Lovel Dry review

Our scoring lifts this clear of the pack: it reads Excellent where the everyday adult dry food reads Good. The reasons all sit in the front half of the label. Named meat fills the opening entries, protein converts to 37.0% of dry matter, and estimated carbohydrate stops at 30.3% where the typical adult dry food runs to 46.2%. Transparency comes out Outstanding. Protein and processing reads Good, with nutritional balance and value both Excellent, so no pillar carries the total alone and none drags it down.

Ingredients, as declared: Deboned Chicken (16%), Dehydrated Chicken (14%), Dehydrated Turkey (14%), Deboned Salmon, (13%), Cassava, Sweet Potato, Pure Chicken Oil (8%), Whole Egg Powder (6%), Dehydrated Salmon (4%), Salmon Oil (2%), Pea Fibre, Minerals, Prebiotic MOS (200mg/kg), Prebiotic FOS (200mg/kg), Seaweed, Green Tea (100mg/kg), Yucca Extract (100mg/kg), Glucosamine (100mg/kg), Carrots, Grape Seed (50mg/kg), Chondroitin (50mg/kg), Spinach, Green Beans, Bilberries, Cranberries (50mg/kg), Blackcurrants, Apple, Comfrey, Dandelion, Marigold, Chamomile, Peppermint.

The first four entries are all meat and all named: deboned chicken at 16%, dehydrated chicken at 14%, dehydrated turkey at 14% and deboned salmon at 13%. Dehydrated salmon at 4% comes a little further down. Deboned means fresh. Before it meets the oven that meat is mostly water, so the protein reaching the finished kibble comes from the dehydrated entries. Plenty of labels skip that detail, but this one declares both forms separately for two of the species.

Whole egg powder at 6% is the quiet addition. There is no more complete protein you can hand a dog than egg, and at that share it is doing real work, not decorating the list.

Cassava and sweet potato are the only substantial plant entries, with pea fibre behind them. There is no grain, no white potato and no protein isolate propping up the analysis, which is why the estimated carbohydrate finishes at 30.3% of dry matter.

The fats are chicken oil at 8% and salmon oil at 2%, both named to species. Salmon oil is the marine omega 3 source a coat responds to fastest. Green tea and yucca extract arrive at printed doses of 100 or 200 mg per kilo, and so does the prebiotic pair of MOS and FOS. Glucosamine at 100 mg and chondroitin at 50 mg make a small joint pairing, not a full programme.

Grape seed at 50 mg per kilo may make a careful owner pause, grapes themselves being firmly off the menu for dogs. The seed is a different thing from the fruit, and pressed grape seed is used here as an antioxidant at a tiny dose. The rest of the tail, from spinach, green beans and bilberries through to chamomile and peppermint, is garnish. This recipe stands on the meat at the top of it.

The mineral panel is dosed and partly chelated. Zinc arrives as 100mg of sulphate plus 50mg of amino acid chelate, copper as 5mg of each of the same two forms, with manganese at 20mg and iodine at 1mg. A dog's gut generally makes better use of the chelated form, and splitting each dose between the two forms is a considered choice, not a marketing one. Preservation is natural, stabilised with rosemary.

Calcium works out at 2.51% of dry matter. For an adult or an older dog that simply reads as a well-mineralised bowl, and for a small or medium puppy it is unremarkable. A large breed puppy is the one dog whose growing skeleton is genuinely sensitive to how much calcium arrives each day. If that is your dog, take the figure to your vet before making this the food you grow them on.

£5.33 a kilo, sold in 2kg and 12kg bags, with the 12kg also offered as a pair.

A 15kg adult dog in moderate condition works out at roughly 221 grams a day, or £1.18, on an energy need of about 840 kcal a day using the standard 110 × bodyweight^0.75 maintenance estimate. The label's own table is written for active dogs and asks 125 to 200 grams for a dog between 10kg and 20kg, so a quieter dog will sit nearer the bottom of that range.