About ORIJEN
ORIJEN is made by Champion Petfoods, founded in 1985 by Reinhard Muhlenfeld as a small feed mill in Alberta, Canada that branched into pet food as demand for hog feed declined. The company spun off as an independent pet food maker in 2001 and launched the ORIJEN brand in 2005 around a specific idea: formulate food that reflects what dogs and cats would eat in the wild. Champion trademarked the term biologically appropriate for the approach, built on what it calls a WholePrey model that combines meat, organs, cartilage, and bone in ratios meant to mirror a natural prey animal rather than leaning on a single named protein source. ORIJEN is manufactured in Champion's own kitchens in Alberta, Canada and in Kentucky. In 2023, Mars Incorporated completed its acquisition of Champion Petfoods, bringing ORIJEN into a portfolio with substantially larger manufacturing and distribution infrastructure behind it.
The dry cat food lineup includes Original, alongside regional and single-source formulas built on the same WholePrey philosophy, most running grain-free with a high proportion of the recipe coming from animal ingredients rather than plant-protein concentrates. The brand has also expanded into freeze-dried treats and, more recently, a fresh pet food line under the FRESHPREY name. ORIJEN sits at the premium end of the pet food aisle, and its ingredient-density approach is the reason it shows up repeatedly in independent grain-free and high-protein dry cat food comparisons rather than in grocery-store roundups.
Brand website: orijenpetfoods.com
What ORIJEN makes
ORIJEN's range runs wider than the products we review. The lines we know best from our own testing are marked with a star:
Original
WholePrey dry cat food built on chicken, turkey, and fish, formulated for all life stages, one of our top picks — featured on House of Mittens
Regional Red
grain-free dry formula built on red meats including beef, pork, and lamb
Six Fish
grain-free dry formula built on a mix of whole fish sources
Tundra
grain-free formula built around game meats such as wild boar, goat, and venison
Freeze-Dried Treats
single-ingredient and WholePrey-style freeze-dried treats made from raw animal ingredients
FRESHPREY
a newer fresh pet food line extending the WholePrey approach beyond dry kibble
Why we recognized ORIJEN
The House of Mittens Top Brand recognition isn't paid for and can't be applied for. We award it to the brands whose products consistently stand out in our vet-reviewed category guides. ORIJEN earned it on the strength of the products below, evaluated the same way every product on this site is: assessed against feline-health criteria, used with real cats, and judged on merit.
ORIJEN products we rated highly
ORIJEN Original Grain-Free High-Protein Dry Cat Food
In our dry cat food reviews, this formula stood out for its animal-ingredient density: a WholePrey blend of chicken, turkey, and fish that runs roughly 90 percent animal ingredients, with deboned chicken as the first ingredient rather than a grain or plant-protein concentrate. It's grain-free and formulated for all life stages, so a single bag works for kittens and adults in the same household, and it carries a 4.6-star average across nearly 5,000 ratings. It's substantiated by formulation rather than an AAFCO feeding trial, and its richness means some cats benefit from a slower transition onto it.
Read the 9 Best Dry Cat Foods of 2026 guide →What earned ORIJEN the recognition
- Original earned a place in our dry cat food reviews for its WholePrey formulation, a blend of chicken, turkey, and fish that runs close to 90 percent animal ingredients.
- Deboned chicken leads the ingredient list, ahead of named meats and organs rather than plant-protein concentrates or grain fillers.
- Grain-free and formulated for all life stages, letting one formula serve both kittens and adults in a multi-cat, multi-age household.
- A 4.6-star average across nearly 5,000 Amazon ratings on the formula we reviewed.
- Built on Champion Petfoods' trademarked 'biologically appropriate' philosophy, launched in 2005 and now backed by Mars Incorporated's manufacturing and distribution scale following the 2023 acquisition.