Nood Dry: Cage- Free Chicken Recipe review

Nothing separates the two bags in our reading, and both finish in the Good band where the broad middle of the adult dry category lands. Think of Nood as a straight everyday kibble, neither a step up nor a step down. The label explains why. Protein converts to 27.5% of dry matter and carbohydrate to 44.1%, close to the 46.2% typical for a dry food. Much of that protein comes from dried pork, not from the meat pictured on the bag. What pulls it back up is the detail work. A basic kibble does not usually bother with a named gut culture, with chicory root and beet pulp, or with a joint pairing.

Ingredients, as declared: Fresh Chicken (14%), Dehydrated Pork Protein, Maize, Barley, Whole Peas (10%), Split Peas, Hydrolyzed Poultry Protein, Pork Fat (preserved with Mixed Tocopherols), Dried Beet Pulp, Oats, Dehydrated Chicken Protein, Salmon Oil (0.5%), Dried Chicory Root (a natural source of FOS and Inulin), Linseed (0.25%), Dried Brewer's Yeast, Blueberry (0.01%), Sweet Potato (0.01%), Carrot (0.01%), Spinach (0.01%), Green Peas (0.01%), Apple (0.01%), Turmeric (0.01%), Althea, Peppermint (0.01%), Glucosamine Hydrochloride, Chondroitin Sulfate. Additives (per kg): Vitamins: Vitamin A 3a672a: 15000 IU, Vitamin D3 3a671: 1 500 IU, Vitamin E 3a700: 101 mg, L-Carnitine (3a910): 145 mg. Trace Elements: Iron (Iron sulphate monohydrate) 3b103: 50 mg, Iodine (Calcium iodate anhydrous) 3b202: 1.5 mg, Copper (Copper sulphate pentahydrate) 3b405: 10.0 mg, Manganese (Manganese sulphate monohydrate) 3b503:10.0 mg, Zinc (Zinc sulphate monohydrate) 3b605: 62.5 mg, Selenium (Sodium selenite) 3b801: 0.20 mg. Binders: Sepiolite 350 mg. Gut Flora Stabilizer: Enterococcus faecium NCIMB 10415 109 cfu. Antioxidants: (Natural) tocopherol extracts from vegetable oil.

The headline is fresh chicken or fresh beef at 14%. A fresh meat entry is mostly water to begin with, and the oven takes that away. The entry that really shapes the finished kibble is the dehydrated pork protein sitting immediately behind it, already dry and already concentrated. None of that is a complaint about the recipe. Pork has a genuine advantage of its own: it appears in so few dog foods that most dogs will never have tasted it. That makes it a useful option where the usual birds have already caused a reaction.

Maize and barley are the cereals, with whole peas at 10% and split peas behind them. Barley carries gluten, and a dog kept off gluten is not suited to this range. The peas carry starch, and they carry some fibre and a small amount of plant protein too.

Pork fat is the main fat, kept fresh with mixed tocopherols, the natural vitamin E preservative and not a chemical one. Salmon oil at 0.5% and linseed at 0.25% are the omega 3 sources, so the fish content is small but real and runs through both flavours.

The gut gets more attention here than an everyday kibble normally gives it. Dried beet pulp supplies fibre, dried chicory root brings inulin and FOS, and dried brewer's yeast adds B vitamins. Enterococcus faecium NCIMB 10415 is on the label as a gut flora stabiliser. That is a live culture and not a marketing line.

The additives panel is dosed all the way down. L-carnitine is at 145 mg, zinc at 62.5 mg and iron at 50 mg. Copper and manganese are at 10.0 mg each, iodine at 1.5 mg and selenium at 0.20 mg per kilo. Every trace mineral here comes as a sulphate. Of the two forms, the sulphate is the more basic. The joint entries are the exception to all that dosing. Glucosamine hydrochloride and chondroitin appear last on the list, with no figure beside them.

The garden at the bottom of the list, blueberry, sweet potato, carrot, spinach, green peas, apple, turmeric and peppermint, is declared at 0.01% each. Those are seasoning and not substance. What the recipe stands or falls on is the pork, the cereals and the fresh meat well above them.

Fresh chicken at 14% opens this one, with dehydrated chicken protein further down to back it up. Of the pair, this is the bag that carries oats alongside the maize and barley. Oats bring fibre and a set of micronutrients that survive cooking well. At 361 kcal per 100g it is the more energy-dense of the two.

The chicken comes in 1.4kg and 3kg bags and the beef in 1.42kg and 3kg.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition eats about 233 grams a day of the chicken recipe and 242 grams of the beef. The working figure is around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). Its own table asks 226 to 380 grams for a dog between 10kg and 19kg. Where the two disagree, go by your dog's waistline.