Autarky Adult Grain Free Dry: Tantalising Turkey & Potato review

Both varieties make our Good band, level with the typical adult dry food, and they get there slightly differently. The turkey carries the Good nutritional balance where the white fish reads Average, and it holds transparency at Good against the fish's Average, with protein and processing reading Good on both. Two part animal declarations with printed percentages are doing a lot of the honest work here.

Ingredients, as declared: Turkey (min 26% turkey meal and 14% freshly prepared turkey), Potato, Pea starch, Turkey fat, Sweet potato, Full fat linseed, Peas, Brewer's yeast (source of postbiotics, 0.45%), Unmolassed beet pulp, Alfalfa, Carrots, Minerals, Marine algae (source of omega 3 fatty acid DHA), Glucosamine, Carob pod meal, Seaweed, Milk thistle, Turmeric, Marigold, Nettle, Mint, Fenugreek, Olive extract, Thyme, Dandelion, Aniseed, Green lipped mussel, Rosemary, Ginger, Yucca schidigera, Blackcurrant, Oregano, Pomegranate.

Each recipe splits its animal content usefully between meal and fresh. The turkey is a 26% meal plus 14% freshly prepared, and the fish a 26% meal plus 8% fresh. Because meal is already dry, the protein survives cooking intact, and both varieties convert to 29.7% protein in dry matter.

Potato, pea starch and sweet potato replace the grain. The carbohydrate estimates, 44.5% of dry matter for the turkey and 43.4% for the fish, both come in under the 46.2% typical of adult dry food, which is not something every grain free recipe manages.

The joint and omega package is thoughtful for the level. Marine algae supplies DHA directly, and green lipped mussel, a shellfish long used for joint support, sits beside glucosamine. None carries a printed dose, so treat them as support rather than therapy.

Gut care comes from unmolassed beet pulp and brewer's yeast, the latter declared at 0.45% as a postbiotic source, with alfalfa and carrots in the middle order.

One label point worth settling: milk thistle is a herb, not a dairy ingredient, whatever its name suggests. The long botanical tail from turmeric to oregano is seasoning, agreeable but light. The recipes stand on their named meats and sensible starches.

Turkey supplies every meat entry on this label, from the 26% meal and 14% fresh portion through to the turkey fat, which makes it the tidy pick for a household working through protein trials. No fish appears anywhere on the list, the DHA arriving from marine algae instead, though the green lipped mussel remains the one animal footnote for strict shellfish avoiders.

The turkey is £3.94 a kilo and the white fish £4.19, each sold in 2kg and 12kg bags.

On the standard maintenance reckoning of 110 kcal per kilo of metabolic bodyweight, a 15kg adult in moderate condition takes about 242 grams of the turkey a day, at around £0.95. The same dog takes about 245 grams of the fish, at around £1.03.