Acana Food?

[_whits_]

Picked up a new bag of Acana Regionals today. Addie's pet food store has switched the Acana supplier from the Canadian kitchen in Alberta to the American kitchen in Kentucky (Champion Petfoods has two factories total, in Alberta and Kentucky, and Acana and Orijen food are the only foods produced in those factories, according to their website). The Acana Regionals Pacifica is now Acana Regionals Wild Atlantic. 

For 2016 (as opposed to the 2015 recipe) it also looks like they've increased the percentage of fish to 70% (up from 60%), with 30% veggies and fruit (down from 40%). Depending on how she does on the recipe change (I've heard super high protein can cause tummy issues in some dogs), I might switch her to the Acana Heritage Freshwater Fish (http://acana.com/our-foods/heritage/freshwater-fish/?lang=usa) which has the same protein as her previous Pacifica recipe: 60% fish (which is up from 50% in 2015). Acana foods still have less protein than the Orijen (80%) which is what made me not try switching to Orijen. I still can't entirely figure out the difference between the Heritage v the Regionals recipes, other than protein percentage. 

Maryellen, regardless of the factory or the recipe, the Acana kibble is actually quite small. It's not even noticeably larger than the Wellness Small Breed kibble I was feeding before. If I had a very large dog, I suspect it would be able to swallow mouthfuls without chewing. Addie chews her kibble with no problem, and choking never crossed my mind, even after you mentioned it. 

[_whits_]

For reference, here's a piece of Acana kibble next to a dime. 

[MaryellenK]

Thank you so much for the visuals!  The kibble size isn't as large as I thought although Fromm is really small by comparison, about the tip of a pencil eraser.

I'm feeling good about my decision to start her on the Acana in two weeks.  

I can't imagine not having this great forum for help!!!

[Min D]

 

Rarely posted much on this site but I thought I would share some info related to Pet food. I had a 16 yr old Cairn that I had to get put down in December. We are about to pick up our cairn puppy " Tewcsby" in a weeks time. We live in Halifax, Nova Scotia and are fortunate enough to have a pet store called PLANET PAWS located here. The name of the guy that owns it is - Rodney Habib, he is a pet nutritionist- a world renowned one at that. We met him the other night to discuss what to feed our new puppy and obtained lots of info from him.

The main thing that he told us about dry pet food was that it shouldn't contain any synthetic additives.

He has a Facebook page that I think you would find interesting - look it up under Planetpaws - Rodney Habib.

 

 

Edited May 7, 2016 by Min D

[Sam I Am]

He is a wealth of information! Love all his posts.

 

[MaryellenK]

I've switched Jax to Acana Regional Appalachian Ranch.  She is doing very well and loves the food.  One thing I've noticed however, is that she seems much, much hungrier than normal so I increased her food from 2/3 cup per day to just under a cup a day but she's still hungry.  Her excercise routine is the same, walks for about 90 min per day.  Her stools are normal but greater in quantity.

 

Has anyone else using Acana noticed this?  

[_whits_]

On May 17, 2016 at 7:09 PM, MaryellenK said:

I've switched Jax to Acana Regional Appalachian Ranch.  She is doing very well and loves the food.  One thing I've noticed however, is that she seems much, much hungrier than normal so I increased her food from 2/3 cup per day to just under a cup a day but she's still hungry.  Her excercise routine is the same, walks for about 90 min per day.  Her stools are normal but greater in quantity.

 

Has anyone else using Acana noticed this?  

My only thoughts on this are:

1) Jax may want more because it tastes good. Some dogs will always want to eat regardless of whether or not she's hungry. Addie was never particularly interested in her food until I started feeding Acana and now I'm pretty sure she'd keep eating it until she got sick because she just likes it so much.

2) Being a puppy she's growing fast and may need more food. Are you following the feeding guidelines for puppies on the bag?

My suggestion is to follow the feeding guidelines on the bag (there's usually an "active" versus "less active" feeding guideline, and my Acana bag has guidelines for how much to increase for puppies and nursing moms), monitor her weight (she should be gaining weight not losing as a pup) and bring it up with your vet at her next appointment. 

[_whits_]

Just to note, Addie gained weight quite quickly on the Acana because of how much she liked it (and I think the better ingredients). On her previous food she'd rarely eat it all at once or even all of it (she grazed through the day). Once I introduced the Acana she ate it all straight away, so I introduced two separate feeding times to spread out her food intake throughout the day and I had to cut back the total amount because she gained quite a bit of weight in her first month on it. She's 5 years old and gets 1/3 cup in the morning and 2/3 cup at night and her latest vet appointment showed her at a healthy weight.

once again, this was all done with a vet's advice. And of course Addie is a healthy adult dog who should be maintaining weight whereas Jax as a pup should be gaining. 

[MaryellenK]

Thank you for the information on how Addie fared.  I increased Jax's food to 1/2cup twice per day and have added a few green beans at dinner.  She seems more satisfied and we're watching her carefully for too much weight gain.