Orijen Small Breed: Marine Fish review

Both recipes reach our Excellent band, a step clear of the Good band that adult dry food typically settles in. The gap between the pair is narrow, and it is a matter of construction, with quality level across both. The fish bag runs leaner and keeps every animal ingredient inside one family, while the poultry bag carries more fat and a wider spread of species. Pick whichever your dog gets on with and let the small edge between them go.

Ingredients, as declared: Raw salmon (17%), raw whole herring (16%), raw flounder (7%), raw whole hake (6%), raw whole rockfish (6%), raw whole sole (6%), dehydrated herring (5%), dehydrated sardine (5%), dehydrated pollock (5%), dehydrated mackerel (5%), dehydrated blue whiting (5%), whole red lentils, whole peas, whole chickpeas, whole green lentils, lentil fibre, whole pinto beans, sunflower oil, herring oil (2%), whole navy beans, raw New Zealand green mussels, dried kelp, fresh whole butternut squash, fresh whole pumpkin, dried chicory root, fresh whole apples, fresh whole carrots, fresh whole pears, fresh whole zucchini, mojave yucca, fresh beet greens, fresh kale, fresh spinach, fresh turnip greens, whole cranberries, whole blueberries, whole saskatoon berries, turmeric, milk thistle, burdock root, lavender, marshmallow root, rosehips.

Both labels load the animal content at the front, and both name each species outright. Raw and fresh meat leads in each case. Fresh meat leaves most of its water behind in the oven, and the dried entries that follow end up carrying more of the kibble than their percentages let on. The analysis follows the construction. Protein converts to 45.5% of dry matter on the fish side and 44.3% on the poultry side, and estimated carbohydrate lands at 21.6% and 20.5% against 46.2% for adult dry food generally.

Both bags take their starch from legumes, not grain: peas and chickpeas, whole red and green lentils, then pinto and navy beans, and lentil fibre sits alongside them. Whole pulses bring their own protein and fibre with the starch. That is a good part of why the carbohydrate figures land as low as they do. Dried chicory root appears on both lists as the prebiotic, an inulin source the gut's friendly bacteria put to work.

New Zealand green mussels turn up on both labels, an unusual entry and a deliberate one, since that shellfish is a traditional choice for joint support. Dried kelp adds iodine and trace minerals. The fruit and vegetable tail runs from pumpkin and butternut squash through apples, carrots and pears to courgette, all of it used whole. Whole fruit on a label is the more honest way to do it.

The fats are named in both recipes, with no generic oil to hide behind, and a careful label reader will want exactly that. A marine oil carries the long-chain omega 3s in each bag. Copper is dosed at 11 mg per kilo in both, and zinc is declared with a figure against it in both. The fats are kept from turning by tocopherols and rosemary extract, and no synthetic preservative is needed. Enterococcus faecium appears on each as the named live culture.

The last stretch of each list runs from cranberries, blueberries and saskatoon berries through turmeric, milk thistle and burdock root, down to lavender and rosehips. Trace level is where all of it sits, and it is flourish more than function. Neither recipe needs it. Both stand on the animal content stacked at the top of the label, which is where you want a food's weight to be.

Every animal ingredient in this one is a fish. Raw salmon at 17% and raw whole herring at 16% lead, with flounder at 7% and hake, rockfish and sole at 6% each behind them. Then comes a dried tier of herring, sardine, pollock, mackerel and blue whiting at 5% apiece. Ten fish are named in total, plus New Zealand green mussels, and the added oils are sunflower and herring, so no land animal appears anywhere on the list. A dog kept off poultry and red meat has an easy choice here, and it is a rare thing to find in a small breed bag. Protein is declared at 40% and fat at 15%, the leaner of the pair, and the label covers adults only.

The fish recipe is £12.89 a kilo and the poultry one £12.22, and both are sold in 1.8kg and 4.5kg bags.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would eat about 226 grams a day of the fish recipe and 215 grams of the poultry one. That assumes around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate), and comes to £2.92 and £2.63 a day respectively. A small dog eats a fraction of that. The label's less active table asks 45 to 60 grams a day for a 4kg to 5kg dog on the fish recipe, and 45 to 48 grams on the poultry one.