Ziwi Peak Steam & Dried: Cage-Free Chicken with Orchard Fruits review

All three recipes finish together in our Excellent band, a clear step above the Good band where the middle of the adult dry shelf settles. The reasons are not subtle. Animal content is declared at 80% and above, and carbohydrate converts to between 14.2% and 16.4% of dry matter against the 46.2% typical for adult dry food. Moisture is printed on the label too, so the dry matter figures here rest on the maker's own numbers. Since the three land level, let the animal decide it.

Ingredients, as declared: 80% Chicken and Chicken Organs (including Chicken, Liver, Necks, Bone, Cartilage, Heart), 4% Fruits (Apple, Pear, Kiwifruit, Blueberries, Persimmons), 3% Dried Egg White, Dried Green Peas, Dried Green Lentils, Dried Quinoa, 2% Chicken Fat, Fish Oil, Minerals, Dried Chicory Root, Dried Kelp

The animal headline holds up under reading. Beef and lamb are declared at 83%, chicken at 80%, and in each case the label itemises what went in, with no sheltering behind a phrase like animal derivatives. Liver and heart are named on all three, with lung, tripe, spleen and plasma spelled out as well in the beef and the lamb. Organs are where most of an animal's nutrition sits, liver above all, and a dog fed this way eats closer to what it would choose given the run of a carcass.

Bone and cartilage appear on every list too, and that is where the mineral figure comes from, declared at 9.0% ash and converting to 9.9% of dry matter. For a food built on whole animals and not muscle meat alone, that reads exactly as it should.

The analysis backs the label rather than flattering it. Protein converts to 41.8% of dry matter in the beef and the chicken and 39.6% in the lamb. Carbohydrate lands between 14.2% and 16.4% against a typical 46.2% for adult dry food. Energy is 430 to 440 kcal per 100g against a typical 357, so a serving of this looks small next to a scoop of ordinary kibble. Moisture is declared at 9.0%, so none of those dry matter conversions rest on an assumption.

What plant matter there is has been picked with some care. Dried green peas and green lentils sit well down the lists, so they are not propping up the protein figure. That is the difference between a legume used for nutrition and one used to fill space. Quinoa is a pseudo-grain, a seed from a plant in the spinach family and not the grass family. It keeps these recipes clear of true cereal while bringing protein and fibre of its own. Chicory root adds a prebiotic and dried kelp adds trace minerals, iodine chief among them.

Fish oil appears in every recipe as the omega 3 source, and it is a strong choice, handing over the marine forms of those oils ready made with no conversion asked of the dog. It does mean no recipe here is fish free. Anyone working through an elimination diet with a fish-reactive dog will want to know that.

The added trace minerals come as chelates: zinc at 65 mg in the beef and lamb and 55 mg in the chicken, iron at 35 mg and manganese at 4.3 mg. Chelated forms are absorbed more readily than the plain oxides. One honest wrinkle sits here. Those chelates are bound to protein hydrolysates, and the label does not say what animal they came from. Even the beef and the lamb cannot be treated as strictly one animal from top to bottom. Vitamin D3 is the only vitamin declared as an addition, the organ meat being expected to cover the rest.

Fibre is the one figure that reads low, declared at 1.0% and converting to 1.1% of dry matter. Most dogs manage perfectly well on that, and stools tend to be small on a diet this digestible, which many owners take as a selling point in itself.

Chicken and chicken organs at 80%, the smallest animal share of the three and the only recipe to name necks. No other recipe adds protein from outside the headline animal, and here it comes as 3% dried egg white. A 4% orchard fruit blend of apple, pear, kiwifruit, blueberries and persimmons takes the place of the vegetables. Fat is a little lower at 28.0% and energy at 430 kcal per 100g. The additive panel differs too, with copper at 6.7 mg where the others carry 3.5 mg, vitamin D3 at 671 IU rather than 880 IU, and no selenium entry at all.

£28.12 a kilo, sold in 800g, 1.5kg and 3.2kg bags.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition eats about 191 grams a day on the beef or the lamb and 195 grams on the chicken. That is worked from 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That comes to £5.37 a day on the beef and lamb and £5.49 on the chicken. Ziwi Peak's own table is more cautious, asking 147 grams for a 15kg dog on the beef and lamb and 151 grams on the chicken. Begin where the label suggests and let the waistline take it from there.