Rude Dog Food Hypoallergenic: Lamb review

Both tubs earn our Excellent band, a step under the mark the middle of the raw field sets, and holding that close with a deliberately narrow ingredient list is harder than it looks. A restricted recipe cannot lean on a wide cast of animals to fill the gaps, so the work falls to named organ meats, bone in the grind and a plant fraction kept deliberately small. Both read Excellent for protein and processing, Outstanding for nutritional balance and transparency, and Excellent for value. Nothing separates them, so let your dog's history with the animals decide.

Ingredients, as declared: Lamb Heart - 35%, Lamb Meat with Bone - 30%, Lamb Tripe - 10%, Lamb Kidney - 5%, Lamb Liver - 5%, Salmon Oil - 0.5%, Butternut Squash - 5%, Carrot - 5%, Seasonal Greens - 3%, Raspberry & Blueberry - 1%, Kelp - 0.5%, Lamb Heart 35%, Lamb Meat with Bone 30%, Lamb Tripe 10%, Lamb Kidney 5%, Lamb Liver 5%, Salmon Oil 0.5%, Butternut Squash 5%, Carrot 5%, Seasonal Greens 3%, Raspberry & Blueberry 1%, Kelp 0.5%, Stated total 100%

The Lamb tub is the purer exclusion recipe of the two: lamb heart at 35%, lamb meat with bone at 30%, lamb tripe at 10%, then lamb kidney and lamb liver at 5% each. One animal supplies the muscle, the bone and the organs, which is exactly the shape an elimination diet wants.

The Venison & Lamb puts venison meat at 35% in front, with lamb with bone at 30%, lamb tripe at 10% and lamb trachea at 5% behind it. Venison is genuinely uncommon in dog food, and that is what makes it useful when a dog has reacted to the familiar meats. The lamb still carries the bone and the organs here, so this is not a venison only recipe.

The organ set is a working one rather than a token. Liver is nutrient dense and easily digested, a source of B12 and vitamin A with copper and iron alongside. Tripe brings its own richness and digestibility. The trachea in the venison recipe puts cartilage in the bowl, a cut you rarely see itemised on a label at all.

Calcium comes from bone in the grind, with no added vitamin or mineral premix on either label and no printed calcium figure to check it against. Crude ash converts to 8.3% of dry matter on the Lamb and 9.0% on the Venison & Lamb, which is the bone showing through the analysis. It is the one place these otherwise exact labels stop short.

The plant side is identical across both tubs: butternut squash and carrot at 5% each, seasonal greens at 3%, kelp at 0.5% and raspberry with blueberry at 1%. Seasonal greens is the sole entry naming a category rather than an ingredient, which is worth registering on a range built for exclusion diets, and kelp brings iodine and trace minerals.

The analysis follows the animals. Protein converts to 49.2% of dry matter on the Lamb against 38.0% on the Venison & Lamb, while fat runs the other way at 31.2% against 41.3%. The carbohydrate estimates are 9.0% and 7.8% of dry matter respectively, against a 5.0% category typical. Nothing starchy appears on either list, so those figures are the by-difference method at work and not an ingredient you could point to.

One animal from top to bottom, with lamb heart at 35%, lamb meat with bone at 30%, lamb tripe at 10% and lamb kidney and liver at 5% each. That is a bigger organ share than the venison recipe carries. It is the leaner and lighter of the pair at 125 kcal per 100g, with protein at 49.2% of dry matter, so the same dog eats a good deal more of it by weight.

Both come in 500g tubs and both are £7.92 a kilo.

Take a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition, about 840 kcal a day on the standard maintenance estimate of 110 × bodyweight^0.75. The Lamb works out at roughly 673 grams and £5.33 a day, and the Venison & Lamb at 495 grams and £3.92. The gap follows energy density, not the per kilo figure, since the two are identical there.