Orijen Fish

I've been feeding Orijen since an online distributor first showed up, and my dogs love the stuff. I recently bought a bag of the new Five Fresh Fish formula, and it got me wondering about the mercury levels of the food.

Should I be concerned at all? I'm not sure what kind of fish they use, or how much mercury is in the kibble. I know that doctors don't recommend eating large fish like tuna more than a few times a week due to the high levels of mercury, and I'd imagine the same goes for dogs, especially since they're so much smaller than humans.

Any thoughts or information?

Good question.

Although the fish they use are not on the high mercury list, it is a valid concern when the food is to be fed every day.
I have contacted the nutritionist for Orijen and am awaiting a call back. I have been told they do testing for mercury on raw ingredients, and the final product, but, the person I spoke with (not the nutritionist) was not able to provide me with specifics.

I will let you know when I get a response.

OK - according to the nutritionist the amount of mercury is .039 mcg (ppm) per gram of food. The USDA allows for safe consumption of 1 ppm.

Note (not from the Orijen nutritionist): this is a organic mercury - if you are concerned about constant feeding, you can do a short term use of N-Acetyl Cysteine to clear any heavy metals from the body, however, when doing so, you do need to supplement with copper, zinc and other trace minerals as they N-Acetyl Cysteine will also remove those from the body.