Naturo Adult Grain & Gluten Free Pouches: Duck with Chicken review

Our Good band is where all three of these pouches finish, one step under the Excellent band that the typical adult wet food occupies. Our scoring treats wet as a strong category, so finishing just under that midpoint is a respectable result and no disappointment.

Nutritional balance and transparency both read Outstanding, with protein and processing at Average and value at Good. That is a food that prints what it does and keeps its meat share modest. The declared meat share and the low starch estimate work in its favour, and the label itemises enough for our scoring to read the pouch properly rather than having to estimate around it.

Ingredients, as declared: Duck 26%, Chicken 24%, Fruit and Vegetables 8% (from 1% Dried Mixed Peppers, Peas and Sweet Potato), Minerals, Sunflower Oil 0.13%, Flaxseed Oil 0.06%, Salmon Oil 0.06%, Dried Kelp 0.06%, Dried Chicory Root 0.04%, Yeast 0.04%, Dried Basil 0.016%, Dried Nettle 0.01%, Yucca Powder 0.01%, Dried Rosehip 0.006%, Glucosamine 0.005%, Chondroitin Sulphate 0.0025%, Dried Marigold 0.002%, Pomegranate Extract 0.002%

The meat line does the work here. Chicken and Turkey each declare 50%, and the Duck with Chicken divides the same share between duck at 26% and chicken at 24%. The animal and its amount are never in doubt. Across the three, protein converts to between 38.1% and 45.0% of dry matter. That is a meat led reading for anything fed from a pouch.

Behind the meat there is remarkably little. Fruit and vegetables come in at 8%, and that one line is the whole plant contribution. It is made from dried mixed peppers together with peas and sweet potato. Carbohydrate converts to an estimated 12.2% of dry matter on the Chicken. The Turkey comes in at 8.5% and the Duck with Chicken at 17.1%. Against 15.8% for the typical adult wet food, two of the three sit lighter on starch than most of the shelf.

Three oils follow, all printed in fractions of a percent. Of the plant oils, sunflower is one of the kinder: low in saturated fat, and vitamin E comes with it naturally. Flaxseed and salmon oils between them cover the omega side of the picture. The salmon oil matters for a second reason, since it is what puts fish on all three labels.

Then comes the herbal tail, none of it above a whisker of a percent: chicory root, kelp, yeast, basil, nettle, yucca, rosehip, marigold and pomegranate extract. The one with a recognised job is chicory root, whose inulin is a prebiotic fibre. At this level, though, it is a nod in that direction and no more. The rest supports the natural billing on the front of the pouch and is not the reason to buy.

Every entry in the short added panel carries a printed figure, from vitamins A, D3 and E through zinc, iron, copper and manganese, and the panel is identical across all three pouches. Crude ash lands at between 16.2% and 19.0% of dry matter. That is the mineral fraction the analysis leaves after water, protein and fat are counted.

Duck at 26% alongside chicken at 24%, the only pouch here to put two birds in the bowl. Worth knowing if chicken is on your avoid list. Of the three it is the heaviest on starch, at an estimated 17.1% of dry matter, and the heaviest on energy at 91 kcal per 100g.

£6.00 a kilo, in 100g pouches sold 12 to a box, the same across all three recipes.

Feeding a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition works out at roughly 923 to 1024 grams a day, or between £5.54 and £6.15 depending on the recipe. Daily energy is taken as about 840 kcal from the standard maintenance estimate of 110 × bodyweight^0.75. Pouches this light mean a high daily count for a bigger dog, which is one reason plenty of households use them as the wet half of a mixed bowl.