Luna & me Superblends: Wild Venison & Duck review

All three take our Outstanding band, which is where the typical raw food sits as well. That is a fierce comparison, and no criticism. Protein and processing and nutritional balance both read Outstanding on all three, transparency is Excellent, and what separates them is how the meat is split, not how much there is. Choose on the animals your dog does well with, because the scoring gives you very little to go on between them.

Ingredients, as declared: 85% Meat: (39% Duck - Breast, Thigh, Bone), (30% Venison - Steak), Beef Steak, Beef Heart, Beef Liver, Beef Kidney, Vegetables & Fruits : Kale, Butternut Squash, Carrot, Apple, Spinach, Superfoods & Oils: Chia Seeds, Goji Berry, Wheat Germ Oil, Coconut Oil, Nutritional Yeast, Salmon Oil, Bilberry, Wheatgrass, Spirulina, Chicory Root, Kelp

The build is the brand's familiar one. Meat takes 85% with organs and bone counted inside it, five vegetables and fruits take most of the remainder, and a tail of chia, goji, wheatgrass, bilberry, spirulina, chicory root and kelp finishes the list. What SuperBlends changes is the casting, putting two or three animals into each recipe on purpose.

Venison is the draw. It is a lean game meat most dogs have never met. For a dog whose usual proteins have been ruled out that is genuinely useful, and it appears at 30% in both recipes that carry it. It arrives as steak, so the organs and the bone come from the partner animal instead.

That partnering is worth reading closely. The Wild Venison & Duck lists beef steak, heart, liver and kidney behind its headline pair, which puts three animals in the bowl, and the Delicious Beef & Venison takes its calcium from turkey bone. The name on the front gives you the theme, and the full cast is further down the list.

None of the three carries a vitamin and mineral panel. That is the brand's stated approach across its ranges. Kelp, salmon oil, nutritional yeast and the organ meats stand in, and given how much offal these labels carry that is a reasonable position to take. It does mean the micronutrition has to be read off the ingredient list.

The analyses look the way raw ought to. Protein converts to between 46.1% and 51.1% of dry matter, fat to between 34.6% and 40.1%, and carbohydrate reaches 5.7% at most, nearly all of it estimate rather than anything starchy on the label. Calcium runs from 1.13% to 1.21% of dry matter, consistent with bone ground into the mix rather than minerals stirred in on top.

Duck leads at 39% as breast, thigh and bone, venison steak takes 30%, and beef steak, heart, liver and kidney fill out the rest. Three animals in one patty makes this the widest of the three for a rotation feeder and the one to read twice on an exclusion diet, and it runs at 164 kcal per 100g.

Every recipe comes in a 600g pack of six patties. The Lovely Lamb & Turkey and the Wild Venison & Duck are both £8.25 a kilo.

The standard maintenance estimate puts a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition at about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75). Feeding comes to £3.83 a day on the lamb and turkey and £4.23 a day on the venison and duck.