Naturaw Forage: Venison review

Our Outstanding band takes four of the six, and our Excellent band holds the Free Range Pork and the Lamb just behind them. The Beef and the Turkey & Rainbow Trout still land above the midpoint of the raw field. That is a hard thing to manage, because no category tests a food harder than raw, whose middle already sits inside the Outstanding band. Protein and processing and nutritional balance read Outstanding on every recipe, with transparency running from Excellent down to Average across the six. The small distance between them comes down to how much each label itemises and how its analysis falls.

Ingredients, as declared: British Venison Meat with Bone 65.4%, British Grass Fed Lamb 17.8% (Heart 10.7% & Liver 7.1%), Whole Seasonal Oily Fish 6.6%, Broccoli 2.9%, Forage Botanical Blend 2.1% (Hand Harvested Organic Scottish Seaweed, Wheatgrass, Pumpkin Seeds, Hemp Seeds, Scandinavian Blue Mussel - MSC, Cleavers, Nettles), Whole Blackberries 1.9%, Free Range British Egg 1.9%, Organic Kale 1%, Pure Yorkshire Sea Salt 0.1%

The construction never varies. A lead animal takes the bulk and usually brings its bone. Organ meat follows, named to the organ. Then come whole seasonal oily fish at 6.6%, broccoli, blackberries, organic kale, free range British egg and the Forage botanical blend. Across the six, the animal fraction runs from 84.5% up to 93.9%. No cereal, no legume and no starch source appears anywhere in the range.

Organ meat is itemised with unusual care. The Beef declares heart at 21.9% and liver at 8.6%. The Free Range Chicken splits its bird into carcass at 34.3%, thigh at 28%, heart at 15.8% and liver at 5.7%. The Turkey & Rainbow Trout takes lamb liver at 9.5%, and the Venison pairs lamb heart at 10.7% with liver at 7.1%. A great deal of an animal's vitamin A, B12 and copper sits in the liver. Heart is muscle meat with a far richer mineral reading than trim. Those percentages are doing real nutritional work.

There is no vitamin and mineral premix in the range, and that is a stated position rather than an omission. Naturaw's argument is that the complete recipes reach their balance through whole foods, with the oily fish, the egg, the organic vegetables, the seaweed and the botanical blend each carrying part of it. The list is detailed enough for an owner to follow the reasoning, and the size of the organ share is what makes it credible.

The Forage botanical blend is fully declared at 2.1% of most recipes. The hand harvested organic Scottish seaweed is there for iodine and a wide mineral spread. Wheatgrass is a leaf and not a grain, so it brings neither cereal nor gluten to the bowl. Pumpkin and hemp seeds bring fats and minerals. Cleavers and nettles appear at trace level as traditional herbs. Scandinavian blue mussel is certified for sustainable sourcing and is the shellfish entry to note. A little Pure Yorkshire sea salt closes two of the labels, at 0.1% on the Venison.

One number is missing across the board: no calcium figure is published for any recipe in the range. Several labels name their meat as coming with bone, which is where the calcium in a raw recipe is normally carried, so the ingredient side is telling you the story the analysis leaves out. It is the one figure an owner might want and cannot read here.

The analyses vary the way they should when the animal changes. Protein converts to between 46.7% and 61.1% of dry matter and fat to between 27.0% and 42.4%, with energy from 137 kcal per 100g up to 189. Carbohydrate is estimated by difference and runs from nothing to 4.2% of dry matter. That sits well below the 5.0% the raw field typically shows. A list with no starch on it ought to produce exactly that.

British venison meat with bone at 65.4%, with grass fed British lamb behind it as heart at 10.7% and liver at 7.1%. Venison is a wild meat few dogs have ever eaten, and the second animal here is lamb, not a common bird, so it stays useful for a dog being steered around chicken and beef. Fibre reads 5.2% of dry matter, the highest here.

Per kilo, the Turkey & Rainbow Trout is £7.73, the Beef and the Free Range Chicken are £8.22 each, the Free Range Pork and the Venison £8.31, and the Lamb £8.41. Packs are 500g, with a small box holding 16 of them and a large box 30.

The sum here takes a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition needing about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). A day's feeding lands between £3.74 and £4.75 depending on the recipe, with bigger portions on the lighter ones. Naturaw's own guide is leaner, putting a 15kg dog on 375 grams a day. Start nearer the label and adjust to the dog you have.