CSJ Lamb with Rice (WGF) review

This one finishes in our Good band, matching where the middle of the adult dry food market sits without pulling ahead of it. Lamb meal heads the list, and a mineral panel doubles several traces into chelated forms. Both are genuine positives. Against them sit a protein figure of 23.9% in dry matter and a carbohydrate share above typical, which holds protein and processing to Average and nutritional balance to Poor. Transparency reads Excellent and value Good. None of that makes it a lesser bowl for a steady adult dog. It simply means the recipe was built to be dependable rather than dense.

Ingredients, as declared: Lamb meal (min 26%), Maize, Barley, Oats, Chicken fat, Rice (min 4%), Vegetarian gravy, Peas, Beet pulp, Minerals, Salmon oil, Linseed, Dried fruits & herbs (Blackcurrant, Rosemary, Pomegranate, Milk Thistle, Seaweed, Fenugreek, Spearmint, Parsley, Marshmallow Root, Marjoram, Oregano - total herbs 1000mg/kg), Glucosamine (950mg/kg), Yucca schidigera

Lamb meal leads at a minimum of 26%, and meal is the concentrated form, with the water driven off before it ever reaches the mixer. That means the declared figure is close to what actually ends up in the kibble. Among red meats lamb is one of the easier ones for a dog to digest, and when chicken has started to pall it makes a useful change.

Maize, barley and oats do the carrying, with rice at a minimum of 4% and peas further down. Barley and oats both cook down easily for most dogs and bring fibre and trace minerals with them. Neither is free of gluten, so read this as a wheat free recipe.

Two entries widen the animal content beyond lamb. Chicken fat is there for energy and palatability, and salmon oil supplies marine omega 3s, with linseed adding the plant form further down. Both are sensible inclusions in their own right, and both mean the recipe cannot anchor a strict single protein trial.

Vegetarian gravy is the vaguest line on the label. It is a palatant, there to give the kibble something to taste of, and the composition does not break down what goes into it.

The dosed extras are where this label puts its effort. Glucosamine at 950 mg/kg is a real dose rather than a gesture, aimed at the cartilage in ageing joints. Iron, copper, zinc and manganese each appear twice, once as a simple sulphate and again as an amino acid chelate. A dog absorbs the chelated form more easily. The fruit and herb blend totals 1000 mg/kg, a seasoning quantity. Selenium arrives as sodium selenite at 0.2 mg/kg, and of the two forms permitted in European pet food that is the commoner one.

£1.78 a kilo, sold as a 15 kg sack.

For a rough day rate, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition works out at about 245 grams a day on an assumed 840 kcal requirement (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That is roughly £0.44 a day. The energy value used there is an estimate. The label's own less active table puts a 10kg to 20kg dog on 135 to 255 grams.