Arden Grange Sensitive review

Both varieties land in our Good band, level with the typical adult dry food. The two are within a whisker of each other, and the honest label work, printed doses and grain-free construction are common to the pair, so choose between them on protein rather than on standing.

Ingredients, as declared: Fresh venison 26%, sweet potato 17%, potato 16%, pea protein, potato protein, refined chicken oil, beet pulp, yeast, whole egg powder, whole linseed, vegetable stock, dried krill, minerals, citrus extracts (0.1%), (prebiotic) fructooligosaccharides FOS, (prebiotic) mannan-oligosaccharides MOS, dried elderberries (340mg/kg), dried rosehips (230mg/kg), yucca extract, glucosamine, (MSM) methylsulfonylmethane, black pepper (200mg/kg), dried blackcurrants (200mg/kg), dried blackberries (190mg/kg), chondroitin sulphate, dried blueberries (150mg/kg), dried raspberries (150mg/kg), curcumin (100mg/kg), dried cranberries, nucleotides.

Each variety headlines a single named animal protein, fresh venison at 26% in one and ocean white fish at 22% fresh plus 18% as meal in the other. The caveat lives further down the list. Refined chicken oil, whole egg and krill run through both recipes, so the headline meat is not the only animal present, and a strict elimination diet cannot be anchored here.

Sweet potato and potato share the starch in both varieties, with no grain anywhere on either list. Carbohydrate converts to an estimated 44.5% of dry matter in the venison and 45.6% in the fish, both a shade under the 46.2% typical of adult dry food.

The venison recipe leans on pea protein and potato protein to reach its 25% protein declaration. They are refined plant proteins doing arithmetic rather than meat doing nutrition, a common workaround where the lead meat is hard to use generously.

The berry and botanical tail is unusually well documented. Elderberries come in at 340mg/kg and rosehips at 230mg/kg, with black pepper and blackcurrants at 200mg/kg. Blackberries are at 190mg/kg. Blueberries and raspberries share 150mg/kg, and curcumin closes at 100mg/kg. Printed doses are good manners, though everything here still sits at seasoning level.

Beet pulp and yucca extract carry over from the rest of the brand's range, along with the glucosamine, MSM and chondroitin trio. The venison label also adds chelated zinc, copper and manganese alongside taurine and L-carnitine.

Fresh venison at 26% makes this the red meat route, with pea protein and potato protein propping the analysis up behind it. Kibble energy sits at 367 kcal per 100g, and its transparency pillar reads Outstanding.

The Ocean White Fish & Potato variety is £6.05 per kilo, sold in 2kg, 6kg and 14kg bags with 4 x 2kg and 2 x 14kg multipacks. The venison comes in 2kg and 14kg bags plus the same multipacks.

On the fish variety, feeding a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition works out at about £1.44 a day, around 238 grams, assuming roughly 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). The energy figure on that variety is our estimate. The venison comes to about 229 grams a day on the same reasoning.