Rawternative 80/20 Cold-Pressed: Duck review

The Beef, the Chicken and the Duck all reach our Outstanding band, two clear bands above the Good band where the typical cold-pressed food settles. The ratio is the reason: protein converting to between 56.3% and 60.6% of dry matter with carbohydrate between 7.9% and 11.6%, against 43.2% typical for the format. The Trout is the outlier, a band back in our Excellent band. The cause is the wording on the label, and nothing to do with the pellet. Its meat entry reads as fish without naming the species, where its three stablemates name their animal outright. An unnamed animal ingredient counts against a food in our scoring, however good the fish behind it turns out to be. Everything else matches the rest of the range, the fat share, the joint blend and the declared calcium included. Ask Rawternative which fish goes in and you have the same food with a clearer label.

Ingredients, as declared: Duck (70%), beef tallow (8%), sweet potato (8%), liver gravy (3%), whole egg, white fish hydrolysate, vitamins and minerals, prebiotic (inulin), peas, brewer's yeast, cooked linseed, salmon oil, apple granulate, chicory pulp, pumpkin, seaweed, alfalfa. Herbal blend (0.25% chicory root, parsley, thyme, nettle leaf, rosemary, camomile leaf, sage, yucca extract, rosehip, dandelion leaf, turmeric, aniseed, blackcurrant, chia seeds). Joint care blend, glucosamine (0.1%), collagen (0.08%), green lipped mussel (0.05%), chondroitin sulphate (0.05%). Natural probiotic, MOS (yeast).

The headline ratio is real, not decorative. Beef takes 72% of its recipe, chicken 76%, duck 70% and fish 73%, with an animal fat at 4 to 8% on top. That is why the protein figures land where a raw analysis would, and not where cold-pressed usually does. Sweet potato at 8% is the only substantial carbohydrate ingredient on any of the four lists.

Cold pressing keeps the temperature low and the pellet dense. That pellet breaks down in liquid and does not swell, which is the main reason owners of fast eaters look at the format in the first place. It is fed and stored just like ordinary dry food, so none of the freezer planning that comes with raw applies here.

Liver gravy at 3%, whole egg and white fish hydrolysate fill in behind the meat. No protein a food can carry is much more complete than egg. A hydrolysate is protein already broken into small fragments, which tends to sit gently in a digestion. Those fish entries do mean that every recipe in this range carries fish, including the ones named after land animals.

The joint blend comes with its inclusions printed: glucosamine at 0.1%, collagen at 0.08%, green lipped mussel at 0.05% and chondroitin sulphate at 0.05%. Those are modest quantities, and seeing the percentages is what allows you to judge them at all. Mussel is a shellfish, which is the one detail to register if shellfish is being avoided.

The tail is long and mostly sensible. Inulin and chicory pulp give prebiotic fibre, MOS from yeast does similar work in the gut, and brewer's yeast brings its B vitamins. Cooked linseed and salmon oil cover the omega fats, then come apple, pumpkin, seaweed and alfalfa. A herbal blend at 0.25% covers everything from parsley to turmeric, and at that inclusion it reads as character, not medicine.

Calcium is declared and converts to 1.19% of dry matter, which sits inside the window that matters while a large breed puppy is growing fast. Puppies, adults and seniors are all written into this range. Being able to check that figure on a food a big dog might eat for years is worth a great deal more than a reassuring sentence about growth.

Duck leads at 70%, but the fat is beef tallow at 8%, so this recipe brings two land animals and does not keep to the bird. Protein converts to 56.3% of dry matter and energy is declared at 385 kcal per 100g. Duck remains a genuinely interesting option for a dog that has never met it before.

The Beef, Chicken and Duck are £6.67 a kilo and the Trout is £7.50. All four come in 3kg and 12kg bags, with a sample bag for a first try.

A 15kg adult dog in moderate condition needs about 840 kcal a day on the standard maintenance sum (110 × bodyweight^0.75). That works out at roughly 215 grams of the Beef, or £1.44 a day. The Chicken takes 231 grams at £1.54, the Duck 218 grams at £1.46 and the Trout 215 grams at £1.62.