GreenAcres Adult: Lamb & Rice review

Three recipes, one plan, and a single band between them. Lamb & Rice and Turkey & Rice hold our Good band, level with the typical adult dry food, and Fish & Rice sits a step behind in Average. What separates them is genuinely small. The fish recipe carries the most protein at 26.6% of dry matter and the least fat at 10.9%, the lamb recipe reverses that with 22.3% protein and 15.8% fat, and turkey sits between the two. Protein and processing reads Average on all three and nutritional balance much the same, with the lamb a step behind its siblings there. Transparency is the strong reading across the range. This is a food that does the ordinary things with care and attempts nothing unusual. The extras are what lift it above a plain supermarket build.

Ingredients, as declared: Lamb Meal (29%), White Rice (26%), Barley (11%), Oats, Lamb Fat, Linseed, Brown Rice (4.5%), Beet Pulp, Lamb Digest (3%), Dried Peas, Alfalfa, Salmon Oil (1%), Minerals, Seaweed Meal, Chicory Root (1000mg/kg), Glucosamine (300mg/kg), Yucca Extract (200mg/kg), Rosemary Extract.

Leading on 29% meat meal is a different proposition from leading on 29% fresh meat. Rendering and drying happen before the meal reaches the mixer, so almost all of that 29% is still there in the finished kibble. Put the same weight in as fresh meat and much of it would go up as water in the oven. It is a less glamorous way to write a label and a more efficient way to get protein into a bowl.

White rice at 26% is the main starch, with barley at 11%, oats and brown rice at 4.5% behind it. Of the common cereals, white rice is the gentlest on a dog's digestion, its bran having been removed. The brown rice and oats put some of that fibre back. The result is estimated carbohydrate of between 47.9% and 49.5% of dry matter across the range, which is where most grain-inclusive kibbles live.

The working extras are the most likeable thing about these labels. Glucosamine at 300mg/kg is a real inclusion aimed at cartilage, not just a word printed on the front of the bag. Chicory root at 1000mg/kg supplies inulin, a prebiotic the large intestine feeds on. Yucca extract at 200mg/kg is the traditional choice for softening what the garden smells like. Beet pulp, alfalfa and seaweed meal fill out the fibre and mineral side. Rosemary extract is the natural antioxidant, and it stops the fats going off.

All three recipes carry salmon oil, at 4.5% in the fish and 1% in the other two, and the marine omega 3s come from there. Linseed backs it up with the plant form. A dog kept off fish will not get on with the lamb or turkey recipes either, so know that before you order.

The added minerals come as sulphates and oxides, the workmanlike forms most of the industry uses, and no chelates appear. Each one is printed with a figure: zinc at 100mg per kilo, iron at 50mg, manganese at 40mg, copper at 12mg, iodine at 1.5mg and selenium at 0.25mg. Dosing them in print is the part that matters most to a label reader.

Lamb meal at 29% with lamb fat and lamb digest at 3%, so every lamb entry on the label is tied to the animal by name. This is the richest of the three, at 15.8% fat of dry matter and 373 kcal per 100g, and the lowest in protein at 22.3%. That suits a dog that needs the calories more than the muscle. When a dog has grown bored of poultry, red meat is the traditional answer.

Fish & Rice is £5.15 a kilo. Lamb & Rice and Turkey & Rice are both £4.29, and all three are sold in 2kg and 12kg bags.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition eats 225 to 239 grams a day across the three, working from about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). On the fish that comes to £1.23 a day, with the lamb at £0.97 and the turkey at £0.98. The label's own table asks 230 to 280 grams for a dog between 15kg and 20kg, so the two readings agree closely here.