Arden Grange Prestige review

Prestige reaches our Good band and edges ahead of the typical adult dry food inside it, with its readings coming back Good and transparency a step higher at Excellent. Much of the gap comes from how little of the recipe is left to carbohydrate once the meat and fat have taken their share. The label's few missing percentages are the main thing standing between it and a stronger showing.

Ingredients, as declared: Fresh chicken (20%), chicken meat meal (min 20%), rice, maize, refined chicken oil, beet pulp, whole dried egg, fish meal, chicken digest, whole linseed, yeast, krill, minerals, prebiotic FOS, prebiotic MOS, yucca extract, glucosamine, MSM, chondroitin, cranberries, nucleotides.

Chicken opens the list twice, 20% fresh and a declared minimum of 20% meat meal, and the meal share is the load-bearing one since it has already shed its water. Protein finishes at 30% as fed, 32.6% on a dry-matter basis.

The label leaves moisture undeclared, so our dry-matter arithmetic assumes the standard 8%. On that footing carbohydrate comes out at an estimated 33.7% of dry matter, a long way under the 46.2% typical of adult dry food, which for a cereal-based recipe is quietly impressive.

Fat at 21% and energy at 410 kcal per 100g make this a food to respect: fuel for genuine output, and a lot of calories per scoop for anything less.

Rice and maize are listed without percentages, the one transparency wrinkle here, so the exact cereal load is the recipe's untold detail.

Krill, fish meal and whole dried egg deepen the protein, with linseed and chicken oil rounding out the fats. The familiar closing run of prebiotics, joint trio, cranberries and nucleotides appears without printed doses.

Available in 2kg and 12kg bags, with 4 x 2kg and 2 x 12kg multipacks.

A 15kg adult dog in moderate condition needs only about 205 grams a day, assuming around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). The label's own range for 10kg to 15kg dogs is 130 to 175 grams. Dense food means small servings, so measure rather than pour.