Burns Toy & Small Breed Original: Chicken & Rice review

The Average band verdict here sits a step under what the typical adult dry food achieves. The recipe's shape tells you why it climbs no higher: two rices come before the chicken, so the meat share is respectable rather than generous. What the small-breed sizing adds is genuine, though. Protein converts to 22.8% of dry matter with fat at 12.0%, firmer figures than the rice-first construction might suggest, and about right for a little dog that burns energy quickly.

Ingredients, as declared: Brown Rice (44%), Dried Chicken (23%), White Rice (13%), Chicken Oil, Oats, Peas, Sunflower Oil, Dried Fish, Seaweed (0.5%), Minerals.

The list is rice-led, with brown at 44% and white at 13%, and the white rice is worth a note: it is the quicker-digesting of the two, plausibly chosen with small, fast-burning dogs in mind. Dried chicken at 23% goes in concentrated, its water already gone, which is why the finished protein reads better than the running order implies.

Further down the list, dried fish appears with no species name attached. It adds protein and palatability, and most small dogs will approve, but it closes the door on chicken-only and fish-free feeding plans alike.

Chicken oil and sunflower oil are the named fats, pushing declared fat to 11.0%, and oats and peas fill in fibre and minerals. Seaweed at 0.5% supplies iodine the natural way.

Taurine at 1000mg per kilo headlines the additives, vitamin E comes in at 150IU, and the trace minerals are chelated and fully itemised, selenised yeast included at 0.2mg. Calcium converts to 1.2% of dry matter, comfortably in the adult zone. The label leaves moisture undeclared, so the dry matter figures assume the usual 8%.

£6.00 a kilo, in 2kg and 6kg bags.

Using the standard maintenance estimate of about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75), a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would need near 243 grams and £1.46 daily. This food's true audience is far smaller, though: the label asks just 56 grams a day at 4kg and 140 grams at 10kg.