Feelwell's Feelwells Cold Pressed: Grain Free Duck review

The duck and the lamb sit in our Excellent band while the fish settles a step lower in Good, the band where the typical cold-pressed food lands too. Protein and processing reads Good across all three. Transparency is Outstanding on the duck and the lamb, with the fish Excellent, which is what a printed 50% animal share and a fully itemised tail do for a label. Nutritional balance is Good on the fish and on the lamb, with the duck Excellent. Holding it in check are an analysis lower in fat than the category norm and a maker who leaves moisture undeclared. The duck and the lamb finish close together with the fish a little way back, so your dog's tastes can still make the choice.

Ingredients, as declared: Duck 50%, Sweet Potato 31%, Beet Pulp, Linseed Oil, Rapeseed Oil, Vitamins & Minerals, Carrot, Apple, Blueberry, Seaweed, Fennel Seed, FOS, Sage Leaf, Thyme, Nettle, Oregano, Yucca Extract, Glucosamine, Chondroitin Sulphate, Green Lipped Mussel

The construction never changes: a named animal at 50%, sweet potato as the carbohydrate, beet pulp for fibre and then a long tail of whole ingredients at low inclusion. Nothing animal hides behind a category word, so there is no cereals line, no derivatives and no unnamed fat. The duck and lamb bags do gather their vitamins and minerals into a single entry, without itemising them there.

The fish recipe is the one that itemises its own protein. The 50% fish is split four ways: 80% white fish, 10% salmon, then 5% each of mackerel and herring. Almost no other label offers that much detail. Whole fish brings its bone along, and that shows up as ash converting to 14.0% of dry matter, which is high for a pressed food and entirely explicable.

All three lists carry glucosamine and chondroitin, plus green lipped mussel. Mussel is a shellfish, so it is the entry to check if that is what you are avoiding, and no recipe in the range is free of it. No doses are printed for the joint ingredients. They are there as general support for a comfortable older dog.

Sweet potato does the carbohydrate work throughout, at 30% in the fish bag and 31% in the other two. For most dogs it is a gentler starch than cereal. Beet pulp follows, reaching 14% in the fish version, which is a substantial fibre load and generally welcome news for stool quality. Carbohydrate lands between 33.5% and 36.2% of dry matter across the range, well under the 43.2% typical for cold-pressed food.

The tail is where the imagination went. Carrot and apple bring fibre and antioxidants. Seaweed supplies iodine along with a broad mineral spread. Chicory inulin and FOS feed the gut's own bacteria. The herb run from fennel and sage to nettle and oregano sits at trace level, there for character. Yucca extract goes into the duck and lamb bags, and it has long been used to keep stool odour down.

None of the three declares moisture, so the dry matter conversions rest on the standard 8% a pressed pellet usually carries. Protein converts to between 31.5% and 38.0% of dry matter, and fat sits low right across the range, from 8.6% on the fish recipe to 12.0% on the lamb. That leanness suits a dog carrying a little extra condition, and a hard-working dog may simply need a larger bowl of it.

Duck at 50% on sweet potato at 31%, with linseed and rapeseed oil supplying the fat and no marine oil among them. It is the highest protein recipe of the three, converting to 38.0% of dry matter, and its 316 kcal per 100g is an estimate rather than a declared figure. Green lipped mussel still puts a marine ingredient on the list, so read it as one land animal rather than as a fish-free bag.

£3.33 a kilo across all three recipes. Every bag is 2.5kg, sold singly or in packs of two or four.

A 15kg adult dog in moderate condition wants about 840 kcal a day on the standard maintenance estimate (110 × bodyweight^0.75). A day's feeding then works out at £0.85 on the fish recipe, £0.89 on the duck and £0.92 on the lamb. The kilo rate is identical on all three. What moves the day rate is energy density.