# Orijen feeding guidelines



## will_and_jamie (Jul 8, 2006)

I was feeling Hannah Acana as she really liked it a lot better than the Orijen, but after me feeling her 5 cups a day of food, she's loosing weight. She's a petite GSD. She normally weighs in around 58 pounds or so. Now, she's down to 52 and looks very thin. We've got to keep her thin with the dysplasia, but not below 55 pounds and not above 60. Yesterday, I picked up another bag of regular Orijen as that's what she prefers if she has to eat it (like it's so terrible!). Looking on the back of the bag, I have a hard time thinking she can be ok with as little as two cups a day. She's not terribly active other than daily off-leash fetch sessions when I feel like she's moving OK and not seeing signs of pain. 

So for those who have been feeding only regular adult Orijen for a while, have you found the feeding guidelines to be on par for your dog? If not, how much have you upped or cut back? 

She doesn't have any medical issues causing weight loss. We go to the doctor often for blood tests and last time was about a month ago and all was fine.


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## Lucy Dog (Aug 10, 2008)

I feed my fairly active 2+ year old female, who weighs around 70 pounds, 3 cups a day and it works for her. She stays thin and healthy. I mix in goodies with her meal and she gets treats throughout the day, but the 3 cups per day seems to do the job.


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## mroutdoorsman (Oct 4, 2010)

Ze'eva has done fine at 18 weeks with the recommended guidelines for TOTW at ~5 cups a day and I feed her half that the days I feed her 50% raw. She is gaining weight like crazy but still very fit and muscular.


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## Lucy Dog (Aug 10, 2008)

mroutdoorsman said:


> Ze'eva has done fine at 18 weeks with the recommended guidelines for TOTW at ~5 cups a day and I feed her half that the days I feed her 50% raw. She is gaining weight like crazy but still very fit and muscular.


I wouldn't recommend TOTW to a dog under about 1.5. to 2 years old. It has too much calcium for a growing puppy.


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## Stosh (Jun 26, 2010)

I recently stopped feeding an 'all life stages' food to Orijen LBPuppy. Stosh is 10 mos old and the bag recommends 4.5- 5 cups per day but there's no way he would eat that much. He probably consumes 4 and he's doing well on that amount. He's right at 80 lbs


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## roxy84 (Jun 23, 2007)

orijen: 3 cups a day for my extremely active 3 1/2 yr old, 64 lb female.


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## ZAYDA (Apr 22, 2010)

I would think 3 cups is where you want to be.


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## vukc (Dec 22, 2009)

Hi there,

Just my personal opinion.....if you dog is loosing weight with you feeding her 5 cups a day, your dog might have some health issues. Fist thing that I would check, would be testing for worms.....just my 2 cents.


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## df1960 (Nov 6, 2009)

My male boxer (84lbs) gets 3 cups per day (Orijen), my female boxer (62lbs) also gets 3 cups per day (i just started this week to give her a little more, you can see her ribs a little too much) ...... my male is a very laid back dog, could spend his days on the sofa, while she's gogogo, for Hawkeye (GSD) who will be 8months old on Friday, he gets 6 cups per day and he's very very slim. I know he is still growing but my goodness 6 cups, at 6 months old he weighed 64lbs, you can feel his backbone when you touch him, yak too skinny I know it's better slim than overweight and I know he will soon start to fill out, but right now he's just long and lean.


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## Samba (Apr 23, 2001)

I think my larger dogs eat about 2 cups of Orijen a day. Our life is varied with lots rewards for training and tracking , so I can not calculate exactly what they are getting. But for sure my older and less active dogs do fine with two cups of Orijen a day. I find it is much better utilized than other foods and I have to watch their intake of it.

As far as a puppy on TOTW, especially a pup that is taking in several cups a day, I would be somewhat leary of that food for a growing pup due to calcium levels. Many would recommend keeping the calcium level in a pup's food below that of the TOTW's foods.


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## will_and_jamie (Jul 8, 2006)

No worms. She's on monthly preventive and well I'd know if she has worms. 



vukc said:


> Hi there,
> 
> Just my personal opinion.....if you dog is loosing weight with you feeding her 5 cups a day, your dog might have some health issues. Fist thing that I would check, would be testing for worms.....just my 2 cents.


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## will_and_jamie (Jul 8, 2006)

Samba said:


> As far as a puppy on TOTW, especially a pup that is taking in several cups a day, I would be somewhat leary of that food for a growing pup due to calcium levels. Many would recommend keeping the calcium level in a pup's food below that of the TOTW's foods.


I agree. We fed our dogs Orijen Large Breed puppy when they were growing up. TOTW just isn't for LBP's imo. 

I think I'm going to begin with 3 cups per day and go from there. I know with Orijen she usually puts on weight and maintains it well, so hopefully that happens again this time. Thanks all! 

I think I should get a smaller bowl to make it look like 1.5 cups is more food than it looks. We have a big, 'ole stainless steel bowl and that 1.5 cups comes nowhere near covering the bottom. Just my crazy hang up, I guess.


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## Good_Karma (Jun 28, 2009)

Agree about the big bowl, small amount of food thing!!! Rosa only gets half a cup of Evo mixed with Acana (trying to get weight off her, HD here too) for each meal and it looks like nothing in her bowl! I feel like I'm starving her.


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## will_and_jamie (Jul 8, 2006)

Good_Karma said:


> Agree about the big bowl, small amount of food thing!!! Rosa only gets half a cup of Evo mixed with Acana (trying to get weight off her, HD here too) for each meal and it looks like nothing in her bowl! I feel like I'm starving her.


So glad it's just not me! Good luck getting the weight off of Rosa.


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## PaddyD (Jul 22, 2010)

2 cups a day for that size dog that is not very active seems just right.
My last dog was 65 pounds and thrived on 2 cups a day for 13 years.


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