Almo Nature Holistic Adult Large: Salmon review

It reads Good on our scale, comfortably above where the average adult dry food falls. The reasons are ordinary things done properly: named fish leads the list at 26% with dried tuna right behind it, and protein sits at 28.6% of dry matter. Carbohydrate comes a shade under the 46.2% usual for the category, and the additive panel doses everything from choline to selenium in print. It is not built to out-muscle a meat-dense grain free kibble, but very little on this label is left to guesswork, and for a big adult dog that is most of what matters.

Ingredients, as declared: Fresh salmon 26%, maize, rice, brown rice flour, dried tuna 10%, dried chicken 9.5%, chicken fat, beet pulp, yeast, minerals, mannanoligosaccharides 0.1%, chicory inulin, a source of phosphorus 0.1%, yucca 0.01%, Fresh salmon [natural source of omega-3] (26%), maize, rice, wholegrain rice flour, dried tuna (10%), dried chicken (6.6%), dried beef (3.3%), chicken fat, hydrolysed animal protein, beet pulp, yeast, minerals, mannan-oligosaccharides (0.1%), chicory inulin [source of FOS] (0.1%), glucosamine (0.02%), chondroitin sulphate (0.01%).

Fresh salmon at 26% leads, and fresh means water: most of that weight leaves in the oven, so the dried entries behind it carry more of the finished kibble than their position suggests. Dried tuna at 10% and dried chicken do that job here, and the panel settles at 28.6% protein and 16.5% fat on a dry matter basis, a solid working level for a big adult dog.

Maize, rice and brown rice flour form the base, and this makes no secret of being a grain food. Carbohydrate is estimated at 44.5% of dry matter, marginally under the 46.2% that is typical for adult dry food, with beet pulp supplying the fermentable fibre and crude fibre sitting at 2.7% of dry matter.

The ingredients as published come in two versions. Both open identically. One names dried chicken at 9.5%, while the other splits the meat further into dried chicken at 6.6% and dried beef at 3.3%. That second version also adds a hydrolysed animal protein and prints glucosamine at 0.02% with chondroitin sulphate at 0.01%. Taken together that means beef and an unnamed hydrolysed protein may well be in the bag. If you are ruling animals in or out for your dog, that is the one thing to be sure of.

The gut support is small but real: mannanoligosaccharides at 0.1% with chicory inulin as the prebiotic pair, and yeast alongside them. Yucca at 0.01% is there for what it does to the smell of the stools.

The additive panel is where this label is most generous. Vitamin E is dosed at 300 mg, choline chloride at 2135 mg, niacin at 25 mg and L-carnitine at 50 mg per kilo. Zinc at 52.5 mg and copper at 4.78 mg are supplied partly as chelates and partly as sulphates, and the selenium is given in its organic form. L-carnitine has a hand in fat metabolism, a sensible inclusion in a food written for large dogs whose weight is easy to let drift.

The joint pair is honest but modest. Glucosamine at 0.02% and chondroitin sulphate at 0.01% are background helpings, well short of the doses a joint-first food prints on its front. Take them as a small bonus on top of a well-built everyday bowl.

£3.95 a kilo, sold as a 12 kg bag with a 2 × 12 kg double pack also listed.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would eat about 233 grams a day, which works out at £0.92. That assumes around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That reference dog is smaller than this label has in mind: its own chart begins at 30kg, asking 290 to 380 grams, and puts a 40kg to 50kg dog at 380 to 450 grams.