Orijen take as their premise that your dog is still, at heart, a wolf and therefore ought to be fed as a wolf. For this reason they label their food as Biologically Appropriate and it will appeal to those who have been feeding the Raw Food diet and fancy something a little easier to use!
There is a range of foods for all ages, though at a high cost because of the ingredients used.
There has been research recently that questions the idea of the domestic dog needing to be fed an ancestral diet, as their digestion has evolved over centuries of breeding and domestication to be able to digest the food that humans eat. Putting it simply, the successful wolves in the early days of human development were those who put aside their fear and began eating the scraps of food that humans discarded, lived close to human settlements and later more fully embraced the developing relationship between human and canine!
Orijen recipes are high in meat content, so high protein. They are also low carbohydrate, fitting in with the principles of BARF and raw feeding!
Pack size has been reduced from 13kg to a strange 11.4kg which makes comparisons more difficult without a calculator! But at around £65 - 75 for a bag it is a very expensive outlay compared to more traditional natural or even grain-free foods (equivalent of £69 - £79 for a more common 12kg bag)
Based not just on quality of ingredients, but if it seems to offer value for money!
Fresh chicken meat (11%), fresh turkey meat (7%), fresh whole eggs (6%), fresh whole herring (6%), fresh chicken liver (5%), fresh whole flounder (5%), fresh turkey liver (5%), fresh chicken heart (4%), fresh turkey heart (4%), fresh chicken necks (4%), chicken (dehydrated, 4%), turkey (dehydrated, 4%), whole mackerel (dehydrated, 4%), whole sardine (dehydrated, 4%), whole herring (dehydrated, 4%), chicken fat (4%), herring oil (2%), whole red lentils, whole green peas, whole green lentils, whole chickpeas, whole yellow peas, lentil fiber, whole pinto beans, whole navy beans, chicken bone and cartilage (1%), chicken liver (freeze-dried), turkey liver (freeze-dried), fresh whole pumpkin, fresh whole butternut squash, fresh whole zucchini, fresh whole parsnips, fresh carrots, fresh whole red delicious apples, fresh whole bartlett pears, fresh kale, fresh spinach, fresh beet greens, fresh turnip greens, brown kelp, whole cranberries, whole blueberries, whole saskatoon berries, chicory root, turmeric root, milk thistle, burdock root, lavender, marshmallow root, rosehips, enterococcus faecium.
Protein 38%, Fat 20%
Fresh chicken meat (13%), fresh turkey meat (7%), fresh whole eggs (7%), fresh chicken liver (6%), fresh whole herring (6%), fresh whole flounder (5%), fresh turkey liver (5%), fresh chicken necks (4%), fresh chicken heart (4%), fresh turkey heart (4%), chicken (dehydrated, 4%), turkey (dehydrated, 4%), whole mackerel (dehydrated, 4%), whole sardine (dehydrated, 4%), whole herring (dehydrated, 4%), whole red lentils, whole green lentils, whole green peas, lentil fiber, whole chickpeas, whole yellow peas, whole pinto beans, whole navy beans, herring oil (1%), chicken fat (1%), chicken cartilage (1%), chicken liver (freeze-dried), turkey liver (freeze-dried), fresh whole pumpkin, fresh whole butternut squash, fresh whole zucchini, fresh whole parsnips, fresh carrots, fresh whole red delicious apples, fresh whole bartlett pears, fresh kale, fresh spinach, fresh beet greens, fresh turnip greens, brown kelp, whole cranberries, whole blueberries, whole saskatoon berries, chicory root, turmeric root, milk thistle, burdock root, lavender, marshmallow root, rosehips, enterococcus faecium.
Protein 38, Fat 18%, Fibre 5%