Wainwright's Large Breed Adult Dry Food: Lamb & Rice review

Good is where both of these finish, level with the typical adult dry food and comfortably clear of the Average band underneath. What earns the gap is thoroughly unglamorous.

A third of each bag is a named animal, with its dried and fresh shares written out, and the label goes on declaring right down to 0.015% chondroitin. The carbohydrate estimate lands close to the category norm, 46.1% of dry matter for the lamb and 47.3% for the turkey against 46.2%. Protein and processing and nutritional balance both read Average while transparency comes out Outstanding and value Good, which is a fair picture of a straightforward everyday food that tells you the truth about itself.

Ingredients, as declared: Lamb (33%) (Dried Lamb 28%, Freshly Prepared Lamb 5%), Rice (26%), Whole Grain Barley (17%), Rapeseed Oil, Whole Ground Oats (4.5%), Beet Pulp (4%), Dried Peas (3% equivalent to 12.5% Peas), Linseed (2%), Maize Protein, Dried Carrots (1% equivalent to 8% Carrots), Seaweed (0.2%), Glucosamine (0.05%), Yucca Extract (0.02%), Chondroitin (0.015%)

Both recipes build their 33% meat headline the same way, with 28% dried meat and 5% freshly prepared. That ratio is the right way round for a kibble. Freshly prepared meat goes in wet and comes out of the oven much lighter, so the dried share is what genuinely lands in the finished food. Protein converts to 25.3% of dry matter in the lamb. The turkey reads 26.9%.

Rice at 26% heads the plant side of both bags, and whole ground oats come in at 4.5%. Between them sits whole grain barley, 17% in the lamb bag and 19% in the turkey. Cooked barley and oats are both easy on a dog and bring fibre along with micronutrients, and whole grain barley holds more of that than the refined forms do. Barley does bring gluten with it, which is worth knowing if gluten is something you keep out.

The joint pair here is more generous than a token gesture, with glucosamine at 0.05% and chondroitin at 0.015% printed on both labels. Cartilage and bone contain both naturally, so traces turn up in any meat-based food. Adding them deliberately is the mark of a recipe written for frames this size. The evidence for how much they achieve is mixed, so treat them as sensible daily support.

Taurine at 1000mg is the entry that separates these bags from the standard adult range. Dogs usually make this amino acid for themselves. Supplementing it has been shown to help where heart problems are in play, and the large deep-chested breeds are where that question comes up most often. Seeing it declared with a figure rather than mentioned in passing is a genuine plus.

Rapeseed oil is the added fat in both, a plant oil that compares well with the other vegetable oils and keeps each recipe to a single animal. Whole linseed at 2% supplies the omega 3. A dog is slower to use the plant form than the marine kind. There is no fish on either label, so both bags are fish free.

Behind that, beet pulp at 4% is the fibre. Dried peas at 3% stand in for a larger weight of fresh peas, with dried carrots at 1% coming from roughly 8% fresh carrot. Seaweed at 0.2% brings iodine and a spread of minerals. The added panel is dosed openly: vitamin E at 150mg, zinc at 50mg, iron and manganese at 40mg each, copper at 5mg, iodine at 1mg and selenium at 0.1mg. The forms are sulphate and oxide, not chelates.

Lamb at 28% dried and 5% freshly prepared, with barley held down to 17% and maize protein brought in behind the peas to lift the protein total. Ash at 10.0% makes it the higher-mineral recipe of the two, and protein is declared at 23.0%. Its estimated carbohydrate is the lower of the pair, 42.0% as fed.

£3.33 a kilo, sold in the 15kg bag in both recipes.

As a guide, a 15kg dog in moderate condition eats 242 to 249 grams a day depending on the recipe, assuming about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That lands between £0.81 and £0.83 a day. A large breed adult eats considerably more: the lamb bag's table asks 300 to 465 grams for a dog of 25kg to 45kg, so scale to the dog you actually have.