Clinivet Grain Free Chicken review

An Excellent band finish puts this food a clear step above the typical adult dry recipe, which reads Good. Nothing exotic drives it there: a big named-meat share, restrained carbohydrate and a fully itemised label do the work, and its value pillar reads Excellent, in step with the overall.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken 60% (contains: fresh chicken 34%, chicken meal 21%, chicken fat 4%, chicken digest 1%), potato 13%, sweet potato 13%, peas 6%, sugar beet pulp 6%, linseed 2%, minerals, Prebiotics: MOS (Mannan-oligosaccharide) 100mg/kg, FOS (Fructo-oligosaccharide) 100mg/kg, yucca extract 100mg/kg, cranberry 50mg/kg, carrot 50mg/kg, herbs: parsley 50mg/kg, thyme 50mg/kg, basil 50mg/kg, basil 50mg/kg, fennel 50mg/kg, peppermint 50mg/kg, rosemary 50mg/kg.

Sixty per cent chicken, and the label shows its working: 34% fresh, 21% meal, 4% fat and 1% digest. The fresh share brings palatability while the meal brings concentrated protein, a pairing that survives the oven well. Protein finishes at 30.4% of dry matter and estimated carbohydrate at 41.3%, usefully below the 46.2% typical for adult dry food.

The grain free claim holds right down the list: potato and sweet potato at 13% each do the binding, and peas follow at 6%. Sugar beet pulp at 6% supplies the soluble fibre, and linseed at 2% is the omega source, which is what keeps the whole recipe free of fish.

The tail is measured rather than sprinkled for show: MOS and FOS prebiotics at 100mg/kg each, yucca at 100mg/kg, then cranberry and carrot with a row of kitchen herbs at 50mg/kg apiece. At those levels they are a garnish, and the food does not need them to make its case.

The added minerals come as oxides and sulphates, the standard inorganic forms, rather than the chelated versions some recipes use, and selenium is supplied as sodium selenite. Each is dosed in print; it is simply the plainer way of doing the job.

£3.29 a kilo across the 2kg and 12kg bags, with a 14kg breeder bag also produced.

Fed to a 15kg adult in moderate condition at the standard maintenance estimate of about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75), it works out near 229 grams and £0.75 a day. The label suggests 200 to 300 grams for dogs from 10kg to 19kg, so trust the waistline between the two.