Embark on Raw Chunky Complete: Chicken review

All three earn our Outstanding band, which is also the band the typical raw food occupies, and these three sit right around that midpoint. The strongest category on our scoring is raw, and holding the top band inside it is a genuine result. The meat share, the named organ, the vegetable block and the seed and kelp tail all point the same way. Protein and processing and nutritional balance read Outstanding on all three, with transparency Excellent. The beef finishes at the very top of the set, though the differences between them are small enough that your dog's tastes are the better guide.

Ingredients, as declared: 80% Fresh chicken carcass, 10% chicken liver, 10% vegetables (Kale, Broccoli, pumpkin, spinach, butternut squash) Organic milled Flax seeds, Sunflower seeds, Pumpkin seeds, Goji berries, Chia seeds, Kelp (seaweed) and Coconut

The construction is consistent across all three: 80% of the named animal, 10% liver from that animal or from chicken, and 10% vegetables. Kale, broccoli, spinach, pumpkin and butternut squash are a properly chosen set, not filler, and naming each of them is what makes the block worth having. Vegetables in a raw diet are there for fibre and antioxidants rather than energy, and at a tenth of the bowl they are pitched about right.

The tail is where this range separates itself. Milled flax and chia bring plant omega 3, sunflower and pumpkin seeds bring vitamin E and zinc, and goji berries bring antioxidants. Coconut brings a readily used fat and kelp brings iodine, one of the trickiest minerals to cover in a diet with no added premix. Milling the flax matters too, because a whole flax seed largely passes a dog straight through.

The bone question is answered differently on each label. The chicken and the turkey are declared as fresh carcass, which is bone included by definition, while the beef is declared as lean beef with no bone entry of its own. None of the three prints a calcium percentage, so the crude ash figure of 16.4% of dry matter is the only signpost, and it is high enough to suggest a real mineral contribution.

One thing to read gently: the printed analysis gives identical protein, fibre and ash values across all three recipes, and identical energy for the beef and the chicken. That reads like a single range-level panel and not three separate assays, so treat the numbers as indicative of the format and let the ingredients lists do the real talking. Turkey is the only one given its own fat figure, at 46.1% of dry matter against 23.0% for the other two.

Carbohydrate comes out at zero across the range, which is what happens when nothing starchy goes anywhere near the recipe. Fibre converts to 13.2% of dry matter, high for raw and explained by the vegetable and seed share. No moisture is declared on any label, so the dry matter conversions work from the 69.6% standard for raw food and the calorie figures are estimates.

Fresh chicken carcass at 80% with chicken liver at 10%, which keeps the whole animal side on one species and makes this the pick for a dog on an elimination trial. It shares the beef's estimated energy of 119 kcal per 100g and finishes a whisker behind the beef on our scoring.

All three come in 1kg packs. Per kilo, the chicken is £3.95, the beef £4.45 and the turkey £5.25.

Feeding a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition, which needs roughly 840 kcal a day on the standard maintenance estimate (110 × bodyweight^0.75), lands between £2.47 and £3.14 a day. The lighter beef and chicken recipes feed in portions of about 706 grams, while the richer turkey takes around 471 grams.