Beco Dry Dog Food: Free Range Chicken review

All three recipes share one placing in our Good band, which is where the typical adult dry food sits as well. Free Range Chicken has the strongest meat declaration of the trio and comes out a shade in front of its stablemates. The pattern follows the meat, with 51% declared on the chicken against 40% on the other two.

Ingredients, as declared: 51% Chicken (Freshly Prepared Chicken 45%, Chicken Fat 6%)*, Potato, Peas, Field Beans, Pea Protein, Chickpeas, Lucerne, Brewer's Yeast, Minerals, Vegetable Gravy, Chicory (5g/kg), Carrot (10mg/kg), Freshly Prepared Egg, Marigold, Spirulina (10mg/kg), Camomile, Broccoli (10mg/kg), Cleavers.

The headline meats are named, freshly prepared and given honest percentages: 51% chicken counting 45% meat and 6% chicken fat, 40% wild boar, and 40% fish split between 35% haddock and 5% cod. Freshly prepared meat carries a lot of water into the oven, so with little dried backup the finished protein lands between 21.7% and 22.8% of dry matter. That is the gentler end for a kibble, and it suits everyday pets better than hard working dogs.

Underneath, all three recipes share one grain free base: potato and peas, field beans and chickpeas, with pea protein in the mix as well. Whole legumes bring fibre and useful nutrients; the isolated pea protein is there to lift the protein figure from the plant side, a common device in grain free recipes and worth being aware of. Estimated carbohydrate runs from 53.8% to 55.4% of dry matter, above the 46.2% typical for adult dry food.

Egg turns up in every recipe as a high quality minor protein. Each variety carries its own oil: chicken fat in the chicken, duck fat in the boar, and trout oil with rapeseed oil in the fish recipe. That mixing of species is no problem for most dogs, but it is exactly what an elimination diet cannot work around.

Spirulina, camomile and broccoli sit at trace levels in the botanical tail, with milk thistle seed on two of the recipes. That is a flourish, not a functional dose. Brewer's yeast and chicory earn their places more honestly, as B vitamin and prebiotic sources respectively.

The strongest declaration of the trio at 51% chicken, of which 45% is freshly prepared meat and 6% chicken fat. It is also the only member to declare calcium, converting to 0.65% of dry matter, and the one that finishes furthest forward of the three.

Free Range Chicken is £7.92 a kilo, with Wild Boar and Wild Caught Cod & Haddock at £8.33; all three come in 2kg, 6kg and 12kg bags.

Against a maintenance estimate of about 840 kcal a day for a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition (110 × bodyweight^0.75), daily servings work out at roughly 239 grams of the chicken. The boar takes 231 grams and the fish recipe 240. That prices a day at about £1.89, £1.93 and £2.00 respectively.