Well-loved by Benson & Grace.. (James Wellbeloved Pouches Lamb with Rice)

Member Name: FourPaws

Product:	James Wellbeloved Pouches Lamb with Rice
Date:	11/11/08 (471 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: High meat content, natural, fresh, easy to feed, healthy, real meaty gravy, contains veg & rice

Disadvantages: No large pouches or multipacks available

*What are James Wellbeloved Pouches?*
These wet food pouches are part of the James Wellbeloved range of pet foods which includes specialist natural dry diets for cats, dogs and puppies aswell as food for ferrets and natural treats for cats and dogs of all ages.

*The product itself*
When it comes to choosing main meal foods for my two dogs- Benson the three year old Bernese Mountain Dog, and one year old Rottweiler Grace, only the best is really good enough. I allow them treats from the Pedigree or Bakers ranges but insist on their main meals being very high quality feeds with only natural, wholesome ingredients and minimal preservatives and additives, hence the reason I am a huge fan of the James Wellbeloved range. All their foods meet my fussy requirements and they are something the dogs enjoy massively too, so everyone's a winner.

These pouches are the newest addition to the range. They contain only named meat as the meat protein source, in this case, lamb, and easy to digest boiled rice as a provider of carbohydrates with carrots and peas for vitamins and fibre, all mixed together in a meaty gravy and packed in pre-portioned 150g foil pouches. The food is hypo-allergic which means they contain no beef, pork, soya, wheat, dairy or eggs and therefore makes it suitable for dogs with sensitive stomachs and can help soothe itchy skin and allergies, aswell as helping to calm over hyperactive dogs as they are additive free. Extra ingredients alfalfa, seaweed and linseed are added to help condition itchy, dry skin and lastly tomatoes as an antioxidant. The food is cooked in the pouch in which it is contained meaning it retains more natural vitamins and minerals than canned dog foods or other pouched foods that are put in the pouch after cooking.

The food is complete, which means if you wish you can feed this food exclusively to your dog and he will receive all the nutrition he needs to stay happy and healthy, the food can is designed for adult dogs (over 1 year old) but has no top age range limit so is suitable for senior dogs too, a puppy version is available for younger dogs. Its worth bearing in mind though that soft foods coat the teeth and lead to plaque and tartar forming, so if you feed just this food alone to your dog, then be sure to provide hard crunchy biscuits or chews for your dog regularly to help scrape the teeth clean and gums firm and healthy.

Unlike Pedigree pouches, these James Wellbeloved ones contain no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives and no meat and animal derivates (feathers, bone, skin etc) and the meat, rice and vegetables are set in a thick pale gravy, not cheap jelly. Smell wise, they are pretty nice to be honest, even I thought they smelt quite pleasant and I'm a vegetarian! They smell like the meat they are supposed to and you can see how high quality the chunks of meat are, and the separate pieces of rice and vegetables in the mix.

*Packaging*
The design of the James Wellbeloved pouches is pretty basic and rather old fashioned looking. They are made from strong, thick foil with an easy tear strip along the top and a wider base so they can stand alone easily in your cupboard if needed. The colour scheme matches that of the dry bags of food (yellow for lamb and orange for turkey) and thick red stripes run along the length of the pouch. At the top is the James Wellbeloved logo and the intended age range for the product aswell as the flavour and all the nasty additives that the food is free from. On the reverse is a feeding guide, the ingredients list and contact details for James Wellbeloved. Once empty, the pouches can be rinsed out and recycled.

*Price & Availability*
James Wellbeloved is a specialist brand and therefore not available in supermarkets, only the larger pet stores such as Pets At Homes or even some veterinary surgeries. The pouches are only available in one size only (150g) and two flavours- lamb with rice and turkey with rice. As yet, no multipacks are available and the pouches are only available singularly for 59p each. These seems quite expensive considering a 150g Pedigree pouch works out at just over 36p each if they were purchased separately, but you pay for quality.

*Ingredients & Nutritional Information*

James Wellbeloved Lamb with Rice (59p per 150g): Lamb meat (min 26%), rice (min 4%), peas (min 4%), carrots (min 4%), sunflower oil, sugar beet pulp, linseed oil, calcium carbonate, seaweed, alfalfa, potassium chloride, tomatoes.

Pedigree Lamb & Poultry (36p per 150g): meat and animal derivatives (min 4% lamb, min 4% poultry), cereals, oils and fats, derivatives of vegetable origin, vegetable protein extracts, minerals. Contains EEC permitted colourants.

The top list is the ingredients for this food, and the second is a list of ingredients for the closest match from the Pedigree range. I have put both up for a comparison. You can clearly see where the difference in price comes from and what food is the better for your dog. Whereas Pedigree contains mainly animal derivatives and no actual real meal or whole pieces of rice or vegetables and is set in a cheap jelly not a thick meat gravy. Pedigree also contains additives, artificial flavours and colours, James Wellbeloved is free from all three.

Protein 5.5%, oil 4.5%, ash 1.2%, fibre 0.5%, moisture 82%

Nutritionally, the James Wellbeloved pouches are a good, notorious food. Although the amount of protein looks small considering how much meat is in them, it's actually a nice reasonable amount- enough to be beneficial to your dogs muscles but not enough to cause hyper-activity or stomach upsets in sensitive dogs. The oil content of the food will help promote a healthy skin and conditioned skin. The fibre content however is low and could cause constipation in some dogs if this food is fed exclusively. As with all wet foods, the moisture content is shocking high, and the reason you need to feed so much more wet food than dry, as it is mostly just water.

*My opinion*
Grace and Benson are both fed on a complete dry food, either the dry food from the James Wellbeloved range, or one made by Burns but I do like to add a bit of something different to one of their two meals everyday to provide different tastes and textures and to add a bit of variety to their diet and prevent them from getting bored.

Raw beef mince, cooked chicken breast, boiled vegetables & rice, offal, canned fish, boiled pasta and canned dog food are on the 'weekly menu' and I add something different from that selection everyday of the week to their evening meal. On the canned dog food day I had previously been using any brand of canned dog food, as after all they are only getting one can between the two of them once a week so it wasn't going to do them any harm, but when I received a free sample of these James Wellbeloved pouches with their bag of dry food I was completely converted.

Upon opening the pouch I was shocked, but pleasantly surprised by the appearance of the food. Large chunks of meat were visible and you could see the small strands of rice and lots of pieces of vegetables all coated in a decent amount of gravy, and to be honest, it smelt lovely, actually like the meat it was supposed to unlike the horrible stench I was use to from the cans of food I had been previously giving them. The next meal time I used a whole pouch between the two dogs as a topping for their dry food and they absolutely devoured it. I mixed it up with their kibble so it was all coated in gravy and it went down better than anything else I had given them, and they were licking their bowls clean for ages afterwards. Granted, Grace and Benson will eat anything you put in front of them but it was clear that they had thoroughly enjoyed the James Wellbeloved pouches. Both dogs have guts of steel so I was pretty confident the food wouldn't upset their stomachs and I was right, but even if you do have a sensitive dog I'm sure even this food would be ok as the gravy isn't too rich and the meat, vegetables and rice are all easy to digest.

Another feature I liked was the style of the pouches. They were incredibly easy to open and didn't need any spoons or forks to serve, simply squeeze the food from the pouch straight into your dogs bowl and you don't even need to break it apart into smaller pieces for your dog to eat, so it really is clean, quick and easy to feed and would be confident if you were out for the day with your dog and they needed a meal whilst out.

I wouldn't even like to imagine how much it would cost to feed your dog only this food and nothing else, as the larger breeds will need up to ten pouches a day but I will definitely continue buying it to be fed alongside their dry kibble once a week, and use it also on the days I have been unable to get to the butchers to pick up offal, mince or the like for them.

*Pro's & Con's*
+ Extremely high quality natural ingredients
+ Human grade meat
+ Cooked in the pouch to retain natural goodness
+ Contains vegetables
+ Hypo-allergenic
+ Smells lovely
+ Not bulked out with cheap fillers
+ Contains real meaty gravy, not cheap jelly
+ No artificial colours, flavours or preservatives
+ Puppy version available
+ Contain no animal derivates
+ Easy to serve

- No larger 300g pouches
- Multipacks not available
- Only two flavours at present

Summary: An excellent quality feed or treat that your dog will enjoy, at the same time being good for them!