Buddy Dry Adult: Wild Venison review

The two flavours part company in our banding. Not by much: both reach our Good band, level with the typical adult dry food, though the Chicken and Lamb Feast is the marginally stronger read. The pillars run the same way on each, with transparency Outstanding, nutritional balance Average, and protein and processing and value both Good. Construction explains the gap: the venison recipe carries less fat, and its estimated carbohydrate converts to 46.2% of dry matter against 42.8% in the chicken and lamb, so more of its bowl is starch. None of that should alarm anyone. A dog who needs deer on the ingredient list is still decently served, and a buyer with a free choice will find the stronger construction in the Chicken and Lamb Feast.

Ingredients, as declared: dried deer protein (35%), peas, fresh deer & roe deer meat (15%), sweet potato, chicken fat (preserved with tocopherols), dried apples, hydrolysed chicken liver (2%), salmon oil, carrots, dried kelp (ascophyllum nodosum), glucosamine (0.026%), chondroitin sulphate (0.016%), mannan-oligosaccharides (0.015%), fructo-oligosaccharides (0.012%), Mojave yucca (0.01%), citrusextrakt (0.005%), curcumaextrakt (0.005%) och rosemarinextrakt (0.005%). Tillverkare: Petbuddy AB

Both recipes lead with dried meat protein, the concentrated form that goes through the oven with its weight intact. Chicken and Lamb Feast opens with dried chicken protein at 25%, dried lamb protein at 15% and fresh chicken at 10%. Wild Venison declares dried deer protein at 35% with fresh deer and roe deer meat at 15%. In each case the dried entries do the structural work while the fresh share adds appeal.

Peas and sweet potato bind both recipes with no cereal on either list. Carrots and dried apples pad out the plant matter, with dried kelp behind them. Crude fibre sits at 3.0% in each.

The supporting animal ingredients are common to the pair: chicken fat for energy, hydrolysed chicken liver at 2% for flavour and salmon oil for omega 3s. That trio makes both flavours multi-species foods whatever the front of the bag suggests, the one honest caveat for allergy-led buyers.

The functional tail is identical across the range and dosed in percentages: glucosamine at 0.026%, chondroitin sulphate at 0.016%, mannan-oligosaccharides at 0.015%, fructo-oligosaccharides at 0.012% and Mojave yucca at 0.01%. Citrus and curcuma extracts each sit at 0.005%, with rosemary at the same dose, all three as antioxidant seasoning.

Deer is declared at 35% dried plus 15% fresh here, with roe deer alongside it. This is the flavour for a dog who needs a less-travelled meat. It is a leaner recipe, fat finishing at 12% as fed, and starch does more of the carrying, so expect a gentler bowl than the chicken and lamb offers.

Both flavours are £7.92 a kilo, in 2kg, 5kg, 12kg and 17kg bags.

Take a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition on the standard maintenance estimate of about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75). Chicken and Lamb Feast feeds at about 238 grams and £1.88 a day, and Wild Venison at about 248 grams and £1.97. The energy figures behind those estimates are calculated from the analysis rather than declared on the labels.