Sausage Dog Sanctuary Food Grain-Free Adult: Venison With Mulberry & Sweet Potato 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: Venison & Salmon 50% (including Freshly Prepared Venison 26%, Dried Salmon 19% Salmon Oil 2.5% & Salmon Stock 2.5%), Sweet Potato (27%), Potato, Peas (6%), Omega 3 Supplement, Linseed, Beet Pulp, Minerals, Vitamins, Vegetable Stock, Mulberry (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.

Venison and salmon together make 50%: 26% freshly prepared venison and 19% dried salmon, with 2.5% each of salmon oil and salmon stock. The venison headline is only half the story, because salmon supplies more of the dried weight. Read this as a mixed recipe. Sweet potato peaks here at 27%, crude fibre at 4.9% of dry matter is the most in the range, and mulberry at 0.2% is the signature.

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.