Update: OK so far my experiments have been somewhat inconclusive, but he is *definitely* feeling much, much better so I must be on to something. I tried him on Honest Kitchen with turkey necks for each meal for 3 days, and wasn't sure about the results. He didn't seem to feel horrible, like he does sometimes, but was maybe a little lower than he had been before on just the Honest Kitchen. Maybe he has some small issues trying to digest a lot of bone? Whatever it was, it was pretty minor though.

Then we went back to just Honest Kitchen for a few days and he seemed to perk back up to a slightly higher level, and then slowly mellowed out. I gave him some EVO red meat kibble and he perked up with more energy, so maybe he needs more red meat.

About 10 days ago, I gave him an egg with his HK. I'm not always sure what's the cause and effect of what I see in his behavior, but it seemed like he was down for about 3-4 days afterwards. I'm starting to wonder if he gets headaches from the chicken. I mean, it's possible, right? His behavior seems like that - his face gets kind of drawn back a little and the skin is tighter. He's more sensitive to things, less confident, more fearful, and more easily distracted. He'll have less energy and is sort of "out of it", in a general, mild, malaise kind of way. It's almost like he gets migraines or something from the chicken.

The past few days, since the egg wore off (if that's even what the problem was), he's been all full of steam. Today we had our best agility practice ever, by far. He's been eating Honest Kitchen Verve with a turkey neck at night, and either EVO red meat kibble or Honest Kitchen Keen for breakfast. I'm going to start adding back in some ground beef, while keeping the RMB in only one meal per day rather than both for a while. We'll see how that goes -

It's a big mystery, but it's *really* nice to see him feeling so much better.

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On another note, has anyone on here ever tried the Orijen "regional red" kibble? As far as kibbles go, that seems to be one of the best ones out there, but I can't get it around here. I'm still working towards 100% raw, but I've got to get a handle on this first.

Just curious Matt, have you ever had the vet do a blood panel to see what that looks like and if there are any type of deficiencies?

I was just trying to think that maybe it would be visible in the blood work, and then you would know what your dealing with.

It is just a suggestion, something to think about.
Glad to hear that he is doing better. I really hope you find out the mystery. Keep us posted on future changes, I wish you all the best with your dog.

He had a standard blood panel recently and they apparently didn't see anything unusual. We were thinking he might have a thyroid issue, but it wasn't that -

I fed the "Regional Red" for a bit.
As far as kibbles go, I'm a fan. At least, until the changeover with the companies is final.

 Quote: aaron myracle

I fed the "Regional Red" for a bit.
As far as kibbles go, I'm a fan. At least, until the changeover with the companies is final.

Please tell me Orijen hasn't been taken over by a corporate giant, too???