Barking Heads All Hounder Grain Free: Hair Necessities review

All three recipes land in our Good band, level with where the typical adult dry food finishes. Transparency reads Outstanding on the duck and the salmon and Excellent on the white fish. Value reads Good across all three, protein and processing holds Good on two of them, and nutritional balance reads Average throughout. The range earns that with disclosure: half of each recipe is declared animal content with its splits printed, and even the herbs carry a dose. Pick the variety by the dog in front of you, since the animal on the label matters far more here than the distance between the three on our scoring.

Ingredients, as declared: Salmon 50% (26% Freshly Prepared Scottish Salmon, 20% Dried Salmon, 4% Salmon Oil), Sweet Potato (26%), Potato, Peas (10%), Lucerne, Minerals, Yeast Products (1000mg/kg), Chicory Root Extract (FOS 1000mg/kg), Seaweed, Dried Carrot (500mg/kg), Mixed Herbs (Peppermint, Rosemary, Oregano & Thyme 500mg/kg), Beta Glucans.

Each variety declares 50% animal content and prints the split between freshly prepared, dried and the rest, so you can check the headline for yourself. Dried meat matters most in a kibble because its weight survives cooking, and it stands at 19% in the duck, 20% in the salmon and 15% in the white fish.

Sweet potato leads the plant side at 24% to 26% depending on variety. Potato and peas sit behind it, and grain stays out of the range entirely. Lucerne adds a little plant protein and fibre.

The duck recipe is notable for what it leaves out: no fish at all, with linseed supplying plant omega 3 and even the fat named as duck. Every animal ingredient on its list belongs to one species, which is exactly what an owner chasing a novel protein or steering around fish wants to see.

The salmon and white fish recipes lean the other way, using salmon oil at 4% as a rich marine omega 3 source. The white fish variety adds salmon gravy at 2% on top, so it spans two fish rather than one.

Every entry in the shared tail carries a dose. Yeast products and chicory root extract come in at 1000mg/kg apiece as prebiotics, with seaweed, dried carrot at 500mg/kg, mixed herbs at 500mg/kg and beta glucans behind them. Zinc arrives both as a sulphate and as a more absorbable glycine chelate.

Hair Necessities is all salmon: 26% freshly prepared Scottish salmon, 20% dried and 4% salmon oil, with biotin added among the vitamins. Skin and coat are the point, and the marine omega 3 load is the means.

All three varieties sell in 2kg and 12kg bags. When we checked, the duck and the salmon were £5.34 a kilo and the white fish £3.96.

Day to day, a 15kg adult in moderate condition comes out near £1.17 on the duck, £1.22 on the salmon and £0.95 on the white fish. That works from a maintenance estimate of about 840 kcal a day, using 110 × bodyweight^0.75.