Alpha Working Maintenance review

The original comes out in our Average band with the beef a band under it, while the typical adult dry food earns Good. Protein and processing and nutritional balance read Poor on both, and transparency reads Good on the original and Poor on the beef. That is the scoring's honest reading of a wheat-led recipe whose meat never names an animal, not a warning label. Fed to a robust outdoor dog with no sensitivities, either variety does the unglamorous maintenance job it was built for.

Ingredients, as declared: Whole Wheat, Whole Barley, Wheatfeed Pellets, Poultry Meal (16%), Poultry Oil, Minerals, Chicory Root Extract (as a source of Prebiotic FOS) (0.3%), Yucca Extract.

Whole wheat opens both lists, with wheatfeed pellets, the fibrous milling residue, close behind. Wheat is inexpensive and does the structural work of a kibble well. It is also the cereal most often linked with intolerance in dogs, and it has fallen out of fashion on more modern labels. For the majority of dogs it digests without incident.

The meat differs by variety but shares one habit: it never names an animal. The original uses poultry meal, a catch-all for any farmed bird, and the beef variety uses meat and bone meal, which is broader still. Dried meals are concentrated protein, so they work harder than their list position suggests, but the vagueness matters if you ever need to know exactly which animal is in the bowl.

The supporting cast is brief. Poultry oil provides the fat, chicory root extract at 0.3% brings the prebiotic FOS, and yucca extract is a traditional inclusion aimed at gentler-smelling stools. Zinc at 100 mg/kg heads a printed panel of trace minerals, all of them in oxide and sulphate forms.

Protein finishes modest in both varieties and carbohydrate does most of the carrying, a construction typical of traditional working feeds, which lean on cereal energy for dogs that burn plenty of it.

The original recipe leans on poultry meal at 16% with whole barley as its second cereal, and it carries slightly more protein than the beef variety at 22.8% of dry matter.

Both varieties are £1.93 a kilo, sold in 15kg bags.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition works out at about 254 grams and £0.49 a day on the original. The beef comes to 262 grams and £0.51 a day. Both figures use the standard maintenance estimate of 110 kcal × bodyweight^0.75. Compare that with the bag's own table, then let the dog you are feeding settle it.