Nature's Harvest Adult: Duck review

The five finish near enough to one another that the animal is what you are really choosing. Four of them are in our Excellent band, with the ocean fish just under it in Good. Adult wet food as a category reaches our Excellent band too, so read this as a range that holds its own on a strong shelf rather than one that towers over it. The declared 60% meat is what does most of the work, helped by a label willing to print a figure beside almost every ingredient. Nutritional balance and transparency read Outstanding across the board. Protein and processing and value both read Excellent on four recipes, dropping to Good on the ocean fish.

Ingredients, as declared: Duck (30%), Chicken (30%), Brown Rice (5%), Dried Carrots (1.3%, equivalent to 10% Carrots), Dried Peas (1.3%, equivalent to 4% Peas), Salmon Oil, Dried Basil, Dried Parsley, Dried Rosemary, Dried Mint, Dried Sage, Minerals, High Nucelotide Yeast Extract (0.015%), Seaweed Meal, Glucosamine (0.004%), Chondroitin Sulphate (0.002%), Yucca Schidigera (0.025%), Cranberry (0.002%)

Meat at 60% is the promise on every label, and each recipe divides it up in its own way. The Chicken, Lamb and Turkey give the whole 60% to their named animal. The Duck splits it evenly with chicken, and the Ocean Fish splits it between salmon and an unnamed white fish. Once the water is discounted, protein converts to between 36.0% and 48.0% of dry matter, so what the front of the pack claims shows up in the analysis.

The plant side is written more carefully than most. Dried carrots at 1.3% are declared as the equivalent of 10% fresh carrots, and dried peas at 1.3% as the equivalent of 4% fresh peas. That is an honest way of telling you what went into the pan before the water came out. The only cereal in the range is brown rice at 5%. Estimated carbohydrate runs from 8.0% of dry matter in the Duck to 26.0% in the Ocean Fish, against 15.8% for adult wet food typically. The Ocean Fish is the one recipe carrying a noticeably starchier profile.

Then comes the herb bench: basil, parsley, rosemary, mint and sage. Every one of them sits at trace level, and none is a reason to buy the food. Rosemary does a second job, holding the fats back from turning as a natural antioxidant.

At the tail of the list this brand turns unusually forthcoming. High nucleotide yeast extract at 0.015%, seaweed meal, yucca schidigera at 0.025% and cranberry at 0.002% all appear with figures attached, as do the glucosamine and chondroitin. Seaweed brings iodine and a broad spread of minerals with it. These are small amounts, and the point worth noticing is that they are printed at all, with no phrase like natural extracts to hide behind.

The added panel is dosed in full: zinc at 25mg, iron at 16.5mg, manganese at 6mg, copper at 2.5mg, iodine at 0.4mg and selenium at 0.05mg per kilo. Vitamin A comes at 2,500 IU, vitamin D3 at 200 IU and vitamin E at 25mg. Sodium selenite supplies the selenium here, as it does for the great majority of pet food makers. Several trace elements arrive chelated to amino acids, and that form is usually absorbed more readily than a plain sulphate.

Duck at 30% with chicken at 30%, so the 60% is split between two birds instead of going to one. That pairing produces the most balanced analysis here, with protein at 46.0% of dry matter, fat at 28.0% and the lowest estimated carbohydrate at 8.0%. Its nutritional balance reads Outstanding, and so does every other recipe's.

The Chicken is £6.19 a kilo, the Lamb £6.57, and the Duck, Ocean Fish and Turkey £6.32 each. Packs are 395g, with the Lamb at 380g, sold singly or in tens.

Start from a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition on about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That works out at between £4.15 and £5.20 a day depending on which recipe you choose, or roughly 656 to 824 grams. The Turkey needs the smallest serving because it holds the most energy per gram, and the Ocean Fish the largest because it holds the least.