Cotswold Raw Active 80/20 Sausages: Lamb review

All four sausages reach our Outstanding band, and the middle of the raw category reaches it too. What marks this range out is the paperwork. Every entry on every label carries a figure, the bone and the organ meats get their own lines, and the sourcing is named on the front. We score no fiercer field than raw, so a whole range holding that band is a real result.

Protein and processing, nutritional balance, transparency and value all read Outstanding across the four. The gaps between them are too small for a ranking to mean anything. Carbohydrate converts to between 1.3% and 4.7% of dry matter, under the 5.0% typical of raw food, which is what you would expect when the plant share is fresh vegetables rather than anything starchy.

Ingredients, as declared: British lamb with bone (65%), beef heart (5%), beef liver (5%), beef kidney (5%), seasonal vegetables (carrots (5%), cauliflower (5%), cabbage (5%), broccoli (5%), free range eggs (0.5%) milled flaxseed (0.5%), wheatgerm (0.25%), kelp (0.15%), turmeric (0.12%), milk thistle (0.05%), dandelion (0.05%), nettle leaf (0.05%), alfalfa (0.025%), spirulina (0.02%), thyme (0.02%).

The 80/20 split means 80% animal and 20% plant, and Cotswold shows its working on both sides. The Beef breaks its 80% into beef at 50%, veal bone at 10%, heart at 10%, liver at 5% and kidney at 5%. The other three lead with a bone-in named animal at 65% and take their heart, liver and kidney from beef at 5% each. That is how the range keeps a consistent organ profile across different meats.

Ground bone does the calcium work, as it should in a raw recipe, and none of the four prints a calcium figure. The closest indication on the page is crude ash, which runs from 2.3% to 3.7% as fed, or 7.2% to 11.8% of dry matter, tracking the bone share up and down the range.

The vegetable fifth is unusually specific for a raw food. Carrot, cauliflower, cabbage and broccoli each go in at 5%, so a quarter of the plant share is carrot alone, bringing beta carotene, soluble fibre and antioxidants with it. The three brassicas behind it add fibre and micronutrients. Each vegetable is declared on its own, not lumped under seasonal vegetables, so nothing in the bowl is a mystery.

The tail of the label is where the character sits: free range eggs at 0.5%, milled flaxseed at 0.5% for plant omega 3, wheatgerm at 0.25%, kelp at 0.15% for iodine and turmeric at 0.12%. Below those come milk thistle, dandelion and nettle leaf at 0.05% each, with alfalfa, spirulina and thyme at the very bottom. At these levels they are seasoning rather than doses, and printing the percentages says so honestly. The wheatgerm is the one to note if wheat is off your list, small as it is.

There is no separate additives panel because there is nothing to put in one. The maker's line is that nothing reaches the bowl without appearing on the label, so no synthetic vitamin and mineral premix goes in here at all. The micronutrition is meant to come from the organ meats, the kelp, the eggs and the wheatgerm instead, which is a coherent whole food approach and one the itemised organ shares make credible.

The analyses read as meat should. Protein converts to between 41.3% and 56.7% of dry matter and fat to between 32.6% and 42.5%. Energy runs from 190 to 214 kcal per 100g, denser than most raw food and consistent with the Active name. That density is worth remembering when you switch flavours, because the same number of sausages does not mean the same number of calories.

British lamb with bone at 65%, with the same beef heart, liver and kidney behind it. This is the rich one, with fat converting to 42.5% of dry matter against protein at 41.3%. At 214 kcal per 100g it is the densest sausage in the range, so portions are small and it suits a hard-working dog.

The Chicken and the Turkey are £6.95 a kilo, and the Beef and the Lamb £7.95. Every recipe comes in 500g and 1kg packs.

For a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition, take about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). A day then works out between £3.01 on the Turkey and £3.40 on the Beef, at 392 to 442 grams of food. Cotswold's own guide is simpler still: 400 grams a day for a 20kg dog, scaled to your own dog's weight.