Yarrah Adult Vegetarian review

The Average band is where our scoring leaves this one, a step under the Good band the typical adult dry food holds. Two things put it there. The protein comes entirely from plants, and our ingredient reading cannot credit that the way it credits meat. The cereal share is large enough to put wheat and corn in second and third on the list. Neither is a fault in a food that sets out to be vegetarian. It only means the score is measuring this recipe against meat-based kibble, which was never the brief it was written to.

Ingredients, as declared: Soy beans*, wheat*, corn*, wheat bran*, sunflower seed husks*, lupine*, rice protein*, coconut, fat*, minerals, brewer's yeast, baobab*. * = organic

Soy beans carry the protein, backed by lupine and rice protein further down, and the analysis lands at 26.1% of dry matter. For amino acid balance, meat is ahead of plant proteins. That is why a recipe like this mixes several sources, and why the additive panel matters more here than it would on a meaty food.

Wheat and corn sit second and third with wheat bran behind them, and between them they form most of the biscuit. Wheat is the entry worth flagging. No cereal is behind more dietary intolerance in dogs, so it helps to know whether wheat has caused trouble before. For a dog with no history there it is doing an honest job as structure and energy.

Sunflower seed husks lift crude fibre to 7.3% of dry matter, and fat settles at 14.3% with energy at 342 kcal per 100g, both a shade under what a rich kibble offers. Brewer's yeast brings B vitamins and a little extra protein, and baobab closes the list as a fruit used for fibre and antioxidants.

Vitamin B12 appears on the additive panel, and on a food with no animal ingredient that entry is essential rather than optional, because B12 is not something plants supply. Taurine is added for the same reason.

One entry deserves a second look. The fat is listed as organic, but the punctuation on the ingredient list leaves it hanging between coconut and a fat of its own. The source is not pinned down the way the rest of the label is. The recipe is sold as vegetarian, and no other entry on the list has an animal origin. Treat this as a note for anyone running a formal elimination trial.

The wider frustration is the panel itself. Yarrah prints every vitamin and trace element as a bare number with no unit beside it, so you can confirm what has been added and not how much. The ingredient list is otherwise refreshingly specific, right down to the organic marks.

£7.14 a kilo, sold in 2kg, 7kg and 10kg bags.

For a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition, roughly 246 grams a day comes to about £1.75, assuming about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). Yarrah's own table asks between 475 and 625 grams a day for a 40kg dog depending on activity, so read the waistline before the table.