Arden Grange Performance review

Performance finishes level with the typical adult dry food, both in our Good band. The scoring sees a conventional cereal-and-meal construction and marks it accordingly, but a band cannot see purpose. As a dense, dosed, hard-work ration this does exactly what its name promises, and active-dog owners should read it in that light.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken (chicken meat meal 26%, fresh chicken 5%), rice (26%), maize, refined chicken oil, beet pulp, chicken digest, whole dried egg, yeast, krill, fish meal, whole linseed, minerals, prebiotic FOS, prebiotic MOS, glucosamine (370mg/kg), MSM (370mg/kg), chondroitin (260mg/kg), yucca extract, cranberries, green tea extract (100mg/kg), quercetin (100mg/kg), nucleotides.

Chicken meat meal at 26% does the protein work, with fresh chicken at 5% mostly for appeal, and whole dried egg and fish meal deepening the amino acid pool. Protein converts to 27.2% of dry matter.

The energy is the headline: fat at 18% as fed, 19.6% of dry matter, and 401 kcal per 100g against the 357 kcal typical for adult dry food. That is the difference between a bowl that keeps a dog ticking over and one that funds a working day.

Rice at 26% and maize carry the starch, though the fat pushes carbohydrate down to an estimated 43.5% of dry matter, under the typical 46.2%.

Two additions are aimed squarely at hard exercise: green tea extract and quercetin, each at 100mg/kg, both antioxidants, backed by vitamin E set at 750 IU. Krill and whole linseed look after the omega fats.

The joint trio is dosed rather than sprinkled, glucosamine and MSM at 370mg/kg with chondroitin at 260mg/kg. Beet pulp plus prebiotic FOS and MOS mind the digestion, which matters in a dog fed this richly.

Sold in a single 12kg bag size, alone or as a 2 x 12kg twin pack.

As a guide, feeding comes to about 209 grams a day for a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition, assuming around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). The label itself asks 135 to 180 grams for dogs of 10kg to 15kg at ordinary activity; a genuinely hard-working dog will need more, so let condition and workload set the scoop.