James Wellbeloved Adult Dry: Fish & Rice review

Our scoring keeps all five recipes together in the Good band, the lamb alongside the chicken, the duck, the fish and the turkey. The typical adult dry food also finishes in Good, so this range reads level with the shelf rather than above it. What holds them there is the balance of the recipe. The named meat protein runs from 19% to 24% of the ingredients list and the grains take up much of what remains. Carbohydrate lands between an estimated 49.5% and 53.0% of dry matter, against the 46.2% typical. Protein and processing and nutritional balance read Average right across the range, with transparency Outstanding on every bag. None of that changes what these recipes are good at, which is putting one named animal and a short, legible list in front of a dog that struggles with more complicated food.

Ingredients, as declared: dried fish protein* (20%), barley*, naked oats*, brown rice* (13%), white rice* (13%), whole linseed* (3.9%), fish stock, poultry fat*, dried peas*, fish oil, alfalfa meal*, minerals, chicory pulp*, seaweed* (0.5%), chicory extract* (0.1%), yucca extract* (0.02%). *Natural ingredient.

A dried meat protein opens every recipe, not a fresh one, and for a kibble that is the more useful way round. By the time dried meat goes in, its water has gone, so what you read on the label is roughly what lands in the bag. Declared figures start at 19% on the lamb and reach 24% on the duck and the turkey, with protein converting to between 24.3% and 26.4% of dry matter across the five.

The grain side barely changes from recipe to recipe. Naked oats lead, barley brings up the rear, and brown and white rice sit at 13% each between them. Naked oats are the hull-less kind. Cooked, they are easy on a dog and a decent source of fibre and B vitamins. Barley cooks down to something equally digestible, though it carries gluten and so will not do for a dog kept off it.

Whole linseed is the standout small entry, declared at 4.5% on the chicken and around 4% elsewhere. It is the plant omega 3 source, rich in fibre and natural antioxidants alongside, and fish oil sits further down every list to supply the marine forms a dog's body can use directly. Between them they give the skin and coat side of these recipes a proper footing.

Poultry fat is the one genuinely vague entry. It is an ordinary ingredient and dogs love the taste of it. The word poultry stands for chicken or turkey or duck or goose without ever saying which, and it appears on every label in the range. That matters a great deal when an exclusion diet is hunting for a problem bird. For everyone else it is simply the fat.

Fibre comes from sugar beet pulp, pea fibre or chicory pulp depending on the recipe, with alfalfa meal alongside, and chicory extract at 0.1% is the declared prebiotic. Seaweed at 0.5% brings iodine and a wide spread of minerals. Yucca extract at 0.02% is the quiet entry that helps with how the other end smells.

Every label prints its mineral panel with doses: zinc as a glycine chelate at 100 mg per kilo, the better absorbed form, and vitamin E at 165 mg. Preserving is done with citric acid at 280 mg and tocopherol extracts drawn from vegetable oils, with nothing synthetic involved, which is the choice you want to see.

Dried fish protein at 20% heads a recipe that also uses fish stock and fish oil, with barley ahead of the oats and dried peas standing in for the pea fibre used elsewhere. Ash is the highest in the range at 8.3% of dry matter, which fits a fish-based meal protein. No species is named for the fish, so this suits a dog that simply does better off land meats rather than one being tested against a particular fish.

Per kilo, the chicken recipe is £7.00 and the other four are £8.00. Bags come in 2kg, 8kg and 15kg across the range, with a 12kg bag on every recipe except the chicken.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition eats between 231 and 236 grams a day at about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That puts the daily figure between £1.62 and £1.89, depending on the recipe.