Yora Superfood Large Breed review

Our scoring lands this in the Good band, level with the typical adult dry food. Two features carry it there. The label declares its insect share in three separate parts and puts real figures against both joint supplements. That is the kind of specificity the transparency pillar rewards. The recipe is also built with a particular dog in mind, not as a general purpose kibble. Protein converts to 25.0% of dry matter and carbohydrate to 46.8%, close to the 46.2% typical of adult dry food, so the nutrition side is sound rather than showy. No moisture figure appears on the label, and the conversions above take the 8% a kibble normally carries.

Ingredients, as declared: *Insect 37.5% (Insect Meal 24.5%, Freshly Prepared Insect 8.5%, Insect Oil 4.5%), Potato (18.5%), Naked Oats (16.5%), Sweet Potato (8.5%), Beet Pulp (5%), Minerals, Vegetable Stock, Brewer's Yeast, Linseed, Potato Protein, Seaweed Meal (0.5%), Chicory Root Extract (as a source of prebiotic FOS) (0.1%), Dried Carrot, MSM (1000mg/kg), 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.

Nothing in the bag is bigger than the insect at 37.5%, and the label splits it three ways: 24.5% insect meal, 8.5% freshly prepared insect, 4.5% insect oil. The oil is the lightest touch of the three, and that shows in the finished food, with fat at 13.0% of dry matter and energy at 340 kcal per 100g. For a dog that should not be growing outwards, that is the sensible direction to move.

The binding comes from potato at 18.5% and naked oats at 16.5%, with sweet potato at 8.5% behind them. Naked oats are a hulless variety, and few cereals sit easier with a dog. They are still a cereal, so this is not the grain free member of the range.

Potato protein is the entry worth pausing on. It comes off the back of potato processing, and its job here is to lift the protein figure. Plant protein cannot match animal protein for digestibility or amino acid balance. Sitting well down the list, behind the larvae and both starches, it is doing no more than topping up.

The joint work is really the point of this recipe. MSM at 1000mg/kg and chondroitin at 500mg/kg are both printed with figures, and the larvae bring their own glucosamine, which the label credits without a number. For a dog whose later years will ask a great deal of its hips, having two of those three declared properly is worth a lot.

The tail of the list does what tails of lists do. Dried carrot, spinach at 0.05%, blueberry at 0.05%, nettle, parsley and rosemary are seasoning, and turmeric is declared at 0.005%. Yucca extract earns its keep by keeping the smell of the garden down. Seaweed meal at 0.5% and chicory root extract at 0.1% are the two small entries doing real work, one for minerals and iodine, the other as a prebiotic.

£7.75 a kilo, sold in 1.5kg and 12kg bags.

As a guide, feeding works out at about £1.91 a day for a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition, roughly 247 grams, assuming around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). This bag is written for bigger dogs than that, and Yora's own table starts at 20kg on 250 grams a day and reaches 645 grams for a 70kg dog.