Nature's Harvest Grain Free Adult: Chicken & Sweet Potato review

All three finish inside our Excellent band, with the salmon a shade in front of the other two and none of them meaningfully apart. Adult wet food reaches Excellent as a category too, which says a good deal about how strong the wet shelf is and nothing at all against these recipes. What earns the placing is the combination of a declared 60% animal and an estimated carbohydrate of 12.0% to 14.0% of dry matter, comfortably under the 15.8% adult wet food typically runs at. Transparency reads Outstanding on all three, protein and processing Excellent on the chicken and the salmon with the lamb at Good, and nutritional balance Outstanding on both of those two with the lamb at Excellent.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken (60%), Dried Peas (1.3% equivalent to 4% Peas), Dried Sweet Potato (1.3% equivalent to 4% Sweet Potato), Dried Carrots (1.3% equivalent to 10% Carrots), Dried Basil, Dried Parsley, Dried Sage, Dried Mint, Dried Rosemary, Fish Oil, Vegetable Oil, Fructo-oligosaccharies (Prebiotic FOS; 0.1%), Yeast (as a source of Prebiotic MOS; 0.1%), Minerals, High Nucleotide Yeast Extract (0.015%), Seaweed Meal, Glucosamine (0.004%), Chondroitin Sulphate (0.002%), Cranberry (0.002%), Yucca Schidigera (0.002%

Each recipe opens with its animal at 60%, and unlike a lot of grain free wet food, nothing is quietly added back in to replace the cereal. The three analyses go their own ways from there. Protein converts to 46.0% of dry matter in the chicken, 42.0% in the salmon and 32.0% in the lamb, which trades protein for fat. That is what a fattier cut does, and it is not a thinner recipe.

The plant entries are small and honestly written. Dried sweet potato at 1.3% is declared as the equivalent of 4% fresh sweet potato, dried peas at 1.3% as 4% fresh peas and dried carrots at 1.3% as 10% fresh carrots. Even added together they leave estimated carbohydrate at 12.0% to 14.0% of dry matter, so the starch here is seasoning rather than structure.

Two prebiotics do a quiet job at the back. Fructo-oligosaccharide at 0.1% and yeast-derived MOS at 0.1% feed the helpful bacteria living further down the gut. They are the clearest sign that this range was drawn up with sensitive digestions in mind.

The fats are a mixed picture. Fish oil in the chicken and salmon recipes, and salmon oil in the lamb, are named and traceable and bring the omega oils with them. Vegetable oil, which appears in all three, is not: it tells you the source is a plant and stops there, leaving the maker free to change which plant between batches. On a list this carefully itemised it is the one entry that asks for trust.

Every finishing touch is declared with a figure. Few labels go that far. High nucleotide yeast extract sits at 0.015%, cranberry at 0.002%, yucca schidigera at 0.002%, and seaweed meal is in for its iodine and minerals. The added panel is fully dosed too: zinc at 25mg, iron at 16.5mg, manganese at 6mg, copper at 2.5mg and iodine at 0.4mg per kilo. Vitamin A comes at 2,500 IU and vitamin E at 25mg. Several of the trace elements are supplied in chelated form. A gut usually absorbs that more readily.

Chicken at 60% with the leanest analysis of the three, fat converting to 22.0% of dry matter and protein to 46.0%. At 102 kcal per 100g it is the lightest recipe here, so expect a large dog to work through a fair volume. Its nutritional balance reads Outstanding.

The Chicken & Sweet Potato is £6.57 a kilo, the Salmon & Sweet Potato £6.70 and the Lamb & Sweet Potato £6.96. Packs run to 395g, with the lamb at 380g, available singly or in tens.

Take a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition, needing about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). A day comes to between £4.58 and £5.41 by recipe, or roughly 661 to 824 grams. The lamb and salmon serve smaller because they hold more energy per gram than the chicken.