Once upon a time, many years ago, Evo had a good reputation when its maker, Natura, was a stand-alone company. Then they were acquired by Proctor & Gamble, and then P&G sold them to Mars in 2014.
Mars owns a bunch of pet food brands -- Pedigree, Cesar, Royal Canin, Nutro and on and on. Plus vet care chains (Banfield, etc.). They're the same people who also make candy bars.
Do you really want to pay a bunch of money for a dog food with a fancy label made by the same people who make Pedigree? If they make a very low end food, do you really trust them not to cut corners in the high end food?
Right now Mars has some interesting job postings on their website -- job postings suggesting that Mars Petcare has some active staff in China:
Personally, I don't want to feed my dog anything researched, manufactured or sourced from China. If a company is buying raw materials for pet food there, I'm definitely NOT a customer.
I can see your point, Magwart, I've always just looked at the ingredients and if they looked good then I assumed they were. I wanted a food with a higher protein, so if not acana or Evo, what would you all suggest?
Acana is a good food, some formulas better than others. There is also Orijen, which is also made by Champion and is higher protein than Acana. Fromm is another great food, though if you want higher protein formulas, Fromm might not fit the bill.
I would also look at Dr. Tim's, Victor, and Annamaet ... I know they all offer higher protein formulas and are all excellent foods from good companies.
Orijen is a little out of our price range since our pup is eating about 5 cups a day. We used to feed our rescue dog Victor but I wanted to find something that was slightly better quality. I'll look at Annamaet
What kind of food are you currently feeding, and how old is your dog? For my 5 year old, who is about 75 pounds, I feed a little under 2 cups of Orijen a day. Orijen is nutrient dense and high calorie food, you will need to feed quite a bit less than many other types of kibble.
Victor is actually a pretty good food -- they have a range of products though from middle of the pack to very good. A lot of dogs do well on it. They have their own plant in Texas and a good reputation for quality control. I'd feed Victor before I'd feed Evo, actually, just based on company trust.
For my dogs who eat kibble, I feed Fromm Four Star to adults (Fromm Gold is good too). A lot of pups seem to thrive on the Fromm Gold Large Breed Pup formula. They have their own plant in Wisconsin. They post country of origin on their ingredients on their website (NO CHINESE INGREDIENTS!), strong quality control, and have been making dog food since the early 20th C. They're a good company -- when I had a question that their CS rep couldn't answer, the #3 guy at the company called me with an answer a few hours later. OUTSTANDING customer service.
Orijen can sometimes be too rich for some dogs. Some do fine on it, others get loose poop. A lot of people seem to have good results with Acana, though. Another one out of Canada to look at is Open Farm -- they're setting new high standards for ingredient sourcing transparency, and I big fan of that. I haven't fed it though, so I don't know how it feeds out. My little independent retailer used to be one of the highest volume sellers of Orijen in the state, and they're recommending that their Orijen customers switch to Open Farm, as they like the company and the results more.
Unfortunately, choosing a food based on ingredients lists is no longer reliable. That's why DogFoodAdvisor is not all that useful any more. The recalls over and over have involved either things not disclosed on the label, contamination of imported ingredients, and sourcing very low-quality ingredients to save money. Chicken meal, for example, can be high quality and very expensive or very low quality, filthy, and cheap. The label won't tell you. Same goes for grains and other things. Where a company gets its ingredients is every bit as important as what those ingredients are.
I also would be cautious about companies that just slap their label on a bag of food made in someone else's plant -- that's MOST high-end brands! They often lose quality control when that happens.
Unfortunately, choosing a food based on ingredients lists is no longer reliable. That's why DogFoodAdvisor is not all that useful any more. The recalls over and over have involved either things not disclosed on the label, contamination of imported ingredients, and sourcing very low-quality ingredients to save money. Chicken meal, for example, can be high quality and very expensive or very low quality, filthy, and cheap. The label won't tell you. Same goes for grains and other things. Where a company gets its ingredients is every bit as important as what those ingredients are.
I also would be cautious about companies that just slap their label on a bag of food made in someone else's plant -- that's MOST high-end brands! They often lose quality control when that happens.
Quality is often what works best for the dog. I love Victor but their ash levels are higher than what I would want to feed a puppy. I currently feed the hipro and am getting my annual blood panels done this week for one dog and next week for the other dog.
I have fed quite a few other much more expensive foods that just did not work for my dog. Victor makes their own food in a very modern facility. So does Fromm. And Champion makes their own foods. Diamond private labels for a lot of folks.
My dog does better on Victor High Energy than anything else. I wanted to get him off kibble altogether...so far unsuccessful. He finds the Victor palatable, it's energy dense enough that he can eat enough to maintain himself (was turned into a rack of ribs on honest kitchen), firmer stools than other foods.
So that's where we are still at. I tried raw, he didn't like it that much and turned down several meals, started losing weight, then got some bad diarrhea. Back to trust Victor and he is ok again
I was told to use what the breeder had used for the first month, so he's currently on Iams puppy food. He loves it but I suspect it's because it's full of junk. He eats so much of it and his bms are kinda big. I've been seriously considering transitioning him to Orijen but I was afraid he'd be eating the same amount that he does now. He's 12 weeks, if this helps.
Whoa! 5 cups of food a day at 12 weeks? That's crazy. My girl is just turning 13 weeks this coming Wednesday, and she's eating 2 1/2 cups of Acana LBP, plus a few extras here and there (stuffed Kong, a few treats outside of her kibble for training, a bully stick to work on). I'm in Canada, so our Acana recipe appears to still be working for the dogs I know that are on it. She's 25lbs and about 17" tall.
Wow, five cups? I suspect that's because Iams is basically a bunch of filler, so he needs to eat more in order to get the nutrients needed/feel fuller.
I have a pup who just hit 7 months. He's eating Orijen Six Fish, and he eats around 3.5-4.5 cups a day (1.5-2 in the morning, and 2-2.5 at night, depending on activity levels that day). He's also really active, and at that amount, he's still lean - ribs easily palpable, nice waist from above. Tuck is there but a little hard to see because he's a long coat.
He's doing well on Orijen, though I know it can be a bit rich for a lot of pups. It is a much higher quality food, more calories per cup, so your pup will definitely not need 5 cups for a long while, if at all!
I'd certainly recommend it, but I'd just as quickly recommend Fromm Gold LBP. Great food, great company, and you can transition to the Four Star line when he's old enough and can rotate between protein sources for variety!
My puppy, currently 11 weeks, came home eating Fromm Large Breed Puppy Gold, which is a great food. He is currently getting about 1 and a half cups of the Fromm and about 1/2 a cup of Orijen Original formula a day over 3 meals.
He got a taste of Orijen his first day here, stealing food from my 5 year old female, and went bonkers for it. Since he likes the Orijen so much I started mixing a little at a time into his Fromm. He will likely be switched over to Orijen fully by the time his bag of Fromm is gone.
At his current age and weight, if I were feeding exclusively Orijen now he would be getting about 2 cups a day.
I figured the current food was junk but I wasn't sure a better food would mean less cups at mealtimes. If that's the case then Orijen is actually affordable for us!
So, I have a question to those of you who feed Orijen. The original formula, the puppy formula, and the large breed puppy formula is exactly the same...seemingly down to the percentages as well. Price is the only difference. Which one should I get then?
I'd recommend just going with the Original formula. It is an All Life Stages food, and has appropriate levels of Calcium and Phosphorus for a GSD puppy. The Six Fish formula, also All Life Stages, would also be fine for a GSD pup ... haven't looked at the other formulas lately, but I know that the Regional Red was a bit too high for a puppy, but fine for an adult .. but I haven't looked at that one in a while, and where I am all the formulas available are now from the new plant in the USA, and have changed a bit. All formulas have a pretty robust nutritional breakdown on the bag, so just check the Ca and Ph levels if you go with one of the formulas other than the Original or Six Fish.
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