Green Pantry Digestion review

This one finishes in our Good band, level with the typical adult dry food, and three things get it there. The animal side is 52% of the recipe and every part of it is named, down to the stock. Dry salmon at 23% means a real share of that survives the oven, and estimated carbohydrate converts to 43.5% of dry matter against the 46.2% typical for a dry food. Protein and processing and nutritional balance both land at Average, with transparency Outstanding and value Good.

Ingredients, as declared: Trout and Salmon 52% (Freshly Prepared Trout 27%, Dry Salmon 23%, Salmon Stock & Salmon Oil 2%), Peas 17%, Sweet Potato 13%, Potato 7.5%, Fruits, Botanicals & Herbs: Linseed, Lentils, Spinach, Alfalfa, Minerals, Nettle, Horehound, Seaweed, Carrot, Tomato, Celery Seed, Cranberry, Aniseed. Brand bullet points: 52% fish (inc fish stock), 48% fruit, vegetables, and botanicals. Hypoallergenic dog food. Made without grains and cereals. A well-balanced diet that includes Fish, potatoes, fruits, and vegetables to provide complete nutrition. Natural control of intestinal and external hygiene, Made from 100% natural ingredients. Naturally preserved.

The fish block is well built. The trout at 27% arrives wet and gives up most of that water in the oven. Dry salmon at 23% arrives with its water already gone. Between them the finished biscuit keeps a real fish share, not just a big printed one. Declared protein converts to 30.4% of dry matter.

Salmon stock and salmon oil at 2% close the animal block, and the oil is the part that matters most on a food like this. A dog can use marine omega 3 straight away. The plant version has to be converted first, and that conversion is slow. Linseed appears further down the list adding the plant form on top of it.

Peas at 17% are the largest plant entry. Sweet potato follows at 13%, potato at 7.5%, and lentils further down again. Along with their starch, whole peas and lentils bring fibre and a spread of useful nutrients. A pea share this size is doing structural work in the biscuit as much as nutritional work in the dog.

The digestion thinking shows in the herbs. Nettle, horehound, aniseed and celery seed are the traditional choices for a gut that grumbles. Declared fibre of 4% converts to 4.3% of dry matter, enough to give a large intestine something to work with without loosening things. None of the herbs carries a declared level, so treat them as a considered inclusion, not a measured one, and give the recipe a fortnight before you judge it.

Every added trace mineral is dosed in print and every one arrives chelated, a form dogs generally absorb more readily than the plain salts. Zinc and iron are both at 48 mg per kilo, manganese at 34 mg, copper at 6 mg and iodine at 0.96 mg.

Calcium deserves a line of its own. It works out at 2.29% of dry matter. That is fine for an adult dog, but it sits above the ceiling a large breed puppy needs while the skeleton is still forming. The puppy claim on this bag reads most safely in the smaller breeds.

Bags come in 1.5kg, 5kg and 10kg, at £8.00 a kilo.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition needs roughly 246 grams a day, assuming about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). At that rate feeding comes to £1.96 a day. On the bag itself, a dog of 10kg to 19kg is given 250 to 375 grams, so start inside that range and adjust by condition.