Ci Foods Ci Bells & Whistles: Duck Dinner review

The two chicken dinners land in our Excellent band, with the duck and the lamb a step below in Good, level there with the typical adult dry food. All four read Good on protein and processing and on nutritional balance, with transparency Outstanding. Nothing exotic drives the result. A large declared meat share, carbohydrate held below the usual dry food level and a dosed mineral panel quietly compound. The varieties finish close enough together that your dog's preferred animal is the sensible thing to choose on.

Ingredients, as declared: Dehydrated Duck (26%), Fresh Duck (18%), Sweet Potato (18%), Potato (16%), Chicken Oil, Yeast & Yeast Extracts, Peas, Alfalfa, Gravy, Salmon Oil, Whole Linseed, Minerals, Seaweed Meal, Prebiotic MOS, Prebiotic FOS, Pumpkin, Carrots, Apples, Tomatoes, Glucosamine, Yucca extract, Chondroitin, Marigold, Rosemary, Fennel, Peppermint, Spinach, Thyme, Marjoram, Oregano, Parsley, Sage, Fenugreek Seeds, Rubbed Mint, Green Tea, Cranberry.

The construction is the same in every bowl: dehydrated meat first, fresh meat second. Dehydrated is the concentrated form, so the lead figure survives cooking, while the fresh share brings the appeal. Protein converts to 30.4% of dry matter across the range, with carbohydrate between 38.0% and 40.0%, comfortably under the 46.2% typical of adult dry food.

Sweet potato and potato provide the starch, and no grain appears on the list at all. Peas and alfalfa sit behind them, with a little gravy there purely to make the kibble taste of dinner.

The gut gets both prebiotics, MOS and FOS, alongside yeast and seaweed meal. The joints get the classic pairing of glucosamine and chondroitin in every variety, though neither carries a printed dose.

The mineral work is better than the playful branding suggests. Zinc arrives partly chelated at 333 mg with a further 167 mg as sulphate. Manganese and copper are dosed in print behind it, and the selenium comes as selenised yeast, the organic form generally credited with better uptake.

Chicken oil is the fat in every recipe and salmon oil the omega 3 source, which is good news for coats and honest news for allergy plans: no variety is free of chicken or fish. The herb rack from marigold to green tea is seasoning-level flourish, and the recipes would stand without it.

One growth note: the labels cover puppies, and calcium sits at the generous end throughout. That makes the range a comfortable fit for small and medium breed pups, and a less obvious one for large breeds still building their skeletons.

Duck steps in at 26% dehydrated plus 18% fresh. With chicken oil still in the recipe it is a change of scenery rather than a chicken-free bowl, and calcium reads 2.5% of dry matter here, the highest in the range.

Per kilo the two chicken formats work out at £4.08 and the duck and lamb dinners at £4.33. Every variety comes as a 2kg trial bag, a case of four 2kg bags in a single variety or mixed across the range, and a 12kg sack.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition gets through about 226 grams a day, which spans £0.92 to £0.98 depending on the dinner. The basis is around 840 kcal daily (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate).