Purizon Adult Grain Free: Venison with Rabbit review

All five of these sit in our Excellent band, a step above our Good band, where the typical adult dry food finishes. The construction is what earns the gap. Named animals dominate the top of every list, the starch load is genuinely low for a kibble at between 24.5% and 26.7% of dry matter, and the supplements are dosed in print. The Fish finishes a fraction ahead of its siblings, and the rest sit close enough that the animal on the label should decide your pick.

One note on the arithmetic. None of the five declares moisture, so the dry matter conversions here work from the 8% a kibble normally holds. The energy figures for the Black Angus, the Chicken and the Venison are our own estimates.

Ingredients, as declared: 39% fresh venison (18% deer, 17% roe deer, 4% reindeer), 14% chicken meat (dried), 8% rabbit meat (dried), 8% duck meat (dried), potatoes (dried), sweet potatoes (dried), 6% poultry fat, peas, 3% poultry proteins (hydrolysed), 1% egg (dried), 1% salmon oil, lignocellulose, linseed, psyllium husks, apples (dried), carrots (dried), cranberries (dried), dried herbs (spinach, thyme, oregano, sage, parsley, marjoram, chamomile, aniseed, fenugreek, marigold, peppermint), chicory inulin

Every recipe pairs a fresh animal at the front with dried meats immediately behind it, which is the right way round. Fresh meat is largely water, and cooking takes that away. The dried entries therefore carry much of the finished protein, and Purizon prints both so you can see the balance for yourself. The analysis backs the headline up, with protein converting to between 42.4% and 43.5% of dry matter across the five.

The binding comes from dried potato and dried sweet potato, with peas behind them. Of the two, sweet potato is the one worth a second look, bringing fibre and vitamin A along with its starch. Ordinary potato is there mainly to hold a kibble together. Peas add a little plant protein on top of the animal protein. No grain appears anywhere across the five.

The fibre thinking is unusually considered for a dry food. Psyllium husks and chicory inulin sit near the end of every list, the first a bulking fibre and the second a prebiotic, with linseed alongside them as a plant source of omega 3. The Lamb and the Venison add lignocellulose as well. Crude fibre still reads low on the panel, at 1.6% of dry matter in most of the range and 2.7% in the Lamb. The fibre here is chosen for the job it does.

The supplement list is long and, more to the point, dosed. Taurine at 1500 mg per kilo and DL-methionine at 1000 mg are both on every label. Choline chloride at 1200 mg, niacin at 50 mg, biotin at 250 mcg and vitamin C at 140 mg follow. The one place the range could do better is the form of its trace minerals. Zinc arrives as zinc oxide and manganese as manganous oxide, and oxides are generally taken up less readily than the chelated forms other makers use.

Fish runs right through the range whichever animal is on the front. Four of the recipes carry salmon oil at 1%, and the Fish recipe leans on it at 7%. Fresh salmon also turns up in the Black Angus, the Chicken and the Lamb. It is a genuine strength for coats and joints. It also means no fish free option here, so a fish avoiding dog is one to think about before you buy.

The long tail of dried herbs, from spinach and thyme down to marigold and peppermint, is the flourish at the end rather than the substance. It sits below the fruit and vegetables at trace level, and no dog was ever better for the fenugreek. This range stands on its meat and fish content, which is where the weight belongs.

The most unusual label of the five, with 39% fresh venison broken out as 18% deer, 17% roe deer and 4% reindeer, then 14% dried chicken and dried rabbit and dried duck at 8% each. It is the leanest of the range at 18% fat. Where the usual meats have caused trouble, the novel ones here are worth a try, so long as the chicken and the duck are not part of the problem.

Per kilo, the Chicken with Fish is £4.17 and both the Black Angus with Turkey and the Venison with Rabbit are £4.29.

Bag sizes vary by recipe. The Chicken with Fish comes in 1kg, 4kg and 12kg, the Fish and the Lamb with Salmon in 400g, 1kg and 12kg, and the Black Angus and the Venison in 12kg. A two bag economy pack is offered on the 12kg across most of the range.

As a guide, a 15kg adult in moderate condition eats between 211 and 224 grams a day across the five, assuming about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). Where a per-kilo figure exists, that works out at between £0.91 and £0.96 a day. Where the pack prints its own table, it asks between 175 and 250 grams for a dog of that weight, so the two sit close and the waistline settles the rest.