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Old October 25th, 2007, 08:02 AM
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RaYne RaYne is offline
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Anyone elses kitties suddenly refusing to eat Orijen?

I know Orijen did a slight formula change (in both cat and dog food) They removed Tapioca and put sweet potato in it's place and changed some of the botanicals/herbs. Since this formula change both of my cats are completely refusing to eat it. At first I thought they were just being picky.. but 2 days later there is STILL kibble left in their dish.

Anyone know why the heck they changed the formula? If it ain't broke don't fix it.

I think I'm just going to switch them to wet food, they prefer it anyway. They don't seem to like any of the grain-free kibbles..

Here's a list of what was added and removed..

ingredients removed:
flaxseed
yeast extract
tapioca

ingredients added:
sweet potato
dulse

The botanicals they removed are:
burdock and marshmallow root
stinging nettle
milk thistle
chickweed

botanicals added:
licorice root
turmeric root
fenugreek
cranberries
black currants
sweet fennel
zea mays (corn silk extract)
peppermint leaf
chamomile
dandelion root
summer savory
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Old October 25th, 2007, 08:20 AM
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Love4himies Love4himies is offline
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I have been having a hard time trying to switch my fussy kitty to a much higher quality cat food. One thing I noticed that she would not accept any cat food that had sweet potatoes in it.
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Old October 25th, 2007, 08:41 AM
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Love4himies Love4himies is offline
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Oh I should add, that my cats love Orijen (all 10 of them) They prefer it over Instinct and Wellness, but I have not checked the label to see if it has the tapioca or sweet potatoe in it. I purchased the bag a couple of weeks ago and it is the first bag I have purchased.
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Old October 25th, 2007, 09:22 AM
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RaYne RaYne is offline
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I believe when the bags changed that's when the formula changed. But I can't remember how long ago it was. I was feeding Wellness Core to my kitties but after the first bag they stopped eating it. So I picked up this bag of Orijen. The previous bags I bought were all the old formula.

I also feed Orijen to my dogs. Bubba starting spitting the food out with the last couple bags. The only way I can get him to eat it is to add warm water to the kibble. He used to drool like crazy at mealtimes.

For my piggy cat who eats anything to refuse it is odd. The formula change must have really altered the taste/flavor. :sad:
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Old October 26th, 2007, 08:22 AM
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Love4himies Love4himies is offline
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Do you know if they changed the ingredients in the dog formula also?
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Old October 26th, 2007, 08:46 AM
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RaYne RaYne is offline
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It appears to be the same change to the cat and dog formulas. Sweet potato and dulse.. plus the change in botanicals/herbs.

My cats absolutely will not eat it at all now. They are going on day 3 of eating next to nothing. So I'm picking them up either some raw or canned today.

As for my doggies. Bubba is still eating it.. but he picks at it. So it's taking him way longer to eat than usual. Lola is a bottomless pit.. she could care less whether it tastes different.
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Old October 26th, 2007, 02:29 PM
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My dogs and cats still eat it. I'm curious though as to why they made the changes and I think they should have put something on their bags about a "new formula".

Have you emailed them to ask why they made the changes?
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Old October 26th, 2007, 03:03 PM
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No I haven't but I'm going to email them right now and ask. I'll post the reply when I get it...
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Old October 29th, 2007, 09:36 AM
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Here's my reply from Peter....

Hello Lyn – and thanks for your enquiry.

The ORIJEN formulations were changed, but much less than the ingredient panel would indicate.

The actual changes include:

-addition of 2 more fresh meats (Turkey and Salmon)
-replacement of tapioca with sweet potato (tapioca is not a local ingredient)
-adjustment of some botanicals (due to USDA having different rules than Canada)

Although the ingredient panel appears to indicate more changes than these, this really is a result of having to comply with AAFCO regulations concerning ingredient wording. For example, AAFCO rules state chicken is not “meat” and also that the word “fresh” cannot be used in the ingredient panel. That meant we had to re-write “fresh chicken meat” (even though that’s exactly what we formulate with) as “de-boned chicken”. This re-writing applied to a host of the ingredients, but the ingredients themselves are unchanged.

Lyn, if you still have the date codes from the package, please send them to us and we’ll reference back to the particular production(s) that you are concerned with to see if we can find any other factors that might affect the palatability.

Warm Regards,
Peter
www.championpetfoods.com

Now I understand why the labels are so different. I did send him the date code from my bag of Orijen Cat... but now I'm wondering if the addition of sweet potato is the reason my cats don't like it now?
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