Orygo Senior Dry review

Cold pressing is a strong field on our scoring, and this recipe takes a place in our Excellent band, a band above the typical cold-pressed food. Two fresh named animals at the front of the list do most of the earning, helped by a mineral panel that prints real doses rather than a vague nod. What keeps it inside the band, short of climbing above it, is the middle of the label. There an unnamed starch and a carbohydrate content converting to 43.4% of dry matter, almost exactly the 43.2% typical for this format, do the filling work.

Protein and processing reads Excellent, transparency Outstanding and nutritional balance Good, so there is no weak leg here to work around. The important things are done properly here, with a little room left at the top.

Ingredients, as declared: 55% Fresh Chicken (Meat, Liver, Heart), 30% Fresh Fish, Partially Hydrolysed Starch, 4% Legumes (Lentils, Chickpeas), Vegetable Glycerin, 2.6% Orygoformula (Products Resulting from Yeast Fermentation, MOS, Turmeric Longa, Olive Oil, Inulin, Chicory Pulp, Sage, Quinoa, Mint, Fennel, Yucca Mojave, Rosemary, Oregano, Thyme, Valerian, Cranberry Extract, Pomegranate Extract, Milk Thistle, Liquorice, Aloe Vera Without Aloin, Extract Artichoke, Prooil, Egg Membrane, Chondroitin Sulfate and Collagen, Trout Oil 500 mg/kg).

Cold pressing shapes the whole product before any single ingredient matters. Pressure forms the pellets, at temperatures far gentler than conventional kibble is cooked at. That is why so many owners of quick eaters and delicate stomachs seek the format out. You feed it exactly like ordinary dry food, and it stores the same way.

Chicken leads at 55% and is broken down for you into meat, liver and heart, which is more detail than most labels bother with. Liver and other organ meats are where a lot of an animal's micronutrition ends up, so seeing liver named inside the headline percentage is a genuine plus. Fresh fish follows at 30%, bringing the omega fats that oily fish are prized for. Protein converts to 32.9% of dry matter and fat to 12.2%, a moderate, steady sort of analysis rather than a rich one.

The carbohydrate side is where the recipe gets quieter. Partially hydrolysed starch is starch that has been broken down before it reaches the bowl, which makes it easier on digestion, but the plant it came from is not stated. Lentils and chickpeas make up the 4% legume share behind it. They carry starch, and fibre and a good range of minerals with it. Carbohydrate is estimated by difference and converts to 43.4% of dry matter.

Vegetable glycerin is the unusual entry. In a pressed pellet it holds moisture without inviting spoilage, and it tastes mildly sweet, which does no harm at all with a fussy older dog. It sits in the body of the list, not down in the tail, so it earns a proper mention.

Orygoformula is the 2.6% at the end and it is a long, busy list. For an older dog the parts that matter most are the joint group, with chondroitin and collagen alongside egg membrane, plus trout oil declared at 500 mg/kg. Around them sit yeast fermentation products and MOS for the gut. Inulin and chicory pulp act as prebiotic fibre, with olive oil beside them. A herb and fruit tail runs from sage and fennel through cranberry, pomegranate and milk thistle. Two and a half per cent and a little more, shared between that many entries, means the herbs are seasoning and the joint group is the working part.

The vitamin and mineral panel carries printed doses, not just an inline mention, which is the transparency you want when you are comparing labels. At 1.46% of dry matter, calcium reads sensibly for a grown or older dog. The declared energy content of 340 kcal per 100g sits just under the 351 kcal typical of cold-pressed food.

Orygo sells this recipe in 3.6kg boxes and 8kg bags.

A 15kg adult dog in moderate condition needs about 840 kcal a day on the standard maintenance estimate (110 × bodyweight^0.75), which on this food's declared energy content works out at roughly 247 grams. Orygo's own guide for a 20kg dog is 275.4 to 336.6 grams a day.