Brit Care Dog Sustainable Adult Large Breed review

On our scale this recipe reads Good, the same band the typical adult dry food settles in. It gets there by doing the large-breed basics properly: named animal protein up front, printed doses on the supplements that matter to a heavy dog, and a calcium level pitched for adult maintenance.

Ingredients, as declared: chicken (34%) (dehydrated chicken, hydrolysed chicken), oats (34%), dehydrated insect (14%), dried apple pulp, chicken fat, natural flavour, brewer's yeast, salmon oil (2%), pea flour, glucosamine (260 mg/kg), fructo-oligosaccharides (200 mg/kg), chondroitin sulphate (200 mg/kg), mannan-oligosaccharides (150 mg/kg), Mojave yucca (150 mg/kg), milk thistle seed (90 mg/kg), β-glucans (50 mg/kg), dried motherwort (50 mg/kg), dried sea buckthorn (50 mg/kg), Lactobacillus helveticus HA - 122 inactivated (15x109 cells/kg).

There is no fresh chicken here. All 34% of it is dehydrated and hydrolysed, so no cooking water flatters the figure and the printed share holds up in the bag. Protein converts to 27.8% of dry matter, a deliberately moderate level for a food built around heavier, slower-burning dogs.

Oats take an equal 34% share and carry the starch. Estimated carbohydrate reaches 47.4% of dry matter, right alongside the 46.2% typical of adult dry food. This is a conventionally balanced kibble, not a meat-heavy one.

Dehydrated insect at 14% is the second animal protein and the range's sustainability pitch made real. It is produced with far less land and water than traditional livestock and digests well.

The large-breed thinking lives in the small print. Glucosamine at 260 mg/kg and chondroitin sulphate at 200 mg/kg support joints that carry real load. L-tryptophan is dosed generously on the additive panel, an amino acid the body uses to make serotonin and often included with settled behaviour in mind. Taurine at 1,500 mg looks after the heart muscle of a big-chested dog. Calcium works out at 1.44% of dry matter, a comfortable adult level.

Chelated trace minerals, each dosed in print, round off the additives, and the botanical tail of milk thistle, motherwort and sea buckthorn sits at trace level, there for the label more than the dog.

The per-kilo price is £5.00, with 1kg, 3kg and 12kg bags available.

Fed to a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition, that is about 223 grams and £1.12 a day, assuming around 840 kcal daily (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). For the dogs this food is actually aimed at, the label's own table asks 300 to 370 grams a day between 30kg and 40kg, so budget from your dog's real weight.