JosiDog Lamb Basic review

JosiDog Lamb Basic finishes in our Good band, a little behind the middle of the adult dry field. Two things account for the distance. Maize sits ahead of the meat. The lamb the name is built around shares the recipe with poultry fat and dried poultry protein, plus a hydrolysed animal protein that names nothing whatsoever. Set against that, the label does print 21% for its lamb, which is a real disclosure and more than plenty of labels manage. For a dog who eats lamb and poultry happily, this reads as an ordinary, moderate kibble with nothing to be uneasy about.

Ingredients, as declared: whole grain maize; dried lamb protein (21%); rice; barley; poultry fat; dried poultry protein; beet fibre; hydrolysed animal protein; minerals; yeast

Whole grain maize opens the list, so the starch side is doing the heavy lifting by weight. Whole grain is the better form to see, since it keeps the bran and the germ rather than stripping them away. Cooked properly, maize suits the large majority of dogs. Rice and barley follow, with barley bringing useful fibre along with several trace minerals, and gluten too if that is something you avoid at home.

Dried lamb protein at 21% is the entry the name rests on. Lamb is a well-liked and easily digested red meat, and the fact that it arrives dried means the figure is honest weight rather than a fresh meat percentage that shrinks away in the oven. Twenty one per cent of a kibble as concentrated lamb protein is a meaningful amount by any reading.

The complication is that the lamb has company. Poultry fat and dried poultry protein both appear, and a hydrolysed animal protein sits lower down naming no species at all. So while lamb leads the animal content and leads the marketing, this is a mixed protein recipe. For a dog with no protein worries that changes nothing whatsoever. For an owner who picked it up specifically to keep their dog off poultry, it changes everything. Nothing else about this bag is more useful to know.

Protein converts to 23.9% of dry matter, fat to 15.2% and carbohydrate estimates at 49.5% of dry matter, a little above the 46.2% typical for adult dry food. Energy comes out at 370 kcal per 100 grams, a moderate everyday level. Beet fibre handles the gut side, with yeast last on the list.

L-carnitine comes in at 200 mg per kilo. It is an amino acid that moves stored fat into energy the body can burn, and a common addition to recipes for dogs carrying a bit of extra weight. The mineral pack is printed row by row, with zinc at 150 mg per kilo as a glycine chelate and iron at 175 mg per kilo.

£2.93 a kilo, sold in a 15kg sack.

As a guide, feeding a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition takes about 227 grams a day, assuming around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That comes to roughly £0.66 a day. The label asks 145 grams at 10kg and 245 grams at 20kg, so trust your dog's outline over the chart.