Benyfit Natural Adult Sensitive Support review

Outstanding is the top of our scale and this recipe reaches it, which takes some doing in raw, where the middle of the category already carries that band word. Two named animals, a percentage against every ingredient and a plant side of three vegetables are what carry it there, with protein and processing and transparency both reading Outstanding and nutritional balance Excellent.

Ingredients, as declared: 45% Green Lambs Tripe, 35% Free Range Turkey with Bone, 9% Carrot, 8% Parsnip, 3% Broccoli, Botanicals Including: Flaxseed Oil, Kelp, Turmeric, Celery Seeds, Alfalfa, Nettles, Psyllium Husk, Clivers & Wild Yam.

Green lambs tripe at 45% is the whole point of this recipe. Tripe comes from the stomach of grazing animals, and green tripe has been left unwashed and unbleached. That is the form that keeps the natural enzymes and gut flora the raw world sets such store by. It is rich, easily digested and, for most dogs, wildly popular at the bowl.

Free range turkey with bone at 35% brings the muscle meat and the calcium in a single entry. Turkey is lean and easy on a digestion that is already being careful, and the ground bone in the grind is what puts calcium at 2.53% of dry matter with no mineral premix in sight.

Benyfit uses the same three vegetables throughout: carrot at 9%, then parsnip at 8%, then broccoli at 3%. All three are named and percentaged, so there is no vegetables heading hiding anything, and carrot in particular brings soluble fibre along with its beta carotene.

In place of an added vitamin and mineral panel there is a botanical blend, listed as including flaxseed oil, kelp, turmeric, celery seeds, alfalfa, nettles, psyllium husk, clivers and wild yam. Flaxseed oil is the omega 3 source and kelp the iodine, while psyllium husk brings a soluble fibre that fits a recipe pointed at digestion. The word including does leave the tail of that list open, which is the one place this label is less specific than the rest of it.

The analysis reads gentler than most raw. Protein converts to 37.4% of dry matter and fat to 23.6%, both modest for the category, while the carbohydrate estimate lands at 28.7%. That last figure is worked out by difference. With nothing starchier than carrot and parsnip on the list, it is better read as the gap the analysis leaves than as anything sweet in the bowl.

Packs come in 500g and 1kg, at £6.15 a kilo.

On the estimated energy figure, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition needs about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That works out at around 712 grams, or £4.38 a day. The maker's own guide is more modest, at 400 to 600 grams a day for a 20kg dog. Our figure rests on an estimate, since the label declares no energy number.