Brit Care Dog Hair & Skin. Insect&Fish review

The Good band is where our scoring places this food, level with the typical adult dry recipe. It gets there on openness and not on meat density. The omegas, vitamins and trace minerals are all declared with doses, while estimated carbohydrate converts to 46.2% of dry matter, exactly the typical figure for an adult kibble.

Ingredients, as declared: insects dehydrated (14%), white fish dehydrated (14%), yellow peas (14%), green peas (14%), dried apple pulp, pea protein, coconut oil (8%), white fish protein hydrolyzed (4%), brewer´s yeast, salmon oil (2%), linseed (2%), eggs shells, glucosamine (0.02%), chondroitin sulphate (0.015%), fructo-oligosaccharides (0.012%), mannan-oligosaccharides (0.012%), Mojave yucca (0.01%), inulin (0.009%), dried milk thistle (0.005%), dried rosemary (0.005%), dried cloves (0.005%), dried citrus (0.005%), dried curcuma (0.005%), Lactobacillus acidophilus HA - 122 inactivated (15x10 9 cells/kg).

Dehydrated insects and dehydrated white fish share the lead at 14% apiece, and both go in with the water already removed, so those figures survive the oven intact. Insect protein is the more interesting half: it is digestible, lightly farmed, and so new to most dogs that a pre-existing intolerance is vanishingly unlikely. That puts protein at 27.8% of dry matter.

The plant half of the bowl belongs to peas. Yellow and green peas at 14% each bring fibre and their own protein, with refined pea protein further down topping the figure up. That layering is worth understanding, because some of the declared protein comes from plants, a common trade in fish and insect recipes.

Hydrolysed white fish protein at 4% is protein broken into small fragments, used here for flavour and digestibility. Coconut oil at 8%, salmon oil at 2% and linseed at 2% look after the fats, and between them they supply the marine and plant omega 3s the coat case rests on. The EPA and DHA shares are printed on the pack.

Egg shells are an old-fashioned but effective calcium source. The gut receives thorough attention: fructo-oligosaccharides, mannan-oligosaccharides and inulin as prebiotics, plus an inactivated Lactobacillus culture, a heat-treated form used to condition the gut.

The dried herbs and fruits from milk thistle to curcuma sit at hundredths of a percent and are seasoning rather than substance. More useful is the dosed mineral panel, with zinc at 100 mg per kilo, the trace element skin leans on hardest.

£5.00 per kilo, in a choice of 1kg, 3kg and 12kg bags.

For a 15kg adult in moderate condition the arithmetic comes to roughly 232 grams and £1.16 a day, built on an estimated 840 kcal daily requirement (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance figure). The bag's own guide asks 180 to 220 grams for dogs between 15kg and 20kg, so treat body condition as the referee.