Eden 80/20 Medium Kibble: Country Cuisine review

Every variety here comes out in our Excellent band, a step above the Good band that the middle of the adult dry category occupies. They earn it in the same places each time: named animal entries at the top of the ingredients list, and carbohydrate down at roughly a quarter of dry matter. The supplements are printed as doses instead of hinted at on the front of the bag. Original Cuisine reads strongest of the three, the one whose nutritional balance lands on Outstanding.

Ingredients, as declared: Freshly Prepared Duck (32%), Freshly Prepared Lamb (14%), Dried Duck (13%), Sweet Potato (11.5%), Dried Rabbit (8%), Duck Fat (5%), Chickpeas, Tapioca, Dried Lamb (3%), Duck Stock (2%), Dried Whole Egg (2%), Freshly Prepared Venison (1%), Pea Fibre, Minerals, Dried Carrot, Dried Apple, Dried Spinach, Dried Chicory Root Extract (as a source of Fructo-oligosaccharides (Prebiotic FOS; 0.04%/460 mg/kg)), Glucosamine (0.03%/355.5 mg/kg), Methylsulfonylmethane (0.03%/355.5 mg/kg), Chondroitin Sulphate (0.02%/250 mg/kg), Dried Cranberry, Dried Seaweed, Burdock Root, Dried Camomile, Lucerne, Dried Rosehips, Aniseed, Fenugreek, Thyme, Marjoram, Oregano, Parsley, Sage.

Freshly prepared meat is weighed before it goes anywhere near the oven, and most of that weight is water. Cooking drives the water off, so the dried entries end up carrying more of the finished kibble than their position on the label suggests. Eden prints both forms, which is what makes the recipe readable. Country Cuisine declares 32% freshly prepared duck alongside 13% dried duck, and the finished analysis backs the meat story up. Protein is 37.0% of dry matter and carbohydrate an estimated 25.0%, against the 46.2% typical of adult dry food.

Fish Cuisine is the protein heavyweight of the range at 46.7% of dry matter, drawing on fresh salmon at 22.5%, dried herring at 21.5%, dried salmon, trout and white fish. One entry is listed simply as dried fish at 8%, the single place in the range where a species goes unnamed. A dog kept to one particular fish is the only dog that need think twice about it. Salmon oil at 6% and a pinch each of green lipped mussel and spirulina finish the marine side.

Original Cuisine is the broadest of the three, with chicken at 19% fresh and 18% dried, then freshly prepared salmon at 15% and dried herring at 12%, and dried duck and whole egg behind them. That spread of animals is a strength for a dog with no known sensitivities, and it is the reason a dog on a short list of permitted proteins will want one of the other two.

Sweet potato, chickpeas and tapioca do the binding, with pea fibre for bulk, and no grain appears anywhere. Tapioca is worth naming for what it is, a starch pulled from the cassava root that brings little else along with it, although the amount involved in a recipe this meat heavy is modest.

The functional additions are printed and not merely implied. Dried chicory root extract supplies FOS as a prebiotic, at 460 mg/kg in Country Cuisine. Exact doses are printed for glucosamine and for MSM, with chondroitin at 250 mg/kg. Taurine appears at 961 mg/kg in Country and Original, an amino acid makers usually put in with the heart in mind. The trace minerals come as chelates, the form a dog generally absorbs more readily.

Crude ash reaches 13.0% of dry matter in Country Cuisine and calcium works out at 2.83%, both of which follow naturally from a recipe built this heavily on animal material, bone included. For an adult dog in normal health that is unremarkable. It is simply the reason a growing large breed puppy needs a plan of their own.

The tail of every label, from burdock root and camomile down through marjoram, oregano and sage, is the flourish rather than the substance. Nothing past the minerals rises above trace level, and no dog ever ate better for the sage. This range stands on the meat, and the meat sits at the top of the list, exactly where you want the weight to be.

Freshly prepared duck at 32% and dried duck at 13%, then fresh lamb at 14%, dried rabbit at 8%, dried lamb at 3% and a nod of venison at 1%. It is the only variety in the range with no fish in it at all, and the richest of the three at 20% fat and 388 kcal per 100g. That makes it the one for a busy dog.

£6.92 a kilo across all three varieties, sold in 2kg, 6kg and 12kg bags, with a 100g sample bag for a first try.

For a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition, feeding works out at about £1.50 a day on Country Cuisine, £1.56 on Original Cuisine and £1.59 on Fish Cuisine. That works from a maintenance estimate of roughly 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75). Eden's own guide asks 188 grams a day for that dog, so use the waistline as the tie breaker.