Orijen Puppy review | The Dog Verse

Orijen · Puppy · Dry food · All life stages

95 / 100Our label score

★★★★★5 of 5 stars, from the score

38%Crude protein (min)

475kcal per cup

0FDA recall events for the brand

On the facts printed on its own label, Orijen Puppy scores 95 out of 100 on our rubric: top of the range we have scored. The panel opens with Chicken, and the first ingredient signal earns 20 of its 20 points. At 38% crude protein it ranks 11 of the 44 Orijen recipes we scored for protein. Crude fat reads 20%.

At 475 kcal a cup it is calorie dense: small measuring errors become extra meals over a month, so this is a food to weigh rather than eyeball. Legumes appear on 6 separate lines of the panel (whole red lentils, whole pinto beans, whole navy beans, whole green lentils and more). Read together they would sit higher in the order than any one of them does alone, and they carry part of the protein figure with them. Its adequacy claim rests on formulation: balanced on paper against the AAFCO nutrient profiles rather than fed to dogs in a trial. Our November 2026 check of FDA records found no posted dog food recall events for Orijen.

The panel runs to 51 ingredient lines. 15 of them are animal source lines and 15 are plant lines. The first added fat appears at line 13, so 12 lines sit ahead of it in the recipe by weight. Salt appears at line 24 of 51: ingredients listed after salt are present in small amounts, a standard reading aid for long panels. The vitamin and mineral pack begins around line 25; the 27 lines from there on are mostly supplements, preservatives and functional extras rather than staple foods.

Panel for panel, this is the same recipe as Original, sold as Dry food: the ingredient lines match. What actually differs is the calorie line. Between the two, choose on format and on the size of dog in front of you, not on the ingredient list, because the lists are the same list.

The label facts

Maker	Champion Petfoods
Format	Dry food
Life stage	All life stages
Full ingredient list, in label order	Chicken turkey chicken liver salmon whole herring dehydrated chicken dehydrated turkey dehydrated sardine dehydrated chicken liver dehydrated egg whole red lentils whole pinto beans chicken fat pollock oil whole navy beans whole green lentils whole chickpeas whole peas turkey giblets (liver, heart, gizzard) eggs natural chicken flavor dried apple pomace chicken heart salt vitamin E supplement whole pumpkin whole butternut squash collard greens whole pears whole apples whole cranberries dried kelp zinc proteinate mixed tocopherols (preservative) niacin thiamine mononitrate calcium pantothenate pyridoxine hydrochloride riboflavin folic acid vitamin B12 supplement copper proteinate dried Bacillus coagulans fermentation product dried chicory root turmeric sarsaparilla root althea root rosehips juniper berries citric acid (preservative) rosemary extract
Guaranteed analysis	Crude protein (min) 38% · crude fat (min) 20% · crude fibre (max) 6% · moisture (max) 12%
Dry matter reading	With the water taken out, the same analysis reads 43.2% protein and 22.7% fat. Dry matter is how wet and dry foods can be compared fairly.
Calories	3,960 kcal/kg, 475 kcal/cup, as labelled
AAFCO adequacy	ORIJEN Puppy Dog Food is formulated to meet the nutritional levels established by the AAFCO Dog Food Nutrient Profiles for All Life Stages, including growth of large size dogs (70 lb. or more as an adult).
Price	Not listed. We publish a price only when we have verified it from a dated listing, and we had not for this recipe when the label was read.

How the score breaks down

Signal	Points	What the label shows
First ingredient	20 / 20	Chicken, a named whole animal protein, opens the panel.
Animal protein depth, first 10 ingredients	15 / 15	10 of the first ten ingredients are named animal ingredients.
Protein level for the life stage	15 / 15	Crude protein reads 38% as labelled, read against the all life stages stage the label claims.
Fat level fit	7 / 10	Crude fat reads 20% as labelled.
Whole foods versus filler-flagged ingredients	10 / 10	None of the rubric's flagged ingredients appears in the first ten.
Artificial colours and preservatives	10 / 10	No artificial colours, colour-retention chemicals or artificial preservatives appear in the panel.
AAFCO adequacy basis	8 / 10	Formulated to meet AAFCO profiles for all life stages, including growth of large size dogs.
FDA recall history	10 / 10	No FDA posted dog food recall events for this brand were found in our November 2026 check.
Price tier	Not scored	Not scored in this round. We publish a price only when we have verified it from a dated listing.
Total	95 / 100	Scaled from 95 of 100 available points. Stars are the score divided by 20, rounded to the nearest half. The method is published in full on the dog food hub.

Ingredient notes: the first ten, one by one

Definitions below are written from AAFCO's ingredient definitions in our own words. They describe what an ingredient is, never what a brand claims about it.

Chicken. Chicken is the named meat in fresh form. Panel order is set by weight before cooking, and fresh meat is mostly water, so its share of the finished food is smaller than its place at the top suggests.
turkey. turkey is the named meat in fresh form. Panel order is set by weight before cooking, and fresh meat is mostly water, so its share of the finished food is smaller than its place at the top suggests.
chicken liver. chicken liver is organ tissue from a named animal. Organs are dense in vitamins, minerals and amino acids, and they are a normal part of what a dog is built to eat.
salmon. salmon is a named fish, bringing animal protein and, in oily species, omega 3 fats. Fish first panels suit dogs that react to land meats.
whole herring. whole herring is a named fish, bringing animal protein and, in oily species, omega 3 fats. Fish first panels suit dogs that react to land meats.
dehydrated chicken. dehydrated chicken has already had its water taken out before it is weighed in, so a kilo of it stands for several kilos of the fresh meat. It is one of the most protein dense forms an ingredient can take.
dehydrated turkey. dehydrated turkey has already had its water taken out before it is weighed in, so a kilo of it stands for several kilos of the fresh meat. It is one of the most protein dense forms an ingredient can take.
dehydrated sardine. dehydrated sardine has already had its water taken out before it is weighed in, so a kilo of it stands for several kilos of the fresh meat. It is one of the most protein dense forms an ingredient can take.
dehydrated chicken liver. dehydrated chicken liver has already had its water taken out before it is weighed in, so a kilo of it stands for several kilos of the fresh meat. It is one of the most protein dense forms an ingredient can take.
dehydrated egg. dehydrated egg has already had its water taken out before it is weighed in, so a kilo of it stands for several kilos of the fresh meat. It is one of the most protein dense forms an ingredient can take.

One pattern to see whole: legumes appear on 6 lines of this panel. Makers split one plant family across several named forms (whole, protein, starch, fibre), and each form is legal on its own line. Read as a family, they would rank higher in the order than any one line does.

Who it suits

Active, lean dogs that burn through protein and hold weight easily
Homes that want one bag to cover a puppy and an adult dog together
Owners who want a named whole meat, not a meal or a plant, at the top of the panel

Who should skip it

Dogs that gain weight easily, unless every portion is weighed
Owners who prefer a panel where meat, not legumes, does most of the protein work
Owners who specifically want a food proven in feeding trials rather than by formulation

The brand's recall record

No FDA posted dog food recall events for this brand were found in our November 2026 check of FDA recall records. That is a statement about what we could verify, not proof of a perfect history.

See the full dog food recall tracker for recent events across all brands.

Other Orijen recipes we scored

Recipe	Score / 100	Protein	Format
Original	98	38%	Dry food
Six Fish	98	40%	Dry food
Regional Red	98	38%	Dry food
Tundra	98	40%	Dry food
Puppy Large	98	38%	Dry food
Small Breed	98	38%	Dry food
Amazing Grains Original	98	38%	Dry food
Amazing Grains Regional Red	98	38%	Dry food
Amazing Grains Puppy Large	98	38%	Dry food
Wild Reserve Free-Run Chicken	98	38%	Dry food
Wild Reserve Free-Run Chicken & Grain	98	38%	Dry food
Wild Reserve Wild-Caught Fish	98	40%	Dry food

Those are the twelve highest scoring of the 43 other Orijen recipes we scored. The full comparison, flagship review included, is on the Orijen brand review.

Feeding it

Switch foods gradually over about a week, mixing more of the new food into the old each day. Portion by calories, not by the look of the bowl: our feeding calculator works out a daily amount from your dog's weight, and this recipe's calorie line above is the number it needs.

What that means at the bowl, for a typical neutered adult (resting energy 70 times body weight to the power 0.75, times 1.6; treats come out of the same budget):

Dog's weight	Daily energy	Of this recipe, at 475 kcal a cup
3 kg	about 255 kcal	about 0.5 cups
10 kg	about 630 kcal	about 1.3 cups
20 kg	about 1,059 kcal	about 2.2 cups
30 kg	about 1,436 kcal	about 3.0 cups

Puppies, pregnant dogs and very active dogs need more; older and weight watching dogs need less. The calculator linked above adjusts for those cases.

Orijen Puppy: our recipe review