Nature's Way Grain Free Adult: Chicken Recipe review

This lands in our Good band, level with the middle of the adult dry shelf. Transparency reads Outstanding, and the reason is not complicated: 60% of this recipe is one named bird, written out part by part, with sweet potato and potato taking most of what is left.

The analysis agrees with the label. Protein converts to 30.4% of dry matter and carbohydrate to 38.6%. The typical adult dry food runs 46.2% carbohydrate, well above that. The thin fibre declaration at 2.5% holds it back, along with a herb blend that never puts a number on itself. Both are small things against a recipe built the right way round.

Ingredients, as declared: 60% Chicken consisting: Chicken (26%), Dried Chicken (26%), Chicken Fat (6%), Chicken Liver (2%), Sweet Potato (23%), Potato (13%), Beet Fibre, Linseed, Sunflower Oil, Salmon Oil, Minerals, Vitamins, Yucca Schidigera Extract, Glucosamine (.017%), MSM (.017%), Chlondroitin (.01%), Mixed Herbs consisting: Thyme, Majoram, Sage, Basil, Parsley, Oregano, Prebiotic MOS, Prebiotic FOS.

Inside that 60% sit 26% fresh chicken and 26% dried chicken, then 6% chicken fat and 2% chicken liver. Matching the dried share to the fresh share is the arrangement you want to see. The water in fresh meat is driven out by the oven, while dried chicken arrives with it already gone. That balance is why the finished protein reads 28% as fed, 30.4% of dry matter, from a label that could have flattered itself with fresh meat alone.

Chicken liver at 2% is a small entry doing a big job. For sheer nutrient density, liver has few rivals in a dog's diet. It brings B vitamins along with copper and iron, and it is also the reason a fussy dog will usually clear the bowl.

Sweet potato at 23% and potato at 13% replace the cereal, with beet fibre behind them keeping the stools firm. Sweet potato releases its energy more gently than white potato does, and running the two together gives the kibble its structure without a grain in sight.

The oils are worth reading. Linseed and sunflower oil provide plant omegas and vitamin E, and salmon oil adds the marine form of omega 3 that a dog can use directly. The declared totals come out at 3.6% omega 6 and 0.8% omega 3. So fish is in the recipe after all, which matters for a dog kept off it entirely.

Glucosamine and chondroitin each carry their own declared percentage, and so does MSM. That is more than most adult foods bother with. One honest footnote: glucosamine is generally produced from shellfish and chondroitin from cattle cartilage, so an elimination diet run to the letter needs to account for them. Prebiotic MOS and FOS sit alongside, feeding the friendly gut bacteria. Yucca schidigera is in there to take the edge off what the dog leaves on the lawn.

The mineral panel is dosed in print and evenly balanced: copper, iron and zinc all at 48 mg per kilo, manganese at 33 mg, iodine at 0.96 mg and selenium at 0.19 mg. Selenium comes as sodium selenite. Two forms are permitted by law and this is the plainer, dosed here to do exactly the job the regulations ask of it. Vitamin E is declared at 95 mg per kilo.

£6.50 a kilo, sold in 5kg and 10kg bags.

For a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition, reckon on about 224 grams a day, working from around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That works out at roughly £1.46 a day. The bag asks 170 to 285 grams for a dog between 10kg and 20kg, so begin somewhere in that range and let the waistline settle it.