Yora Grain Free review

Our scoring gives this the Good band, in step with the typical adult dry food. Two things earn the step. The animal share is declared plainly at 41.5% and broken into its three parts in print, and the label states what it is doing at almost every turn, which is why transparency reads Outstanding. Against that, protein converts to 23.9% of dry matter and carbohydrate to 47.0%, both close to the 46.2% the typical adult dry food manages. This recipe wins on clarity and construction. Moisture is not declared on the label, so those dry matter figures assume the 8% a kibble of this kind normally holds.

Ingredients, as declared: *Insect 41.5% (Insect Meal 28%, Freshly Prepared Insect 8%, Insect Oil 5.5%), Sweet Potato (23%), Potato (20%), Beet Pulp (5%), Vegetable Stock, Linseed, Minerals, Seaweed Meal (0.5%), Chicory Root Extract (as a source of prebiotic FOS) (0.1%), Dried Carrot, Chondroitin (500mg/Kg), Dried Spinach (0.05%), Dried Blueberry (0.05%), Dried Nettle, Dried Parsley, Dried Rosemary, Yucca Extract, Turmeric (0.005%). *Hermetia illucens larvae Source of Glucosamine.

The headline is insect at 41.5%, unpacked properly: 28% meal, 5.5% insect oil and 8% freshly prepared insect. Most of the weight that counts is in the meal, which is dry before it goes in, so its share survives the oven in a way fresh material never does. Black soldier fly larvae are a genuinely complete protein for a dog, and they arrive with glucosamine of their own, which the label credits without putting a number on it.

Sweet potato at 23% leads the starch, with potato at 20% behind it, and no grain appears on the list. Beet pulp at 5% is the fibre, a gentle fermentable one that most dogs handle well. Chicory root extract at 0.1% is in for its prebiotic FOS, food for the useful bacteria deeper in the gut.

Linseed is the omega source here rather than fish oil, which keeps the whole recipe free of marine ingredients and is a large part of why it works as a one animal diet. The omega 3 from linseed arrives in plant form, and a dog is slower to use that than the fish version. Give the coat a few weeks, not a few days, to answer.

Chondroitin is declared at 500mg/kg, a real figure rather than a nod in the direction of joints, and it pairs with what the larvae bring in themselves. Seaweed meal at 0.5% carries iodine and other minerals, while turmeric, nettle, parsley, rosemary and yucca make up the seasoning at the end. Spinach and blueberry each come in at 0.05%, which is honest labelling of a very small amount.

Zinc is worth a note because it is dosed twice, once as an oxide and again as an amino acid chelate. Of the two, the chelated form is the one a dog's gut takes up best. Skin and coat lean on zinc harder than on any other trace mineral, so splitting it like that is a small sign of care.

£8.33 a kilo, sold in 1.5kg and 12kg bags.

As a guide, feeding a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition runs to about £1.95 a day, or roughly 235 grams, assuming around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). Yora's own table puts a 10kg dog on 150 grams and a 20kg dog on 250 grams, so a 15kg dog sits neatly between the two.