Paw-Cura Adult Working Medium Large Breed review

Our scale reads this Good, and it reads the typical bag of adult dry food the same way. Think of it as a food that meets the market rather than one that leaves it behind. Protein and processing and nutritional balance both come out Average, held there by the share of the recipe the plants take up behind the protein. Transparency is the standout pillar, and deservedly so: every animal, oil and additive in this food is named, most are quantified, and nothing at all hides inside a legal category.

Ingredients, as declared: Dried insect protein (28%), Dried potato flakes, Naked oats, Green peas, Extra virgin olive oil, Dried brewer's yeast, Dried beet pulp, Flaxseed, Minerals, Dried apples, Dried yeast extract (a natural source of MOS (mannan-oligosaccharides) & beta glucans) (0.5%), Dried carrots, Dried chicory (a natural source of FOS and inulin), Dried chamomile (0.1%), Algae oil, Yucca schidigera.

The animal side of this recipe begins and ends with dried insect protein at 28%. No meat meal, no named or unnamed second species, no anonymous animal fat: one protein, printed with its percentage. For a working dog that has developed a reaction to the ordinary meats, that single-source construction is the entire appeal, and the list stays honest the whole way down.

Dried potato flakes lead the plant side, with naked oats and green peas behind them and dried beet pulp for fibre. Naked oats are the hulless kind, so more of the grain arrives as food and less as husk, and a steadier starch suits a dog doing sustained work better than a fast-burning one. Protein converts to 27.5% of dry matter with fat at 12.1% and estimated carbohydrate at 46.7%, close to the 46.2% typical for adult dry food.

Extra virgin olive oil is the added fat, an unusual thing to find on a working bag and one that brings antioxidants and vitamin E with it. Algae oil is the omega 3 source, delivering the long chain fatty acids that normally come out of a fish, so a dog with a fish problem loses nothing here. Flaxseed appears midway down and adds the plant form alongside.

The digestive support is thought through for dogs eating in volume. Dried yeast extract at 0.5% delivers MOS and beta glucans, chicory brings inulin, and beet pulp gives both something to ferment. Yucca schidigera and chamomile at 0.1% close the botanicals. Taurine and L-carnitine are both dosed in print, a useful pair on an animal asking a great deal of its heart and its fat stores.

The mineral panel is complete and printed in full, though the forms are sulphate and not chelate. Iron is at 50 mg, zinc at 60 mg, copper at 10 mg and manganese at 10 mg per kilo, with iodine at 1 mg and selenium at 0.2 mg. Vitamin E arrives at 120 mg. Calcium settles at 0.77% of dry matter, right for a grown dog at maintenance.

£6 a kilo, sold as a 14kg sack, which the seller lists free of VAT as a working dog food. Bulk quantities are offered on request.

As a guide, a 15kg adult in moderate condition works through about 255 grams a day, using the standard maintenance estimate of 110 kcal × bodyweight^0.75, or roughly 840 kcal. That comes to £1.53 a day. The label's own table asks 182 to 306 grams for a dog between 10kg and 20kg, and a genuinely working dog will sit towards the top of any band like that.