James Wellbeloved Adult Superfood: Turkey with Kale & Quinoa review

Both varieties land at the lower end of our Good band, the band the middle of the adult dry shelf also occupies. The plant names on the front were never going to move that much at the percentages declared, and they do not. The reading reflects the shape underneath. A dried meat protein sits at a little under a quarter of the bag, and brown and white rice make up more of it than the meat does. The estimated carbohydrate load runs above what is typical for adult dry food. Fed to an ordinary adult dog with ordinary needs, this is a competent everyday bowl with a better than average plant list on top.

Ingredients, as declared: dried turkey protein* (23.3%), brown rice* (20.3%), white rice* (20%), naked oats*, whole linseed* (3.9%), sugar beet pulp*, poultry fat*, turkey gravy, kale* (2%), quinoa* (2%), alfalfa meal*, minerals, pea fibre*, seaweed* (0.5%), fish oil, chicory extract* (0.1%), yucca extract* (0.02%). *Natural ingredient.

The base of both recipes is the same. Dried lamb protein at 23.5% or dried turkey protein at 23.3% leads, followed by rice in two forms. The lamb has brown at 18% and white at 17.7%; the turkey has brown at 20.3% and white at 20%. The meat is declared dried, so its percentage does not shrink once the kibble is baked. That is the more honest way of printing it.

Both superfood entries are real, and each one has a figure against it. Many labels do not go that far. Sweet potato at 3.9% in the lamb recipe is a genuine ingredient rather than a garnish. Chia seeds at 0.1% are a flourish, and their contribution beside whole linseed at 3.9% is small. In the turkey bag, kale and quinoa each sit at 2%, enough to be present and not enough to change the character of the food.

The omega work in both bags is done by the linseed and the fish oil, not by the seeds pictured on the front. Linseed brings omega 3 in the plant form. A dog turns that into the skin active forms slowly, and fish oil brings those forms ready made. Between them a coat has what it needs. Allow a few weeks for it to answer.

Sugar beet pulp handles the fibre and has its sugar already extracted, with alfalfa meal adding more. Chicory extract at 0.1% brings inulin for the bacteria living further down the gut. Seaweed at 0.5% covers iodine and trace minerals, and yucca extract at 0.02% is the entry aimed at what the garden smells like afterwards.

One ingredient stops at the family and never says which bird: poultry fat, and it sits in both recipes alongside the fish oil. Most dogs will never give either a second thought, and both are doing genuine work on energy and palatability. They count only when you are ruling proteins in or out, since a lamb bag carrying poultry fat is not a lamb only bag.

Dried turkey protein at 23.3%, with more rice than the lamb bag carries, brown at 20.3% and white at 20%, and naked oats behind them. Kale and quinoa at 2% each are the named plants. Protein reads 23.8%, fat 10.4%, carbohydrate an estimated 51.0% of dry matter and energy 353 kcal in every 100g. Pea fibre is on this label and not on the lamb.

£8.99 a kilo for both varieties, sold in 1.5kg, 6kg and 10kg bags.

Take a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition needing roughly 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). The lamb then comes to about £2.16 a day and the turkey to £2.14. For a dog of that weight the bag asks 205 to 230 grams a day on the lamb and 205 to 225 on the turkey. Your dog's waistline can settle the difference.