Arden Grange VetCare Weight Control Dry review

Ingredients, as declared: Turkey 38% (fresh turkey 26%, turkey meat meal 12%), sweet potato 35%, chickpeas 8%, pumpkin, pea fibre 5%, lucerne, turkey gravy 2%, algae (high DHA*), psyllium husk, minerals, mannan-oligosaccharides (prebiotic MOS) 0.2%, fructo-oligosaccharides (prebiotic FOS) 0.2%, glucosamine 0.2%, methylsulfonylmethane (MSM) 0.2%, chondroitin sulphate 0.1%, sunchoke, dried blackberries 0.02%, dried raspberries 0.02%, dried blueberries, dried blackcurrants, dried elderberries, dried chokeberries, yucca extract. Carbohydrate sources: sweet potato, chickpeas.

Turkey is 38% of the recipe, printed on the label as 26% fresh turkey and 12% turkey meat meal. Sweet potato at 35% and chickpeas at 8% carry the bulk behind it. Pea fibre is declared at 5% and psyllium husk follows further down, so two separate fibre sources are working towards the 7% crude fibre on the analysis.

No added oil or fat appears anywhere on the ingredient list. That is why fat comes in at 8% as fed and 8.7% of dry matter, with whatever fat is in the food arriving with the turkey itself. Energy is declared at 316 kcal per 100g. Those are the levers a reducing diet pulls, and they are the design of the recipe rather than anything left out of it.

Protein holds at 22% as fed, converting to 23.9% of dry matter, with fibre at 7.6% and the carbohydrate estimate at 51.1% of dry matter. The fibre figure is the one to bear in mind if your dog has not been on a bulking diet before, since more of what goes in comes back out the other end. The label puts a 15kg dog on roughly 266 grams a day.

The additive panel is doing some of the work too: L-carnitine at 1000mg, taurine at 1500mg, DL-methionine at 3000mg and L-tryptophan at 100mg. Turkey is the only meat on the label and the meal is named as turkey as well, so an owner avoiding other species has an unambiguous list to work from.

Yucca extract closes the ingredients, a plant extract makers normally include with stool odour in mind, and the prebiotic pair is printed at 0.2% each. Glucosamine at 0.2%, MSM at 0.2% and chondroitin sulphate at 0.1% add a joint element, a common pairing on foods aimed at heavier dogs. How far your dog needs to come down, and how quickly, is your vet's brief rather than ours.

The bags run to 2kg and 14kg, sold singly and in 4 x 2 kg and 2 x 14 kg multipacks.