Tribal Fresh Pressed Adult: Fresh Salmon review

The chicken and the turkey earn our Good band, where the typical cold-pressed food sits as well, and the salmon steps past them into Excellent. Holding the position are fresh named meat at the front, joint support printed as doses instead of hinted at, and percentages against the entries that matter. The starch fraction runs above the middle of the format, and that is what keeps the chicken and the turkey from following the salmon up. The salmon leads, but only slightly, so pick whichever meat suits your dog.

Ingredients, as declared: Fresh salmon (35%), Sweet potato (35%), Blue whiting fish (hydrolysed) (10%), Whole egg (8%), Beet pulp, Brewer's yeast, Sunflower oil (1.6%), Salmon oil (0.5%), Inulin (source of prebiotic FOS), Minerals, Herbal blend (0.25%; Parsley, Rosemary, Nettle, Chamomile, Sage, Thyme, Coriander leaves, Dandelion leaves, Liquorice), Glucosamine (980mg/kg), Green lipped mussel (500mg/kg), Chondroitin sulphate (450mg/kg).

Before any ingredient comes into it, there is the cold pressing. Tribal exists to press its pellet cool, well under the heat a conventional kibble is cooked at. It behaves differently in the bowl too: add water and it falls apart where a kibble swells. Owners of gulpers and of dogs with delicate digestions are the ones who swear by the format.

The animal side arrives in two forms. Fresh chicken, salmon or turkey leads at 35%, joined by a hydrolysed fish protein. That is fish broken down into a concentrated, highly digestible form, and it runs at 13% in the chicken recipe, 10% in the other two. Whole egg then adds 5% to 8% of very complete protein. Together they take protein to 25.0% of dry matter in every recipe, which is a moderate figure for the format but one built from named sources.

Sweet potato matches the meat at 35%, and it is why you will find no wheat, no maize and no rice anywhere here. Gentle fibre comes from beet pulp, and inulin supplies prebiotic FOS for the good bacteria further down. Carbohydrate converts to between 50.6% and 53.5% of dry matter across the three, where the middle for cold-pressed food is 43.2%. The starch share is real, and it is worth registering.

Numbers are given for the joint ingredients, and far too few labels do that. Glucosamine sits at 980 mg/kg, green lipped mussel at 500 mg/kg and chondroitin sulphate at 450 mg/kg on every recipe. Being a shellfish, the green lipped mussel belongs in the same mental note as the fish protein for anyone shopping around a seafood sensitivity.

The tail of the label is tidier than most. Brewer's yeast brings B vitamins and a savoury note. The herbal blend at 0.25% is itemised, not hidden behind a category, and it runs from parsley and nettle through to dandelion leaves and liquorice. The minerals are printed per kilo. A tocopherol-rich extract handles the preservation. That is the natural vitamin E route, not a chemical one.

No bird meat appears here at all, with fresh salmon at 35% and blue whiting at 10% doing the animal work. Sunflower oil at 1.6% plus salmon oil at 0.5% take fat to 15.2% of dry matter. It is the richest of the three at 394 kcal per 100g, so portions run smallest.

The Fresh Chicken and Fresh Turkey are £7.08 a kilo and the Fresh Salmon is £7.67. All three come in 2.5kg and 12kg bags.

For a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition, taken at about 840 kcal a day on the standard maintenance estimate (110 × bodyweight^0.75), the chicken works out at roughly 226 grams. The salmon comes to 213 grams and the turkey to 231, which works out between £1.60 and £1.64 a day. Tribal's own guide for a 15kg dog is 200 grams on the chicken and salmon and 205 on the turkey.