Primal Spirit Complete Oceanland review

The packet tells you most of why Oceanland sits in our Good band, the same shelf the typical cold-pressed food lands on. Fish at 45.4% with chicken at 20.8% behind it gives it a proper animal share, and carbohydrate converts to 35.7% of dry matter, comfortably under the 43.2% typical for the format. The other side of the ledger stops it climbing: no declared vitamin and mineral addition, no calcium figure beside the ash, and a fruit tail thin enough to read as flavouring. Value reads Good and transparency Excellent, with protein and processing and nutritional balance both Good, the shape of a food that quietly does its job and prints the proof.

Ingredients, as declared: 45.4% fresh fish, 20.8% fresh chicken, 20.5% rice, 4% beta vulgaris pulp, 3.5% brewer's yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), 2.5% pumpkin, 1.45% pear, 1% pineapple, 0.25% thyme (Thymus vulgaris), 0.25% coriander (Coriandrum sativum), 0.25% turmeric (Curcuma longa)

Cold pressing sets this apart from ordinary dry food before any ingredient does. The pellet is compressed at low temperature, never cooked at high heat, and in water it breaks down where baked kibble would swell. Owners of fast eaters and sensitive stomachs tend to seek the format out. Primal Spirit builds its whole Complete line this way.

Fresh fish at 45.4% is the headline, and fresh means fresh. Unlike a dried fish meal it comes in carrying most of its water, so the protein it delivers into the finished pellet is well under what the percentage suggests. That is not a criticism, simply the arithmetic of the ingredient, and the finished analysis of 32.7% protein on a dry matter basis is the figure that actually counts. Fresh chicken at 20.8% sits behind it, which is why the fish share alone does not tell the whole story of the bowl.

Rice at 20.5% carries the carbohydrate, and no common cereal is easier on a dog: no gluten, easily digested and long favoured for unsettled stomachs. Beta vulgaris pulp at 4% is the label's most disguised entry, since that is simply the botanical name for beet. Beet pulp is a standard fermentable fibre, and it firms up the stools. Brewer's yeast at 3.5% brings the B vitamins and a savoury note dogs tend to like.

The produce tail is where Oceanland differs from its stablemates: pumpkin at 2.5%, pear at 1.45% and pineapple at 1%, then thyme, coriander and turmeric at 0.25% each. Pumpkin at that inclusion is a genuine fibre contribution rather than a gesture, the fruit pair is mostly palatability, and the herb trio is character. It reads as a recipe someone actually composed rather than one assembled from a template.

The silence on the label is the thing to weigh. There is no vitamin and mineral panel, no named premix in the composition and no calcium declaration to sit beside the crude ash of 8.7%. A recipe of this shape needs those nutrients from somewhere, and fish, chicken and yeast will carry a good deal of them, but the label does not put figures to any of it. It is worth knowing about a food you plan to feed every day, and if it matters to you, ask the maker.

£3.91 a kilo. It comes in a 1kg bag, a 12kg sack and a 2 x 12kg option.

Reckon on 840 kcal a day for a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). At 346 kcal per 100g, that is about 243g a day, or £0.95.