Seven Pet Seven Grain Free Adult Large Breed review

Our banding puts this one in Excellent, with the typical adult dry food a rung lower in the Good band. Turkey at half the recipe and a dry matter protein of 31.0% do most of the lifting, and the joint pack is a genuine inclusion rather than a line of front of bag copy. Protein and processing reads Good and no higher, and the pea protein and potato protein behind the meat are why. They are the one place the recipe asks plants for something the animal should be bringing.

Ingredients, as declared: Turkey 50% (including Freshly Prepared Turkey 28%, Dehydrated Turkey 18%, Turkey Fat 2% & Turkey Digest 2%), Fruit and Vegetables (including Sweet Potato (24%), Peas (7%), Potato, Cranberry (0.2%)), Digestive Care Pack (Beet Pulp, Fructooligosaccharides (96 mg/kg), Mannanoligosaccharides (24 mg/kg)), Pea Protein, Potato Protein, Fish Oil, Flaxseed, Vitamins & Minerals, Joint Care Pack (Glucosamine (170 mg/kg), Methylsulfonylmethane (170 mg/kg), Chondroitin Sulphate (125 mg/kg)).

Turkey at 50% is printed as four separate entries, 28% freshly prepared, 18% dehydrated, 2% turkey fat and 2% turkey digest. The oven takes most of the fresh share's weight, which leaves the 18% dried turkey carrying much of the finished protein. Naming the fat and the digest to the same bird is a tidy piece of labelling.

For starch there is 24% sweet potato and 7% peas, with potato behind them, and no grain features. Carbohydrate works out at 44.5% of dry matter, a shade under the 46.2% typical of adult dry food.

The Joint Care Pack is the reason this particular bag exists. Glucosamine and methylsulfonylmethane are printed at 170 mg/kg each and chondroitin sulphate at 125 mg/kg. All three carry a quantity you can read, and on a large breed label that is the detail to look for. A bowl of food is not a treatment plan and a dog with real arthritis needs a vet as well, but as everyday support these are numbers you can actually read.

Pea protein and potato protein sit just behind the meat in the running order, lifting the protein figure without more turkey going in. For building muscle, the amino acid profile of plant protein is not the match of animal protein, so read the declared 28.5% with that in mind.

The rest of the list earns its keep quietly. Beet pulp gives gentle fibre, FOS at 96 mg/kg and MOS at 24 mg/kg feed the gut's own bacteria, and flaxseed and fish oil between them cover the omega 3s. Cranberry at 0.2% is the label's small flourish rather than anything a dog will notice.

The trace minerals are quantified throughout, from zinc and iron at 50 mg per kilo down to selenium at 0.3 mg, so nothing on this panel is left to the imagination.

£5 a kilo, sold in a single 12kg bag.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would take about 226 grams a day, on the basis of roughly 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That comes to £1.13 a day. This is a large breed recipe though. The label's own table starts at 250 grams for a dog of 15kg to 25kg and climbs to 650 grams at the top. Most buyers here will be pouring a good deal more than the guide figure.