Carnilove is grain-free, potato-free dog food in dry kibble, tins and pouches. What sets it apart is the protein list: duck, venison, wild boar, reindeer, buffalo, quail, pheasant, carp and trout, rather than the chicken and beef most brands build on. 34% crude protein and 70% animal ingredient from Active Duck & Pheasant
The dry range leaves chicken out entirely
Chicken is one of the most common things dogs react to, and it hides in a lot of foods as chicken fat even when the flavour on the front says something else. Every Carnilove dry recipe leaves out chicken meat and chicken fat completely.
If your dog has itchy skin, recurring ear trouble or loose stools and you've been trying to work out the cause, that makes this an easier brand to test than most. You can take chicken out of the diet without moving to a prescription food.
Active or True Fresh
Active is the mainstream range and the better-reviewed one. Duck & Pheasant is the most reviewed dog food in the collection by a wide margin. There are puppy, junior and large breed versions, so you can stay in the range as a dog grows.
True Fresh puts fresh meat first, in single-flavour recipes like beef, turkey, duck and fish, plus small breed and large breed versions.
Wet, dry, or both
Carnilove is one of the few brands here where you can feed the same approach wet and dry. Tins come in 400g, pouches in 300g, and there's a multipack if you want to find out what your dog prefers before committing to a case.
Worth noting that most of the wet recipes are turkey-based. If turkey is the protein you're trying to avoid, the dry range gives you far more room.
Being straight about the herbs
The pouches are named for rose petals, rosehips, strawberry leaves and timothy grass, and the dry food lists berries and herbs. Look at the inclusion rates on the ingredients panel: most sit at a fraction of one per cent. They aren't doing much.
Buy Carnilove for the meat content and the protein choices. Those are the parts that will make a difference to your dog.
Who Carnilove isn't for
Dogs on a proper veterinary elimination diet. Chicken free is not the same as single protein: most recipes combine two or three animal proteins. If your vet is trying to isolate one, you need a prescription diet.
It's also not the cheapest way to feed a big dog. Ramsay Originals does grain-free at a lower price if novel proteins aren't what you're after, and Ferguson goes higher on meat content if they are.