Barkin Bistro Raw Blends: Beef Tripe & Chicken review

Each of the three lands in our Outstanding band, with nothing to separate them once the numbers are in. The typical raw food keeps them company in our Outstanding band, and that is worth putting in perspective. Raw is the most competitive category we score, and holding the mark in such a field takes some doing. Protein and processing, nutritional balance, transparency and value all read Outstanding on every one of the three, and that is the picture of three very solidly built labels.

Ingredients, as declared: 70% Beef Tripe, 20% Chicken with Bone, 5% Beef Liver, 5% Beef Kidney

Tripe is the point of this range, and it deserves its billing. It is the stomach of a grazing animal, rich in protein and natural fats, and unusually easy to digest. Left green rather than bleached or scrubbed, it also arrives with the friendly bacteria and enzymes of the animal's own digestion. And when a dog has stopped eating, nothing brings it back to the bowl more reliably.

Each blend pairs that tripe with a bone-in bird, chicken in the two beef recipes at 20% and duck in the lamb one at 30%, and that is where the calcium comes from. Two of the three declare it, at 1.12% and 1.43% of dry matter. Both levels suit a growing large breed puppy and an adult equally, and it is unusual to see that spelled out on a mince.

Liver and kidney close every label, at 5% each in the beef blends and 10% together in the lamb. That is the standard raw organ share, and it is doing real work here. Liver is the densest natural source of vitamin A, B12 and copper a dog will meet, and kidney adds selenium and B vitamins alongside it.

Nothing else appears at all. There is no vegetable, no oil, no added vitamin and mineral list on any of the three. That is why the carbohydrate estimate reads at or near zero across the range. The analyses come back as pure meat, with protein converting to between 53.3% and 62.4% of dry matter and fat between 32.8% and 38.3%.

Because the birds come with their bone and the tripe brings its own fat, these minces need no help from a supplement pack to look balanced on paper. The one thing to keep in mind is that a label this bare gives you nothing to check the trace minerals against. A dog fed one of these blends and nothing else is worth a conversation with the maker about long term balance.

The most tripe led of the three, at 70%, with chicken and its bone at 20% and beef liver and kidney at 5% apiece. Protein here is the highest in the range, converting to 62.4% of dry matter, and so is the declared calcium at 1.43%. That is a comfortable level for a growing large breed dog.

Per kilo, the Beef Tripe and Chicken is £4.80, the Lamb Tripe and Duck £4.83, and the Beef Heart, Tripe and Chicken £5.06. All three come in 400g and 1kg packs.

Take a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition, whose daily requirement comes out at about 840 kcal on the standard maintenance estimate (110 × bodyweight^0.75). Feeding works out at about 546 grams a day of the Lamb Tripe and Duck, at £2.64, rising to about 643 grams of the Beef Heart, Tripe and Chicken, at £3.25. The leaner blends feed in larger portions.