Natural Woodland Optimum Diet: Mini-Medium review

Both bags come out in our Good band, the same level the typical adult dry food reaches. The reasons are easy enough to see. The meat total is moderate once the dehydrated and fresh entries are counted together, four cereals share the base, and the two birds at the top of each list are declared as a single figure.

What the recipes do well is name what they use. The oils are specified, the herbs are dosed, and every trace mineral gets its own line. Carbohydrate lands at 43.5% and 40.2% of dry matter, both under the 46.2% typical of the category. A dog that has never reacted to cereal will feed perfectly well on this.

Ingredients, as declared: Dehydrated turkey and chicken meat (20%), Fresh chicken (10%), Wheat, Peas (8%), Chicken oil (7.5%), Barley, Corn (6%), Rice (5%), Chicken liver hydrolysate (2%), Dehydrated salmon (2%), Beet Pulp (2%), Carob, Fish oil (0.5%), Yeast, Mineral substances, Rosemary (1,200 mg/kg), Chicory (500 mg/kg), Mallow (400 mg/kg).

Four cereals appear across these recipes and they are not equal. Barley is a genuinely useful grain, easily digested once cooked and carrying fibre, selenium and copper along with its starch. Of the common cereals, rice is the one that sits most gently in a dog's gut. Corn is perfectly digestible when cooked, though it is chosen for economy as much as for nutrition. Wheat is the one that draws real debate, since it is linked with dietary intolerance more often than any other grain, and it sits high on both of these lists. For most dogs that is a non-issue. Where there has been itching or loose stools, it is the first thing to rule out.

The meat is poultry throughout. Dehydrated turkey and chicken lead at 18% in the Large recipe and 20% in the Mini-Medium, with fresh chicken at 10% behind in both. The dried entry is the one to read, since its water has already gone before the percentage is calculated. Chicken liver hydrolysate at 2% is a palatant, the small addition that gives a plain kibble a flavour dogs go for, and liver is genuinely nutrient dense in its own right.

The omega sources are the quiet strength of both labels. Dehydrated salmon at 2% and fish oil at 0.5% are named, not hidden behind a general term. The omega 3s in fish oil come long chain, ready for a dog to use directly, which linseed and other plant sources cannot match. Chicken oil supplies the bulk of the fat, at 5% in the Large recipe and 7.5% in the Mini-Medium.

What is left on the list is small, named and dosed. Beet pulp at 2% and carob supply gentle fibre, with brewers' yeast behind them, and chicory at 500 mg/kg feeds the gut bacteria. Rosemary at 1,200 mg/kg keeps the fats from turning rancid. Malva, listed as mallow on the Mini-Medium label, is at 400 mg/kg on both. Tocopherols do the preserving, a vitamin E based natural alternative to chemical preservatives.

Both labels dose L-carnitine at 40 mg/kg, an amino acid the body leans on when it turns fat to energy. They print their trace minerals individually too: iron at 75 mg, zinc at 120 mg, iodine at 3.5 mg and selenium at 0.12 mg per kilo. The gap in an otherwise well populated panel is calcium, which is not declared on either bag despite both being sold for growth.

The smaller kibble and the fuller build, at 28.0% protein and 16.0% fat for 379 kcal per 100g, on 20% dehydrated turkey and chicken with chicken oil up at 7.5%. Carbohydrate drops to 40.2% of dry matter, helped by peas at 8% sitting ahead of the barley, corn at 6% and rice at 5%. It carries no glucosamine or chondroitin, so a stiffening older dog is better served by the Large recipe.

The Large recipe is sold in a 10kg bag and the Mini-Medium in 2kg and 10kg.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would eat about 227 grams a day of the Large recipe or about 222 grams of the Mini-Medium. Work that from around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). A dog of that weight belongs on the Mini-Medium bag by size. A puppy on either will want considerably more than its adult ration while it is growing, so watch the ribs and not the scoop.