Carnilove True Fresh Adult Small Breed review

On our scale this food reaches the Good band. Most adult dry foods finish in that band as well. What marks this one out on the label is a named fresh meat at a genuine majority, restrained carbohydrate and additives declared down to the milligram.

Ingredients, as declared: fresh duck (60%), yellow peas, beef fat (7%), hydrolysed liver (3%), chickpeas (3%), pumpkin (3%), red lentils, dried apple pulp (2.3.%), salmon oil (2%), linseed, carrots, egg shells, potassium chloride, pea flour, dried sea buckthorn (0.2%), dried ginger root (0.1%), dried blueberries (0.1%), dried rosemary (0.1%), dried cranberries (0.1%), dried thyme (0.1%), hydrolysed crustacean shells (source of glucosamine, 0.022%), chicory root (source of fructo-oligosaccharides, 0.0163%), cartilage extract (source of chondroitin, 0.014%), brewer's yeast (source of mannan-oligosaccharides, 0.013%), Mojave yucca (0.0085%).

Fresh duck at 60% gives the recipe its identity, and because small breed foods are often built on vaguer poultry terms, a named bird at that level is worth something. As with any all-fresh recipe, the oven takes the water out, leaving finished protein at 32.2% of dry matter, a solid mid-table figure.

The energy story is the real small-breed tailoring. Beef fat at 7% pushes fat to 18% as fed and the density to 379 kcal per 100g, so small stomachs can take on enough fuel in few mouthfuls. Salmon oil at 2% rides along for omega 3s.

Peas, chickpeas, red lentils and pea flour bind the kibble with no cereal at all, and the estimated carbohydrate lands at 35.3% of dry matter, comfortably under the 46.2% typical for adult dry food.

Egg shells provide calcium from a food source rather than a bare mineral, dried apple pulp and pumpkin add fibre, and hydrolysed liver at 3% does the flavour work. The trailing berries and herbs are printed at trace fractions and are best read as garnish.

Glucosamine and chondroitin make the label at 0.022% and 0.014% respectively, amounts to note rather than count on. The dosing that matters is in the additive panel, where taurine stands at 1,500 mg per kilo and every vitamin and trace element carries a figure.

£6.66 a kilo, with 1.5kg, 4kg and 12kg bags to choose from.

As a yardstick, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would need about 222 grams a day, or £1.48, using the standard maintenance estimate of roughly 840 kcal (110 × bodyweight^0.75). The label's own guide for a 3kg to 6kg small breed asks 65 to 110 grams a day, a fraction of that.