James Wellbeloved Adult Large Breed Dry: Chicken & Rice review

1. Lamb 60.5
2. Turkey 60.2
3. Chicken 58.3
4. Fish 49.0

Four recipes across Good and Average. Typical dry food: Good.

Three of the four sit close enough together that your dog's preferred meat is the better guide, with the fish a step behind.

• Dried chicken protein24%The concentrated form, so no water to discount.
• Naked oatsFirst of the cereals here.
• Brown rice, white rice13% each
• BarleyCarries gluten.
• Poultry fat
• Whole linseed3.5%Plant omega 3.
• Chicken gravyFor the taste of the meat on the front.
• Sugar beet pulp, pea fibre, alfalfa meal, pea proteinFibre and bulk; the beet pulp has its sugar already taken out.
• Seaweed, minerals, fish oil0.5% seaweedIodine from the seaweed, marine omega 3 from the oil.
• Nettles, parsley, chicory extract, glucosamine, yucca extract, chondroitin0.1% down to 0.005%The joint pair is printed at 0.045% and 0.005%.

Vitamins A, D3 and E with copper, iodine, iron, selenium, manganese and zinc, the zinc as a glycine chelate.

Meat

24% dried chicken protein

22% fish, 25% lamb and turkey

Carbohydrate, dry matter

47.7%

46.3% on the fish; not published for lamb or turkey

Analysis

Full panel

Fish too; lamb and turkey give energy only

The familiar starting point for the range, unless your dog has a history with chicken.

Every bag opens with a dried meat protein, 22% on the fish and up to 25% on the lamb and turkey, followed by 13% brown rice, 13% white rice, naked oats and barley. Poultry fat, fish oil, whole linseed, glucosamine and chondroitin appear on all four labels.

What varies is the meat, the order of the cereals and how much analysis is printed. Chicken and fish publish a full panel; lamb and turkey give the energy figure only.

Price per kilo

£3.80 (RRP)

Pack

15kg

A 15kg dog eats (our estimate)

200 to 245 g a day, 225 in the middle

Cost per day, 15kg dog

£0.86

Budget end of the market for a dry food, though the analysis does not quite match the price.