Nulo Savory Stew: Chicken with Salmon review

Both stews finish in our Outstanding band, and they finish level, since they share an analysis and differ only in which fish they carry. Wet food scores well as a category with us, and its middle sits in our Excellent band, one step below where these two land. Nutritional balance reads Outstanding, driven by protein at 55.6% of dry matter and a carbohydrate estimate of 13.8%, a little under the 15.8% typical of adult wet food. Protein and processing and transparency both read Outstanding, with the chicken and the fish named and numbered, while the broths, the pumpkin, the quinoa and the vegetables are left without figures of their own.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken meat (53%), chicken broth, pumpkin, salmon (4%), salmon broth, sweet potato, coconut oil, minerals, quinoa, green beans, carrots, pea starch (0.5%), salmon oil, inulin, seaweed meal, dried parsley, linseed.

Chicken meat at 53% opens both lists, followed by chicken broth, and the fish arrives at 4% with a matching broth of its own. Naming the fish, mackerel in one pot and salmon in the other, rather than settling for a general fish term, is the sort of detail that makes a label readable. Protein converts to 55.6% of dry matter, high even by the standards of a meat led wet recipe.

The stew's body comes from pumpkin, sweet potato, green beans and carrots, with quinoa and pea starch at 0.5% holding it together. A grain free recipe can use quinoa because it comes from a seed and not from a grass. It is also unusual among plants in carrying a complete set of the amino acids a dog needs. It is still a carbohydrate first and foremost, and the estimate lands at 13.8% of dry matter.

Fat is where this range parts company with the pates. At 3.0% as fed and 16.7% of dry matter it is a lean recipe, with coconut oil and salmon oil supplying what there is, the salmon oil bringing marine omega 3. That leanness is the reason the pots read 77 kcal per 100g and the reason servings look large.

Inulin, seaweed meal, dried parsley and linseed close both lists. Inulin is a prebiotic fibre, seaweed carries iodine and a wide mineral spread, and linseed adds plant omega 3 and fibre. All of them come last on the list, the proper place for a finishing touch.

Vitamins A and E carry printed doses, and the trace elements are published in a separate panel naming copper, iodine, manganese, zinc and iron with a figure each. It is a short added panel, which suits a recipe carrying this much moisture and this much meat.

Salmon at 4% on a salmon broth, the more familiar fish of the two and an easier sell to a cautious eater. The analysis is identical to the mackerel pot, so the swap is purely a question of which fish your dog prefers.

Both recipes come in a 170g size.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in steady condition needs about 1091 grams a day, working from an energy requirement near 840 kcal that the usual 110 × bodyweight^0.75 maintenance sum gives. That sits close to the label's own figure of 1171 grams for the same dog.