Nourish Complete Raw: Chicken & Tripe review

All four land in our Outstanding band, with barely anything between them. Raw is the toughest company on our scoring, since the middle of the adult category is already an Outstanding band food. Holding that band here still describes a bowl built almost entirely from named animals and vegetables. Protein and processing and transparency read Outstanding across all four, with nutritional balance the same wherever the label declares enough to read it, and value in that band too. The separation between them is fine, not fundamental, and what really differs is what each label chooses to declare.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken 58%, Tripe 17%, Carrots 8% Ox Heart 5%, Butternut 3%, Green leaf 3% Ox Liver 3%, Ox Kidney 2%, Kelp, flaxseed oil 1%

The shape repeats from label to label, with only small variations. A named meat takes between 58% and 78% of the recipe on its own, or splits the lead across two animals. The organ share comes from ox heart, ox liver and kidney, and carrots, butternut and green leaf fill out the rest. Kelp and flaxseed oil at 1% close every label.

Ox organs are doing more work here than their percentages suggest. Liver is the richest single source of vitamin A, B12 and copper a dog is likely to meet. Kidney adds its own trace mineral set, and heart behaves more like a working muscle meat than an organ. With no vitamin premix declared anywhere in the range, that offal is what makes the micronutrition credible.

Only a small amount of plant matter goes in, and it is mostly recognisable. Carrots bring vitamin A, plus soluble fibre and antioxidants. Butternut backs them up, and kelp is the usual whole-food answer to iodine. Green leaf is the loose thread, since the label never names the plant behind it, and on lists this precise about everything else it stands out.

The analyses read like meat and vegetables should. Carbohydrate is estimated at nothing in the Beef with Chicken and the Turkey and at 1.0% in the Chicken & Tripe, which is about as low as this arithmetic goes. Across the three recipes that declare enough to convert, protein sits between 40.7% and 45.9% of dry matter and fat between 39.8% and 43.3%, so these are rich bowls whichever one you pick.

Two lines on the Beef with Chicken deserve a raised eyebrow, though not a change of plan. Crude ash at 1.1% is remarkably low for a recipe carrying 10% veal bones, and crude fibre at 3.6% is high for a recipe with this little plant matter in it. For what is actually in the pack, go by the ingredients list.

Chicken drops back to 58% to make room for tripe at 17%, the ruminant stomach lining that raw feeders rate as highly as dogs do. The tripe is left green, so it is uncleaned and unbleached, and it carries its own enzymes and friendly bacteria along with a properly forthright smell. Fat converts to 43.3% of dry matter, the richest reading in the range. A dog who gains easily wants a measured hand here.

The Chicken, the Chicken & Tripe and the Turkey are £5.11 a kilo, and the Beef with Chicken is £5.83. All four are packed in 450g and 900g portions.

For a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition, needing about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). Depending on the recipe in the bowl, a day's feeding lands between £2.21 and £3.55. The spread follows energy density, since the lighter recipes feed in bigger portions.