Orijen Small Breed Puppy review

Orijen · Small Breed Puppy · Dry food · All life stages

95 / 100Our label score

★★★★★5 of 5 stars, from the score

38%Crude protein (min)

494kcal per cup

0FDA recall events for the brand

On the facts printed on its own label, Orijen Small Breed 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 14 of the 44 Orijen recipes we scored for protein. Crude fat reads 19%.

At 494 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 green lentils, whole navy beans 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 58 ingredient lines. 14 of them are animal source lines and 20 are plant lines. The first added fat appears at line 16, so 15 lines sit ahead of it in the recipe by weight. Salt appears at line 29 of 58: ingredients listed after salt are present in small amounts, a standard reading aid for long panels. The vitamin and mineral pack begins around line 28; the 31 lines from there on are mostly supplements, preservatives and functional extras rather than staple foods.

Its closest relative in this brand is Wild Reserve Free-Run Chicken, sold as Dry food: the two panels share most of their ingredients. In the first ten, this recipe has whole whiting, haddock, dehydrated herring, where its relative has whole herring, chicken giblets (liver, heart, gizzard), dehydrated sardine. The full comparison is on the relative's own review page.

The label facts

Maker	Champion Petfoods
Format	Dry food
Life stage	All life stages
Full ingredient list, in label order	Chicken salmon turkey whole whiting haddock dehydrated turkey dehydrated chicken dehydrated herring dehydrated chicken liver dehydrated egg whole red lentils whole pinto beans chicken giblets (liver, heart, gizzard) eggs turkey giblets (liver, heart, gizzard) chicken fat whole green lentils whole navy beans whole chickpeas whole peas natural chicken flavor pollock oil dried apple pomace New Zealand green mussels dried kelp whole butternut squash whole pumpkin vitamin E supplement salt zinc proteinate mixed tocopherols (preservative) whole apples whole carrots whole pears whole zucchini thiamine mononitrate niacin riboflavin calcium pantothenate pyridoxine hydrochloride folic acid vitamin B12 supplement copper proteinate beet greens kale spinach turnip greens whole cranberries whole blueberries dried chicory root turmeric sarsaparilla root althea root rosehips juniper berries dried Bacillus coagulans fermentation product citric acid (preservative) rosemary extract
Guaranteed analysis	Crude protein (min) 38% · crude fat (min) 19% · moisture (max) 12%
Dry matter reading	With the water taken out, the same analysis reads 43.2% protein and 21.6% fat. Dry matter is how wet and dry foods can be compared fairly.
Calories	494 kcal/cup, as labelled
AAFCO adequacy	Calories per cup†: 494, 1 cup (8oz standard measuring cup) = 125g \| From: Protein: 193, Fat 212, Carbohydrate 89 ORIJEN™ Small Breed Puppy Complete Puppy Food is formulated to meet the nutritional levels established by the AAFCO Dog Food Nutrient Profiles for All Life Stages, except for 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	9 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 19% 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. Names that appear in our ingredient dictionary link to it; the dictionary counts how many scored recipes carry each ingredient.

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.
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.
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.
whole whiting. whole whiting sits on the panel as a functional ingredient: a binder, supplement or processing aid rather than a nutrient base.
haddock. haddock is a named animal protein in fresh form. Panel order is set by weight before cooking, and fresh meat carries a lot of water, so its finished share is smaller than its place suggests.
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 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 herring. dehydrated herring 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 494 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 2.1 cups
30 kg	about 1,436 kcal	about 2.9 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 Small Breed Puppy: our recipe review