Lakes Collection Lakes Established Hypoallergenic: Fish review

The fish and salmon recipes finish in our Average band and the lamb and the turkey land a step up in our Good band, so the range spans a single step. The typical adult dry food comes out in our Good band, which puts the lamb and the turkey level with most bags on the shelf and the other pair a shade behind. What separates the salmon is its meat share, declared at 44% where the others run 30% to 34%, and a shorter list that leaves the fish more room. Across the range the analysis is gentle rather than rich. Protein runs between 21.7% and 25.0% of dry matter, fat between 8.7% and 10.9%, and carbohydrate sits above the 46.2% typical of adult dry food in every recipe. Transparency reads Outstanding right across the four, protein and processing reads Average throughout, and nutritional balance reads Poor on all but the turkey, which lifts to Average. Read as a whole, this is a range that puts its effort into naming things clearly rather than into packing the bowl.

Ingredients, as declared: Fish 30% (Including Dried White Fish 15%, Freshly Prepared White Fish 11%, Salmon Gravy 2% & Salmon Oil 2%), White Rice (23%), Brown Rice (20%), Barley (15%), Linseed, Peas, Alfalfa, Sunflower Oil, Minerals, Seaweed, Omega 3 Supplement, FOS (970 mg/kg), Chicory Extract (0.04%), Yucca Extract (190 mg/kg), Dandelion. No Added Artificial Colours, Flavours or Preservatives. Naturally preserved using rosemary extract.

The most useful habit here is that every bag breaks its headline meat into parts. The lamb recipe, for instance, puts 25% dried lamb ahead of a much smaller freshly prepared share. That ordering matters. Fresh meat carries water that the oven removes, while dried meat arrives already concentrated. The lamb, turkey and fish recipes all lead with their dried share, so they carry more animal material into the finished kibble than a headline percentage usually implies. The salmon works the other way round, leading with its freshly prepared share and backing it with 13% dried.

The starch base changes between recipes but the thinking behind it does not. White rice, brown rice, barley and oats do the work in three of the four, and the salmon uses potato at 24% with oats and maize behind it. Brown rice and oats hold on to more of the whole grain than a refined starch would. Cooked barley sits well with most dogs, and it does carry gluten. Carbohydrate runs high right across the range, which is the trade being made for a low fat level and an easy bowl.

Linseed heads the supporting cast in the fish, lamb and turkey recipes and it is the sensible pick for a food aimed at sensitive skin. The omega 3 it supplies comes in the plant form, and the marine kind is taken up faster. Give a coat a couple of months to answer, not a fortnight. An omega 3 supplement is listed alongside it, and seaweed brings iodine and trace minerals with it.

The same three recipes print a dose against the prebiotic pair. FOS comes in at 970 mg per kilo with chicory extract behind it, and both feed the bacteria that keep a gut settled. Yucca extract at 190 mg per kilo is there to soften what the dog leaves behind. Alfalfa and dandelion round the tail off. None of these are present in quantities that change the analysis, but the FOS and yucca figures being printed at all is a good sign about the label.

The fish, lamb and turkey bags also state that no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives are added, with rosemary extract doing the preserving instead. That is worth having in writing on a food bought for a reactive dog. The salmon recipe is the odd one out across all of these points. Its short list stops after minerals, with no linseed, no botanical tail and no printed prebiotic doses, and in exchange it carries the largest animal share of the four. Which of those two approaches suits your dog is exactly the choice a four-recipe range exists to offer.

Fish at 30%, made up of 15% dried white fish, 11% freshly prepared white fish, 2% salmon gravy and 2% salmon oil. White fish and salmon both appear, so this is the one recipe drawing on more than a single species. Read it as a fish recipe, not a single-fish elimination diet. White rice at 23%, brown rice at 20% and barley at 15% carry the starch, with peas and sunflower oil joining the tail, and calcium works out at 1.3% of dry matter.

All four recipes are sold in 1.5kg and 12kg bags.

Reckon on around 840 kcal a day for a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That comes to between 238 and 243 grams a day depending on the recipe. The labels themselves put a dog between 10kg and 20kg at 150 to 255 grams. Our figure sits inside that guidance, and the waistline has the final say.