Ava Breed Health Chihuahua Dry review

This one earns our Good band, and the adult dry market comes to rest in the same place. The transparency pillar reads Outstanding on the strength of a fully itemised label, the other three sit at Good, and a below-typical carbohydrate share does the quiet lifting that separates it from the pack.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken 43.7% (Chicken Meal (24.2%), Chicken (17.0%)), Brown Rice (17.0%), Maize (13.8%), Beet Pulp (6.8%), Flaked Oats (4.2%), Chicken Fat (3.4%), Barley (3.4%), Chicken Gravy (2.5%), Brewers Yeast, Salmon Oil, Egg, Minerals, Chicory Root Extract (a source of Prebiotic Fructooligosaccharides (0.2%)), Potassium Chloride, Yeasts (as a source of Beta-glucans and Prebiotic Mannanoligosaccharide) (0.14%), Yucca Extract (0.025%), Cranberry Extract (0.018%), Pomegranate Extract (0.009%), Green Tea Extract (0.009%)

Chicken supplies 43.7% of the recipe: chicken meal at 24.2% first, then fresh chicken at 17.0%, with chicken gravy at 2.5% closing the trio. Meal is concentrated by nature, its water already removed, so leading with it is substance rather than window dressing. Protein converts to a solid 31.0% of dry matter.

The carbohydrate is spread across four grains rather than resting on one: brown rice at 17.0%, maize at 13.8%, flaked oats at 4.2% and barley at 3.4%. Cooked grains digest well in most small dogs, and the estimated carbohydrate share of 38.5% of dry matter sits well below the 46.2% typical of adult dry food. Beet pulp at 6.8% brings the fibre.

Egg, brewers yeast and salmon oil play small supporting roles, and digestion gets the range's usual prebiotic pairing of fructooligosaccharides at 0.2% and mannanoligosaccharides at 0.14%. Yucca extract at 0.025% is an old kibble-maker's inclusion aimed at stool odour, no bad thing in a dog that shares your sofa.

Added minerals come as chelates with their doses printed, zinc at 100 mg and iron at 60 mg leading the panel. The tail of the list holds cranberry, pomegranate and green tea extracts. They are seasoning, and nothing here depends on them.

£7.19 per kilo from the 1.5kg bag.

The label asks only 25 to 45 grams a day for a 1kg to 2kg dog, so a bag goes a long way at Chihuahua size. Scaled to our standard reference of a 15kg adult in moderate condition, around 840 kcal daily (110 × bodyweight^0.75), the food would cost £1.72 a day on 239 grams.