Amazon Premium Dry: Medium Adult Chicken review

All five varieties finish in our Good band, which is also where the typical adult dry food lands. The spread between the members comes from naming and not from nutrition. Protein and processing reads Average right across the range, while transparency climbs from Good on the mini, medium and large recipes to Excellent on the senior and Outstanding on the sensitive. Nutritional balance reads Good on the large, mini and senior recipes and Average on the other two, while value reads Good right across the five.

Ingredients, as declared: Dehydrated Poultry Protein, Maize, Wheat, Rice, Poultry Fat, Hydrolysed Pork and Poultry Proteins, Fresh Chicken (4%), Dried Chicory Pulp, Dried Brewer's Yeasts, Algae Oil (Source of EPA and DHA), Fructo-oligosaccharides (0.05%), Minerals, Yeast Cell Walls (Source of Mannan-oligosaccharides and β-glucans) (0.05%), Lactobacillus Helveticus HA-122 inactivated (0.005%).

Dried and hydrolysed proteins do the heavy lifting across the range, while fresh chicken stays at 4% in every recipe, more of a garnish than a foundation. Concentrated proteins are efficient, which is why the protein readings hold up respectably throughout, but poultry is a category rather than a bird, and that vagueness follows every member of the range.

The starch varies by recipe. Wheat, maize and rice carry the adult chicken varieties, the senior adds barley, peas, vegetable fibre and psyllium for an older digestion, and the sensitive switches to rice, brown rice and pea starch.

Algae oil is the range's best idea, supplying the marine omega 3s EPA and DHA directly without involving fish oil. FOS at 0.05% and yeast cell walls carrying MOS add prebiotic fibre in every recipe, chicory pulp joins in the chicken varieties, and each member includes an Enterococcus faecium probiotic alongside an inactivated Lactobacillus culture.

The mineral panel mixes standard salts with chelated forms of iron, zinc, manganese and copper, the chelates being the versions a dog's gut absorbs most readily, and everything is dosed in print. Individual varieties add their own touches, from glucosamine in the large and senior recipes to L-carnitine where waistlines are the concern.

The middle recipe in every sense, with rice promoted up the list and a slightly leaner analysis than the large at 15.6% fat on a dry matter basis. Its guide covers dogs from 10kg to 25kg.

The Large Adult works out at £1.37 a kilo and the Medium and Mini at £2.56, each sold as a 3kg bag; the senior and sensitive varieties come in 3kg bags too.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition needs between 214 and 235 grams a day depending on the variety, based on the standard maintenance estimate of 110 kcal × bodyweight^0.75. That spans roughly £0.29 to £0.57 a day on the priced recipes.