Lifestage Raw Adult: Beef review

All five recipes take our Outstanding band, and they finish clear of the middle of the adult raw field. In the strongest category we score, that is a hard thing to manage. Completeness is what separates them: named meat and organ shares, a printed vitamin and trace element panel, a dosed joint pair and a prebiotic set, all on the same label. Protein and processing, nutritional balance and transparency all read Outstanding across the five, with value in the same band. So little separates them that your dog's preference guides you better than any ranking of ours.

Ingredients, as declared: Beef with Bone (63%), Carrot (10%), Beef Lung (9%), Broccoli (5%), Beef Liver (5%), Beef Kidney (3%), Kale (2%), Spinach (1%), Linseed oil, Chicory Extract, Inulin, MOS, Yeast, Glucosamine (400 mg/kg), Chondroitin (300 mg/kg), Yucca Extract, Thyme, Cranberry, Dandelion Root, Marigold, Ginger, Turmeric.

One animal, thoroughly used, is the idea behind four of these recipes. The lead entry runs from 63% to 81.5% of the tub as meat with its bone. That same animal's liver, heart, lung or kidney follows immediately behind, and only after that do the vegetables start. Carrot at 10%, broccoli at 5%, kale at 2% and spinach at 1% are the same in every recipe, which is what makes rotating between them so straightforward.

Liver is the entry doing the quiet work, at 9% in three of the recipes. Very little a dog eats is as nutrient dense. Liver carries vitamin A, B12, copper and iron in real quantity, with selenium alongside. That is why a raw recipe can stand up without leaning entirely on its added panel. Lung, heart and kidney fill in behind it depending on the animal.

In four of the five, the omega 3 fats come from linseed oil, with no fish oil in sight. That choice is a deliberate one and a useful one. It lets the Beef, the Chicken and the Turkey hold to a single species right through the list, with no fish arriving through the back door. The Salmon needs no added oil at all, since the fish brings its own.

The tail of the list is longer than most raw labels bother with. Chicory extract, inulin and MOS are the prebiotics, there to keep the gut's useful bacteria fed. Yeast and yucca extract sit alongside them. Glucosamine at 400 mg/kg and chondroitin at 300 mg/kg come with their doses printed, not merely named. Thyme, cranberry, dandelion root, marigold, ginger and turmeric close the list, all at trace level, and they are character more than nutrition.

Each recipe publishes its own additive panel, which is unusual and welcome. Vitamins A, D3 and E are declared per kilo. The trace elements arrive in two forms at once, sulphates alongside glycine chelates for zinc, manganese and copper, with iron and calcium iodate completing the list. Chelated minerals are generally the better absorbed of the two, so seeing both is a sign of a panel put together with some thought.

The analyses vary more than the shared construction suggests. Fat converts to 52.4% of dry matter on the Salmon and only 16.4% on the Turkey, with protein running the other way, 38.1% against 58.2%. That means the portion changes meaningfully with the recipe, so reweigh the bowl when you swap.

Beef with bone at 63%, then beef lung at 9%, beef liver at 5% and beef kidney at 3%. There is no second animal anywhere on the label. Fat converts to 45.5% of dry matter at 183.5 kcal per 100g. That makes it one of the two densest tubs in the range, and a natural fit for a dog that burns through its day.

Every recipe is £5.50 a kilo, sold in 500g tubs.

A 15kg adult dog in moderate condition needs roughly 840 kcal a day on the standard maintenance estimate, 110 × bodyweight^0.75. That works out between £2.51 and £4.07 a day depending on the recipe. The dense Salmon and Beef sit at the bottom of that spread and the lean Turkey at the top, because a leaner recipe means a bigger bowl.