Forthglade vs Lily's Kitchen Dry Food: Which Natural Brand Fits Your Dog?
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Forthglade and Lily's Kitchen both sell grain-free dry food with a natural, small-brand image, and both are B Corp certified according to their listings. Pick up the two bags in question and the differences show quickly: one is lightly baked, the other is a kibble with a long ingredients list; one starts at a year old, the other at four months; and they come in different pack sizes. Here the Forthglade Lightly Baked Adult Dry in chicken meets the Lily's Kitchen Adult Chicken & Duck Grain-Free.
At a glance
| Forthglade Lightly Baked (Chicken) | Lily's Kitchen Chicken & Duck | |
|---|---|---|
| Pack on the listing | 6kg | 2.5kg |
| Format | Lightly baked pellet | Dry kibble |
| Age on listing | Adult, 1 year and over | Adult, from 4 months |
| Meat content | Chicken 50% (25% dried, 25% fresh) | Chicken & duck 42%: fresh chicken 31%, duck 8%, chicken liver 3% |
| Main carbohydrate | Sweet potato 26%, peas | Sweet potato 29%, peas 6.5%, lentils |
| Listed extras | Chicory root, yeast, dandelion, marigold, yucca | Prebiotics, joint care mix, salmon oil, carrot, apple, cranberry, spinach, botanicals |
| Protein / fat (listing) | 33% / 11% | Not given |
| Amazon rating | 4.6 from 244 ratings | 4.6 from 3,508 ratings |
Process and protein
Forthglade describes its food as lightly baked "to seal in the goodness", with chicken making up half of the recipe, split evenly between dried and fresh. It calls this "single-source" protein and it holds up on the ingredients list: chicken, chicken gravy and chicken fat are all chicken, with no other named meat. The listing also says there are no animal derivatives or cheap fillers.
Lily's Kitchen says it uses freshly prepared meat and offal with no meat meal. Its recipe has two meats, chicken and duck, plus chicken liver, and also includes egg, pea protein, potato protein and salmon oil, so the protein picture is broader than the front of the bag suggests. The listing does not describe how the kibble is made, only what goes in it.
Neither listing shows ingredient percentages beyond the top items and the additives. Forthglade gives protein and fat; Lily's does not on the listing.
The extras
Lily's Kitchen puts more into the recipe: a joint care mix (glucosamine 175mg per kg, MSM 175mg per kg and chondroitin sulphate 125mg per kg), prebiotics (mannan oligosaccharides 1.3g per kg, fructooligosaccharides 0.8g per kg) and a botanical blend with seaweed, milk thistle, nettles and rosehips among others. The listing says these help support digestion and joints, which is the maker's claim and not a proven result.
Forthglade's extras are lighter: chicory root extract at 0.5%, dried brewer's yeast, dandelion leaf and marigold, and yucca at 0.02%. The listing says the added vitamins, minerals and botanicals are there to help support a healthy digestive system. Either way, these are supporting players. The bulk of both foods is meat, sweet potato and peas.
Life stage and pack size
Lily's Kitchen lists the food as suitable for dogs from four months, which gives it more flexibility if you have an older puppy, although most vets would still point a dog under a year old towards a puppy recipe, so ask before using an adult food that early. Forthglade is for dogs from one year. Forthglade also suggests introducing it gradually over two weeks, starting 50/50 with the current food, which is a sensible rule for any switch; how to switch your dog's food sets out a schedule.
The pack sizes make a direct comparison hard. Forthglade's bag is 6kg and Lily's is 2.5kg on this listing. To compare cost properly, divide each pack price by the days it lasts at the feeding amount on the pack, and check the current price on Amazon.
Where each falls short
Lily's Kitchen's listing carries a footnote that the food is made in a factory that handles grains, so traces may be present. That matters for a dog that needs strict avoidance. The bag on this listing is small, so a large dog will go through it quickly. And with salmon oil, egg and two meats, it is less of a clean slate for a dog with a suspected food problem.
Forthglade's drawbacks: chicken throughout, so it is no help for a dog that reacts to chicken, and no appeal for a dog that needs a puppy or senior recipe. The listing calls it "hypoallergenic", but that word has no fixed meaning on a dog food label, so do not read it as a guarantee.
Both contain peas, and one or the other will appeal differently depending on what you think of grain-free diets. If that is a question for you, grain-free versus grain-inclusive is a balanced look, and your vet can advise on your own dog. This is general information, not veterinary advice.
Choose A or B
Choose Forthglade Lightly Baked if your dog is an adult and does well on chicken, you want a short, single-meat recipe with the protein and fat figures on the page, and you prefer the larger bag.
Choose Lily's Kitchen Chicken & Duck if you like the idea of added joint and prebiotic ingredients, you want a broader list of vegetables and botanicals and your dog is comfortable with several proteins. See our full Lily's Kitchen review or the wider best natural dry dog food roundup for more.
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