WorkingHPRs Grain Free Adult: Salmon, Trout, Sweet Potato & Asparagus review

One of the five reaches our Excellent band, the salmon with haddock, while the other four settle a step down into our Good band. Either way the whole line finishes at or above the Good band that the middle of the dry adult category occupies. What separates one from another is mostly how much of the declared meat arrives dried and not fresh, since dried meat survives the oven with its protein intact. Choose the animal that suits your dog first and treat our ordering as the tie-breaker.

Ingredients, as declared: Salmon & Trout 50% (including Freshly Prepared Salmon & Trout 36%, Dried Salmon 12% & Salmon Stock 2%), Sweet Potato (24%), Peas (9%), Potato, Beet Pulp, Linseed, Omega 3 Supplement, Minerals, Asparagus (0.3%), Fructooligosaccharides (FOS, 96 mg/kg), Mannanoligosaccharides (MOS, 24 mg/kg)

Every label declares its meat in parts, and that honesty is the most useful thing on the bag. The duck runs 28% fresh, 20% dried and 2% stock. The lamb is 30% fresh, 18% dried and 2% stock. Before the oven, most of what is in fresh meat is water, so the dried figure is the one that tells you what reaches the bowl. These dried figures are substantial.

The two fish recipes go about it differently. Salmon, Trout, Sweet Potato & Asparagus declares 36% freshly prepared salmon and trout with 12% dried salmon and 2% salmon stock. The puppy recipe reaches 60% fish, taking in 21% freshly prepared salmon, 16% dried salmon, 11% haddock, 10% white fish and 2% salmon stock. That last one carries the largest animal declaration in the range and the highest protein with it, at 30.4% of dry matter.

Venison, Sweet Potato & Mulberry is the label that most repays a careful read. The 50% headline covers venison and salmon at once: 26% freshly prepared venison, 2.5% salmon oil, 2.5% salmon stock and 19% dried salmon. That is a well built recipe, and the salmon oil is a real source of marine omega 3s. It is not a single-animal venison food, though, and there is fish here for any dog you are keeping away from it.

Sweet potato leads the plant side everywhere, from 20% in the puppy recipe up to 27% in the venison. Peas and potato follow it, and beet pulp brings the fibre. Where a label declares enough to work it out, estimated carbohydrate runs from 42.0% of dry matter in the puppy recipe to 48.2% in the salmon with trout, against 46.2% typical for adult dry food.

The small print is consistent and, unusually, dosed. Both FOS, at 92 to 96 mg/kg, and MOS, at 23 to 24 mg/kg, are prebiotic fibres. Their job is feeding the useful bacteria of the large intestine. Linseed adds plant omega 3s across the line. The fruit and herb flourishes are decoration: orange at 7.5g per kg, mint at 0.2%, asparagus at 0.3% and mulberry at 0.2%. These recipes stand up on their meat without them.

The puppy recipe is the one with growth and joint extras printed on it: nucleotides on the list, glucosamine and methylsulfonylmethane at 170 mg/kg each and chondroitin sulphate at 125 mg/kg. Numbers next to joint ingredients are still rarer than they should be, and having them lets you see what a growing frame is actually getting.

The single entry that stays vague on every label is the Omega 3 Supplement, which is never pinned to a source. Most dogs will never care, and the linseed sitting next to it covers the plant side regardless. On an exclusion diet, though, that is the line to raise with the maker at the start.

Salmon and trout at 50%, declared as 36% freshly prepared salmon and trout with 12% dried salmon and 2% salmon stock, which makes it the fresher of the two fish recipes. Asparagus at 0.3% gives it its name. Estimated carbohydrate is the highest in the range at 48.2% of dry matter and calcium the second lowest at 1.52%.

Per kilo, the salmon with trout is £3.88, the puppy recipe £4.27, the duck £4.32, the lamb £4.38 and the venison £4.67. Every recipe comes in a 15kg bag, with 13.5kg also listed for the lamb and the salmon with trout.

A 15kg adult dog in moderate condition needs about 840 kcal a day on the standard 110 × bodyweight^0.75 estimate. That comes to somewhere between 231g and 237g a day depending on the recipe, or £0.91 to £1.08. That comparison leaves out the puppy recipe, because growth has a chart of its own.