Natural Dog Food Company Sensitive: British Free-Range Chicken review

Our Excellent band takes the chicken, the salmon and the duck, with the lamb a shade behind in Good, which for a range built this carefully is a closer thing than it looks. The declared meat shares and the low carbohydrate figures, between 35.7% and 37.9% of dry matter against the 46.2% typical of a dry food, all count in their favour. Two quiet spots on the label are what keep them where they are. The omega 3 supplement names no source, and the minerals arrive as a single word with no doses attached. The brand says the added vitamins and minerals in this range come from natural sources wherever possible and use chelated forms. That is reassuring to read, though a printed panel would let the label prove it.

Ingredients, as declared: 65% Chicken (Freshly Prepared British Free Range Chicken (35%), Dried Chicken (22%), Chicken Fat (6%), Chicken Gravy (2%)), Sweet Potato, Beans, Beet Pulp, Mixed Fruits & Vegetables (Ginger, Pomegranate, Kale, Artichoke, Blueberry)*, Omega 3 Supplement, Minerals, Fructooligosaccharides (175mg/kg) Mannanoligosaccharides (50mg/kg), Olive Extract (0.01%) *each equivalent to 4% fresh ingredients

A 65% declaration from one animal is a big number for a dry food, and this label backs it with a full breakdown. Each recipe gives 35% freshly prepared meat, then the dried protein at 22% or 23%, then the fat and the stock or gravy. Fresh meat goes into the oven mostly as water, and comes out much lighter. The dried entry does the heavy lifting, and at better than a fifth of the bag it is sized properly for the job.

Sweet potato and beans do the binding. Beet pulp sits behind them for fibre. No cereal appears in any of the four. Carbohydrate lands between 35.7% and 37.9% of dry matter, low for a kibble and a direct consequence of how much of each bag is meat.

Every flavour gets its own five named plants, each declared as equivalent to 4% fresh, so the chicken has ginger, pomegranate, kale, artichoke and blueberry while the duck has parsnip, beetroot, orange, asparagus and pumpkin. Naming and quantifying them rather than hiding them under an umbrella is a small thing that says quite a lot about the label.

The gut side is quietly specific, with fructo-oligosaccharides at 175mg and mannan-oligo-saccharides at 50mg per kilogram sitting alongside the beet pulp. Olive extract at 0.01% is the antioxidant that finishes the list. These are supporting parts rather than headline ones, and the label is honest about their size.

The rest of the list is precise, but two entries stay vague. The omega 3 supplement names no source. Marine oils are the usual choice for one, so a dog kept strictly off fish cannot be cleared on this label alone. Minerals appear as a single word with no doses printed, though the brand's own account is that this range draws on natural sources where it can and uses chelated forms for the trace minerals.

Protein varies more than the shared construction suggests. The lamb reads 27.5% as fed, the chicken and the salmon 32.0%, and fat runs between 14.0% and 16.0%. All four count as meat-forward for a dry food, and the differences come down to the animal, not to any change in the recipe around it.

British free range chicken at 65%, made of 35% freshly prepared and 22% dried, plus 6% chicken fat and 2% chicken gravy. It shares the highest protein figure in the range at 32.0% as fed, and its five named plants are ginger, pomegranate, kale, artichoke and blueberry. Chicken tops the list of meats dogs react to, so reach for this bag when the trouble lies elsewhere.

£7.50 a kilo for all four flavours, sold in 2kg, 6kg and 12kg bags.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition eats about 237 grams a day of the duck. The salmon comes to 238, the chicken 241 and the lamb 246. All four rest on around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That comes to between £1.78 and £1.84 a day. The bag asks 188 grams for a dog between 10kg and 20kg, so let your dog's shape decide the final scoop.