Nourish Grain Free Adult Small Breed: Chicken With Sweet Potato & Herbs review

The chicken comes out in our Excellent band, a step above the Good band that holds the lamb, the salmon and the typical adult dry food alike. They sit close enough together for the animal to count for more than the order they finish in. What carries them is a named meat at half the recipe or more, along with a carbohydrate load below what a dry food normally runs. It goes from 39.2% of dry matter in the chicken up to 42.4% in the salmon, against a typical 46.2%. The chicken's edge comes from the way its declarations line up rather than from any single flourish.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken 55% (including Freshly Prepared Chicken 27%, Dried Chicken 26% & Chicken Stock 2%), Sweet Potato (26%), Peas (7%), Beet Pulp, Potato, Linseed, Omega 3 Supplement, Minerals, Vegetable Stock, Herbs (0.3% including Marjoram, Basil, Oregano, Sage, Thyme, Parsley), Fructooligosaccharides (FOS, 96 mg/kg)

The chicken recipe has the most interesting meat split in the range: 27% freshly prepared chicken against 26% dried, which is almost an even share. Freshly prepared meat is largely water until it is cooked, so that large dried half is what actually reaches the bowl. Protein lands at 31.5% of dry matter as a result. The lamb splits 30% fresh to 18% dried, and the salmon 27% fresh to 20% dried with named salmon oil at 4% on top.

The leading plant entry is sweet potato, at 22% to 26% according to the recipe. Peas run from 7% to 9%, and potato sits behind them. Beet pulp supplies the fibre. Cereal is absent from all three labels.

Linseed is on all three lists as a plant omega 3, and the salmon recipe adds salmon oil at 4%, which is the range's only marine oil named openly. Every label here also lists omega 3 supplement without saying where it came from. On an exclusion diet, none of the three counts as strictly fish free.

Fructooligosaccharides are dosed at 96 mg/kg on all three labels, with mannanoligosaccharides at 24 mg/kg joining them in the lamb and the salmon. The chicken recipe goes without the second one, which is a small difference and not a meaningful loss.

Vitamin E is dosed at 95 IU, with zinc and iron at 50 mg and manganese at 35 mg per kilo across all three labels. Copper at 15 mg appears on the chicken label and selenium at 0.3 mg on the lamb, the selenium as sodium selenite and not the yeast-grown form. Pea protein sits behind the lamb's meat as well, adding a plant contribution to its protein figure.

The biggest meat declaration of the three at 55% chicken, and the one whose dried share very nearly matches its fresh one, at 26% against 27%. Protein comes out highest in the range at 31.5% of dry matter, carbohydrate lowest at 39.2%, and energy is 371 kcal per 100g. The name comes from a 0.3% herb blend of marjoram, basil and oregano with sage, thyme and parsley, and calcium sits at 1.74% of dry matter.

£6.33 a kilo for any of the three, sold as a 200g sample, a 1.5kg bag and a 6kg bag.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would eat about 223 to 231 grams a day depending on the recipe. We work from around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That comes to between £1.41 and £1.46 a day. The label asks 75 grams at 4kg and 160 grams at 12kg, and most dogs eating it are smaller than our reference dog.