Orijen

Orijen Adult: Original review

Name: Orijen Adult: Original
Brand: Orijen

79.6/100Excellent

DryPuppyAdult

Flavour

About as meat-heavy as a dry food gets. Each of the four bags opens on a long run of raw and dehydrated animal ingredients with the percentage printed, and whole pulses stand in for grain. All four sit in our Excellent band, so the choice comes down to which animals your dog does well on.

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Our view

Likely to suit

Poultry, red meat, fish or something wilder. The same construction sits under every bag
Dogs that do best with meat leading the bowl
Keeping a dog off cereal; lentils, chickpeas, peas and beans carry the starch
Working and sporting dogs. Fat is 18.0%, with the calories to match
Rotation feeding, as the four recipes share a shape and change only the animals
Avoiding land meats. The Six Fish is fish and nothing else

Worth watching

Fish is on every label, so no bag here is fish free
Dense kibble. Portions look small, and guesswork tends to go the wrong way
Calcium runs high; only the Original suits a growing large breed

Written by our editorial team. Independent guidance, not veterinary advice.

How this scores

How we score

79.6/100Excellent

Protein and processingExcellent

Nutritional balanceOutstanding

TransparencyOutstanding

ValueExcellent

The details

Dog fit

Listed for puppies, adults and seniors of every size. With a large-breed puppy in the house, check calcium before ordering: only the Original stays inside the range growth wants.

Food type

Dry

Life stage

Puppy, Adult, Senior

Breed size

Toy, Small, Medium, Large, Giant

Main protein

Chicken

The score, in context

Original 79.6
Regional Red 79.0
Six Fish 78.0
Tundra 77.6

All four Excellent. Typical dry food: Good.

The four finish so close together that the animals on the label should decide it.

What's in it

Fresh chicken25%Fresh, so much of that weight is water the oven takes out.
Raw turkey, fresh chicken giblets (liver, heart), raw turkey liver8%, 7%, 5%Organ meat named on the label. Liver brings B vitamins and vitamin A, with copper and selenium alongside.
Raw whole herring, raw whole hake6%, 5%The fish in the poultry recipe.
Fresh eggs5%
Dehydrated chicken, turkey, mackerel, sardine, herring4% eachAlready dry, so they count for more in the finished kibble than their percentages suggest.
Whole red lentils, chickpeas, peas, green lentils, pinto beans, navy beans, lentil fibre, pea starchThe starch, from whole pulses in place of grain. They bring protein and fibre of their own.
Chicken fat, pollock oil3%, 1%
Dried kelp, dried chicory rootChicory is the useful one: its inulin feeds the gut's own bacteria.
Pumpkin, squash, courgette, carrots, apples, pears, kale, spinach, greens, berries
Turmeric, milk thistle, burdock root, lavender, marshmallow root, rosehipsTrace level. They season the bag more than they feed it.

Added per kg: zinc 105 mg, copper 11 mg, vitamin B1 10 mg, vitamin A 3750 IU, vitamin D3 500 IU, vitamin E 80 IU, and a live Enterococcus faecium culture for the gut.

Calcium is 1.59% of dry matter, the only one of the four inside the band a growing large breed needs.

Named ingredients

Fresh chicken (25%), raw turkey (8%), fresh chicken giblets (liver, heart) (7%), raw whole herring (6%), raw whole hake (5%), fresh eggs (5%), raw turkey liver (5%), dehydrated chicken (4%), dehydrated turkey (4%), dehydrated mackerel (4%), dehydrated sardine (4%), dehydrated herring (4%), whole red lentils, whole chickpeas, whole peas, chicken fat (3%), whole green lentils, whole pinto beans, whole navy beans, lentil fibre, pollock oil (1%), pea starch, dried kelp, fresh whole pumpkin, fresh whole butternut squash, fresh whole zucchini, fresh whole carrots, fresh whole apples, fresh whole pears, dried chicory root, fresh kale, fresh spinach, fresh beet greens, fresh turnip greens, whole cranberries, whole blueberries, whole saskatoon berries, turmeric, milk thistle, burdock root, lavender, marshmallow root, rosehips.

Against the range

Meat: Chicken 25%, turkey 8%; Beef, fish or lamb lead the others
Calcium, dry matter: 1.59%; Higher on all three
Smallest bag: 340g; 2kg

For a large-breed puppy, this is the one.

Every recipe opens on a long run of animal ingredients, each with its percentage printed: raw and fresh first, dehydrated behind. Whole lentils, chickpeas, peas and beans carry the starch, and estimated carbohydrate runs from 18.1% to 20.9% of dry matter. Fish is on all four labels. The plant tail is identical across the range, from pumpkin and kale to berries, kelp, chicory and a run of trace herbs.

What changes is the animals, the added fat and the supplement panel. Calcium reads 1.59% of dry matter on the Original and 2.05% on two of the others, and only the Original stays inside the band growth wants. Three of the four carry a live probiotic; the Regional Red does not.

Nutritional analysis

Declared analysis

Energy

386 kcal/100g

Protein

38%

Fat

18%

Fibre

Ash

Moisture

12%

Dry weight

Protein

43.2%

Fat

20.5%

Fibre

5.7%

Ash

10.2%

Carbs

20.4%

As-fed composition

Estimated breakdown of the finished product by ingredient category, from the declared ingredient list and ingoing weights. These are estimates, not measurements.

Meat

76%

Carbs

14.7%

Veg

0.3%

Oils

Other

Pricing & size