Golden Eagle Adult With Oatmeal: duck review

Both recipes settle in our Good band, which is where the typical adult dry food settles too. It is easy enough to see why. One named meat meal does the animal work, with rice and oats carrying the rest of the bowl, and transparency reads Excellent on each bag. Protein and processing comes back Average, and nutritional balance Poor. That is a solid, old-fashioned construction with nothing showy about it, and for a dog that thrives on grain-inclusive food it does precisely the job it was built for.

Ingredients, as declared: Duck Meal (25%), Wholegrain Brown Rice, Wholegrain White Rice, Oatmeal, Refined Chicken Fat, Whole Linseed, Tomato Pomace, Beet Pulp, Egg (3%), Peas, Carrot, Lucerne, Salmon Oil, Chicken Liver Gravy, Monosodium Phosphate, Salt (Natrox), Potassium Chloride, Seaweed, Yucca, Dried Apple, Joint Care Pack, Cranberry, Selenium, Beta Carotene, L-Carnitine, Minerals, Vitamins.

The meat here arrives already dried. Duck meal at 25% and salmon meal at 26% have had their water taken out before they are weighed, so unlike a fresh meat percentage they hold their share right through the oven. What they do not do is carry the whole bowl, and declared protein converts to 23.9% of dry matter on both bags, a gentle level for a kibble.

Rice and oats are the backbone. Wholegrain brown and white rice sit alongside oatmeal, and oats in particular bring dietary fibre with a spread of minerals attached. Cooked, both are digested comfortably by most dogs. Estimated carbohydrate comes out at 48.4% of dry matter on the duck bag and 49.8% on the salmon.

Egg at 3% is a small entry doing real work, since egg protein is about as easy for a dog to use as protein gets. Whole linseed supplies plant omega 3 and seaweed adds iodine. Lucerne and peas fill out the plate, while beet pulp provides the fermentable fibre a large intestine likes to have something to do with.

Salt is declared on both labels, in the duck under the Natrox name. Some added salt is normal in a dry food and it helps the recipe taste like something. Mention it to your vet if you have been asked to watch a dog's sodium.

The label closes with a group of named extras in place of a plain supplement list: yucca, a Joint Care Pack, selenium, beta carotene and L-carnitine. L-carnitine genuinely helps move fat into the cell where it is burned, and beta carotene is an antioxidant a dog can convert into vitamin A. The Joint Care Pack is the one that stays shut, naming neither its components nor a dose, so ask the maker if joints are the reason you are here.

Duck meal at 25% leads this bag, with refined chicken fat as the added fat and chicken liver gravy for palatability. Tomato pomace joins beet pulp on the fibre side, salmon oil supplies the marine omega 3, fat is declared at 13%, and calcium works out at 1.85% of dry matter.

Both recipes are sold in 2kg, 6kg and 12kg bags.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition works through about 245 grams a day of the duck and 248 grams of the salmon. Those figures rest on around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). Portion to the waistline rather than to the scoop.