Natural & Delicious N&D Tropical Selection Adult Medium & Maxi: Lamb, Spelt, Oats & Tropical Fruits review

The Good band is where this one comes out, a little ahead of the middle of the adult dry food market, which reads the same way. Its strengths are lamb declared twice, at 20% fresh and 20% as dehydrated protein, and a carbohydrate estimate of 43.2% of dry matter. That stays under the 46.2% a dry food typically carries, even with spelt and oats in the recipe. Two things keep it at this level and no higher. The mineral pack is built from oxide, sulphate and carbonate forms with no chelates, and protein at 27.5% of dry matter reads respectable without being remarkable.

Ingredients, as declared: lamb (20%), dehydrated lamb protein (20%), spelt (12%), oats (12%), chicken fat, dehydrated herring protein, dried beet pulp, fish oil (from herring), dried carrot, alfalfa meal, inulin, fructo-oligosaccharides, yeast extract (source of manno-oligo-saccharides), dried banana (0.5%), dried kiwi (0.5%), dried mango (0.5%), dried papaya (0.5%), dried pineapple (0.5%), dried spinach, psyllium husks and seeds, sodium chloride, dried brewers' yeast, turmeric, aloe vera extract, glucosamine, chondroitin sulphate.

Lamb leads twice over, at 20% as the fresh meat and 20% as dehydrated lamb protein. The fresh figure looks bigger than it eats. Cooking drives off most of that weight as water, which leaves the dehydrated entry to bring the protein through to the finished kibble. In the analysis that is 25.0% protein as fed, or 27.5% with the moisture taken out.

The grains are spelt and oats at 12% each, better company than the cereals that usually turn up in this position. An old form of wheat, spelt carries a broader nutrient spread than the modern kind, and plenty of wheat-sensitive dogs handle it without fuss. The gluten is still in there, though. Oats bring soluble fibre and a set of minerals of their own, with dried beet pulp behind them adding more fibre again.

The tropical fruits are the marketing, and they are declared honestly: banana, kiwi, mango, papaya and pineapple at 0.5% each. That is seasoning and not a nutrition plan. The label earns credit for printing the number and leaving you nothing to guess at.

Chicken fat is the added fat. The marine side comes from dehydrated herring protein and herring oil, and with it the long chain omega 3s that lamb on its own cannot supply. None of that troubles most dogs, but it does matter if lamb was picked to keep other animals out of the bowl.

Glucosamine and chondroitin sulphate close the ingredients without a printed dose, turmeric and aloe vera extract sit nearby, and inulin with fructo-oligosaccharides and a manno-oligo-saccharide yeast extract cover the prebiotic side. The added minerals arrive as oxides, sulphates and carbonates, with the selenium as sodium selenite. The panel is complete and conventional.

£8.49 a kilo, sold in a 2kg bag.

As a guide, feeding a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition works out at about 217 grams a day, or £1.85, assuming around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). For a dog that size the bag's own table asks 145 to 255 grams. Where in that span you settle is for your dog's shape to decide.