality Assurance technicians sample the raw, in-process and finished products according to our risk-based and scientifically-sound protocols. All finished products are subjected to pathogen evaluation before release and shipment. No product is released for shipment until all tests for food safety and quality are confirmed to be favorable.

Q. Storing your ORIJEN™ food

KIBBLE

Once opened, you can safely store ORIJEN™ Dry food in its packaging by rolling the top of the bag down after each use. If you live in a humid climate, consider using an airtight container and simply put the entire bag of food in the container. Remember to wash your storage bin whenever you change out your bag of food to ensure food buildup does not occur. Remember, too, to keep the lot number handy.
Refrigeration of ORIJEN™ Dry Kibble is not required. Rather than a garage with large temperature fluctuations, the best storage is in your home in a cool, dry place at room temperature.

Q. Best before dates

KIBBLE

Each ORIJEN™ product is guaranteed until the Best Before Date printed on the package. The Best Before (BB) date is printed on the back of the bag at the top of the ORIJEN™ package along with our lot number and production information. Our BB dates should be read Day, Month, Year.

Q. What is FEDIAF AND AAFCO?

FEDIAF is the trade body that represents the European pet food industry. As we do export our ORIJEN™ diets to Europe, we follow FEDIAF nutritional recommendations for dogs and cats to ensure that our diets are complete and balanced. AAFCO is the Association of American Feed Control Officials.

Q. Are ORIJEN™ foods appropriate for my overweight pet?

Yes. ORIJEN™ has a Biologically Appropriate distribution of energy where more energy is supplied from protein and less energy is supplied from carbohydrates. If carbohydrates are provided in excess (as they often are), they convert easily into body fat.

Protein supplies the same amount of energy as carbohydrates but has a very different effect on the body. Unlike carbohydrate, protein is essential for life and is a Biologically Appropriate source of energy.

For overweight pets we would recommend trying our ORIJEN™ Fit & Trim recipes for cats or dogs.

Q. Is ORIJEN™ suitable for my senior dog?

Yes. While lower-protein diets have traditionally been recommended for senior dogs, this thinking has been roundly dismissed by recent science. As dogs age, a protein-rich diet is especially important for maintaining peak health.

The relationship between carbohydrates and protein is an important factor in the diets of senior dogs. When protein is high, carbohydrates are low – in other words, high-protein diets are by nature low in carbohydrates. This is great for senior dogs as the last thing they need is an excessive amount of inappropriate carbohydrates, which are simply sugars.