GreenAcres Small Breed: Lamb & Rice review

Good band for this one, level with the typical adult dry food, and transparency is the pillar lifting it within that band, reading Outstanding. Nearly every entry that matters is named, and the meat is pinned to a single species from the meal down to the fat. The rest of the reading is ordinary in the best sense: protein converts to 26.1% of dry matter and estimated carbohydrate to 46.7%, within a whisker of the 46.2% typical figure. In other words the balance is normal and the honesty of the naming is what earns the extra.

Ingredients, as declared: Lamb Meal (29%), White Rice (23.5%), Barley (7%), Oats, Lamb Fat, Pea Protein, Linseed, Brown Rice (4.5%), Lamb Digest (3%), Beet Pulp, Dried Peas, Alfalfa, Salmon Oil (1%), Minerals, Seaweed Meal, Dried Tomato, Dried Carrot, Chicory Root (1000mg/kg), Green Tea, Glucosamine (300mg/kg), Yucca Extract (200mg/kg), Dried Cranberry, Rosemary Extract.

Lamb meal at 29% is the headline. Meal has had its water removed already, so the 29% on the label survives the oven intact. Lamb is easily digested and most dogs love the taste. When chicken stops working for a dog, lamb is the usual next stop.

The starch is white rice at 23.5%. Barley is at 7%, and oats and brown rice at 4.5%. Estimated carbohydrate lands at 46.7% of dry matter, which is squarely normal for a dry food, so nothing here is being padded out. Beet pulp and dried peas add the fibre.

The lamb theme holds all the way down. Lamb fat is the added fat and lamb digest at 3% is the palatant, so a dog reacting to poultry has nothing to trip over among the meats. Linseed and salmon oil at 1% are the omega 3 sources here, and the fish oil works faster than the seed. That salmon oil is also the one animal entry on the list that is not lamb.

Ash converts to 10.3% of dry matter, on the higher side, and that is what a meat meal with bone in it does to the mineral total. It is normal for this style of food rather than a fault, and it comes with plenty of naturally occurring calcium and phosphorus, though the label does not print a calcium figure.

The extras are chosen with some thought. Carotenoids come from dried tomato and dried carrot, and antioxidants from green tea and dried cranberry. Chicory root at 1000mg/kg is the prebiotic, while yucca extract at 200mg/kg is aimed at kennel odour. Alfalfa, seaweed meal and rosemary extract finish the list, the last of those preserving the fats. Vitamin A is dosed at 36000 IU with vitamin E at 190mg per kilo, and the trace minerals are all printed with a figure against them.

£5.17 a kilo, sold in 2kg and 6kg bags.

Take a 15kg adult dog in steady condition as the reference point: around 226 grams daily, or £1.17, from a maintenance estimate of about 840 kcal (110 × bodyweight^0.75). Most small breeds eat a fraction of that, and the label asks 90 to 150 grams for a dog between 5kg and 10kg.