Concept For Life Golden Retriever Adult review

Our scoring lands this one in the Average band, a step under the Good band where the average bag of adult kibble finishes. Protein and processing carries the loss and reads Average, and the problem is naming, not quality. The biggest entry is poultry protein instead of a named bird, poultry fat repeats the trick, and lignocellulose stands in for fibre from whole plants. Nutritional balance and transparency read Average alongside it. Set that against 20% fresh chicken, a full vitamin and mineral panel dosed in print and a genuinely thoughtful set of extras. What you have is a capable everyday food that a more specific label would have carried further.

Ingredients, as declared: 23% Poultry Protein (Rich in Chicken, Partly Dried and Hydrolysed), 20% Fresh Chicken Meat, Rice, Maize, Dried Beet Pulp (Desugared), Rice Flour, Linseed, Lignocellulose, Poultry Fat, Sodium Chloride, Monocalcium Phosphate, Brewer's Yeast (Dried), Egg (Dried), 0.1% Salmon Oil, Psyllium Husks (Dried), 0.1% Sunflower Oil, 0.1% Borage Oil, 0.1% Chicory Inulin, 0.04% Glucosamine, 0.02% Chondroitin Sulphate, 0.01% Marigold Flower Meal (Rich in Lutein), 0.01% Green Tea Extract (Dried, Rich in Flavonoids), Antioxidants.

The list opens with two meat entries, poultry protein at 23% and fresh chicken meat at 20%. The first is partly dried and hydrolysed and described as rich in chicken, which makes it a concentrated and easily digested protein source, though rich in chicken is not the same promise as chicken. The fresh chicken behind it names the bird outright. In the oven, fresh meat gives up most of its water. The dried entry ahead of it is doing more real work in the bag than its position suggests.

Protein converts to 27.2% of dry matter and fat to 13.0%, with energy declared at 362 kcal per 100g. Moisture is not on the label, so the dry matter figures here assume 8%, the usual level for a kibble.

Rice, maize and rice flour make up the starch, and carbohydrate works out at an estimated 50.0% of dry matter where the typical adult dry food runs at 46.2%. Dried beet pulp brings fermentable fibre, psyllium husks add the soluble sort and chicory inulin at 0.1% feeds the gut bacteria. Lignocellulose is the entry a careful reader will stop at, being purified plant fibre in powder form, effective at lifting a fibre figure without bringing much else along.

The coat and eye thinking is real. Borage oil at 0.1% is one of the better sources of gamma linolenic acid. The plant omega 3s come from linseed, with the marine ones from salmon oil at 0.1%. Marigold flower meal at 0.01% is there for lutein, which belongs to eye health. Green tea extract at 0.01% joins them as an antioxidant.

Taurine at 500mg/kg and L-carnitine at 100mg/kg are both dosed rather than dropped in for the marketing, taurine for the heart and carnitine for the handling of fat. Zinc arrives twice, 100mg/kg as the sulphate and another 60mg/kg as a glycine chelate. A dog's gut generally absorbs that second form more readily.

Everything animal on this label is a bird apart from the salmon oil, and none of the bird entries beyond that fresh chicken is pinned to a species. For most dogs it is a technicality. It only becomes a live question when you are trying to work out which protein your dog reacts to.

Sold in 1.5kg, 6kg and 12kg bags.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition works through roughly 232 grams a day, taking maintenance at about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75). A full grown golden weighs a good deal more than that, so scale the bowl up and let the waistline confirm the number.