Sausage Dog Sanctuary Food Grain-Free Adult: Lamb With Sweet Potato & Mint review

Across the six varieties our scoring settles in the Good band throughout, level with the middle of the adult dry market. The recipe shape barely changes, so the analysis printed on each label is what moves a variety up or down. Fat ranges from 8.7% to 15.2% of dry matter and estimated carbohydrate from 42.4% to 50.1%, against 46.2% typical for an adult dry food.

The duck recipe finishes highest and the tuna lowest, with the other four bunched closely between them. In practice that means choosing by the animal your dog suits, not by the ordering. The difference between neighbouring varieties is far smaller than the difference a well matched protein makes to a dog.

Ingredients, as declared: Lamb 50% (including Freshly Prepared Lamb 30%, Dried Lamb 18% & Lamb Stock 2%), Sweet Potato (23%), Peas (9%), Pea Protein, Potato, Linseed, Beet Pulp, Omega 3 Supplement, Minerals, Vitamins, Vegetable Stock, Mint (0.2%), FOS (96 mg/kg), MOS (24 mg/kg)

Every variety opens the same way. The 50% animal content comes first, and beneath it the label splits that figure three ways: a fresh weight, a dried weight and a stock weight. That split is the part worth reading. The fresh figure counts water that the oven drives off. The dried figure is therefore the one that tells you what lands in the finished kibble. These labels hand you both figures and hide behind neither. Protein converts to 28.3% of dry matter on all six.

Sweet potato is the main plant ingredient, declared anywhere from 22% to 27% according to the variety, with peas and potato behind it. Wheat, maize, rice and barley are absent from the whole range, and beet pulp supplies the fibre.

Linseed and an omega 3 supplement appear on every label as the fat quality entries. The supplement is the one thing the range never names, and that is a small but real gap. A recipe that lists no fish elsewhere still cannot be called fish free. That matters if you are working out exactly what your dog reacts to. For everyday feeding it is simply a useful addition.

Both prebiotics carry a printed dose, FOS at 96 mg/kg and MOS at 24 mg/kg. That is more commitment than a marketing mention would take. The signature fruit or vegetable that gives each bag its name, from orange through to broccoli, sits at a fraction of a percent, so treat it as a nice touch rather than a nutritional lever.

Where these labels fall short is the additive side. The composition lists minerals and vitamins as bare words with no doses attached. There is no reading a zinc level off these bags, and the same goes for copper and selenium. Nothing tells you whether the trace minerals are chelated either. The ingredient half of the label is unusually open, which is exactly why the gap on the other half stands out.

Lamb makes up 50%, of which 30% is freshly prepared, 18% dried and 2% stock. Pea protein alongside whole peas at 9% appears nowhere else in the range. That entry lifts the plant protein contribution. Mint at 0.2% finishes it, and the label's feeding table stops at 15kg rather than running on to bigger dogs.

Per kilo it is £6.33 for the duck, lamb, salmon and tuna, £6.25 for the pork and £6.42 for the venison. Bags run 2kg, 6kg and 12kg, except the pork and the tuna, which come in 6kg and 12kg only.

As a guide, feeding a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition works out at between £1.43 and £1.66 a day, assuming about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). The labels' own tables are written for much smaller dogs, so match the guide to the dog you actually have and let condition settle any disagreement.