Nature's Way 50% Recipes: 50% Lamb Recipe review

The Good band holds all three, and the median adult dry food alongside them. The declared meat share does most of the lifting, helped by a full mineral panel and a joint package with its doses printed on the label.

The limit is the protein that survives the oven. Most of a fresh meat is water. In the chicken a 50% headline therefore finishes at 26.1% of dry matter, and the lamb comes to 23.9%. Carbohydrate sits close to typical at 45.6% and 45.7% of dry matter, against the 46.2% of a typical adult dry food. That is a gentle everyday balance, and it reads exactly as the brand intends.

Ingredients, as declared: 50% Lamb consisting: Lamb (23%), Dried Lamb (20%), Lamb Fat (5%), Lamb Gravy (2%), Brown Rice (21%), Barley, Harvest Oats, Beet Pulp, Linseed, Salmon Oil, Sunflower Oil, Minerals, Yucca Schidigera Extract, Glucosamine (.017%), MSM (.017%), Chlondroitin (.01%), Prebiotic MOS, Prebiotic FOS, Mixed Herbs consisting: Thyme, Majoram, Sage, Basil, Parsley, Oregano

Every label shows its working. In the chicken, fresh chicken is 20.6% of the 50% and dried chicken 22.6%, ahead of 4% chicken fat and 2.4% chicken liver. The lamb reads 23% fresh, 20% dried, 5% fat and 2% gravy. The salmon reads 28% fresh, 17% dried, 3% salmon oil and 2% stock. Printing the split is worth more than a big round number on the front, because the dried entry is the one that delivers the protein.

In the chicken and the lamb, brown rice at 21% heads the grains, with barley and harvest oats behind it. Beet pulp brings the fibre. Brown rice keeps its bran and germ. That puts more than plain starch in the bowl. Oats are among the kindest cereals for a dog's gut. The salmon recipe uses the same three grains but does not put a percentage on its rice.

The joint three are declared with their own percentages, not hidden inside a general support claim. That is the difference between a recipe that means it and one that merely mentions it. Yucca schidigera sits alongside them, an old fashioned inclusion with the state of the garden in mind. Prebiotic MOS and FOS feed the gut bacteria that keep digestion steady.

Fats are chosen with some thought. Linseed and sunflower oil appear in all three, with salmon oil added to the chicken and the lamb. The declared omegas show it. Omega 6 runs 3.4% in the chicken. The lamb reads 1.3% and the salmon 1.8%. Omega 3 reads 0.5% in the chicken and the lamb and 1.4% in the salmon, the fish recipe being the one that brings its own.

Calcium reads 1.64% of dry matter in the chicken. The salmon reads 1.63% and the lamb is richest of the set at 2.5%. All three are adult levels. Iron, zinc, manganese and iodine are dosed in print at 48 mg, 48 mg, 34 mg and 0.96 mg per kilo, and vitamin E at 96 mg per kilo covers the fats.

The mixed herbs at the end, thyme, marjoram, sage, basil, parsley and oregano, are seasoning rather than medicine. No dog was ever healthier for the oregano, and this range does not need it to stand up. The meat and the grain are doing the real work.

Lamb at 23% fresh and 20% dried, with lamb fat at 5% and a lamb gravy at 2% to keep it appetising. It carries more ash than the other two at 10%, more calcium at 2.5% of dry matter and more fibre at 4.0%. Protein reads 22% as fed, 23.9% of dry matter, and energy is estimated at 343 kcal per 100 grams.

Per kilo, the chicken and the lamb are £4.42 and the salmon is £5.42. All three are sold in a 12kg bag.

For a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition, take roughly 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That comes to about £1.04 a day on the chicken. The lamb is £1.08 and the salmon £1.38. That is around 234 grams a day of the chicken, 245 of the lamb and 254 of the salmon. The bag's own table asks 150 to 250 grams for a dog between 15kg and 25kg. Those two guides land in much the same place.