Natural Woodland Dry All Age & Breed: Wild Iberian Diet review

Our Good band takes three of these four recipes, the level an ordinary adult dry food reaches, and the 4 Tastes Diet lands a little under them in our Average band. Nothing dramatic separates the set. The 4 Tastes Diet puts corn second and folds four animals into a single percentage, and those two things together weigh on it more heavily than any one ingredient does.

Where cereal has never caused trouble, all four read as sound everyday food. The Wild Iberian declares the most protein in the family, 32.6% of dry matter. Every recipe in the range keeps carbohydrate below the 46.2% typical of adult dry food, which few people expect from a rice based kibble.

Ingredients, as declared: Dehydrated Iberian pork meat (20%), Wholegrain rice (18%), Peas, Ground rice, Fresh wild board meat (10%), Chicken oil, Minerals, Lentils (2%), Hydrolysed Iberian pork liver, Dehydrated salmon, Carob, Apple pulp, Linseed, Salmon oil, Brewers' yeast (MOS), Fruits: (Pear, Apple, Blueberries) 3000 mg/kg, Vegetables: (Carrots, Broccoli, Pumpkin, Spinach and Ginger) 3000 mg/kg, Rosemary (1200 mg/kg), Chicory (FOS) 500 mg/kg, Yucca schidigera, Glucosamine and Chondroitin.

Grain is the deliberate choice here, and it is worth understanding. Wholegrain rice keeps its bran and germ, so fibre and micronutrients come along with the starch. Few cereals sit more gently in a dog's gut. Ground rice, which sits behind it in three recipes, is the refined version and is doing a plainer job. Corn in the 4 Tastes Diet is the entry that gives most people pause. It is perfectly digestible once cooked, though seeing it in second place tells you where the bulk of that recipe comes from.

The meat side varies more than the starch does. Country Diet leads with dehydrated turkey and chicken at 20% and adds fresh chicken at 10%, lentils at 5% and dehydrated salmon at 2%. Ocean Diet is built on dehydrated tuna at 20% with fresh white fish at 10%. Wild Iberian pairs dehydrated Iberian pork at 20% with fresh wild boar at 10%, which is about as unusual a combination as British shelves offer. Only the 4 Tastes Diet declines to break its meats out, running chicken, turkey, salmon and tuna together at 32%.

Joint support is a running theme and the doses tell you how seriously each recipe takes it. The 4 Tastes Diet is far and away the most generous, with glucosamine and chondroitin at 1000 mg/kg each and MSM at 400 mg/kg, all three printed. Country, Ocean and Wild Iberian carry glucosamine and chondroitin too, but name them without a figure, so you are trusting rather than reading.

Behind the meat and the rice, the small entries are sensible and mostly named. Brewers' yeast supplies MOS and chicory supplies FOS, two prebiotics that keep the gut's own bacteria fed. Carob and apple pulp add gentle fibre, linseed brings plant omega 3s to the Ocean and Wild Iberian recipes, and salmon oil tops up the marine ones. The Country and Wild Iberian labels dose their fruit and vegetable blends at 3000 mg/kg each and rosemary at 1,200 mg/kg, which is honest labelling of what are, at those levels, seasoning rather than substance.

The trace minerals are printed line by line across all four: iron at 75 mg, zinc at 120 mg, iodine at 3.5 mg and selenium at 0.12 mg per kilo. The 4 Tastes Diet adds zinc methionine at 30 mg. Preservation is handled by natural antioxidants in three of the recipes, with tocopherols named on the Country, Ocean and Wild Iberian labels. The 4 Tastes label is vaguer: it lists antioxidants and preservatives without saying which.

The most unusual recipe in the family and the highest in protein at 30.0%, pairing dehydrated Iberian pork at 20% with fresh wild boar at 10% and hydrolysed Iberian pork liver behind them. Plenty of dogs have never eaten pork, so it is a useful direction when the usual meats have gone stale or started causing trouble. At 36.9% of dry matter it carries the least carbohydrate of the four.

All four recipes are sold in 2kg and 10kg bags.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would eat 215 to 224 grams a day, by recipe. The starting point is around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). Let the shape of the dog set the portion, not the table on the bag, and expect a growing puppy to want considerably more while it is building.