Arden Grange Adult Grain Free Superfoods: Lamb review

The verdict is Good for all three varieties, and the typical adult dry food shares that band. They finish within a point of one another, so the meat swap barely moves the needle. The level is set by the shared bones of the recipe: moderate meat, grain-free starch and a properly dosed supplement list.

Ingredients, as declared: Lamb 43% (fresh lamb 23%, lamb meat meal 20%), sweet potato (13%), tapioca, peas, beet pulp, pumpkin, refined chicken oil, yeast, linseed, chicken digest, krill, whole egg, coconut oil (1%), minerals, prebiotic FOS, prebiotic MOS, spirulina (0.1%), chia seeds (0.1%), cranberry extract (500mg/kg), pomegranate extract (500mg/kg), dried blueberries (500 mg/kg), dried mulberries (500mg/kg), dried lingonberries (500mg/kg), dried rosehips (500mg/kg), yucca extract, glucosamine, MSM, chondroitin, nucleotides.

Each recipe declares its meat at 43% and prints the split. The chicken and duck run 23% meal to 20% fresh, while the lamb flips it, 23% fresh to 20% meal. Meal is dried before it arrives, so the protein claim survives the oven. The analysis reads 28% protein, or 30.4% of dry matter, with estimated carbohydrate between 39.1% and 40.2% of dry matter against the 46.2% you would find in the typical adult dry food.

Sweet potato leads the starch at 13 to 19% depending on variety, with tapioca behind it. Tapioca is an effective binder and nothing more, starch with little nutrition attached, so its job here is structural. Peas, beet pulp and pumpkin fill out the plant side.

The superfood dressing is real but modest: spirulina and chia seeds at 0.1%, and blueberry, mulberry, lingonberry, cranberry, pomegranate and rosehip each declared at 500 mg/kg. Printing those amounts is honest labelling; at these levels they are a flourish, and the recipe stands or falls on its meat and starch instead.

The working supplements carry more weight. Taurine, an amino acid found in heart muscle, is dosed at a full gram in every kilo of food. L-carnitine sits alongside it, and the glucosamine, MSM and chondroitin trio runs through every variety. Krill and linseed split the omega duties between marine and plant sources, with coconut oil at 1% for good measure.

Two label quirks to know about. Chicken oil and chicken digest appear in all three recipes, which keeps chicken in every bowl regardless of the meat on the front. And the chicken and duck varieties do not declare moisture, so their dry matter figures here rest on an assumed 8%, the standard for kibble; the lamb declares its own.

Lamb at 43%, the only variety to declare its fresh meat first, 23% fresh against 20% meal. Sweet potato eases back to 13%, moisture is declared on the label so its analysis needs no assumptions, and its pillar readings sit level with the other two.

The chicken comes in 2kg bags, a 4 x 2kg multipack, a 12kg plus 2kg bundle and a 28kg double sack. The duck and lamb are sold in 2kg, 4 x 2kg and 14kg formats, with a twin 14kg option.

Daily servings run from 220 grams on the chicken and duck to 222 grams on the lamb. That comes from our standard maintenance sums, about 840 kcal a day for a 15kg adult in moderate condition (110 × bodyweight^0.75). The label's guide gives 190 to 240 grams for a 15 to 20kg dog.