New member here. Joined just to comment in this thread. Our 4-year old black lab has had serious problems on the Acana food, frighteningly similar to what many have posted here. We have been feeding him Acana for a couple years now. The severe problems seem to conincide with the timing of when our pet food store ran out of the Canadian produced Acana. We’ve tried different flavors of the Acana, which will initially entice him to eat, but he has gotten to where he refuses to eat any Acana and will not go near his food bowl if you put a different brand in that same food bowl. If you then put a different brand any other bowl, he will snarf it down. If you then put the Acana in a new bowl, he will not touch it with a 10-foot pole. Yet, he is NOT a picky eater.
Yes, he has been to the vet. Multiple times. The vet has been scratching his head. Probiotics have not helped. Nor have allergy pills or pills to manage acid.
My gut told me that something is wrong with the Acana food itself, and that git feeling led me here.
Now we are hearing that other dogs in our area–those belonging to friends and people we’ve not met–are having similar issues.
We are today taking samples of the two open bags (different Acana flavors) along with some unopened 5 lb. bags from our local pet food store to Texas A&M to be tested. Will post here what we learn.
And we will be trying to get similar samples from a local woman whose young dog on Acana inexplicably died and her vet suspects the dog was poisoned.
Interestingly, we have the UPC labels from almost every bag of Acana we’ve fed our dog….
New member here. Joined just to comment in this thread. Our 4-year old black lab has had serious problems on the Acana food, frighteningly similar to what many have posted here. We have been feeing him Acana for a couple years now. The severe problems seem to conincide with the timing of when our pet food store ran out of the Canadian produced food. We’ve tried different flavors of the Acana, which will initially entice him to eat, but he has gotten to where he refuses to eat any Acana and will not go near his food bowl is you put a different brand in that same food bowl. If you then put a different brand any other bowl, he will snarf it down. If you then put the Acana in a new bowl, he will not touch it with a 10-foot pole. Yet, he is NOT a picky eater.
Yes, he has been to the vet. Multiple times. The vet has been scratching his head. Probiotics have not helped. Nor have allergy pills or pills to manage acid.
My gut told me that something is wrong with the Acana food itself, and that git feeling led me here.
Now we are hearing that other dogs in our area–those belonging to friends and people we’ve not met–are having similar issues.
We are today taking samples of the two open bags (different Acana flavors) along with some unopened 5 lb. bags from our local pet food store to Texas A&M to be tested. Will post here what we learn.
And we will be trying to get similar samples from a local woman whose young dog on Acana inexplicably died and her vet suspects the dog was poisoned.
Interestingly, we have the UPC labels from almost every bag of Acana we’ve fed our dog….
Acana from Canada had been great… then when I heard about the plant in Kentucky and that dogs were getting sick from it, I was afraid to order it. What do you feed your dog/dogs? I ordered Horizon Legacy the last time, but was really wondering what do you feed your dog/dogs? I trust your judgement!
Thank you!
My little ones have been eating Acana from Canada. Can no longer get it from Canada only Kentucky! What do you Recommend?
I have a 4yr old Papillon and 5yr old Pomeranian and I ONLY want the Best for them.
So i am crazy about my what my dog gets for food. After watching pet fooled on netflix it set me off into a full on a pet health thing. Anyway, I have a 2 year old aussie who i have changed foods on so many times. Here is what I have done with her.
Taste of the wild for years, never had a issues, did great then on the last batch around a year ago. She got super sick, throwing up, outside all day, she was a mess. Had to take her to the vet many times, She would get better and then after eating the food she would go into a total brake down again.
Changed her over to a few other brands that I cant think of, and then went to canidea. She has done great on that and I was hoping to keep her on that. Then i heard about Origen, which is top, top, top, dog food from what i lot of people have told me. However now, everyone is saying they are having issues with the food along with Acana. I have my aussie on the six fish now, as they had a bag on sale. So I picked it up and thought it would be a good change. Well now I am worried about the food, from what every one is saying. Along with clean label thing that I has started I have no idea what to do. If I could go raw I would, but I have person in the house hold that can have raw meat around due to health issues. So what do you guys think? What about Zignatures and there high salt levels I have heard about.
Excerpt from a recent discussion on this topic: https://disqus.com/home/discussion/dogfoodadvisor/acana_regionals_usa_dry/#comment-3352454949
Mike Sagman Mod Caroline C • 2 months ago
Exercise caution when relying on these kinds of reports.
When testing any (human or pet) food, the results can differ significantly from day to day based on the specific farm or batch used as a source for any one individual ingredient.
As with any laboratory study, it is absolutely critical to collect a statistically significant (large) number of test samples from multiple batches to avoid a misleading variable known as sampling error. Read about that here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wi…
In addition, guidelines used for interpreting the results can also be change or manipulated. This can cause certain products to move from one rating category to another — and even from “best” to “worst” lists. Read about that here:
https://wagbrag.com/clean-l…
By the way, Champion Petfoods, the maker of Acana and Orijen, has recently (2017) been recognized by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) for its food safety program at the company’s new Kentucky DogStar facility. You can read about that here:
http://www.bgdailynews.com/…
You can also learn about the GFSI program here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wi…
Hope this helps.
Okay, after reading the testing for heavy metals for dog food i.e purity, I’m even more concerned. Honest Kitchen, except for their fish formula rates great but Acana and Orijen all rate 1 star with a few rating 3 which is average. Nulo also rates 1 in wet food and three in dry, which saddens me.
Has any tried that ‘I and Love and You’ brand?? Zig looks great but it has yet to grt tested. The tests also could be bunk.
So, my three dry options are;
Orijen – Seens great, filler free, high protein
Acana – Looks great ingredient wise, high protein; however, there’s some horrid negative reviews on kidney failure, not sure if theyre recent or due to the new kentucky plant. And they contain catfish meal, are they not bottom dwellers?
Nulo – Not many reviews, USA Made, looks great, no negative reviews
Honest Kitchen – Already Have it. I’ll probably just add this to his dry and wet foods on occasion.
________
Wet foods;
Nulo
Koha
Natures Logic – Possible raw frozen as well
________
So man to choose from it can be overwhelming.
Lots of people have said their Acana dry has caused Kidney problems once they moved to Kentucky. I am wondering what others think of Acana grasslands formula and its use of catfish meal. Are they not bottom dwellers and suck up PCB’s and all kinds of crap in the silt at the bottom.
Other than that it’s regional, not outsourcing from China an looks great! I have a medium sized poodle mix.
My other choices are dry orijen which also looks great but has a lot of protein, Koha for wet food or natures logic wet food or Nulo which seems like a great dry food, and a honest kitchen topper.
So confusing and hard to choose.
Hi
I have a mixed terrier, she is 13 years old. I noticed an immediate change in her energy, when I changed her food from Blue to Orijen SENIOR. It was like night and day! My dog’s arthritis was so bad she couldn’t even jump on the sofa. I have had her on Orijen now for 4 years, and for my dog it has been extremely successful. 2 weeks ago, this 13 year old dog caught a rabbit! That should tell you something!
It is a little pricey, but it is worth it. My other two dogs are on Orijen Fit and Trim. It’s amazing!. It’s important to know, none of the meat in Orijen or Acana come from China. Just because a product says made in USA, you need to know where the products used in the food are imported.
Good Luck.
Oh one more thing… I used to get my dogs food from Chewy. Unfortunately, they sold the Orijen and Acana contract to PetSmart. I now order through http://www.hollywoodfeed.com
Nancy
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This reply was modified 8 years, 4 months ago by
Nancy J K.
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This reply was modified 8 years, 4 months ago by Nancy J K.
We have 4 dogs, 2 are on Orijen Senior (which I think is the best!) and the other 2 are on Acana Duck and Pear… now that Orijen Fit and Trim is new and finally available in the USA. My next order will be with the Fit and Trim (I’ll keep you posted with our dogs performance and acceptance of the new brand)
I was very disappointed that Chewy.com no longer contracts with Orijen and Acana Foods. I was lucky to find http://www.Hollywoodfeed.com with the same free delivery service and auto ship, and same price as Chewy.com. If you have been ordering through Chewy and now they have cancelled your orders, checkout Hollywood Feed!
I was feeding my dog Acana for years and Chewy will no longer be selling it. Perfect timing bc I was in the process of looking for a new food with smaller pieces of kibble. We went with Natures Variety Instinct Raw Boost (kibble w pieces of freeze dried raw). If Fromm works for your dog, I wouldn’t change just to get a discount. Buy some Primal raw dehydrated to use as a topper or try another topper.
The prices at my local dog store are the same as Chewy and they solely carry high end foods. I’ll be supporting them once I use my 3 purchases from Chewy. I had 2 foods in my cart and it gave me 50% off of both. Nice surprise.
I tried a few different kibble and the winner is Natures Variety Instinct Raw Boost for small breed. The kibble is the size of Fromm (tiny). She absolutely LOVES IT. I used it as a treat (testing to see if she would insist on something better) and she gobbled it up. So I’m using the Instinct raw boost (it has pieces of freeze dried in it) with a Primal topper. I toss in a few pieces of Acana to make sure she doesn’t get sick from transitioning but she’s absolutely fine. Stools are perfect and she gets so excited for her meals. Fingers crossed this lasts!! 🙂
This is all such valuable information for me. I have followed this website for years but just joined up.
I have had our two dogs, a vizsla and a lab on amended Orijen kibble for years. Between a combination of information gained from: this website, Dog Naturally Magazine, Orijen (USA) rather than Orijen (Canada) and then Chewy.com losing a few lines (Orijen/Acana, Fromm) because Chewy.com decided to buy PetsMart AND the brew Ha Ha with the CleanLabel folk (but I digress).
All of the reasons above have brought me to the decision to eliminate kibble either all together, which is my preference or at the very most 1/4 to 1/2 kibble and mix with either freeze-dried raw or raw frozen (when we get a stand alone freezer).
I am a rookie to the BARF diet for our dogs. Historically, the vizsla transitions easily to new diets/foods (7 to 10 days) but our labrador has to transition more slowly 2-3 weeks for his GI system to tolerate the change without upset. To date he continues to get a tbsp of organic pumpkin mixed in his Six Fish kibble.
With our vizsla, I have been scaling back his amount of kibble and introduced Stella & Chewy’s freezes-dried patties (mostly 5 stars except for 4 star Duck Duck-he loves it), just ordered the Vital Essentials since it does not have all the additives.
I just have begun to explore the Darwin’s Natural Selection website. The name has a peticularily personal meaning for our vizsla. His sire’s registered name was “Darwin’s Natural Selection”, aka.”Darwin” .
I certainly need and want to increase my knowledge of what is best for our dogs. Looking forward to your input and exchange of ideas. Also the information about online websites for ordering their raw frozen and/or freeze-dried food as well as the kibble, now that Orijen and Chewy.com split the sheets.
Thanks to all.
AMember
I recently had a training with Origen/ Acana and they have started to take the meal out of some of their things.
When it just says deboned chicken that’s including water weight, once you cook it, it falls lower on the list of ingredients and some things may be heavier than you expected.
Orijen is expensive to make and is good but there are definitely other large breed formulas I would consider first.
At my work we deal with more dogs with pancreatic and diabetes allot more now, it’s running rampid in the dog world now.
I used to feed my pitty large breed Fromm, she was always gassy and I never knew why.
Now she’s on firstmate lamb and rice in the morning and raw at night and I have a non gassy pitty.
They do also get answers fermented goats milk, cows, and fish stock to give them different beneficial benefits.
Maybe I’m one of the minority, but I do not care for any products by Champion Pet Foods (Acana & Orijen). So personally I don’t think they are “the best”. The best food for any large breed puppy is a food that will promote optimal growth (low calorie, appropriate ca/phos), digests well, is feeding trialed on large breed puppies, and something they will eat. I prefer simple foods that focus on more on proper nutrition than being flashy. Those foods are not going to be produced by smaller companies usually because they don’t have the funding to research and test foods.
A quality puppy food designed properly for a large breed puppy will have balanced levels of everything you mentioned. Not some balanced and some in excess.
I love and appreciate all the advice! So I’ll keep asking questions …can you tell It’s my first pup? I’ve opened my mind up to not necessarily going grain free … now I’ve read about 500 different things. The most recent being that the most important things to focus on for a large breed puppy is calories and calcium/phosphorus. However, other s have mentioned fat being too high…if Orijen is a top food but has a fat % of 20..and acana with 17 and 18%, what is one to do?? Focus on calories and calcium and good ingredients .. or on fat content??
My dog is the same way. I’ve tried him on the following kibbles:
– Blue Buffalo
– Merrick
– Taste of the Wild
– Zignature
– Nature’s Varity Instinct
– Orijen
– Acana
– Legacy
– Wellness
– Fromm
– Nulo
– Earthborn
– ZiwiPeak
– PetKind
– Wysong
– Halo
I have tried numerous wet foods; the only kind he’ll eat is Merrick, which makes him gassy, and is expensive. He has tried Stella & Chewy dehydrated raw, Grandma Lucy’s, and Primal. He likes them all for about a week, and will then start going days without eating, to the point that he will vomit bile from being without food for too long.
He ate Nature’s Variety Instinct beef patties very well for several months; I made the mistake of trying to switch to Stella & Chewy’s venison raw patties, and he detests those. He now will only willingly eat actual ground, whole prey beef mixes from My Pet Carnivore, and beef tripe. I switched him to pork and he has eaten his dinner only twice since last Wednesday, because he’s refusing it.
So basically what I’m saying is that I feel for you, LOL.
Are you wanting kibble or wet food recommendations?
Something that you might try: sprinkle a little bit of garlic powder onto his food. My vet recommended this trick to me, and it’s worked a few times. Now I just make his meals into what can only be called “tripe sandwiches”, trying to not waste the pork meat by layering it between tripe. Sigh.
I have a chi/mix rescue who was fed junk at the shelter. I put her on Acana grasslands and she loved it. I just started using Primal freeze dried. She gets so excited when she smells me adding water, she starts doing circles. You may want to try a good kibble with a topper of raw (I prefer freeze dried due to convienence but you could use raw patties). You could also do one meal kibble and one meal raw.
My dog wouldn’t go near Honest Kitchen. She literally ran away. I was shocked because she’s not a super picky eater. I’ve been obsessing over what dog food to give now that my dog had some teeth extracted. My last dog was diagnosed with Cushings at age 5, was on medication his entire life and lived to 15 1/2 yrs old eating Wellness. So I’m starting to question whether I’m thinking too much into this. Good luck!
Thanks Susan- I will check it out. I may try the Instinct along w Canidae. Is the Canidae as small as Fromm? Im not a fan of wet food. I’m trying to make this process as simple as possible. I have soaked her food before but the Acana was still too big. She wasn’t digesting it. I’m definitely sticking to a topper. Just need to find a good small kibble.
She’s btwn 11-12 lbs- it wouldn’t cost as much but is still expensive. I’m having a difficult time figuring out how much kibble (she ate about 1/4 cup Acana twice a day) to give if I use half a Primal nugget per meal. I may do kibble one meal and raw for dinner. This could drive a person mad. Lol
Valens is a small independent Canadian pet food manufacturer based out of Fraser Valley British Columbia. They are on par with Champion pet foods who produce Acana and Orijen which are 5 star rated foods. If you check out their website it gives you plenty of information on the company and manufacturing process. I like it because it contains freeze dried proteins as well as what is in the kibble. I also love the fact it is independently produced by a small company in Canada that focuses more on quality than quantity just like Champion foods who produce Orijen.
My chi/mix just had a bunch of teeth extracted. She’s been eating Acana but I need to find a comparable food with small kibble bites. Fromm has tiny kibble and Natures Variety Instinct makes a chicken for small dogs. I prefer not to feed chicken. Any recommendations?
Hello everyone…I pretty much started this topic after losing our precious Sheltie most likely from toxic Acana Pacifica dog food and I’m going to attach a link from the Clean Label Project research. Although this doesn’t evaluate nutritional quality, for which we have Dog Food Advisor, it does shed tremendous light on toxic elements found in today’s dog food, the worst in many years for lead, arsenic, and BPA. I received this notice from petmd.com and the Clean Label Project. Check out the ratings especially for Acana and Orijen being the worst at a 1 star out of 5, probably since the switch in manufacturing was made from Canada to the plant in Kentucky. Very eye opening at best and can be discouraging as well. However, keeping ourselves educated can lead to wisdom decisions and best health for our pets. I hope this will be helpful, so just cut and paste into your web browser.
http://www.petmd.com/news/view/your-pets-food-safe-36136?roi=echo3-45455985558-43354653-32a69d60886230debd6ada66a0ae6813&utm_source=BlogSubscribers&utm_medium=Email&utm_content=072017blog&utm_campaign=Blog
My head is spinning with all of the information out there. I’m switching my chi/mix from Acana bc she needs smaller pieces of kibble (had some teeth extracted). I’m considering Natures Instinct with a topper of Primal (she loves her topper of Primal now) or Stella and Chewy’s raw coated kibble or the raw coated kibble with a topper. She’s a 9 1/2 tripod and can’t move like she use to. My vet actually recommended Natural Instincts (no she doesn’t get paid nor do they sell it). Any recommendations? I don’t know if the raw coated is a homicidal. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you
I recently switched to Primal (freeze dried) bc Acana just isn’t the same since they left Canada. My chi mix absolutely loves it! We have been using the duck. I think some of the Primal formulas got 2.5 stars due to fat content or ratio of protein.
My vet actually recommended Natures Variety when I told her I had switched from Acana to Primal. I have done a TON of research and that is one that wasn’t on my list. I make sure to look at recalls in addition to everything else. Primal is definitely pricey and I will most likely use it as a topper if I decide to go with them.
Stella and Chewy’s is the 3rd on my list in addition to Primal and Natures variety. Their meal mixers look good in addition to the patties. In addition to freeze dried raw, Natures Variety makes a kibble with pieces of freeze dried raw mixed in called Instinct Raw Boost. They make a small dog version which smaller kibble which is enticing. I am leaning towards Fromm (small pieces) and using a raw topper. I have tried everything except the Instinct raw boost. Once I try that, I will make my final decision. However, for a raw food, I really love Primal.
Does anyone else have a small dog and use kibble with a topper?
Thank you Susan for all this information! I had emailed Canidae the other day and they said they still use Diamond as well as Performance Pets and Hamilton Pets to manufacture. When I asked for which foods specifically were made at the Diamond plant I got told all the foods are made at all of those plants, except for the Under the Sun.
She is doing GREAT with the Canidae Pure puppy she’s on now so I’m hesitant to want to change despite my concerns.
I was only going to use the Fromm Gold which doesn’t have much of a legume base (duck, chicken meal, chicken, brown rice, barley) . She was on the Gold Puppy when she was little but she did have some gas, and with how active she is I would probably need to feed her a lot more Fromm then the Canidae to keep her looking good.
I had looked at the Zignature before, but has more protein then I think she needs, she was on Merrick and Acana for a short time and she has nasty poops with higher protein.
Hey all,
I have a 2 year old Chihuahua/Pug mix named Charlie. We’ve had him since he was about 9 weeks old and he’s always had a bit of a poo problem. At first we thought it was just terrible 2’s for the baby until he got older, and we moved him over to a crate. He kept having accidents in the crate and that’s when we thought, maybe it’s not potty training that’s the issue, maybe it’s the food. So we took him to the vet, around this time last year, and they said he was perfectly healthy, nothing was wrong and expressed his anal glands. He was okay for 3-4 months and the same problem happened. Went back to the vet, and nothing. After that we decided to take control of things, and he’s gone through SO many dog food brands from Royal Canin, Wellness, Solid Gold, Acana, Orijen, Sojos and Honest Kitchen.. and even home cooked, nothings worked. We took away broccoli because we think that’s one of the main things that causes his diarrhea, but it hasn’t helped much. We just lost our cat to HCM 2 months ago, which raked up quite a bill and we can’t afford to go to the vet again. He had diarrhea in his cage last night and a little poop/diarrhea this morning. He’s only had SOME kibble, water and rice thus far. Is there anything I can do to help him? I feel so bad for Charlie but I don’t know what to do. I don’t want him to keep having an upset stomach. He’s always lifting his bum in the air and I live in an apartment where I can’t let him be out whenever he would like.
****Sorry, please no rude comments about how I should be taking him to the vet. I tried asking Facebook forums and that’s all I got.. I know I should, but I can’t. I tried so hard to save my cat it nearly cost us all our savings.*****
I find it convenient that a no name “Lab” who’s website was registered (3/28/16) a month after the CleanLabelProject website was registered (2/16/16) and is located in the same city as you did all of the “testing” for free.
You are delusional if you think Purina is better than Acana, Origen, Fromm, Etc..
Sham
Hi all,
I am very sorry for your puppies being sick and now wonder myself if this is the cause of mine being unwell. Hope they recover soon. There are holistic ways to help your babies.
We used to feed my fur boy Acana only until they decided to open a plant in KY and in the USA we only have access to that food. So, I found new food for him over a year ago. It was a perfect choice with new food and my boy not once had ANY health issues. Until this May when I for some reason forgot that I didn’t order his food (only available on line), I ran into Hollywood feed and got a bag of Acana Wild Atlantic. Immediately, he started to itch, eating himself to bleeding. I freaked out and took him to the vet and asked for blood test. His BUN was ok, but CREA was sooo high, MCH and MCHC so low that it alarmed me. The vet said- no worries, this is allergy. Stupid me, feeling so bad for my boy, agreed to a steroid shot to relief the itch. We also got antibiotics and allergy drugs, which cost me an arm and leg. But, anything for my boy. I eat and live healthy and natural as I can. So, I started my research and after 10 days of meds, I took him off. Sorry, got carried away.
The Acana food I bought was sooo greasy that it concerned me, but I still fed him (I bought a smaller bag). Stupid me!
As soon as our regular food arrived, I switched and he is getting better.
It has been over a month of this disaster, but I am getting this under control.
This morning I received the same e-mail from Chewy and was surprised. But I guess it is for the better.
Being bought by Petsmart is not good news to me.
I am in process of transferring to raw now.
The food I currently feed is UK made formula (Guidelines are tougher in Europe) made in Austin, TX by one of the family member, who lives in the USA. No grain, no soy, no canola, no rice, no potatoes, no eggs. Once a week I give him egg with shell. Kelp daily. Fruits and veggies he access any time. No harm, except few high in sugar, no raisins, avocado, grapes.
So glad I came across this post. Thank you all!
Svan and Caroline, First I’m so sorry to hear about your dog’s ill health, but unfortunately not surprised. And I’m very happy to hear that Acana is not going to be sold by Chewy any longer. Hopefully others will also stop selling this toxic food as they learn the reality of what is happening to dogs. And that goes for all poor quality dog foods and even ones vets recommend. We must do our own research to make a wisdom decision for our beloved fur babies!
Svan,
I would suggest that you have your dog’s blood and urine tested for kidney functions. What you describe is exactly what happened to my labrador with the new ACANA Wild Atantic formulation. She picked at her food and I thought it was her teeth. The vet did a blood test before sedating her to clean her teeth and her BUN and CREA were extremely high. Additional urine tests and followup blood tests have been very grave. She was in kidney failure. And then I read Clean Label Project’s report and was horrified. I felt like I poisoned my dog. I spoke with the lab that did CLP’s testing and when they started these tests they thoughts their testing equipment was malfunctioning. The level of toxins was something they had never seen before. ACANA and Orijen is poisoning our dogs.
Looks like Chewy.com has finally decided to drop ACANA and Orijen foods. Thank goodness. My dog is in kidney failure due to ACANA’s Wild Atlantic dry kibble. Their fish based dog foods should all be recalled. I contacted Chewy.com in early June imploring them to do testing on their own of a specific lot, 3002505-62212. This is an email I received this morning from Chewy.com. The spin on it indicates that Champion Pet Foods is actually the one pulling the food from Chewy.com. Either way, it is a good thing for pets. ACANA and Orijen is poisoning our pets.
————————————————————————————————————————-
I’m sorry to let you know that Champion Pet Foods, makers of Orijen and ACANA, will no longer be available at Chewy and will only be available while supplies last. Champion has decided to limit their distribution and will no longer service Chewy customers.
I am very disappointed by Champion’s decision to end their retail partnership with us because it greatly impacts you, our customer. Their business decision to limit distribution was clearly not in the best interest of customers like you, who have come to rely on Chewy to feed your furry family.
When I founded our company my mission was simple, deliver the highest quality products at the best prices and provide an unmatched customer experience. We have always put our customers and their pets at the center of everything we do. That’s why we have the most knowledgeable customer service representatives in the industry dedicated to providing best-in-class customer service and adding personal touches to online shopping with handwritten cards and hand-painted portraits of your pets.
It’s particularly upsetting that despite all of my company’s efforts and personal relationships throughout the years, Champion has decided that they will no longer service our customers.
I urge all customers who are affected by this to personally contact Champion directly to let them know you rely on the convenience of delivery and value the personalized service you receive from Chewy. Unfortunately, for many of you this decision will result in your inability to get these products in a convenient way. Please encourage Champion not to put their corporate interests above the interests of their customers and their pets.
Call
877-939-0006
Email
[email protected]
Post
https://www.facebook.com/ChampionPetfoods/
I know how important it is to choose the right food for your pet and our Customer Service Team is available 24/7/365 to answer any of your questions or to help you select from over 500 brands of top-rated natural, high-protein and grain-free foods.
Sincerely,
Ryan Cohen
Founder & CEO
Purina (higher end line like Pro Plan) and Science Diet are not as horrible as many think. I was once one of those people. Then I really learned about all the studies they do, the advancements in nutrition that have been made because of these companies and the work they do.
While my experiences are anecdotal, the dogs that I have had to feed Science Diet to have done far better than they did on the 5 star brands. It is because of the science and continued research they do.
They also treat the animals they use in trials very well. Hills keeps the animals for the entirety of their lives and tracks their health and nutrition through all stages. I don’t think there is a company that is so thorough in their research.
My youngest dog is only 2. He’s been on the most expensive foods and always had some sort of issue. Mostly mild when fed really good quality food. He did fantastic on Acana until they started making food in KY. Then his food intolerances were the worst they have ever been. He & his brother do great on Science Diet. (I also feed him The Honest Kitchen too.) His mother is fed Pro Plan. She’s thriving. She has terrible allergies too.
Hills prescription food has kept my girl from having flare ups. It’s no more expensive than the top of the line foods. She is also on FortiFlora which is made by Purina
It’s so important to do your homework. You can’t just go by the label, DFA, documentaries, blogs, etc. Nothing is that simple or black & white. We’re talking about animals. They are not so simple when it comes to their individual needs and differences.
As for Science Diet & Purina paying vet schools. They may pay to hold a seminar, but they are not influencing the course of study. (Much like a comedian or band paying a college to perform.) Students’ attendance is strictly volunteer. They are not credited or penalized.
We are the Clean Label Project, a nonprofit that identified dangerous contaminants present in popular pet foods. Ask us anything!
byu/Cleanlabelproject inIAmA
From Champion Pet Foods Facebook page (maker of Orijen/Acana)
“Clean Label Project (CLP) is using the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standard for drinking water to compare against pet foods. Even if CLP chooses to disregard the National Research Council (NRC) standards which are based on 25 years of peer-reviewed research performed with animals, a more appropriate standard for comparison would be human food, rather than human drinking water”.
“Naturally occurring heavy metals are found everywhere in nature, including in the foods that you eat each day.”
Hi,
I just came upon this article: http://www.wkbw.com/news/pet-food-could-be-poisoning-your-furry-friend
A lot of good brands were put into a bad ranking. I always thought that almost all of orijen and acana dog foods were great :(. Any truth to this article? I feel so paranoid buying any dog food these days :/
All I can say is when Acana switched to the Kentucky plant my three dogs, 2- labs, 1-Siberian Husky have had no problems with this food at all. I was feeding the Canadian product with no problems. Feeding the Acana Heritage meats formula. They love it!
Thanks for the input.
A couple things…
I have heard several times about rotating foods, and I am certainly open to that. For those of you who do rotate, do you switch cold turkey between brands? I don’t want to have 2 or more open bags of food at once… I have switched flavors within brands cold turkey with no issues.
The biggest reason I am looking at the calcium and phosphorus levels of the “new” foods is because I do have another pup coming this fall. I would like to feed them both the same food as I really don’t want to have 2 open bags of food if I can avoid it.
I don’t think I will be switching to a maintenance formula as we don’t really have an “off season.” We do field and water training April-August, Hunting season runs September – December. He runs free for 20-30 minutes 5-7 times a day (we live in the country). In the summer we also do weekly hikes where I will cover 3-8 miles, and since he is “free” while doing this he will cover probably 3x that. We will start using a roading harness and dragging weight for at least a portion of these hikes in the next month or so. We don’t hike during hunting season, instead we hunt both upland and waterfowl several days a week. In the winter we snowshoe (again he is free to run while I follow the trails). The only time he has held a “5” on the condition scale for longer than a week was January through April when we were only running 3-4 times a month and he was eating a 32/18 . This is also why all the foods I am looking at are all 3600+ kcal/kg.
I didn’t even think about the amount of heavy metals that could be in the fish formulas. I suppose it makes sense though. Humans are cautioned on consuming too much fish for the same reason. I was not familiar with the CLP, unfortunately none of the brands I was looking at are listed.
I am not dead set on grain free, but I do want to limit the amount of grain I feed. I would be interested in hearing more about which grains have a high bio-availability for dogs.
I appreciate the additional brand suggestions as well. I have heard nothing but good things about Dr Tim’s and there are several formulas that I think would work for me, however it is not available locally and at $70 for a 40lb bag from Chewy it is cost prohibitive. I have looked at a lot of “premium” brands including Nutro, Canidae, Acana, Blue Buffalo, Wellness, Royal Canin, Orijen, and Merrick… Most were eliminated from serious consideration due to lack of local availability, cost, or simply not having a blend with the nutritional requirements I am looking for. It seems there are not many premium “performance” formulas out there.
Anyone see any issues with the brands/formulas I am looking at? Any other recommendations of similar foods?
Hi everyone. I contacted Chewy and told them the issue. They haven’t heard of such thing of hair in kibbles for acana but they are glad that I told them. I provided the lot # and pictures of the kibbles so they would take action in their warehouse department. They told me to toss the food out if I am not comfortable giving it to my dogs. I got a full refund back.
As for Champion Petfoods, they emailed me back stating that hairs found in kibble are a natural result of the fresh ingredients inclusions in our diets. In my opinion, I don’t think any types of hair are nutritional for any living species. Please look at the response below I got from Champion Petfoods.
Hi Cathy,
After forwarding the information you provided to our Quality Assurance team, they believe that the hairs found in the kibble are a natural result of the fresh ingredient inclusions in our diets.
Because our foods have very high inclusions of meat ingredients, you may occasionally find small hairs in the food. While unsightly, hairs in the kibble in no way compromise the nutritional quality or safety of the food, and are typically present in any natural diet.
QA has also assured me that we are working with our suppliers to enhance quality control parameters to minimize the possibility of inclusion of small hairs in the raw ingredients we utilize. Furthermore, I want to affirm for you that our foods provide a healthy choice for your pet by including fresh red meat ingredients in healthy and non-rendered form.
As such, these hairs pose no health risk to your dog and it is perfectly fine to continue to feed him this kibble. There is no need to throw the food away, as these hairs do not compromise the nutritional or microbiological quality of the food.
I hope this information has provided you some peace of mind about the safety of the food in question. Of course, if you have any further questions or concerns, don’t hesitate to contact me.
Warm Regards,
Elyse
Customer Care
Champion Petfoods LP
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This reply was modified 8 years, 6 months ago by
Cathy P.
Hi SP
what I don’t understand hair burns with any heat & it smells AWFUL stinks real bad, when the meat is being cooked their wouldn’t be any hair left, when the butcher gets a pig or side of a cow it has been skinned & is furless, I see the animals coming into the Butcher up the road & the animals have no hair, it doesn’t make sense unless Acana is just throwing in road kill the whole body but like I said all the animals fur would burn, wouldn’t it??
Gee what are you feeding now, hopefully not Acana…
Hi Cathy P
ring Chewy & organize a return of the Acana,
Acana Regionals, Wild Atlantic New England fresh Greens came 3rd & Acana Singles Mackerel & Greens formula came 8th on the “Clean Label Project” top 10 pet food with the most Environmental & Industrial, Contaminates & Toxins….Acana Heritage meats dry formula got 1 star & is on the 13th page. click on link below, read then go to top & click on “Dog Ratings” then on your left click on “Dry Dog Foods” this way just dog foods come up not dog & cat foods…
http://www.cleanlabelproject.org/product-ratings/pet-food/
Svan,
A sincere thanks for posting the information pertaining to contamination, however, one “caveat” needs to be mentioned: The majority of the report’s top rated brands are some of the worst foods that you can possibly feed to a dog! What a dilemma….
As a side-note, if interested in a fish diet for your pooch, I have been satisfied with a Canadian brand called ‘Holistic Blend/My Healthy Pet/Marine Fish 5 Fish/Grain Free’ (I “ditched” Champion/ACANA/Orijen months ago). This exact brand wasn’t included in the ‘Clean Label’ review, but I have been very satisfied with the results achieved so far (white Pitbull 70lbs – easy weight maintenance, small stool, no skin allergies or itching, no oily residue, and the food doesn’t smell bad, which is usually the case with other fish-based diets. Chewy is one of the few retailers. Try the 7.5lb. bag. -SP
I just received my first bag of Acana Heritage Meats today from Chewy.com. Of course I fed it to my dog right away and he enjoyed every bits of it. I started to inspect and noticed tiny black hair or fibers on it. I googled “Hair in acana dog food” and it led me to this forum. The hairs in the kibbles are exactly as pictured from Noora K’s posting. I just emailed Acana with the issue so waiting on a response from them. I wanted to know if you guys kept the food, toss it out, or returned it to the vendor? Thanks!
As other reviews state, Acana moved its manufacturing plant from Canada to KY. That’s not all they changed. The Pacifica product was made from higher quality salmon in cleaner waters to what is now lower quality herring and redfish that live in more contaminated waters. I’m a toxicologist and noticed the change immediately when first opening the new bag. My dog, who is such an avid eater that he has a ‘slow feed’ bowl, obviously noticed too and was hesitant to eat it. So researching a new dog food, I read DogFoodAdvisor and Clean Label Project (nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization of vets and MDs http://www.cleanlabelproject.org/product-ratings/pet-food/ ). I was horrified to see that this product is rated in the “Bottom Ten: Out of 299 dry dog foods tested, the bottom ten, on average, contain the highest amount of harmful environmental and industrial contaminants and toxins.” Orijen isn’t any better.
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This reply was modified 8 years, 6 months ago by
Svan D. Reason: typo
Acana Heritage does not list any synthetics.
Susan, I have no idea how the ones you are talking about compare to the US one I’m talking about.
I’ve recommended Pro Plan Large Breed Puppy and Hills Large Breed Puppy plenty on times on here and at work. I tailor my recommendations to the individual and I fully recognize that a lot of people on here won’t use Purina.
I use this “c***” food because it’s not “c***” at all. I have used Orijen, Acana, Fromm, NutriSource, Taste of the Wild, Natures Variety, Wellness CORE, Zignature, Primal, Stella and Chewys,… I mean really the list goes on. None of those foods worked well for him. He was either sick, skin was flaring up or he simply refused to eat. I cried so many times because I felt like I couldn’t help him and he was just suffering despite eating all these “great” foods. So after completing our elimination trial our vet suggested Pro Plan Sensitive Skin, so we tried it and it worked. I can’t argue with results and I can’t argue with how much healthier and happier Bentley has been this past year and a half.
Judging me for my choice of food doesn’t make you a better pet parent. We all care for our dogs and want what’s best for them, regardless of how we get there.
So happy for all the info. on Orijen – Acana made in Kentucky. My 3 1/2 month Golden was doing great on Wellness Core puppy and all of a sudden he has developed diarrhea,, when we slow reintroduce the Core puppy again after he became stable the softness began again. I’m thinking the Core puppy and it’s higher protein made be to rich. Was thinking about changing to Acana ,, but now now after what I just read. Any thoughts or suggestions on another high quality large breed puppy food ? Thanks to all !
We have two six month old lab mix resucues that did well on Nulo, Acana and Orijen. They are off puppy now per our long time vet and on adult. Acana or Nulo seem to work best so far. Orijen was too rich it seems, diarrhea. Specifically they are on the red meat based Acana or salmon based Nulo. Good luck!
We have had similar issues with out six month old lab mix pups. Very similar stool description actually. What we’re finding is Orijen seems to be too rich for them, at least that’s how I’d describe it. They are actually better on Acana or Nulo. We’ve also tried Merrick and Wellness with not great results, either diarrhea or they will not eat it.
I have three Pembroke Welsh Corgis. They are known for their sensitive stomachs. I have been feeding Acana Regionals (Meadowland) for the last four years without any issues. That is until they switched the manufacturing to the US. I don’t know what they changed, but all three have had recurring bouts of vomiting and diarrhea since they switched. I have spent over $1000 in vet bills. Being Corgis, they would never turn their noses up at anything, so getting them to eat it has not been a problem. Until I found this forum, I didn’t think to connect it with the food. Now after seeing others with the same issues: poop starts out normal then turns to very loose followed by diarrhea; and vomiting the food much later, undigested. I realize their problems all started about the time of the US switch. I am very disappointed. I just called my dog food supplier and they said they can no longer get the Canadian version. So, I need to switch and have been reading every dog food review on DFA and the new Editor’s Choice site. I need to make a choice…soon.
