Pooch & Mutt Primal Dry Food: Venison with Lamb & Duck review

Both recipes reach our Excellent band, a step up from the Good band where the typical adult dry food finishes. The reasons are all on the label. Named animal ingredients take up most of the recipe, and plant matter stops at peas with a little pumpkin, apple pulp and carrot behind them. Estimated carbohydrate lands at 37.1% of dry matter in the venison and 30.0% in the wild boar, against 46.2% for adult dry food generally. The wild boar has the edge on paper, with protein converting to 41.1% of dry matter where the venison manages 31.1%. That edge carries into our banding: nutritional balance reads Outstanding for the boar and Good for the venison, with transparency Outstanding on both.

Ingredients, as declared: Venison Protein (32 %), Fresh Lamb (26 %), Peas (15 %), Chicken Fat (12 %), Duck Protein (10 %), Pumpkin (2 %), Dried Apple Pulp (2 %), Carrots (0.5 %), Glucosamine (0.019 %), Chondroitin Sulphate (0.012 %), Mannan-oligosaccharides (0.011 %), Fructo-oligosaccharides (0.008 %), Mojave Yucca (0.007 %), Dried Rosemary (0.003 %), Dried Turmeric (0.003 %), Spirulina (0.003 %).

The first entry on each label is a protein rather than a fresh meat, and that is doing more work than it looks. Venison protein and wild boar protein at 32% are concentrated dried meat. Very little of that weight is lost between mixer and oven. Fresh lamb at 26% sits behind it, and water accounts for most of that 26% by the time it is cooked. Duck protein at 10% is another dried entry. The result is 28% protein declared in the venison and 37% in the wild boar.

Venison and wild boar are both genuinely less common in a dog's bowl. For a dog bored of the everyday meats, or reacting to them, that counts. Both are lean red meats that digest well, and venison in particular brings a useful helping of B vitamins with it.

Chicken fat at 12% is the energy source, and it is worth reading twice. Naming the bird is better labelling than the vague animal fat you see elsewhere, and chicken fat is a good, palatable fat. It also means chicken is present in a food whose front label says venison or wild boar, which is the one thing to know if chicken is the ingredient you are avoiding.

Peas at 15% are the whole plant story, with pumpkin at 2%, dried apple pulp at 2% and carrots at 0.5% behind them. Fibre and antioxidants come with the peas, and a little plant protein too. At this level they read as a considered inclusion, not a filler. Crude fibre lands at 3.1% of dry matter in both, which is on the low side and consistent with how little plant material is in here.

What closes the list is small in weight and properly dosed. Glucosamine and chondroitin sulphate cover the joints. Mannan-oligosaccharides and fructo-oligosaccharides are prebiotics for the gut, and mojave yucca is included for what owners notice on the lawn. Spirulina sits at trace level with dried rosemary and dried turmeric, and the rosemary is the natural antioxidant guarding the fats.

Venison protein at 32% is the headline, and this is the milder of the two recipes on paper, with 28% protein, 17% fat and estimated carbohydrate at 37.1% of dry matter. It is also the only one made in a small kibble as well as the regular size, so it is the one to pick for a little dog. Calcium works out at 2.0% of dry matter, a firm level that reads better for an adult than for a large breed puppy.

£7.00 a kilo, sold in 2kg and 10kg bags of the regular kibble, with the venison also made as a 2kg small kibble.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition needs about 223 grams of the venison a day. The wild boar comes out at about 221 grams, assuming around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That comes to £1.56 a day on the venison and £1.54 on the wild boar. The label asks 163 to 325 grams for dogs between 10kg and 25kg, so weigh the first week's meals and settle from there.