Guru Fish Ahoy Cold Pressed review

The reading here is our Good band, the same rung the typical cold-pressed food settles on, so the question worth asking is what keeps it from going higher. That gap comes from everything arranged around the fish. Protein converting to 32.2% of dry matter is a genuinely good figure for a pressed food, and carbohydrate at 41.2% comes in under the 43.2% category middle, both of which count in its favour. Pulling the other way is an ash figure that converts to 10.2% of dry matter, high for a food of this kind. Several entries on the long plant list earn their place more by reputation than by quantity, and there is no printed vitamin and mineral panel. The organic fish lead is the part to buy it for.

Ingredients, as declared: Organic White Ocean Fish 34%, Brown Rice (thermally pre-treated) 30%, Sweet Potato, Cold Pressed oils (rapeseed & linseed), Peas, Broad Beans, Chicory, Carrot, Apple, Alfalfa, Seaweed, Parsnip, Gelatine, Pumpkin seeds, Blackcurrent, Cranberry, Kale, Broccoli, Mixed Tocopherols and Rosemary Extract, MOS, FOS, Glucosamine, Yucca, Green Lipped Mussels, Green Tea Extract, Parsley, Rosemary, Chondroitin.

Organic white ocean fish at 34% is the standout entry, and organic is a claim a maker has to stand behind rather than a word it can simply print. Fish is also among the gentlest proteins where a dog has reacted to meat before, so the lead ingredient is doing two useful jobs at once. Protein converts to 32.2% of dry matter, which puts it near the top of what a pressed pellet usually delivers.

The brown rice at 30% goes through a thermal pre-treatment, and that step is doing real work. Pressing at low temperature leaves starch much as it was, so the grain is heat-treated beforehand to make it digestible. Sweet potato follows, and between the two of them the carbohydrate lands at 41.2% of dry matter, a little under where cold-pressed food normally sits.

The middle of the list is a long parade of plants: peas and broad beans for protein and fibre, then chicory, carrot, apple, alfalfa, seaweed, parsnip, pumpkin seeds, blackcurrant, cranberry, kale and broccoli. Chicory root brings inulin, which the gut's useful bacteria feed on, and seaweed covers iodine. None of these carries a percentage, so the ones near the end are seasoning rather than substance.

Joint support is the recurring theme of the tail. Glucosamine, chondroitin and dried green lipped mussels are the three ingredients a maker reaches for when cartilage is the target, and finding all three on one label is a deliberate choice. None of them is printed with a dose, so read them as a helpful lean in that direction. It is also worth knowing that glucosamine is usually made from shellfish and chondroitin from animal cartilage, which is why a fish-only reading of this label does not quite hold.

Two figures deserve a plain mention. Ash converts to 10.2% of dry matter and calcium to 1.74%, both on the high side for a pressed food. Calcium at that level sits above the ceiling usually advised while a large breed puppy is still growing. Check with your vet before you feed it to a big-boned youngster. There is no printed vitamin and mineral table alongside the ingredients either, so the micronutrition is taken on trust in a way the rest of the label does not ask for.

£5.20 a kilo. It is sold in 5kg and 13kg bags.

A 15kg adult dog in moderate condition needs around 840 kcal a day using the standard maintenance estimate (110 × bodyweight^0.75). On this food that comes to about 248 grams, or £1.29 a day.