Lakes Collection Lakes Legacy High Protein Dog Food: Free Range Chicken review

All four recipes reach our Excellent band, the beef highest among them, and every one of them clears the Good band where the typical adult dry food settles. Meat content is doing the heavy lifting. Two thirds of each recipe is declared as one named animal, and protein converts to between 30.4% and 41.3% of dry matter. Carbohydrate comes in between 29.9% and 38.6% against the 46.2% typical for adult dry food, a genuinely uncommon reading for kibble. Every recipe reads Outstanding for transparency. Protein and processing sits at Good behind it, and nutritional balance is Outstanding on the beef and Good on the other three. The beef finishing marginally ahead is no surprise at all, since it carries the highest protein figure in the line and the lowest carbohydrate of the four.

Ingredients, as declared: 65% Chicken (35% Freshly Prepared British Free Range Chicken, 22% Dried Chicken, 6% Chicken Fat, 2% Chicken Gravy), Sweet Potato, Beans, Beet Pulp, Dried Superfood Blend* (Including Ginger, Pomegranate, Kale, Artichoke, Blueberry), Omega 3 Supplement, Minerals, Fructooligosaccharides (FOS, 175 mg/kg), Mannanoligosaccharides (MOS, 50 mg/kg), Olive Extract (0.01%) *Each equivalent to 4% Fresh Ingredients. Recipe formulated without grains.

The 65% headline is itemised in every recipe, and reading the itemisation is the whole exercise. Each one runs to 35% freshly prepared meat or fish, then 22% to 25% of the dried form, then a few percent of fat, stock or gravy. Fresh meat goes into the oven wet and comes out a good deal lighter. The dried portion is the part that keeps its weight, and a share this large is what lets the finished analysis reach the protein levels it does.

Beans and sweet potato supply the starch, with beet pulp behind them as the fibre source. Beans is the one loose term on the label, since the type is never named, and a bean brings a decent amount of plant protein along with its carbohydrate. What matters more is the total. Carbohydrate lands between 29.9% and 38.6% of dry matter across the range, well below the 46.2% a dry food typically runs at, which is where a meat-led recipe should end up.

The dried superfood blend is where the marketing sits, and the label is careful enough to explain itself. Each item is quoted as equivalent to 4% fresh ingredients, which means far less dried weight in the bag than the figure suggests. The blends change with the animal: carrot and green beans with the beef, ginger and pomegranate with the chicken, dill and spinach with the salmon, parsnip and beetroot with the duck. These are pleasant extras, and none of the recipes leans on them.

The gut and antioxidant support is dosed in print: fructooligosaccharides at 175 mg/kg, mannanoligosaccharides at 50 mg/kg and olive extract at 0.01%. Both prebiotics are there to encourage the bacteria a dog wants more of further down the gut, and the olive extract is an antioxidant sitting right at the trace end of the list.

None of the four lists contains wheat, maize, rice or barley, and the label states plainly that the recipes are formulated without grains. For a household avoiding cereal, that is a straightforward choice.

British free range chicken, given as 35% freshly prepared, 22% dried, then chicken fat at 6% and chicken gravy at 2%. A free range claim is one of the more meaningful things a label can say about a bird. Protein reaches 32% and fat sits at 14%, the lowest of the four, which makes this the steadiest everyday option in the line. Ginger, pomegranate, kale, artichoke and blueberry make up its dried blend.

£7.50 a kilo across all four recipes, sold in 2kg and 12kg bags.

Across the range a moderate 15kg adult works out between £1.65 and £1.69 a day, on 220 to 226 grams and an assumed 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). The label tables ask 140 to 240 grams for a dog of 10kg to 20kg, so the two guides agree closely and the waistline can settle any gap.