Canagan Dry All Breeds: Free Range Chicken review

Three of the five read Excellent on our scale, a step above the Good band the average adult dry food occupies, and the other two sit in that Good band alongside it. What lifts them is consistency: a large declared share of named meat at the head of every list, and carbohydrate between 29.3% and 36.9% of dry matter where 46.2% is usual for the category. The supplements are dosed on the label instead of merely mentioned. Only the lamb and the salmon read a shade under the other three, so the sensible way to choose is by the animal rather than by the placing.

Ingredients, as declared: Freshly Prepared Free Range Chicken (26%), Dried Chicken (26%), Sweet Potato, Peas, Potato, Chicken Fat (4.2%), Alfalfa, Dried Egg (3%), Chicken Gravy (1.5%), Salmon Oil (1.2%), Glucosamine (830 mg/kg), Apple, MSM (830 mg/kg), Carrot, Fructooligosaccharides, Spinach, Psyllium, Seaweed, Chondroitin Sulphate (610 mg/kg), Peppermint, Camomile, Marigold, Cranberry, Aniseed & Fenugreek.

Every recipe opens with freshly prepared meat, and fresh meat is mostly water before it meets the oven, so the dried meat behind it does a fair amount of the finished kibble's work. Canagan prints both shares, which is exactly what lets you judge them. Protein settles between 31.5% and 40.2% of dry matter across the five, meat-led figures for a dry food by any reading.

Sweet potato heads the plant side everywhere, with peas and potato behind it and, in Highland Feast, tapioca, lentils and chickpea as well. Cereal appears nowhere in these five.

Four of the labels put real figures on the joint trio. Glucosamine and MSM are matched at 570, 780 or 830 mg/kg depending on the recipe, with chondroitin sulphate at 410, 570 or 610 mg/kg alongside them. Scottish Salmon carries none of the three.

Salmon oil appears in every bag, from 0.75% in Highland Feast up to 2.7% in Grass Fed Lamb, and dried herring adds more marine oil to two of the recipes. That is a genuinely useful omega source. It also means the range holds no fish free option. That only matters if fish is off your dog's list.

The tail of the list barely changes: alfalfa, apple, carrot, spinach, psyllium, seaweed and a run of botanicals down to aniseed and fenugreek. Psyllium and the fructooligosaccharides are the working entries there, one a soluble fibre and the other a prebiotic, and seaweed brings iodine along with it. The rest is a flourish, and these recipes stand perfectly well on their meat without it.

Because every label covers puppies as well as adults, the declared calcium is worth reading. It runs 1.52% of dry matter in Free Range Chicken, 1.60% in Grass Fed Lamb, 1.63% in Country Game, 1.78% in Scottish Salmon and 1.85% in Highland Feast. For an adult dog any of those is comfortable. For a large breed puppy, whose growth plates prefer calcium kept steady, the two at the bottom of that list are the easier fit.

The most straightforward of the five, with free range chicken at 26% freshly prepared and another 26% dried, the biggest dried meat share anywhere in the range. Its joint doses are the strongest here, glucosamine and MSM at 830 mg/kg with chondroitin sulphate at 610 mg/kg, and its calcium is the gentlest at 1.52% of dry matter.

Per kilo, Free Range Chicken is £6.83, Scottish Salmon £7.50, Highland Feast £7.67, and Country Game and Grass Fed Lamb are both £8.50. All five come in 2kg, 6kg and 12kg bags.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition eats between 211 and 220 grams a day, assuming about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That works out at between £1.47 and £1.87 a day depending on the recipe. Against that, the label's own chart puts a 15kg dog at 150 grams. Let the waistline settle it.