Canagan Small Breed: Free Range Chicken review

Two of the three varieties finish in our Excellent band and the third in our Good band, where the typical adult dry food sits as well. High declared meat and restrained carbohydrate do the lifting here, helped by an itemised label. The gap between the varieties is modest, so choose on protein and not on placement.

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 variety leads with freshly prepared meat or fish backed by dried shares, and the dried shares matter. Fresh meat loses most of its weight to the oven, so the concentrated entries carry more of the finished kibble's protein than their list positions suggest. The analysis reads meat-led across the board, with carbohydrate estimated between 30.1% and 36.4% of dry matter over the three recipes, against the 46.2% typical of adult dry food.

Grain appears nowhere in the range. The binding is sweet potato and peas, with potato in support.

The joint trio is printed with doses on two of the three labels. Glucosamine and MSM run at 830 mg/kg with chondroitin at 610 mg/kg on the chicken, and 780 mg/kg with 570 mg/kg on the game. The salmon recipe skips the trio and leans on its naturally oily fish instead.

Fructooligosaccharides and psyllium look after digestion while seaweed brings minerals. The closing run of fruits and botanicals, from apple to fenugreek, is seasoning. The meat is what carries these recipes, which is as it should be.

An even split of chicken at 26% fresh and 26% dried makes this the simplest label of the three, with egg and salmon oil the only other animal entries. It also carries the range's highest printed joint doses, and for a small dog with no known sensitivities it is the natural first pick.

The Free Range Chicken is £7.25 a kilo, the Scottish Salmon £7.92 and the Country Game £9.00, each sold in 2kg and 6kg bags.

For a 15kg adult in moderate condition, the standard maintenance estimate of 110 × bodyweight^0.75 gives about 840 kcal a day. That translates to roughly 215 grams of the chicken or game at £1.56 and £1.93 a day, or 211 grams of the salmon at £1.67. A genuinely small dog needs far less, and the label's own table runs from 50 grams a day at 3kg to 120 grams at 10kg.