Akela 80:20 Fish Feast review

This recipe comes to rest in our Excellent band, one step up from the Good band where the typical adult dry food finishes. Transparency and nutritional balance both read Outstanding, with protein and processing at Good and value reading Excellent alongside the overall band, a performance that owes more to sound construction than to any single headline.

Ingredients, as declared: Freshly Prepared Trout 18%, Freshly Prepared Salmon 17%, Sweet Potato 11%, Freshly Prepared White Fish 11%, Dehydrated Herring 10%, Dehydrated Salmon 8%, Salmon Oil 7%, Tapioca 4%, Freshly Prepared Tuna 4%, Dehydrated White Fish 4%, Pea Fibre 2%, Chickpeas, Lentils, Lucerne, Salmon Stock 1%, Minerals, Brewer's Yeast, Joint Support (Glucosamine 996 mg/kg, MSM 996 mg/kg, Chondroitin Sulphate 700 mg/kg), Pre-biotic FOS 460mg/kg, Dried Apple, Burdock Root, Dried Camomile, Dried Cranberry, Dried Dandelion, Fennel, Aniseed & Fenugreek, Dried Seaweed, Dried Marigold, Organic Dried Carrot, Organic Pumpkin Powder, Organic Spinach Powder, Dried Pear, Dried Peppermint, Organic Peas, Dried Bilberry.

The fresh entries set the tone: trout at 18%, salmon at 17%, tuna at 4% and white fish at 11%. Dehydrated herring at 10%, dehydrated salmon at 8% and dehydrated white fish at 4% quietly supply the protein that survives the oven. Together they push protein to 40.2% of dry matter, and the carbohydrate estimate lands at 26.7% of dry matter; the typical figure for adult dry food is 46.2%.

Sweet potato at 11% and tapioca at 4% form the starch backbone, with pea fibre at 2% and token chickpeas and lentils in support. There is no grain anywhere on the list.

Salmon oil is dosed at a hearty 7%, one of the larger inclusions you will see on a dry food, and in an all-fish recipe it fits without complication.

Joint support is printed at some of the stronger levels in Akela's line-up, with glucosamine and MSM at 996 mg/kg each and chondroitin sulphate at 700 mg/kg. Prebiotic FOS follows at 460 mg/kg, with a live gut-flora strain in the additives.

Everything from dried apple to bilberry sits at trace level. A long botanical tail like this is garnish, and the recipe would stand perfectly well without it, which is rather the point: the fish is doing the work.

£5.69 a kilo at our last check. Bag options run 1.5kg, 5kg, 10kg, 13kg, 15kg and 30kg.

A 15kg adult dog in moderate condition needs roughly 223 grams a day, close to £1.27, on the usual maintenance basis of 110 × bodyweight^0.75, which is about 840 kcal for that dog.