Naturo Adult Mini Dog Grain Free Pouches review

Our Good band takes this pouch in, with the typical adult wet food a step ahead of it in Excellent. The declared 65% chicken and the modest starch estimate are what carry it there.

Nutritional balance reads Excellent and transparency Outstanding, with protein and processing and value both Good behind them. The meat share, the printed percentages and the absence of any cereal all point the same way. The label lets you check each of them instead of asking you to take the recipe on trust.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken 65% (Including 5% Chicken Broth), Vegetables 20% (from 3.9% Dried Potato, Carrots and Peas), Minerals, Sunflower Oil 0.75%, Salmon Oil 0.3%, Tomato Powder 0.15%, Dried Kelp 0.08%, Dried Cranberry 0.05%, Dried Blueberry 0.05%, Dried Chicory Root 0.04%, Yeast 0.04%, Dried Basil 0.016%, Yucca Powder 0.01%, Pomegranate Extract 0.002%

Chicken at 65% is the headline. The label is candid about how that total is made up, and 5% of it is chicken broth, not meat. Broth declared openly is better practice than water folded quietly into the recipe. Protein converts to 33.3% of dry matter, a respectable figure for a pouch, though it is the fat at 35.2% that catches the eye.

Vegetables at 20% form the second largest entry, drawn from 3.9% dried potato, carrots and peas. Carrots bring vitamin A and soluble fibre, and peas are a genuinely nutritious legume when they are used in moderation. The potato is the starch carrier standing in for the cereal a grain free recipe leaves out. Even so, carbohydrate converts to an estimated 16.6% of dry matter, near enough the 15.8% the typical adult wet food carries.

The added fats are sunflower oil at 0.75% plus salmon oil at 0.3%, covering the plant and marine sides of the omega picture between them. From there the list becomes seasoning, none of it above a fraction of a percent: kelp, tomato powder, cranberry, chicory root, blueberry, basil, yeast, yucca and pomegranate extract. Chicory root does the one recognisable job here, since inulin is a well established prebiotic fibre. At this dose, though, it is a flourish and not a supplement.

The fat level deserves a second look, though not a worry. At 9.5% as fed this is one of the richer wet pouches on the shelf. That is a real advantage for a small dog needing calories in a small volume, and it simply asks for a measured portion from a dog that gains weight easily. Ash converts to 13.0% of dry matter and fibre to 1.9%, both unremarkable.

The added vitamins and trace elements each come with a printed dose, running vitamins A, D3 and E through zinc, iron, copper and manganese. With this much meat in it, the recipe carries plenty of its micronutrition in the ingredients, so a compact added panel is no cause for concern.

£6.67 a kilo, sold in 150g pouches in packs of 8.

For a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition the daily portion works out at about 632 grams, or £4.21 a day. The energy need behind that is roughly 840 kcal, calculated the usual way as 110 × bodyweight^0.75. A dog small enough for a mini pouch eats a fraction of that, so scale the figure down.