Natural & Delicious N&D Pumpkin Adult Medium & Maxi: Lamb & Blueberry review

The lamb reads in our Good band, level with where an average adult dry food comes to rest, and the chicken goes a step better into our Excellent band. A named animal holds the first two positions on the list, and that does much of the lifting. Estimated carbohydrate is 36.3% of dry matter on the chicken and 36.7% on the lamb, against 46.2% for a typical dry food. The additive panel helps too, with chelated trace minerals and amino acids declared to the milligram. Two things stop the reading going higher. Pea starch is a refined ingredient and it does the binding. Some of the plant entries further down are small enough to be decorative.

Ingredients, as declared: lamb (22%), dehydrated lamb protein (20%), pea starch, chicken fat, dried pumpkin (5%), dried eggs, herring, dehydrated herring protein, fish oil (from herring), pea fibre, dried carrot, alfalfa meal, inulin, fructo-oligosaccharides, yeast extract (source of manno-oligo-saccharides), dried blueberry (0.5%), dried apple, dried pomegranate, dried sweet orange, dried spinach, psyllium husks and seeds (0.3%), sodium chloride, dried brewers' yeast, turmeric (0.2%), aloe vera extract, glucosamine, chondroitin sulphate.

The named animal occupies the top two slots in both recipes, once as fresh meat and once as dehydrated protein, at 24% and 22% on the chicken and 22% and 20% on the lamb. The second entry counts hardest. In fresh meat the water is most of the weight, and cooking takes it, while dehydrated protein arrives already concentrated. The chicken converts to 33.0% protein of dry matter, the lamb to 30.8%.

Dried pumpkin at 5% is the ingredient the range is named for and, unusually, it is present at a level that can genuinely contribute. Pumpkin is a soft, soluble-fibre vegetable that dogs digest easily and that has been used to steady a loose stomach for as long as people have been feeding dogs from the kitchen. Pea fibre sits behind it, with inulin and fructo-oligosaccharides joined by yeast-derived mannan-oligosaccharides, and psyllium husks at 0.3% add another soluble fibre.

Pea starch is the binder and the main carbohydrate. What goes in is the pea's refined starch fraction, not the whole pulse. That means none of the vitamins and antioxidants a whole pea would bring. It digests easily, though, and it keeps cereal out of the recipe. Carbohydrate finishes at 36.3% of dry matter for the chicken, 36.7% for the lamb. Both are on the lean side for a grain-free kibble.

Herring, dehydrated herring protein and herring oil give both recipes their marine omega 3s in ready-made form, with dried eggs adding a complete protein alongside. Both bags use chicken fat as the added fat. On the lamb recipe that is worth registering if you are steering around poultry.

The additive list is printed in full and it is a strong one. Zinc at 163.8 mg, manganese at 64.6 mg, iron at 58.3 mg and copper at 15.8 mg per kilo all arrive as chelates, generally the better absorbed form, with selenium as the yeast version. Vitamin E is dosed at 600 mg and vitamin C at 150 mg, choline chloride at 2500 mg, DL-methionine at 4000 mg, taurine at 1000 mg and L-carnitine at 300 mg. Green tea extract at 100 mg finishes the sensory entries. Glucosamine and chondroitin appear on the ingredients list without doses. Read them as a supportive gesture, not a measured joint supplement.

The fruit tail of pomegranate or blueberry at 0.5%, with apple, sweet orange, spinach and turmeric at 0.2%, is the label's signature and not its substance. Aloe vera extract sits in the same territory. None of that is a criticism, because the meat and the pumpkin are where this recipe is putting its weight.

Lamb opens at 22% with dehydrated lamb protein at 20%, and dried blueberry at 0.5% supplies the name. Protein is declared at 28% and ash at 8.6%, with calcium at 1.21% of dry matter and energy at 393 kcal per 100g. A dog that finds poultry a bit dull will take to the red meat, though the chicken fat keeps this from being poultry-free.

£7.50 a kilo on both recipes, sold in 2.5kg and 12kg bags.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would take about 211 grams a day on the chicken, 214 on the lamb. That is on roughly 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). The chicken works out at £1.58 a day, the lamb at £1.60. Portion to the dog's shape, not to the number.