Truline: Meat & Fish Variety review

The two do not finish level. The meat and fish recipe takes our Excellent band with the fish recipe a step behind in Good, so there is a little more than the animals to weigh here. A typical adult dry food comes out alongside the fish recipe, in our Good band. What lifts these two is the shape of the analysis: protein converts to 34.8% of dry matter on both and fat to 21.7%. Carbohydrate stops at 29.9% on the fish recipe and 30.4% on the meat and fish one, against 46.2% for the typical adult dry food. That is a genuinely meat forward build. Transparency reads Outstanding on both and protein and processing Good on both, while nutritional balance and value each read Good on the fish recipe and Excellent on the meat and fish one.

Ingredients, as declared: Fresh Chicken 16%, Dried Turkey 14%, Dried Chicken 14%, Fresh Salmon 13%, Cassava, Sweet Potato, Pure Chicken Oil 8%, Whole Egg Powder 6%, Dried Salmon 4%, Salmon Oil 2%, Pea Fibre, Minerals, Prebiotic MOS, Prebiotic FOS, Seaweed, Green Tea, Yucca Extract, Glucosamine, Carrots, Grape Seed, Chondroitin, Spinach, Green Beans, Bilberries, Cranberries, Blackcurrants, Apple, Dandelion, Marigold, Chamomile, Peppermint

Both labels do the thing a reader most wants, which is put a percentage against every animal entry. The fish recipe declares dried salmon and dried ocean fish at 15% each with fresh salmon and fresh ocean fish at 13% each. The meat and fish recipe declares fresh chicken at 16%, dried turkey and dried chicken at 14% each and fresh salmon at 13%. Dried entries carry far more into the finished kibble than fresh ones, because a fresh meat loses much of its weight to the oven. There is plenty of dried on both lists.

Ocean fish is the one broad term here. It names the family, not the species. For a dog that simply likes fish that is no trouble at all, and it is less helpful when you need to know exactly which fish.

The binding falls to cassava and sweet potato, with no grain in sight. Cassava is a starchy root that behaves much like tapioca in a kibble, and sweet potato brings fibre and vitamin A along with its starch. Pea fibre sits lower down for stool quality rather than as bulk.

Whole egg at 6% is an easy win, a complete protein that dogs digest well. Chicken oil at 8% is the main fat in both recipes, with salmon oil at 2% on top of it, and that pairing is where the omega 3s come from.

The joint entries are glucosamine and chondroitin, listed without doses, with green tea, yucca and seaweed alongside them. Grape seed further down can give a reader pause, since grapes themselves are firmly off the menu for dogs. The pressed seed is a different thing altogether and earns its place as an antioxidant.

The mineral panel is dosed in full and the details are the good ones. Some of the zinc is a chelate of protein hydrolysates, sitting alongside plain zinc oxide. The selenium is the organic form, generally taken up better than the mineral salt most labels reach for. Vitamin E at 560mg per kilo is a generous declaration for recipes carrying this much oil.

Fresh chicken leads at 16%, with dried turkey and dried chicken at 14% each and fresh salmon at 13%. That makes it the broader of the two on species, and the one to pick for a dog that likes some variety in the bowl. Ash runs a fraction lower here and carbohydrate a fraction higher, neither by enough to notice.

£6.18 a kilo for the fish recipe and £5.75 for the meat and fish. Both come as a trial pack, a 2kg bag and a 12kg bag.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition needs about 222 grams of the fish recipe a day, or 221 grams of the meat and fish. The sum behind it is around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). At those portions the day rate is £1.37 and £1.27. The label's own guide asks 120 to 200 grams for a dog between 10kg and 20kg. Let condition and waistline settle the difference.