Naturaw Real Simple: Duck review

Our Outstanding band holds all three recipes, and none of them finishes ahead of the others. Raw is the toughest field on our scoring, and the middle of that category sits in our Outstanding band as well. This reads as a strong food among strong foods. Protein and processing and nutritional balance both come out Outstanding on every recipe.

Ingredients, as declared: 49% British Duck with Bone, 38.4% Boneless Whitefish, 5.6% Butternut Squash, 3.3% British Duck Liver, 1.8% Broccoli, 0.92% Free Range British Egg, 0.27% Sustainably Hand Harvested Organic Scottish Seaweed, 0.27% Wheatgerm Oil (Vitamin E)

The build is the same three times over. A British bird ground with its bone opens each list, and that bone is where the calcium in a recipe of this kind comes from. A second animal adds depth, and butternut squash with broccoli makes up the only plant matter of any size. Carbohydrate barely registers as a result, converting to no more than 4.9% of dry matter across the range.

Liver does a great deal of quiet work here. Duck liver comes in at 3.3% in the duck recipe and beef liver at 7.3% in the turkey. The chicken recipe leans hardest on offal, with 29% beef heart and 9.6% beef liver. Organ meat is where much of an animal's vitamin and mineral load naturally sits, and that matters more than usual on a label with no added premix.

In place of a dose panel, Naturaw names its sources inline. Hand harvested Scottish seaweed brings iodine and trace minerals, wheatgerm oil is printed with vitamin E beside it, and free range egg adds protein and fat. It is a coherent way to build a complete raw food, and the offal in every recipe is what makes it credible. What you are reading is a philosophy, not a set of figures.

All three labels carry fish, boneless whitefish at 38.4% in the duck recipe and whole oily fish in the other two. In the oily form it is a useful source of omega 3 fats, and at these inclusions it is a proper ingredient rather than a garnish. A dog being kept off fish is not a match for any of these recipes, so settle that before ordering.

The analyses read exactly like meat. Protein converts to between 50.9% and 62.0% of dry matter and fat to between 26.9% and 36.9%, with the chicken recipe the richest of the three thanks to its beef heart. Crude ash sits high enough to show the ground bone is genuinely there, though no calcium figure is printed to put a number against it.

British duck with bone leads at 49%, and boneless whitefish at 38.4% takes the place a second land animal fills elsewhere in the range. Duck liver sits at 3.3%, and no beef appears anywhere on the list. For a dog steering clear of red meat, that is the recipe here. Energy comes in at 137 kcal per 100g, among the two lighter recipes here, so portions run generously.

All three recipes are £5.51 a kilo. They come as 500g packs, sold singly or in boxes of 16 or 30.

For a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition, about 840 kcal a day is the maintenance estimate (110 × bodyweight^0.75). On the duck and the turkey that is around 613 grams a day, or £3.38. The richer chicken recipe reaches the same energy on about 483 grams, or £2.66.