Nature's Variety

Nature's Variety Complete Freeze Dried Food Adult: 80% Chicken review

Name: Nature's Variety Complete Freeze Dried Food Adult: 80% Chicken
Brand: Nature's Variety

92.6/100Outstanding

Freeze-driedAdult

Flavour

Raw feeding with the water taken out and the freezer left out of it, and all seven packs sit in our Outstanding band. Each recipe is 80% one animal, with the organs named and weighed beside the deboned meat. Beef, chicken, lamb and turkey come full size, and three come as Minis for small dogs.

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Our view

Likely to suit

Owners drawn to raw who would rather not run a freezer rota
Dogs on a strict exclusion plan: one species per recipe, with no egg or fish oil
Small dogs, with Mini packs of the beef, lamb and turkey
Fussy eaters. The smell of raw meat survives freeze drying far better than cooking
Travelling households, as it needs no chilling and comes back with a splash of water

Worth watching

Chicken comes full size only; the Minis are listed for small breeds
The daily weight is small, so a scoop from your old bag will overshoot it
Calcium runs higher on the chicken and lamb than on the beef and turkey

Written by our editorial team. Independent guidance, not veterinary advice.

How this scores

How we score

92.6/100Outstanding

Protein and processingOutstanding

Nutritional balanceOutstanding

TransparencyOutstanding

ValueOutstanding

The details

Dog fit

Listed for adult dogs: the Minis for small breeds, the full-size packs for medium breeds upwards. Weigh the first portions, since freeze-dried food is concentrated.

Food type

Freeze-dried

Life stage

Adult

Breed size

Medium, Large, Giant

Main protein

Chicken

The score, in context

80% Lamb 93.2
80% Beef 93.1
80% Turkey 93.1
80% Chicken 92.6
80% Lamb (Mini) 86.8
80% Beef (Mini) 86.2
80% Turkey (Mini) 86.2

All seven Outstanding. Typical dry food: Good.

Drawing level with a strong freeze-dried field is a good result, and our scoring will not separate the seven, so pick the animal that suits your dog.

What's in it

Deboned chicken meat40%
Chicken heart30%The most organ-forward split in the range.
Chicken liver10%Much of the micronutrition sits here.
Carrots, apples5% eachThe biggest of a small, fully weighed plant side.
Pea fibre, butternut squash, sweet potato1.25% down to 1%
Minerals1%
Cranberries, blackberries0.5% each
Flaxseed, chicory root, kale, coconut oil, beet pulp, green tea, yucca, herbsSeasoning quantities; chicory's inulin is a prebiotic.

Vitamins A, D and E with iron, iodine and zinc, each with a printed figure.

Calcium is at the high end of the range here, worth knowing for a dog on a mineral-watched diet.

No Mini version, so a small dog on chicken takes the full-size pack.

Named ingredients

Chicken* 80% (deboned chicken meat 40%, chicken heart 30%, chicken liver 10%), carrots* (5%), apples* (5%), pea fibre* (1.25%), butternut squash* (1%), sweet potato* (1%), minerals (1%), cranberries* (0.5%), blackberries* (0.5%), flaxseed*, chicory root*, kale*, peppermint*, coconut oil*, beet pulp*, green tea*, yucca*, rosemary*, parsley*, dandelion root*, hawthorn leaf*.

Against the range

Organs: 30% heart, 10% liver; The most organ-forward split of the four
Ash: 11%; 7% on the lamb, 8% on the others
Calcium, dry matter: 2.45%; The highest; turkey is 1.06%

The richest in organ meat, and the one to weigh against a mineral-watched diet.

Every recipe is 80% one animal, and the label opens that share up: deboned meat with lung, heart or liver set beside it, each weighed. Nothing wanders in from a second species, with no fish oil, egg or unnamed fat on any of the seven.

The plant side is small and shared: carrots and apples at 5% each, then pea fibre, squash, sweet potato and berries down to 0.5%, then a seasoning tail. In dry matter, protein runs from 39.4% to 42.6% and fat from 31.9% to 38.3%. Calcium varies with the organ share.

Nutritional analysis

Declared analysis

Energy

468 kcal/100g

Protein

39%

Fat

32%

Fibre

Ash

11%

Moisture

Dry weight

Protein

41.5%

Fat

34%

Fibre

6.4%

Ash

11.7%

Carbs

6.4%

As-fed composition

Estimated breakdown of the finished product by ingredient category, from the declared ingredient list and ingoing weights. These are estimates, not measurements.

Meat

80%

Carbs

2.6%

Veg

13%

Oils

0.3%

Other

4.2%

Pricing & size