Orijen Small Breed 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 turkey (19%), fresh chicken (18.5%), raw quail (4%), 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, whole green lentils, chicken fat (3%), whole navy beans, whole chickpeas, lentil fibre, whole peas, pollock oil (0.5%), pea starch, dried kelp, New Zealand green mussels, fresh whole butternut squash, fresh whole pumpkin, salt, fresh whole apples, fresh whole carrots, fresh whole pears, fresh whole zucchini, dried chicory root, 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.

This one is poultry led, with raw turkey at 19% and fresh chicken at 18.5% at the front and raw quail at 4% adding a bird most kibbles never go near. Organ meat is well represented through raw turkey liver, fresh chicken giblets and dehydrated chicken liver, hake and herring bring a smaller marine share, and fresh and dehydrated egg add more protein again. Pollock oil at 0.5% carries the omega 3s. This one is richer, at 18% fat and 390 kcal per 100g, with calcium working out at 1.59% of dry matter. Only this one of the pair has a label covering puppies and seniors alongside adults.

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.