Green Pantry Calm & Relax review

Our scoring puts this one in our Good band, the same band the typical adult dry food reaches, and the reasons behind it are worth reading. Nothing on the ingredients list is poor quality. The arithmetic holds the reading where it is: protein converts to 27.2% of dry matter and fat to 12.0%, both gentle for a kibble, with carbohydrate estimated at 47.3%. That is why nutritional balance reads Average, while transparency comes back Outstanding and protein and processing Good. Fed to the dog it was written for, a jumpy adult who does well on a moderate ration, it remains a perfectly sensible bowl.

Ingredients, as declared: Composition Duck and Turkey 57% (Freshly Prepared Duck (21.5%), Freshly Prepared Turkey (21.5%), Dried Duck (6%), Dried Turkey (6%) Duck Stock (1.5%), Turkey Fat (0.5%) Sweet Potato (12%), Peas (12.5%), Potato (12.5%). Fruits, Botanicals & Herbs: Lentils, Linseed, Alfalfa, Valerian, Hemp, Blueberry, Nettle, Horehound, Seaweed, Aniseed, Celery Seed, Turkey Fat, Rosemary, Carrot, Tomato, Cranberry, Spinach. Brand bullet points: 57% turkey and duck, 43% fruit, vegetables, and botanicals. Hypoallergenic dog food. Made without grains and cereals. A complete and balanced diet that includes meat, potatoes, fruits, and vegetables to provide natural nutrition. Natural control of intestinal and external hygiene. Made from 100% natural ingredients. Naturally preserved.

The 57% headline is genuinely split down the middle. Freshly prepared duck and freshly prepared turkey each come in at 21.5%, and each is backed by 6% of the same bird dried. There is a great deal of water in fresh meat, and the oven drives it off. That leaves the dried entries doing more of the finished biscuit's work than their place on the list suggests. Declared protein converts to 27.2% of dry matter.

Potato and peas each come in at 12.5%, with sweet potato at 12% behind them. Those three are the starch here, and lentils follow further down. No cereal appears on the itemised list and the label says as much on the front, so the grain-free promise holds when you read it through.

The calming case rests on the herbs. Valerian is the traditional choice for a restless dog and hemp sits alongside it, while horehound, aniseed, celery seed and nettle fill the list out. Not one of them carries a declared inclusion level. Read the herb list as a considered choice, not a measured dose. Any settling effect will take weeks to show itself, so give it that long.

Turkey fat is listed twice on this label, once at 0.5% inside the meat block and again among the botanicals, so 0.5% is the only level actually declared for it. Linseed is the plant source of omega 3 here, and seaweed brings iodine with a spread of minerals attached. Rosemary does double duty as a herb and as the natural antioxidant that stops the fats turning.

The added minerals are the quiet highlight of this label. Zinc at 77 mg, iron at 48 mg, manganese at 34 mg and copper at 12 mg per kilo all arrive chelated. Chelates are absorbed more readily than the plain salts. Selenium at 0.29 mg comes as a selenised yeast, the better of the two forms permitted here. Iodine is declared at 1.7 mg.

£8.00 a kilo, sold in 1.5kg, 5kg and 10kg bags.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition eats around 246 grams a day, assuming about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate), which comes to £1.96 a day. The bag's own chart suggests 250 to 375 grams for a dog between 10kg and 19kg, so trust your dog's waistline over either figure.