Chudleys Salmon review

Chudleys Salmon sits in our Average band, a step under the Good band where the typical adult dry food lands, with transparency reading Excellent, nutritional balance Average and protein and processing Poor. A named fish at a printed minimum and a dosed joint duo pull it up; a maize-first list and unquantified extras are what keep it below the typical. Par, in this company, is a perfectly respectable place to be.

Ingredients, as declared: Whole grain maize, Salmon (min 26%), Prairie meal, Whole grain barley, Chicken fat, Rice (min 4%), Unmolassed beet pulp, Minerals, Alfalfa, Peas, (min 4% total vegetables). Yeast (source of mannan oligosaccharides), Salmon oil (source of omega 3 fatty acids), Dandelion leaves, Green lipped mussel (400mg/kg), Celery seed, Nettle leaves, Glucosamine (350mg/kg), Burdock root, Devil's claw root, Blackcurrant, Rosemary, Pomegranate, Rosehips, Yucca schidigera, Beetroot

The headline is salmon, declared at a minimum of 26% and reading as the fresh form. Some of that weight is water, and cooking takes it away. Prairie meal, a concentrated maize protein, backs the analysis up from the plant side, and protein finishes at 24.2% of dry matter.

The starch is maize first, then barley and rice at a minimum of 4%, with wheat left off the label entirely. This is still a cereal-forward build: carbohydrate converts to an estimated 52.9% of dry matter, above the 46.2% typical for adult dry food.

The joint package is the label's best work. Green lipped mussel is dosed at 400 mg/kg and glucosamine at 350 mg/kg, printed rather than implied, with devil's claw, nettle, dandelion and celery seed as the traditional herbal chorus behind them.

Salmon oil adds marine omega 3 on top of the salmon itself, but note the fat line: chicken fat does the everyday work. Chicken fat is perfectly good in itself. It does mean the recipe cannot call itself a single-animal food for a dog mid-elimination.

Unmolassed beet pulp, yeast as a source of mannan oligosaccharides, alfalfa, peas and a minimum of 4% vegetables complete the working parts, ahead of the customary fruit and botanical tail from blackcurrant to beetroot.

£2.96 a kilo, available as a 14kg sack or a 2.5kg bucket.

A 15kg adult in moderate condition needs about 840 kcal a day on the standard maintenance estimate (110 × bodyweight^0.75), which works out here at roughly 242 grams and £0.72 a day. The printed guide offers 165 to 330 grams for dogs from 10kg to 25kg, and condition should cast the deciding vote.