Category: News & Press

It’s been a busy year for our brand ambassador, Elsa the Lhasa Apso, who joined the ORIJEN family in March this year.  Elsa and owner Kelly have been travelling the length and breadth of Great Britain visiting dog-friendly places from as far up as Uig Sands on the Isle of Lewis all the way down to Kynance Cove in Cornwall!  Elsa has made many friends on her travels, sharing ORIJEN treats with many of them that she’s met along the way.   Kelly says “We are so very proud to be ambassadors for ORIJEN and Elsa has really enjoyed being able to try different varieties of the food.  She particularly loves ORIJEN Freeze Dried Food, which we started taking with us when we travel because it’s so easy to pack and measure”.

Now with Christmas and 2019 fast approaching, we asked Kelly and Elsa to tell us what the highlights of their travels have been this year, and if they’ll be taking some time out to enjoy the festive season.

What have been your travel highlights this year?

We have visited so many wonderful places, it’s hard to name them all.  Some particular highlights were our trip to Cambridge, which was very special as Elsa got to ride in The Gonville Hotel’s Bentley with us.  We also really enjoyed taking her to explore the countryside in Yorkshire where we stayed at The Timble Inn and The Oak Tree Inn near Harrogate.  Another memorable trip was when we travelled to London to stay at Hotel Indigo in Kensington.  I was anxious about taking Elsa to a big city, but we found London to be much more dog-friendly than we had expected.

How is Elsa planning to spend Christmas?

We’ve had such a busy year travelling to so many wonderful places, that we have decided to spend Christmas at home with friends and family. We’re planning on getting a real tree, so we’ll be taking Elsa with us to find one together.   We’re also hoping to go for lots of nice wintery walks followed by some cosy evenings on the sofa watching movies together.

Will Elsa be getting a stocking and presents this year?

Elsa usually gets more presents then we do! She absolutely loves ripping the paper off gifts and it’s so much fun to watch her.   We’ll definitely be wrapping up a few surprise toys for her to play with on Christmas Day and I’m sure there will be some ORIJEN treats in her stocking too.

Thank you for being such a wonderful brand ambassador this year. Have you noticed anything about Elsa’s health since she’s been eating ORIJEN?

Elsa is a fussy eater and she was also prone to gaining weight before we started her on ORIJEN.  After some meticulous research, I realised that many dog foods are full of unnecessary fillers like potato starch and grains that can cause weight gain as well as poor general health.  I eventually came across ORIJEN Fit & Trim and was impressed that it contains 85% meat, fish and egg ingredients.  It was an instant hit with Elsa and, since then, we have never looked back.  Elsa’s weight has now stabilised and she is healthy, with lots of energy and a very shiny coat!

We’ll be catching up with Elsa again early next year and are looking forward to hearing all about her travel plans for 2019.

Our brand ambassador, Buggy, certainly knows how to draw a crowd, entertaining fans with his weekly musings on topics like the latest fashion trends, entertaining the ladies and his dislike of Monday mornings. We caught up with this superstar #InstaCat, who now has over 35,000 followers on Instagram, and his owner Claire to find out what family life is like away from the selfie stick.

Buggy lives with six other siblings – three sisters Polly, Penelope and Paige, and three brothers Casper, Ted and Stuart Little.   Each has their own unique personality with Claire describing her multi-cat household as hectic and fun, yet well-balanced.  Penelope is the affectionate cat and loves to curl up on the sofa with Claire, Casper is the gentle-giant, Paige has all the attitude, Polly is the oldest, Ted is the most chilled out and the youngest, Stuart Little, is the crazy cat who can’t sit still.  Then, of course, there’s Buggy who is everyone’s friend, funny and affectionate, Buggy will try and bring all his brothers and sisters together whenever he can, even though they may not always be as enthusiastic.

Even though all the brothers and sisters are all very different, the one thing they have in common is that they’re all rescue cats.  Claire adopted all of them, except for Penelope who was rescued from outside a bar, from Cats Protection Belfast.   Claire says, “As a child we adopted our cats from Cats Protection and I always support them because their objective for every cat that they look after is to find them a good home”.  Claire soon began volunteering and, one by one, fell in love with and adopted each of her cats.

Sadly, all of the cats have ongoing health issues as a result of their challenging early lives, but Claire’s focus has always been to give them a stable home and to keep them as healthy as possible.  Looking after cats with health issues isn’t easy, but Claire’s dedication to providing them with all the care and love they need is clear to see.   Claire explains how she’s learnt to juggle the often-complex needs of all her cats, “I’ve taught myself for the most part, but obviously have the support of Cat’s Protection, my vet and some very good cat friends that I’ve met along the way.  I ask lots of questions and take each day and each challenge as it comes.  I’m very lucky to have the support that I do”.

The whole feline family are fed ORIJEN and Claire says: “It’s a pleasure to see them tucking into their food.  Buggy loves ORIJEN Cat & Kitten and Ted is a fish fiend who loves ORIJEN Six Fish – it’s great because there is something for all the cats”.  Since feeding the cats ORIJEN, Claire has noticed a big difference in their coats, which are now shiny and glossy, as well as an improvement in their muscle tone, which is particularly important for some of the cats who have issues with their joints. “ORIJEN is the most tailored food for their needs as it’s high in protein and low in carbohydrates, giving them a diet that they are supposed to eat”, says Claire.

Back in front of the camera, Buggy is now busy preparing himself for Christmas.  He’s currently designing and writing cards to send out to all his Instagram fans and is planning which flavour of ORIJEN treats he’ll be putting in each sibling’s stocking.  Watch this space for the re-appearance of Buggy’s Christmas jumper too, which is sure to be a hit with all the ladies!

To keep up to date with Buggy over Christmas, follow his Instagram and Facebook pages.

Dog-friendly holidays and days out are commonplace these days. Devoted pet lovers will often plan their travels around their dog, whether they’re organising a luxury escape to the continent or a camping trip in the UK.

If you feed your dog a raw diet, travelling with them can be challenging – finding refrigeration for the duration is simply not practical. For those dogs fed on kibble, decanting the food into smaller containers for shorter trips or dealing with heavy food bags for longer holidays can be difficult.

ORIJEN’s range of freeze dried dog foods are perfect for travelling – they are prepared without cooking, so they fully retain the natural properties of our authentically fresh ingredients. All our freeze dried foods are made with 90% fresh meat in the three Whole Prey ratios that dogs need — fresh meats, organs and edible bones – to nourish naturally and completely.

Just ask ORIJEN ambassador, Elsa. This little Lhasa Apso is one of the best travelled dogs around, visiting dog-friendly venues and events with her owner Kelly. Elsa often enjoys one of the three recipes – Original, Tundra or Regional Red – whilst out and about.

Kelly finds the food light to transport and easy to prepare. Inside the bags are medallions, to which owners should add 4 tablespoons (60 ml) of warm water per medallion, wait 3-6 minutes and then serve.

Elsa on the move
We recently spoke to Kelly about how they travel with Elsa:

“Although Elsa is very well-travelled, dogs are creatures of habit and any changes to their normal daily routine can affect them in many different ways. At home we normally enrich her mealtimes by making her work for her food (for example, we place kibble into a ball that she has to roll around to dispense the food) but feeding her in this way isn’t always practical when we are travelling. Sometimes Elsa can be very fussy, even refusing to eat altogether if she is too tired or distracted by the change of scenery! The solution to this problem is to give Elsa something that she absolutely loves to eat no matter where we are.

On a recent trip to London, we fed Elsa ORIJEN Regional Red Freeze-Dried Food, which she absolutely loved. This meant that we didn’t have to worry about her not eating, making the journey less stressful for everyone.

From a practical perspective, the ORIJEN Freeze-Dried food is easier to carry around than kibble because it is very light. Measuring portion sizes is simpler too because when we pack her usual food, we would normally either have to put kibble into several smaller containers which can be quite bulky, or we’d just have to estimate how much to feed Elsa. Because the freeze-dried food is formed into medallions, we don’t need any scales to measure it out so we always know that she is getting the right amount of food.

Although you do have to re-hydrate the food with warm water, we’ve never had an issue doing this because we always carry a small travel bowl and a cup of warm water is easy to come by in any coffee shop/ restaurant/ pub/ service station. We’ve even used room-temperature water to re-hydrate the food (just left it a little longer) and it worked wonderfully! Most importantly, Elsa finds the freeze-dried food to be very appetising.”

ORIJEN’s freeze-dried food
Gently freeze dried to lock in all of the natural goodness of our fresh and regional ingredients, ORIJEN’s freeze-friendly foods nourish your dog as nature intended. Fresh or raw meats are flash-frozen in nitrogen tunnels to lock in their natural goodness, before an 18-hour freeze-drying process takes place, which removes water and leaves behind all the richly nourishing nutrients and delicious taste of our authentic fresh regional ingredients.

Best of all, the lighter, easy to transport bags make them exceptionally practical for travelling. There are 20 nutritious and delicious servings for an 11lb dog in each 454g bag.

ORIJEN Adult Dog Freeze Dried
Containing cage-free chicken and turkey, herring, northern walleye, nest-laid eggs, fruits and vegetables, Freeze Dried ORIJEN Adult Dog is totally fresh and preservative-free.

ORIJEN Tundra Freeze Dried
Packed with fresh venison, bison, elk, free-run duck, quail and steelhead trout, Tundra also boasts smaller amounts of fruit, vegetables and grasses. Tundra provides a natural source of virtually every nutrient your dog needs.

ORIJEN Regional Red Freeze Dried
Bursting with Angus beef, wild boar, lamb, heritage pork and bison, ORIJEN Regional Red Freeze Dried mirrors the natural diet that dogs are biologically adapted to thrive on.

We’re excited to announce we’ve just launched ORIJEN Tundra for cats. ORIJEN Tundra follows the Biologically Appropriate™ concept that award-winning ORIJEN formulations are renowned for. Made with authentically fresh regional ingredients inspired by the Tundra region. Mirroring Mother Nature, ORIJEN Tundra features unmatched inclusions of nourishing WholePrey™ ratios that reduce the need for synthetic additives in our foods. ORIJEN Tundra is bursting with 85% meat, game and fish ingredients, the remaining contains 15% fruit, vegetables & botanicals.
ORIJEN Tundra for cats is available in 340g and 1.8kg bags with a SRP £6.45 & £36.49 respectively. Find out more here.

ORIJEN Tundra is brimming with fresh Boer Goat, Wild Boar, Venison, Arctic Char, free-run Duck & Mutton. ORIJEN provides a natural source of virtually every nutrient your cat needs to thrive. Featuring 40% richly nourishing protein, and a limited 18% low-glycaemic carbohydrates, ORIJEN nourishes all cats and kittens according to their evolutionary and biological needs.

Why Choose ORIJEN?

• 85% MEAT INCLUSIONS | meat, game and fish ingredients
• 2/3 FRESH OR RAW | unmatched by any other food, 2/3 of meats are FRESH or RAW
• 1/3 GENTLY DEHYDRATED | to lock in goodness and taste
• WHOLEPREY™ RATIOS OF FRESH MEATS | includes muscle meat, organs, and cartilage
• BIOLOGICALLY APPROPRIATE™ | for all life stages

BIOLOGICALLY APPROPRIATE™ | For all life stages

Bern Pet Foods have launched ORIJEN’s brand-new product, ORIJEN Tundra for cats. ORIJEN Tundra follows the Biologically Appropriate™ concept that award-winning ORIJEN formulations are renowned for. Made with authentically fresh regional ingredients inspired by the Tundra region. Mirroring Mother Nature, ORIJEN Tundra features unmatched inclusions of nourishing WholePrey™ ratios that reduce the need for synthetic additives in ORIJEN pet foods. ORIJEN Tundra is bursting with 85% meat, game and fish ingredients, the remaining contains 15% fruit, vegetables & botanicals.

ORIJEN Tundra is brimming with fresh Boer Goat, Wild Boar, Venison, Arctic Char, free-run Duck & Mutton. ORIJEN provides a natural source of virtually every nutrient a cat needs to thrive. Featuring 40% richly nourishing protein, and a limited 18% low-glycaemic carbohydrates, ORIJEN nourishes all cats and kittens according to their evolutionary and biological needs.
Produced by Champion Pet Foods and distributed by Bern Pet Foods in the UK and Ireland, ORIJEN pet foods are prepared to Biologically Appropriate™ and fresh regional ingredients standards.

ORIJEN Tundra for cats is available in 340g and 1.8kg bags with an SRP £6.45 & £36.49 respectively. For more information please contact Bern Pet Foods on 01737 767679 or email sales@BernPetFoods.co.uk.

We’re very pleased to announce that our new ORIJEN ambassador is Elsa the Lhasa Apso! Elsa is fun loving and full of energy – she loves treats and her favourite food is ORIJEN Fit & Trim which has 85% meat inclusions, two-thirds of which is fresh or raw, to support lean muscle mass and mirror the richness, freshness and variety of meats that she would naturally hunt in the wild. We are looking forward to working with Elsa and following her adventures.

You can keep up to date with Elsa too, follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

28^th March 2018, Reigate, Surrey: Bern Pet Foods, the exclusive importers and distributors of ORIJEN & ACANA pet foods, today announces that, after a nationwide search, Elsa the Lhasa Apso has become ORIJEN’s new ambassador.

Elsa, who charmed judges with her huge personality and independent nature, beat off a number of other dogs to be crowned ORIJEN’s UK canine ambassador. Entrants either showed photos of their dogs or brought them in person to the ORIJEN stand at Crufts 2018.

Colin Rodger, Director at Bern Pet Foods says: “We were overwhelmed by the response we had at Crufts, hearing from so many owners who told us about their amazing pets.  The ORIJEN team chose Elsa because she represents everything that we treasure in family dogs – she is playful, busy, very affectionate and loves people. We’re thrilled that she will be joining the ORIJEN pack, alongside the wonderful working dogs that we feed and support.”

Colin continued: “The ORIJEN family now perfectly reflects the wonderful diversity of lifestyles, breeds and backgrounds of all the cats and dogs we feed and nurture in the UK. We can’t wait to start working with Elsa!”

Elsa has enhanced owner Kelly and her husband’s lives since joining them as a puppy in 2014. Consequently, Kelly started the web site ‘Paws Across Britain’, a collection of all the UK dog friendly venues, people and dog-related things that Kelly loves. Kelly and Elsa are always out and about, enjoying dog-friendly places and activities.

Elsa’s favourite food is ORIJEN Fit and Trim, which has 85% meat inclusions, two-thirds of which is fresh or raw, to support lean muscle mass and mirror the richness, freshness and variety of meats that she would naturally hunt in the wild.

Protein-rich and carbohydrate-limited, ORIJEN features the highest fresh meat inclusions of any dry dog or cat food. Produced by Champion Petfoods and distributed by Bern Pet Foods in the UK and Ireland, ORIJEN pet foods are prepared to Biologically Appropriate™ and fresh regional ingredients standards.

28^th March 2018, Reigate, Surrey: Bern Pet Foods, the exclusive importers and distributors of ORIJEN & ACANA pet foods, today announces that, after a nationwide search, Elsa the Lhasa Apso has become ORIJEN’s new ambassador.

Elsa, who charmed judges with her huge personality and independent nature, beat off a number of other dogs to be crowned ORIJEN’s UK canine ambassador. Entrants either showed photos of their dogs or brought them in person to the ORIJEN stand at Crufts 2018.

Colin Rodger, Director at Bern Pet Foods says: “We were overwhelmed by the response we had at Crufts, hearing from so many owners who told us about their amazing pets.  The ORIJEN team chose Elsa because she represents everything that we treasure in family dogs – she is playful, busy, very affectionate and loves people. We’re thrilled that she will be joining the ORIJEN pack, alongside the wonderful working dogs that we feed and support.”

Colin continued: “The ORIJEN family now perfectly reflects the wonderful diversity of lifestyles, breeds and backgrounds of all the cats and dogs we feed and nurture in the UK. We can’t wait to start working with Elsa!”

Elsa has enhanced owner Kelly and her husband’s lives since joining them as a puppy in 2014. Consequently, Kelly started the web site ‘Paws Across Britain’, a collection of all the UK dog friendly venues, people and dog-related things that Kelly loves. Kelly and Elsa are always out and about, enjoying dog-friendly places and activities.

Elsa’s favourite food is ORIJEN Fit and Trim, which has 85% meat inclusions, two-thirds of which is fresh or raw, to support lean muscle mass and mirror the richness, freshness and variety of meats that she would naturally hunt in the wild.

Protein-rich and carbohydrate-limited, ORIJEN features the highest fresh meat inclusions of any dry dog or cat food. Produced by Champion Petfoods and distributed by Bern Pet Foods in the UK and Ireland, ORIJEN pet foods are prepared to Biologically Appropriate™ and fresh regional ingredients standards.

A huge thank you to everyone who came and visited us at Crufts 2018, we had a fantastic time! We were joined by so many amazing people and dogs, we loved meeting all of you!

A huge thank you to all our guests on the stand, on Thursday we were joined by Keith Burns and Hood who is a working prison dog from the Isle of Man. Kai and Cara visited the stand who were joined by owners, Mat Dixon (Kai) and Mick Attwood (Cara). Kai is part of the Search Dog Team for West Midlands Fire service. Cara is the Urban Search and Rescue Dog for Midlands Fire service, Cara and Mick are part of the Technical Rescue Unit.

Max & Paddy blew us away on Friday and Saturday along with owner Kerry, we had so many people come and see the bouncy boys including Radzi from Blue Peter. It was a lot of fun, Max & Paddy were worn out by the end of it but it was amazing to see so many smiling faces and wagging tails!

To finish up Crufts on the Sunday Laura Hill & Moose from the Stauntonvale Gundogs came on the stand. Laura showed us his training skills and Moose enjoyed all the tasty ORIJEN & ACANA treats.

It was a great show and we loved every minute of it, can’t wait for next year!

We also want to thank everyone who entered our Crufts competition to win a year’s supply of ORIJEN Original! We are very excited to announce the winner is Celine Sanders! The four runners up who win a 2kg bag of ORIJEN Original are… Zoe Adey, Lynda Hewett, Louise Berry and Shirley Jones! Congratulations everyone.