Cobbydog Tiny Chops Cold Pressed review

Our Excellent band is where this pellet finishes, a step ahead of the typical cold-pressed food in our Good band. A small breed owner is not being asked to trade quality for a smaller kibble. A named chicken at 42% in dried form, a full micronutrient panel with its doses, and a declared calcium figure are the things carrying it there.

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

The pellet size is the whole proposition. Cold-pressed food is compressed at low temperature into a dense little cylinder, with no hot die involved. Cobbydog presses this one small enough for a dog that struggles with a standard piece of kibble. A cold-pressed pellet breaks up when it meets liquid and does not expand, so a small dog that inhales its dinner is dealing with something that behaves gently on the way down.

Chicken at 42% is dried and ground before it goes in. A fresh entry showing the same figure would mean less, since most of fresh meat's weight goes in the making. Chicken oil at 3.3% then carries the fat, so the animal side of the recipe is largely one bird. The exception is a 1% share of dried duck, small but real, and the only reason we would not call this a chicken only recipe.

Sweet potato, peas and beet pulp do the work behind the meat. Sweet potato is the starch that holds a pressed pellet together, and peas add plant protein along with fibre and a spread of minerals. Beet pulp is the fermentable fibre that tends to firm up a stool. Carbohydrate converts to 41.5% of dry matter, the ordinary shape of a cold-pressed food.

TurmerAid at 0.6% brings turmeric with black pepper and a little linseed oil, and behind it sit carrot and chicory, dried apple, seaweed, fennel and nettle, with a sage, thyme and oregano finish. Chicory is worth a word. Its root holds inulin, a soluble fibre the gut's useful bacteria feed on, and that is why it keeps appearing in foods that make a point of digestion.

The vitamins and minerals are declared with figures rather than hidden behind a phrase. Vitamin B1 is at 3 mg and vitamin B2 at 8 mg. Vitamin E is at 50 iu, zinc at 100 mg, manganese at 80 mg and copper at 15 mg. Calcium is printed at 1.66% of dry matter, which for a food labelled for puppies as well as adults is a useful thing to have in front of you.

£6.53 a kilo. It is sold in 3kg and 5kg bags.

Our standard day rate basis is a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition needing about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75), which on this food is 233 grams, or £1.52 a day. Most dogs eating a small breed pellet are a good deal lighter than that, and Cobbydog's own guide puts a 5 to 10kg dog at 60 to 120 grams a day.