switching from Orijen to Innova evo

I'm currently in the process of switching Juno from Orijen to Innova evo (the poultry, not the red meat). I love having her on the Orijen and it's done great things for her. I made this decision based solely on cost. It's about $10 a bag cheaper at my local store for the poultry innova evo, as compared to the red meat one and the orijen. The woman at the store, said that she certainly understood the $ issue but that orijen really was a better brand and higher quality and now I'm feeling guilty, like I'm compromising my dog's well-being.

Is this something I should feel guilty over? I'd always been under the impression that innova evo was better than orijen, and thought I was doing something good for Juno.

I don't think either is better. They are both good brands and what really matters is how well your dog does on the food. I don't see any harm in trying EVO and seeing how your dog does on it. You can always switch back if you don't see him doing as well as on the orijen Just make a nice slow transition and he'll probably be fine.

BTW I think you have the cutest user name

Natura, IMO, makes some of the best kibble products out there. So no, Orijen is not better than EVO. I'd say they're both about equal. My dog did a little better on Orijen than she did EVO (more shedding with EVO, and she needed to eat more of it), but that's not to say it'll be the same for yours.

I'm pretty sure you don't have to feel guilty about switching your dog to Evo:lol-sign:. Both EVO and Orijen are fantastic foods. My dog did slightly better on the Orijen, but also did quite well on the EVO. Unless there is a clear problem when you switch over, I think your conscience should be clear. You are still feeding your dog better than probably 95% of the pet owners out there.

Thanks for the encouragement everyone. I guess one of my concerns about it too is that she seems to not be doing too well on it atm. Granted she's only been on it a bit over two weeks, and I'm still mixing in 1/3 Orijen for 2/3 Innova. I wanted to introduce it very slowly because Juno seems so intolerant of diet changes. (warning: the rest is me talking about her poo... if it's gross, i'm sorry. Feel free to skip to the end ) Even though I introduced it very slowly she still got diarrhea for a couple of days and now she's over that but her poo is not firm and easy to pick up the way it was before. It's still very mushy and gross and a lighter color. Is that normal? Am I taking too long to phase her over to the evo and that's why her stools aren't normal? Or do you think she's just having problems switching over to the evo? She seems fine otherwise. Her energy level is still the same. She has seemed a little more high strung the past couple weeks but I've been kind of high strung, so just attributed it to that. Plus she's unfortunately not getting enough exercise because I've been getting home from work late.

I'm just worried that maybe switching her to the evo wasn't the best thing for her. I can sacrifice other things to afford the orijen I decided. I also just recently finally had some money come my way from a car accident I was in a year and a half ago. That allowed me to pay off my debts this past week and I no longer have debt, so I have some more leeway in my finances then I originally thought I had. If I were to put her back on the orijen do I slowly start reintroducing it or giving it to her straight? I bought a big bag of the innova evo and have hardly used any of it, so that sucks and is a bit of a waste. ; ;

I don't know what to do.

I've been reading online also about The Honest Kitchen and thinking that maybe Juno would do really well on a raw diet. They have raw dehydrated food. Is that okay? Does she still get the same benefit from that as she would from raw that wasn't dehydrated first?

I know it's not good to constantly switch her food around and I haven't been, and if I need to put her back on Orijen for a while before switching her over to The Honest Kitchen then I could definitely do that. She's been on Orijen since she was about 3 months old, prior to that she was Purina One, which is what the breeder gave her, and I transitioned her off it about 6 weeks after getting her.

I'm just confused about what to do about food for her. She did well on the Orijen. Probably I shouldn't have tried to switch her off it. Although maybe I'm making a big deal out of nothing. It has only been a few weeks.

X2 ^
good post!
and i agree, both are GREAT feed and it's great to see such a caring owner!
i feed Evo and actually debated on the Orijen, but yeah, the almighty dollar dicated that one!
i'm sure your dog will do fine on the Evo=it's a great quality feed! good luck!

I've fed EVO ever since it came out, and the EVO RM since it came out.

If you're still having some non-solid stools, you might be overfeeding. That's the only time mine have anything but formed solid stools. It might also clear up when you've completed the switch.

Truthfully, I've never done the gradually switching in the past. I've just done it cold turkey and never had a problem that wasn't cleared up with a day or two of adding some canned pumpkin

Oh, and we talk about dog poop a LOT, lol! . . . which reminds me, where did Paige get to?