Belcando Adult Grain-Free review

Our Good band is where this range settles, level with the typical adult dry food. The credit goes to honest 40% meat declarations, a grain free build that names its parts, and a dosed additive panel repeated across every flavour. The estimated carbohydrate load is what stops the score stretching further.

Ingredients, as declared: Horse: Fresh horse meat, heart, liver, lungs (40%); Pea flour; Potato starch; Dried horse protein (12%); Amaranth (5%); Bean flour (Vicia faba); Dried sugar beet pulp; Marine zooplankton (Krill, 2.5%); Dried brewer's yeast; Broken carob bean; Pea protein; Salmon oil; Hydrolysed yeast; Chia seeds; Safflower oil (1%); Potassium chloride; Sodium chloride; Dried herbs (total: 0.2%; Nettle leaves, Gentian root, Centaury, Chamomile, Fennel, Caraway, Mistletoe, Yarrow, Blackberry leaves), Poultry: Fresh poultry meat (40%); Amaranth (20%); Low-ash poultry protein, dried (15%); Potato starch; Pea flour; Ground marine zooplankton (Krill, 2.5%); Grape seed expeller; Dried brewer's yeast; Dried carob bean; Poultry fat; Dicalcium phosphate; Fish meal from ocean fish (1%); Chia seeds; Hydrolysed poultry liver; Dried sugar beet pulp; Sodium chloride; Potassium chloride; Dried herbs (total: 0.2%; Nettle leaf, Gentian root, Centaury, Chamomile, Fennel, Caraway, Mistletoe, Yarrow, Bramble leaves); Yucca schidigera, Beef: Fresh beef (40%); Amaranth (18%); Potato starch; Dried beef protein (12.5%); Pea flour; Fish meal from ocean fish (2.5%); Ground marine zooplankton (Krill, 2.5%); Dried brewer's yeast; Dried carob bean; Grape seed expeller; Dicalcium phosphate; Dried sugar beet pulp; Salmon oil; Thistle oil; Hydrolyzed yeast; Chia seeds; Sodium chloride; Potassium chloride; Dried herbs (total: 0.2%; Nettle leaf, Gentian root, Centaury, Chamomile, Fennel, Caraway, Mistletoe, Yarrow, Bramble leaves); Yucca schidigera, Ocean: Fresh salmon (40%); Fish meal from ocean fish (17%); Amaranth (16%); Potato starch; Pea flour; Ground marine zooplankton (Krill, 5%); Salmon oil; Grape seed expeller; Dried brewer's yeast; Dried carob bean; Hydrolyzed salmon; Chia seeds; Dicalcium phosphate; Dried herbs (total: 0.2%; Nettle leaf, Gentian root, Centaury, Chamomile, Fennel, Caraway, Mistletoe, Yarrow, Bramble leaves)

Every flavour opens with 40% of its fresh animal. Horse goes furthest, using meat, heart, liver and lungs and backing them with 12% dried horse protein. Beef takes 12.5% dried backup, poultry 15%, and Ocean pairs its fresh salmon with a substantial 17% fish meal. Those dried shares matter, because the oven takes most of the water out of fresh meat. The finished protein converts to 23.3% of dry matter, on the gentle side for a grain free food.

Amaranth is the signature carrier, ranging from 5% in the horse recipe to 20% in the poultry. A pseudocereal rather than a true grain, it brings its own protein and no gluten, with potato starch and pea flour completing the base. The plant side finishes with carbohydrate estimated at 53.7% of dry matter against a typical 46.2%, the one genuinely soft spot in the construction.

Krill is the range's little flourish: ground marine zooplankton supplying omega 3s in every flavour, at 5% in Ocean and 2.5% elsewhere. Chia seeds add the plant omegas and the herb blend is printed at a candid 0.2%. Grape seed expeller features in three of the four flavours; it is the pressed antioxidant residue of the seed, not the flesh that makes grapes a worry for dogs.

Elimination feeders should map the flavours before choosing. Horse keeps its land meat to one species but carries salmon oil and krill, beef adds fish meal and salmon oil, and the poultry never names its bird. Ocean is built from salmon, fish meal and krill, the only flavour whose animal content stays entirely in the sea. Calcium converts to 1.89% of dry matter across the range, at the firmer end but within adult norms.

£5.03 a kilo, with each of the four flavours sold in 4kg and 12.5kg bags.

Feeding a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition takes about 256 grams a day, assuming an estimated 840 kcal requirement (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate), which lands near £1.29 a day. The calorie figure behind that sum is estimated rather than declared, so treat the waistline as the final referee.