Bakers Edward Baker Adult review

This recipe closes in our Average band, with the typical adult dry food one band above in Good, and it is a nearer thing than the word suggests. Turkey meal at 26% gives the food a genuine named protein anchor, and transparency reads Good. Behind it sit wheat, soya and unnamed animal fats, with carbohydrate at 46.1% of dry matter sitting level with the category typical of 46.2%, so protein and processing and nutritional balance both read Average. Plenty of dogs do perfectly well on food built like this; the assessment simply records how much of the recipe was chosen for function rather than finesse.

Ingredients, as declared: Turkey Meal (26%), Wheat*, Corn*, Animal Fats, Soya Meal, Wheat Middlings*, Digest, Dried Beet Pulp, Dried Chicory Root*1 (0.5%), Minerals, Dried Carrot* (0.07%), Dried Spinach* (0.07%), Dried Parsley* (0.07%), *Natural Ingredients, 1Natural Prebiotic

Turkey meal at 26% is the best thing on this label. Meal arrives already dried, so its share is real protein and not mostly water, and turkey is a lean meat that digests easily. Protein reaches 28.6% of dry matter, a genuinely respectable figure for a food in this style.

Wheat and corn follow, with wheat appearing again as wheat middlings, the fragments left behind by flour milling. These are workhorse cereals, fine for the many dogs that tolerate them and a known risk for the minority that do not. Wheat is the grain most often implicated when intolerance develops.

Soya meal lifts the protein column from the plant side. Digest, a processed animal flavouring applied to the kibble, does exactly what its name promises: it makes the food taste of more than the list suggests. Neither entry names its source, so a reactive dog's problem could not be traced through this label.

The finish has some genuine touches. Dried chicory root at 0.5% is a real prebiotic at a workable inclusion, while dried carrot, spinach and parsley at 0.07% apiece are there for the label rather than the dog. The added minerals are conventional sulphates with selenium as selenite, and not the chelated forms more careful recipes use.

Available in 2kg and 12kg bags.

Working from the estimated energy content, a 15kg adult in moderate condition needs about 241 grams a day against the standard maintenance figure of 840 kcal (110 × bodyweight^0.75). The printed table puts a 10kg to 25kg dog between 175 and 325 grams, close enough agreement to trust either as a starting point.