Paleo Ridge Paleo Plus: Surf & Turf review

Every recipe here settles in our Outstanding band, the same shelf the typical raw food occupies, with protein and processing, nutritional balance, transparency and value all coming back Outstanding. Raw is the hardest category to stand out in on our scoring, so matching the field's own high-water mark on all six recipes is a strong result.

The reasons sit right there on the labels. Almost the whole bowl is animal, the organ share goes well beyond token liver, calcium is declared outright, and the one non-meat entry is a named blend with nothing anonymous about it. Nothing about these recipes is padded. What separates them is fat and energy and whichever animals suit your dog.

Ingredients, as declared: 45% Sardines, 21% Beef Tripe, 15% Beef Heart, 5% Beef Liver, 5% Beef Lung, 5% Berry Good Supplement Mix (inc. Kale, Broccoli, Blueberries, Blackberries, Seaweed, Green Lipped Mussel, Organic Hemp Seed Powder), 2% Beef Kidney, 2% Beef Spleen

The arithmetic is close to whole prey. A muscle meat or tripe takes the lead, a bone-bearing cut or an oily fish follows, and the offal is stacked several entries deep before the supplement mix closes the label at 5%. Every item is named and percentaged, which is the transparency raw feeders look for and the reason nothing here needs interpreting.

Offal is where this range separates itself. Alongside the liver and kidney you get lung, spleen, heart and gizzards depending on the recipe. Those are the parts carrying the fat-soluble vitamins, the iron and the trace minerals a dog gets from eating an animal and not a fillet. Feeding this much organ is also why the protein readings run so high on a dry matter basis.

The Berry Good Supplement Mix is the only entry that is not meat, and it is worth reading. Kale and broccoli bring plant antioxidants, and the blueberries and blackberries do the same in fruit form. Hemp seed powder adds omega fats and fibre, seaweed is a rich natural source of iodine and trace minerals, and green lipped mussel is the ingredient with the joint-care reputation. At a full 5% that is a real amount, not a sprinkle.

No recipe here is truly free of fish or shellfish, and the same mix is the reason. Green lipped mussel and seaweed appear in all six, so even the recipes whose meat comes from a single animal are not elimination diets. For most dogs this is entirely academic, but if shellfish is the reason you are reading labels then it matters.

The analyses read exactly as a near-total meat recipe should. Protein converts to between 40.0% and 73.1% of dry matter, fat to between 16.3% and 54.3%, and carbohydrate is barely present. Where the estimate does climb, as with the Surf and Turf at 13.1% of dry matter, that is a by-difference figure sweeping up everything unmeasured. It is not a starch ingredient, because there is not a grain or a potato anywhere on these labels.

Calcium is declared throughout, from 0.74% of dry matter on the recipes built mostly of soft tissue up to 2.48% on the Totally Chicken with its bone-in share. That spread is normal for raw and it reflects how much bone each recipe carries, but it is the figure to check first if the dog in question is a large breed puppy still growing.

Sardines take 45% of the bowl, backed by beef tripe at 21%, beef heart at 15% and then liver, lung, kidney and spleen. Whole oily fish brings its own omega fats and its own soft bone. With the lowest moisture in the range at 57% it is by far the most concentrated recipe at 235 kcal per 100g, so portions are small.

Per kilo, the Lamb and Mint, Totally Chicken and Turkey and Fish are £8.98, the Surf and Turf and Totally Duck are £9.18, and the Pork and Apple is £9.78. All six are sold in 500g packs.

For a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition, taking about 840 kcal a day on the standard maintenance estimate (110 × bodyweight^0.75), the daily amount runs from 356 to 757 grams. That works out at £3.27 to £6.80 a day. The spread follows energy density, since the richer recipes feed in much smaller portions than the lean ones.