Cotswold Raw Enhanced 70/30 Mince: Lamb review

All three minces sit in our Outstanding band, and so does the median raw food, which for a recipe that gives away a third of the bowl to vegetables is worth pausing on. All four pillars read Outstanding on the three. The labelling earns those readings as much as the contents do: named British meat, bone and organs broken out separately, and a plant share you can account for gram by gram.

The vegetable third is what makes this range different from Cotswold's meatier Active recipes rather than what holds it back. Carbohydrate converts to between 8.4% and 15.5% of dry matter, above the 5.0% typical of raw food. Every bit of it comes from carrot, cauliflower, cabbage and broccoli rather than from a cereal or a pulse. For an older or less active dog, a slightly less concentrated bowl is often exactly the point.

Ingredients, as declared: British lamb with bone (55%), beef heart (5%), beef liver (5%), beef kidney (5%), seasonal vegetables (carrots (10%), cauliflower (10%), 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 70/30 split is declared in full on every label. The Beef draws its 70% from beef at 40%, veal bone at 10% and then heart at 10% with liver and kidney at 5% each. The Chicken leads on 55% British chicken with bone, organic and free range, and the Lamb on 55% British lamb with bone. Both then take 5% each of beef heart, beef liver and beef kidney to reach 70%.

Carrots and cauliflower each go in at 10% on the plant side, with cabbage and broccoli at 5%, double what the brand's meatier recipes give them. Beta carotene, soluble fibre and antioxidants come with the carrot. The brassicas behind it add fibre and a range of micronutrients. None of it is starchy, so the carbohydrate the analysis reports stays modest for the volume involved.

Cotswold Joint Care is the addition the range is named for, and it closes the ingredients list on the Beef and the Chicken. What the page does not do is say what is in it or how much goes in, so unlike everything else on these labels it cannot be checked. It is worth asking Cotswold directly if joint support is the reason you are here, and worth knowing that the Lamb does not carry it at all.

Ground bone is the calcium source throughout, and no calcium figure is printed. Crude ash is the nearest proxy on the page, at 2.2% to 3.6% as fed, or 7.9% to 10.8% of dry matter, which tracks the bone share across the three. There is no vitamin and mineral premix anywhere. The brand's line is that everything in the bowl appears on the label, so the organ meats, kelp, eggs and wheatgerm are carrying that work.

The bottom of the list is the same botanical tail Cotswold uses throughout. Free range eggs and milled flaxseed come in at 0.5%, wheatgerm at 0.25%, kelp at 0.15% and turmeric at 0.12%. Below them sit milk thistle, dandelion and nettle at 0.05%, alfalfa at 0.025% and spirulina and thyme at 0.02%. These are flavour and character at the levels declared, and the honesty of printing them is worth more than the ingredients themselves.

The analyses come out gentler than a meat-heavier raw recipe, as the construction suggests they should. Protein converts to between 39.2% and 46.4% of dry matter and fat to between 28.8% and 39.5%, with energy from 163 to 208 kcal per 100g. The lamb is the outlier at the rich end, and the beef and chicken are close enough to swap between without recalculating a portion.

British lamb with bone at 55%, again with the beef organ trio behind it, and the one recipe of the three whose label does not include Cotswold Joint Care. It is much the richest of the family, fat converting to 39.5% of dry matter against protein at 39.2%, and at 208 kcal per 100g it feeds in noticeably smaller portions than the other two.

£6.95 a kilo for the Chicken, £8.45 for the Beef and the Lamb. All three come in 1kg packs.

Taking a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition at about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate), the food works out at 403 to 516 grams. That is between £3.41 on the Lamb and £4.27 on the Beef. Cotswold's own feeding guide is 400 grams a day for a 20kg dog, scaled to weight.