Orijen

Orijen Small Breed Puppy review

Name: Orijen Small Breed Puppy
Brand: Orijen

78.5/100Excellent

DryPuppy

The brand's meat-led idea shrunk to fit a small puppy, and it sits in our Excellent band. The label spreads its animal content across a dozen entries, fresh, raw and dehydrated, and the dried ones count for most. Calcium is printed, converting to 1.48% of dry matter.

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Our view

Likely to suit

Small breed puppies, the one size it is labelled for
Little pups with large appetites: 400 kcal per 100g against 376 for a typical puppy dry food
Owners who want the calcium line printed
Grain-free feeding, with pulses in the starch role
Pups who enjoy fish. Raw salmon, whole hake and herring all feature

Worth watching

Eight animal sources from chicken to green mussel, so no single-protein or fish-free plan
Salt on the list, if your vet has asked you to watch sodium
Ash at 10.2% of dry matter, more mineral than the same dog needs once grown

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

How this scores

How we score

78.5/100Excellent

Protein and processingExcellent

Nutritional balanceOutstanding

TransparencyOutstanding

ValueExcellent

The details

Dog fit

Listed for small breed puppies. Start from the maker's chart and let your pup's shape correct it, as no daily amount stays fixed while a dog is growing.

Food type

Dry

Life stage

Puppy

Breed size

Small

Main protein

Chicken

The score, in context

Orijen Small Breed Puppy 78.5

All one Excellent. Typical dry food: Good.

Animal from the first entry to the thirteenth, with a strong set of readings all the way across.

What's in it

Fresh chicken18%
Raw salmon12%A generous fish share for a small pup's skin and coat.
Raw turkey10%
Raw hake, raw herring, turkey liver, chicken giblets, fresh eggs4% eachFresh and raw, so mostly water before cooking.
Dehydrated turkey, chicken, herring, chicken liver, egg4% eachTheir water has already gone, so these count for most.
Lentils, pinto beans, navy beans, chickpeas, peasThe starch, with fibre, B vitamins, iron and zinc. No grain.
Chicken fat3%
Pollock oil, raw New Zealand green mussels2% oilGreen mussel is a natural source of the compounds joint supplements are built around.
Lentil fibre, dried kelp, squash, pumpkin, salt, chicory rootSalt is the one entry purely for flavour, well down the list.
Fruit, greens, berries and herbsApples to courgette to rosehips, in small measures. It reads well; the nutrition was settled long before.

The most generous vitamin panel of the brand's puppy recipes, a full B-vitamin run with zinc at 120mg, and a live Enterococcus faecium culture.

Calcium is printed at 1.48% of dry matter, useful when deciding how long to keep a small pup on growth food.

Named ingredients

Fresh chicken (18%), raw salmon (12%), raw turkey (10%), raw whole hake (4%), raw whole herring (4%), raw turkey liver (4%), fresh chicken giblets (liver, heart) (4%), fresh eggs (4%), dehydrated turkey (4%), dehydrated chicken (4%), dehydrated herring (4%), dehydrated chicken liver (4%), dehydrated egg (4%), whole red lentils, whole pinto beans, chicken fat (3%), whole green lentils, whole navy beans, whole chickpeas, whole peas, pollock oil (2%), lentil fibre, raw New Zealand green mussels, dried kelp, fresh whole butternut squash, fresh whole pumpkin, salt, dried chicory root, fresh whole apples, fresh whole carrots, fresh whole pears, fresh whole zucchini, 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.

Against the range

One recipe. The first thirteen entries are all animal, a dozen of them at about 4% each behind fresh chicken and raw salmon. Lentils, beans, chickpeas and peas carry the starch with no grain, so carbohydrate lands at 19.4% of dry matter and protein at 43.2%.

Nutritional analysis

Declared analysis

Energy

400 kcal/100g

Protein

38%

Fat

20%

Fibre

Ash

Moisture

12%

Dry weight

Protein

43.2%

Fat

22.7%

Fibre

4.5%

Ash

10.2%

Carbs

19.4%

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

76.3%

Carbs

14.5%

Veg

0.3%

Oils

Other

Pricing & size