Go Native Adult: Organic Herring With Carrot & Kale review

Every bag here lands above the middle of the dry adult shelf. The range spreads from our Good band into our Excellent band, while the typical adult dry food reaches only the lower of the two, and two things do the lifting in each recipe. One named meat is declared at a big share, and estimated carbohydrate across most of the range converts to between 31.8% and 36.7% of dry matter against the 46.2% typical for a dry food. The gaps between varieties are small enough that the animal matters far more than the ordering.

Ingredients, as declared: Fresh Herring 40%, Dehydrated Herring 24%, Potato Starch, Sweet Potato, Herring Oil 6.5%, Pea Starch, Whole Linseed, Dried Seaweed, Alfalfa, Hydrolysed Liver Protein 1%, Sodium Chloride, Yeast Extract, Dried Apple, Dried Kale (5% fresh Kale equivalant), Dried Carrot (5% fresh Carrot Equivalant) Glucosamine Hydrochloride, Chondroitin Sulphate, BOTANICALS: Alfalfa, Dried Broccoli, Dried Blueberry, Dried Carrot, Dried Cranberry, Dried Ginger, Dried Marigold, Oregano, Dried Rosehip, Dried Spinach, Turmeric, Yucca schidigera.

Fresh meat at 40% is the headline on every bag. Fresh is the word to weigh, since the oven drives off most of that water before the biscuit is finished. The dehydrated meat behind it at 24% or 25% is quietly doing the larger share of the finished kibble's protein work. The analysis bears the construction out, with declared protein converting to between 27.8% and 34.4% of dry matter across the range.

The biscuit is built on potato starch, sweet potato and pea starch, with not a cereal in the range. Potato starch is a binder first and a nutrient source second, which is worth knowing, but the meat share here keeps it firmly in its place.

Whole linseed and dried seaweed sit just behind the starches. Linseed is the plant omega 3 source, seaweed brings iodine along with a wide spread of minerals, and hydrolysed liver protein at 1% is there to make the bowl worth finishing. That liver is the single entry that never names its animal. Ask the maker about it when you need to rule a species in or out.

Glucosamine hydrochloride and chondroitin sulphate are printed on every ingredients list. Neither carries a dose in the composition. Take them as a helpful inclusion and not a measured supplement, and judge the food on its meat.

On the full size bags, every added trace mineral carries a printed dose. Zinc turns up twice, as zinc oxide at 97mg and again as a chelated zinc at 200mg per kilo, and the chelated form is generally the one a dog absorbs more readily. Copper sits at 28mg, iron at 250mg, manganese at 65mg, iodine at 2.50mg and selenium at 0.33mg.

The botanical tail runs from alfalfa and blueberry down through oregano and turmeric, and it is decoration rather than construction. None of it changes what this is, which is a meat-led grain-free kibble with a tidy ingredients list underneath the flourish.

Herring at 40% fresh and 24% dehydrated, with herring oil at 6.5% supplying marine omega 3 and fat declared at 21%. Dried kale and dried carrot each appear at 5% fresh equivalent, and this is the second of the two labels that covers seniors as well as adults.

£5.83 a kilo on the standard bags, which come in 800 grams, 4kg and 12kg, and £8.27 a kilo on the small kibble, sold in 1.5kg and 4kg.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition gets through roughly 214 to 255 grams a day, assuming about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That works out at £1.25 to £1.29 a day on the standard bags and £1.80 to £2.11 a day on the small kibble. The label's own table asks 158 grams for a less active 16kg dog. Trust the ribs over either figure.