Cobbydog Cold Pressed: Optimum Chicken review

Every recipe here takes our Excellent band, a step clear of the cold-pressed category's midpoint in Good, so this range sets the standard its format asks for instead of merely meeting it. Cold pressing scores well with us because the meat share tends to be genuine and the labels tend to be legible, and both are true here.

The Fish Supper finishes a little further up that band than the rest, reading Excellent for protein and processing and Outstanding for transparency. An ocean fish declared at 49% with its four species named and a full micronutrient panel behind it do the lifting.

Ingredients, as declared: Dried Ground Chicken 42%, Sweet Potato, Peas, Beet Pulp, Chicken Oil 3.3%, TurmerAid™ (0.6%), Vitamins, Dried Ground Duck 1%, Dried Vegetables (Carrot and Chicory), Dried Fruit (Apple), Seaweed, Fennel, Nettle, Dried Herbs (Sage, Thyme, Oregano), Linseed Oil, Rapeseed Oil

Cold pressing is the story before any single ingredient. The mix is compressed into a dense little pellet at a much lower temperature, with no hot die and no steam. It stays small and heavy for its size, and it crumbles when it meets liquid. That behaviour is why owners of gulpers and of dogs with delicate digestions keep finding their way to the format.

The meat and fish are dried and ground before they go in, which matters more than it sounds. Fresh meat is mostly water that cooks off, so a 49% ocean fish or a 42% chicken declared in dried form is a far bigger contribution than the same percentage fresh. The fish recipes go further and name the species: white fish, salmon, mackerel and herring in the Fish Supper, salmon alone in the Salmon and Squash.

In all four, the carbohydrate side is led by sweet potato. Beet pulp brings gentle fibre, and the peas bring a little plant protein plus some minerals. The Salmon and Squash brings potato and pumpkin in as well, and the Turkey and Vegetable swaps in brown rice. Carbohydrate converts to between 35.6% and 44.3% of dry matter across the family, against 43.2% for the typical cold-pressed food, so most of this range sits on the lighter side of its category for starch.

TurmerAid appears at 0.6% on every label, a small blend of turmeric with linseed oil, black pepper, yucca and apple cider vinegar. At that inclusion it is seasoning, not a dose. Honest labels print the percentage, and this one does. The seaweed reads the same way, and so do the fennel and nettle and the sage, thyme and oregano at the tail. All of it is character on top of a recipe built on its meat and its sweet potato.

The micronutrition is properly declared, entry by entry with its dose. Vitamin E comes at 50 iu and vitamin C at 50 mg, with zinc at 100 mg, iron at 30 mg and copper at 15 mg. Vitamins A and D3 are given in international units alongside them. Calcium is printed on two of the four, at 1.64% of dry matter in the Fish Supper and 1.66% in the Optimum Chicken. Seaweed is in every recipe and is the usual route to iodine in a natural food.

Soya oil is the one entry on the two fish labels that raises an eyebrow, since soya has a mixed reputation in dog food. As an oil it carries none of the soya protein that causes the arguments, so for most dogs it is simply a fat source. It is only worth planning around if soya is already on your avoid list.

Chicken at 42% with chicken oil at 3.3% carrying the fat, plus a 1% share of dried duck further down the list. Puppies as well as adults are on this label, alone in the family. Calcium is declared at 1.66% of dry matter, and energy runs at 360 kcal per 100g.

The Optimum Chicken is £5.90 a kilo, the Turkey and Vegetable £6.00, and the Fish Supper and the Salmon and Squash £6.33. All four come in 3kg, 5kg and 10kg bags.

On the standard maintenance estimate (110 × bodyweight^0.75), a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition needs roughly 840 kcal a day. That works out at 227 to 241 grams of pellet, or £1.38 to £1.48 a day depending on the recipe. Cobbydog's own guide puts a 10 to 20kg dog at 120 to 240 grams a day.