Lifestage Grain Free Adult Dry Food: Lamb & Potato review

All four bags reach our Excellent band, a step above the Good band where the middle of the adult dry shelf sits. Protein and processing comes back Good on every one of them and transparency Outstanding, which is what naming the animal in each meat entry and leaving cereal out buys you. The four finish level with one another, so there is no ranking hidden in the flavour you pick. Choose by what your dog can eat and enjoys.

Ingredients, as declared: Lamb (50%), Freshly Prepared Lamb (25%), Lamb Meal (18%), Lamb Fat (5%), Lamb Gravy (2%), Sweet Potato (23%), Peas (9%), Potato, Pea Protein, Linseed (3%), Beet Pulp (2%), Vegetable Stock, Minerals, Omega 3 Supplement, Mint, Fructooligosaccharides (Fos), Mannanoligosaccharides (Mos)

Each recipe uses one animal four ways: freshly prepared meat, a dried meal of the same animal, a fat or an oil from it and a gravy made with it. The dried meal is the entry to watch, at 23% for the chicken, 20% for the salmon and trout, 19% for the turkey and 18% for the lamb. Fresh meat gives up water in the oven, while a meal goes into the mixer already dry.

The analyses back that construction up. Across the four, protein converts to between 26.4% and 29.7% of dry matter and estimated carbohydrate to between 42.8% and 45.0%. The usual adult dry food carries 46.2% carbohydrate. Fat sits between 12.0% and 14.0% as fed, enough to hold condition on a dog that works for its dinner without tipping into a rich bowl.

Every bag treats the plant side the same way: sweet potato between 23% and 26%, peas between 6% and 9%, then potato. Beet pulp brings fibre and linseed adds plant omega 3. The lamb bag is the one that also uses pea protein, a byproduct of pea processing that lifts a protein figure without lifting the meat content, so read that recipe's number with that in mind.

Each version gets its own finishing note. The chicken has a herb blend of marjoram and basil with oregano, sage, thyme and parsley; the lamb has mint, the salmon and trout asparagus, the turkey cranberry. These are the smallest entries on the list and none of them changes what the food does, but they do give each bag a character of its own.

FOS and MOS close every list, the two prebiotics used to encourage friendly bacteria in the large intestine, although here they are named without a figure against them. The mineral panel behind them does print its doses. The forms are plain oxides and sulphates, with selenium supplied as sodium selenite.

Lamb at 50%, split into 25% freshly prepared lamb, 18% lamb meal, 5% lamb fat and 2% lamb gravy, with mint as its finishing note. Pea protein appears in this recipe only. Ash is the highest of the four at 10.0%, and that usually points to a larger share of bone in the meal. Lamb is a red meat and easily digested. If your dog has had enough of birds, this is the bag to try.

£3.31 a kilo across all four recipes, in 2kg and 12kg bags.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition eats between 240 and 250 grams a day, and the exact figure depends on which bag is in the bowl. That works out at between £0.79 and £0.83 a day, assuming around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). The label's own table asks 150 to 250 grams for a dog of 10 to 20kg. Where the two disagree, the waistline is the better judge.