Gelert Country Choice Maintenance Adult: Lamb review

The chicken and the lamb land in our Good band, level with the middle of the adult dry shelf rather than above it, and the fish sits one band under them in Average. The meat is dried before it goes in, which helps, and the named fats and printed joint doses are better than most labels at this level manage. Holding them level is the size of the cereal share, plus the fact that part of the protein comes from maize instead of an animal. The pillars back that up, with transparency reading Outstanding on all three and the fish alone reading Poor on protein and processing and on nutritional balance. For an adult dog with no particular sensitivities, that adds up to a dependable food you can leave on repeat.

Ingredients, as declared: White rice (30%), Lamb Meat Meal (28%), Maize, Dried Maize Protein (7%), Dried Brewer's Yeast, Lamb Tallow (3.5%), Flaxseed Oil (1.5%), Lamb Digest (1%), Minerals, Prebiotic MOS, (Mannan-Oligosaccharide), Glucosamine (175mg/kg), Chondroitin (125mg/kg), Yucca Extract (500mg/kg), Cranberry (100mg/kg).

White rice at 30% opens every recipe. As cereals go, rice is a gentle one, easy to digest and rarely the ingredient at the bottom of a problem. The meat follows, always as a dried meal. Most of the declared 20% chicken, 20% fish or 28% lamb therefore reaches the finished kibble.

Maize is the second cereal throughout, and in the chicken and lamb bags it appears again as dried maize protein, at 15% and 7% respectively. That entry lifts the protein figure, and on amino acid quality plant protein sits below meat, so read the analysis with that in mind. Protein converts to between 23.9% and 26.1% of dry matter across the range.

The fats are named outright: chicken fat at 5%, lamb tallow at 3.5% and fish oil at 7%, with flaxseed oil at 1.5% in every recipe as a plant omega 3. Naming the fat tells you exactly which animal it came from, which a general oils and fats line never does.

The functional extras are identical in every bag. Mannan oligosaccharides act as a prebiotic in the large intestine. Glucosamine at 175 mg/kg and chondroitin at 125 mg/kg look after the joints, and yucca extract at 500 mg/kg with cranberry at 100 mg/kg finish the list. Printing the doses is a genuine plus, and it beats sprinkling the names on for effect.

Ash varies a good deal across the three, at 5.4% of dry matter in the chicken and 10.9% in both the fish and the lamb. That follows the bone content of the meal each one uses. Only the chicken recipe declares calcium, and it works out at 1.09% of dry matter.

Lamb meat meal at 28%, the biggest meat share anywhere in the range, with lamb tallow at 3.5% and lamb digest at 1%. Dried maize protein drops back to 7% here, and protein reaches 24.0% as fed, or 26.1% of dry matter.

Per kilo the chicken is £2.63, the lamb £2.67 and the fish £2.91, each sold as a 12kg sack or as four 2kg bags.

Take maintenance at roughly 840 kcal (110 × bodyweight^0.75) and a 15kg adult in moderate condition eats about 247 grams of the chicken, 268 of the fish or 255 of the lamb each day. That comes to £0.65, £0.78 and £0.68 a day respectively, and the waistline should always have the final word over the sum.