Brit Care Dog Sustainable Activity review

Our scoring places this recipe in the Excellent band, a step clear of the Good band that holds the typical adult dry food. The construction earns it: a heavy animal-protein presence from two sources, a carbohydrate load well below what dry food usually carries, and supplements that are dosed in print rather than merely mentioned.

Ingredients, as declared: chicken (40%) (dehydrated chicken, hydrolysed chicken), oats (26%), dehydrated insect (14%), chicken fat, natural flavour, brewer's yeast, salmon oil (2%), dried apple pulp, pea flour, glucosamine (300 mg/kg), fructo-oligosaccharides (230 mg/kg), chondroitin sulphate (230 mg/kg), mannan-oligosaccharides (180 mg/kg), Mojave yucca (180 mg/kg), milk thistle seed (110 mg/kg), β-glucans (60 mg/kg), dried motherwort (60 mg/kg), dried sea buckthorn (60 mg/kg), probiotic Lactobacillus helveticus HA - 122 inactivated (15x109 cells/kg).

The 40% chicken is entirely dried and hydrolysed, with no fresh entry at all, and that works in the buyer's favour. Dried meat carries no water, so its printed percentage survives into the bag much as written. Protein converts to 35.6% of dry matter, and estimated carbohydrate to just 28.6%, where the typical adult dry food carries 46.2%.

Dehydrated insect at 14% is the recipe's signature and the reason for the Sustainable name. Insect protein is farmed on a fraction of the land and water that conventional livestock need. For the dog it is simply another digestible animal protein, novel enough that few dogs will have met it before.

Oats at 26% are the only grain, a gentle and easily digested one, and they leave the recipe short of grain free. Pea flour and dried apple pulp fill out the plant side.

The supplement list reads like a working-dog checklist. Glucosamine at 300 mg/kg and chondroitin sulphate at 230 mg/kg cover the joints, fructo-oligosaccharides at 230 mg/kg and mannan-oligosaccharides at 180 mg/kg feed the gut flora, and an inactivated Lactobacillus probiotic rides along. Taurine at 1,500 mg and L-carnitine at 300 mg in the additives lean towards heart function and energy metabolism, sensible choices for a dog burning hard.

The trace minerals arrive in organic chelated form, generally the better-absorbed option, and each is dosed in print, zinc at 100 mg and iron at 88 mg per kilo among them. Milk thistle, sea buckthorn and motherwort bring up the rear at trace levels, a finishing flourish.

£5.00 a kilo, sold in 1kg, 3kg and 12kg bags.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition gets through about 196 grams a day, which comes to £0.98, assuming roughly 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). An active dog will need more, so let condition and workload set the scoop.