Crave Adult Dry: With Lamb & Beef review

The turkey and chicken recipe comes out in our Excellent band and the lamb and beef in our Good band, level with the typical adult dry food. The protein figure does most of the lifting, at 36% as fed and 39.1% once the water is taken out. Estimated carbohydrate sits near a third of dry matter, where 46.2% is the usual reading. What keeps them from climbing higher is the label's habit of naming a headline animal at the top and then leaning on general poultry entries further down. Protein and processing and transparency both come back Good on the pair, with nutritional balance a rung higher at Excellent. A well-built food, then, from a maker who could have been more specific.

Moisture is not declared on either bag, so the dry matter conversions here rest on the 8% a kibble of this type normally holds.

Ingredients, as declared: Natural Beef (32.8%): Fresh Beef (17.5%), Beef Greaves Protein, Pea Starch, Dried Poultry Protein, Dried Whole Peas, Poultry Fat, Dried Beet Pulp, Natural Dried Lamb Protein (4%), Turkey Liver Digest, Minerals, Sunflower Oil

The construction is unusual and worth understanding before you judge the ingredient order. Fresh meat appears at 17.5% in both recipes. Most of that 17.5% is water, and the water leaves in the oven, so what fresh meat contributes to the finished kibble is a fraction of the number. The real protein work is done by the dried and concentrated entries sitting behind it, which is how a food with 17.5% fresh meat arrives at 36% protein.

Of everything on the two lists, beef greaves protein is the one most owners will not recognise. It appears in both bags. Greaves is the solid protein left once the fat has been rendered off the meat, then dried and ground to a concentrated powder. It is a dense and perfectly respectable protein source, and it is doing a lot of the heavy work here regardless of which flavour you choose.

The plant side is short. Dried whole peas bring fibre and antioxidants, along with a useful spread of micronutrients. Pea starch is the refined fraction, there purely to hold a kibble together where grain would. Dried beet pulp supplies the gentle fibre for the gut. The added plant oil is sunflower, naturally rich in vitamin E and low in saturated fat.

Turkey liver digest sits low on both lists and is a palatant, sprayed on to make the kibble taste like something worth finishing. Few things a dog can eat carry more nutrients than liver. As flavourings go, that makes it a better one than most.

The one honest limitation is the general poultry language. Dried poultry protein and poultry fat could be chicken or turkey or duck or a mix of them. Both appear even in the red meat recipe. For the great majority of dogs that is fine, and it is awkward only if you are trying to prove a particular bird innocent.

Both recipes share the same printed trace mineral doses: zinc at 57.4 mg and manganese at 20.3 mg per kilo. They arrive as sulphate salts and not the chelated forms some labels choose, which is the ordinary approach and works perfectly well for most dogs.

Beef is declared at 32.8%, including fresh beef at 17.5%, with natural dried lamb protein at 4% giving the recipe the second half of its name. Lamb is very much the junior partner in that pairing. Dried poultry protein, poultry fat and turkey liver digest sit alongside them, so this is a red meat led recipe with poultry in support rather than a red meat only one. Estimated carbohydrate works out at 32.6% of dry matter and crude fibre is the lower of the two at 2.3%.

Sold in 1kg, 2.8kg, 7kg and 11.5kg bags.

A 15kg adult dog in moderate condition gets through about 215 grams a day here, on an assumed need of roughly 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). The label's own tables land close to that, asking 190 to 205 grams for a 15kg dog on the lamb and beef recipe and 185 to 210 grams on the turkey and chicken.