Collards Hypoallergenic Adult Turkey & Rice review

This food sits in our Good band, and so does the typical adult dry food, so what you are buying is a steady mid-field recipe with no headline ambitions. The shape of the result is easy to read: a modest working meat share and a cereal-led analysis, with nothing alarming anywhere behind it. Protein and processing and nutritional balance both read Average with transparency Outstanding, which is what an honest, plain recipe of this construction tends to earn.

Ingredients, as declared: Turkey 31% (Turkey Meat Meal 26%, Turkey Fat 3%, Turkey Gravy 2%), Brown Rice 20%, White Rice 20%, Whole Barley 12%, Sugar Beet Pulp 4.5%, Whole Linseed 4.5%, Dried Alfalfa 1%, Natural Seaweed Meal 0.5%, Fructo-Oligosaccharide (from chicory root extract) 0.25%, Sodium chloride, Potassium chloride, Methionine, Yucca extract 0.01%, Molluscs and Crustaceans as source of glucosamine, Chondroitin, Marigold extract 0.005%, Rosemary extract 0.005%.

Turkey leads at a declared 31%, and the label shows its workings: turkey meat meal at 26%, turkey fat at 3% and turkey gravy at 2%. The meal is the part doing the feeding. Meal is better than its name sounds, meat with the water already driven off, and a gram of it holds more protein than a gram of fresh meat. The fat and gravy bring energy and flavour rather than protein, so the working meat share is really that 26%.

Brown rice takes 20% of the bowl, white rice another 20% and whole barley 12%. This is a cereal-led recipe, and the analysis agrees: carbohydrate converts to 51.7% of dry matter, a little above the 46.2% typical for adult dry food. The choice of grains is the thoughtful part. Rice and barley sit among the gentler cereals on a dog's digestion, and there is no wheat at all, which is much of what the hypoallergenic name is promising.

The supporting cast is small and purposeful. Sugar beet pulp at 4.5% is the classic fibre choice for firm stools, and whole linseed at 4.5% brings omega 3 fats for skin and coat. A fructo-oligosaccharide prebiotic at 0.25% from chicory root feeds the gut flora. Yucca extract and seaweed meal close the list at trace levels, with a marigold and rosemary pairing beside them.

Glucosamine and chondroitin are in there for joints, and both come from molluscs and crustaceans, though the label prints no dose for either. Treat them as a friendly extra, not a measured supplement. Note the shellfish origin too if you are keeping the diet strictly to one animal.

Calcium is declared and converts to 1.65% of dry matter, comfortably in range for an adult recipe that lists itself for every size of dog from toy to giant.

It is sold in a 2kg resealable bag and a 10kg bag.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition gets through about 255 grams a day on our standard energy estimate, assuming about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75). For the same dog the label's own guide is leaner, at 235 grams. Somewhere between those two numbers is the place to begin, and the waistline will tell you the rest.