ROR Adult: Duck & Free Range Turkey review

Both recipes take our Outstanding band, which is already where the middle of the raw field sits, so the achievement is finishing above that midpoint. Named deboned meat, a plant side where every entry is itemised, and a printed vitamin and mineral panel all pull the same way. The two land level with each other. Protein and processing and transparency read Outstanding on both, nutritional balance is Outstanding on the duck recipe and Good on the salmon, so let the animals decide.

Ingredients, as declared: Free Range Deboned Duck 50%, Free Range Deboned Turkey 35%, Sweet Potato 5%, Carrots 5%, Redcurrants, Salmon Oil, Seaweed, Yucca, Green Tea, Dandelion, Hawthorn Leaf, Beet.

The arithmetic is the same twice over. Two named animals make up 85% of each pack. Sweet potato and carrot take 5% each, and everything after that is a trace inclusion. Because the meat is deboned there are no bone fragments in the grind, which is the practical reason some owners choose this style of raw over a bone in mince.

Duck and turkey both earn their reputations here. Turkey is easy on the digestion and lighter in fat than chicken, which is one reason gentler recipes lean on it. Duck brings good quality protein, with vitamin A and B vitamins alongside. The salmon in the second recipe is a whole named fish rather than a meal, and salmon oil is in both for its omega 3 fats.

The plant side is short and specific. Carrot brings vitamin A along with soluble fibre and natural antioxidants, and sweet potato adds gentle starch. The tail sits at seasoning level: redcurrants and dandelion, hawthorn leaf and green tea, yucca and beet. Seaweed is the one small entry with a real job, since it is a reliable source of iodine and trace minerals.

There is a printed vitamin and mineral pack behind both recipes. It runs vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin E, zinc, iron, copper, iodine and selenium. The selenium arrives as inactivated selenised yeast, which is the organic form and not the mineral salt. What the pack does not name is a calcium source, so with deboned meat on both labels the calcium reading is doing its work quietly. It converts to 1.2% of dry matter on the duck recipe and 0.92% on the turkey and salmon.

Carbohydrate is estimated by difference, and both figures read high for raw against the 5.0% of dry matter typical of the category. Some of that is genuinely the sweet potato and carrot. The rest is method: the turkey and salmon recipe declares lower moisture than its stablemate while carrying an identical plant list, and its estimate climbs to 32.4% of dry matter as a result. Trust the ingredients list over the estimate for what is actually in the pack.

Free range deboned duck leads at 50%, with free range deboned turkey at 35% behind it. Duck appears on only one of the two labels, and this is it. Protein converts to 34.0% of dry matter and fat to 38.8%. At 159 kcal per 100g this is the lighter meal of the pair, so portions run a little larger. Calcium reads 1.2% of dry matter, the higher of the two.

Both recipes are sold in 1kg packs. No checked per kilo figure was to hand for this range, so no cost figures appear below.

Portioning for a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition starts from about 840 kcal a day, the standard maintenance estimate of 110 × bodyweight^0.75. That is roughly 528 grams of the Duck & Free Range Turkey, or 457 grams of the Free Range Turkey & Salmon. The label's own table asks 285 to 565 grams for dogs between 10kg and 25kg on the duck recipe, and 360 to 720 grams on the turkey and salmon.