Natures Deli Adult Large Breed review

This one lands in our Good band, the same rung the typical adult dry food occupies. The reason is arithmetic. Nothing here is alarming. Turkey is declared at 32.7%, and most of what follows is brown rice at 30% plus a second helping of white rice. That pushes estimated carbohydrate to 47.3% of dry matter and leaves protein at 26.1%.

Nothing on this label is a red flag. It is a plainly built, single meat, rice based food with a complete mineral panel, added taurine, prebiotics, a live gut culture and the biggest joint doses in the range. A settled large breed adult will do perfectly well on it, and the things it does well are all things you can read for yourself on the bag.

Ingredients, as declared: Turkey (32.7%; including turkey meal (25.1%), turkey (5.7%), turkey gravy (1.9%)), brown rice (30%), dried beet pulp, white rice, turkey fat, dried peas (3.8%), dried chick peas (2.8%), dried sweet potato (2.8%), brewers' yeast, dried pumpkin (1.9%), minerals, linseed oil, vegetable stock, dried carrot (0.5%), yeast (as a source of mannan-oligosaccharides (prebiotic MOS; 0.14%)), chicory root extract (as a source of fructo-oligosaccharides (prebiotic FOS; 0.14%)), glucosamine (0.033%), dried rosemary, yucca schidigera (0.024%), chondroitin sulphate (0.019%), dried cranberry, dried dandelion root, dried pomegranate

The turkey block is opened up properly: 32.7% in total, of which turkey meal is 25.1%, fresh turkey 5.7% and turkey gravy 1.9%. Water is driven out of the meal before it goes in, and that is the entry actually delivering protein. The fresh turkey and the gravy do more for flavour than for the analysis. Protein finishes at 24% as fed, 26.1% of dry matter.

Two rices carry the starch. Brown rice at 30% keeps its bran and germ, and brings fibre and B vitamins with it. The white rice further down the list has had both removed and is the plainer of the two. Between them they are the largest thing in the bag after the turkey, which is the single fact that shapes how this food reads.

The joint support is the clearest sign this recipe was rewritten for big dogs rather than simply repackaged. Glucosamine is declared at 0.033% and chondroitin sulphate at 0.019%, both well ahead of the levels the same brand uses in its standard adult recipes. Taurine is added too, an amino acid that most dogs make for themselves but that gets deliberately included when a maker has large breed hearts in mind.

The digestive side is unchanged and well put together. Dried beet pulp provides the fermentable fibre and brewers' yeast the B vitamins and the flavour. MOS from yeast and FOS from chicory root extract each come in at 0.14%, with a declared live Bacillus subtilis culture among the additives. Yucca schidigera at 0.024% is there for the smell of the garden.

The fruit and vegetable tail is small but real. Dried peas come in at 3.8%, chick peas and sweet potato at 2.8% each, pumpkin at 1.9% and carrot at 0.5%, with cranberry, dandelion root and pomegranate at the end. The only added oil is linseed, and it is the only omega 3 source, so the whole recipe stays free of fish. Plant omega 3 converts slowly inside the dog, so give a coat a couple of months to answer.

Minerals are dosed in print, and zinc is declared twice. There is 70 mg as the oxide and 50 mg more in the better absorbed chelate of protein hydrolysates. Iron reads 40 mg, manganese 25 mg, copper 5 mg, iodine 1.5 mg and selenium 0.2 mg per kilo. Calcium works out at 1.63% of dry matter with ash at 9.0%, a sensible adult level for a heavy dog.

Sold in a 12kg bag.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would eat around 248 grams a day, working from about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). A large breed dog at twice that weight will not eat twice as much, since a bigger dog burns fewer calories per kilo than a small one. Weigh the first few meals out and let the ribs guide you from there.