Concept For Life Large Breed Sensitive review

Our scoring places this a band below the middle of the dry adult market, in our Average band, with protein and processing and nutritional balance both reading Average and transparency a step up at Good. The lamb protein is dried, not fresh, so the declared 20% is not being flattered by water that later cooks off. The recipe also keeps to a single cereal instead of the rice and maize pairing the rest of the range uses. Against that, rice heads the list ahead of the meat, rice protein tops the protein figure up from the plant side, and neither the poultry fat nor the liver hydrolysate names a species. It reads exactly as it is built, a simplified recipe for a dog whose gut prefers fewer moving parts.

Ingredients, as declared: Rice, 20% Lamb Protein (Dried), Rice Protein, Poultry Fat, Liver Hydrolysate, Dried Beet Pulp (Desugared), Brewer's Yeast (Dried), Linseed, Egg (Dried), Lignocellulose, 0.4% Sunflower Oil, Sodium Chloride, 0.2% Yeast Extract (Rich in Beta-Glucans and Mannan-Oligosaccharides), 0.1% Chicory Inulin, 0.01% Green Tea Extract (Dried, Rich in Flavonoids), Antioxidants.

Rice opens the list and is the only cereal in the recipe. That is the whole idea of a sensitive diet: fewer places for a reaction to hide. Lamb protein at 20% follows. Dried is the word that matters, because the water has already gone where fresh meat still holds it, and the full 20% carries through to the finished kibble.

Rice protein sits third. It is a concentrated plant protein that lifts the declared 23% without adding meat. It is part of why protein converts to 25.0% of dry matter, the gentlest figure in this brand's large breed line. Carbohydrate is estimated at 50.5% of dry matter, above the 46.2% a typical adult dry food runs. With moisture left off the label, the dry matter figures assume 8%.

Two entries stop this being a single animal recipe. Poultry fat is a bird product. Liver hydrolysate is liver broken down into fragments, prized as a palatant because dogs find it hard to resist, though the label does not say whose liver it was. Neither is likely to trouble most dogs, though on a proper elimination trial both are worth knowing about.

What is absent here is as useful as what is present. There is no fish oil and nothing marine on the label, no maize and no second cereal. For a dog with a narrow roster of safe foods, this is the shortest and plainest ingredient list in the brand's large breed range.

The gut work is done by dried beet pulp, a yeast extract at 0.2% carrying beta glucans and mannan oligosaccharides, and chicory inulin at 0.1% as the prebiotic. Brewer's yeast adds B vitamins and a little more protein, linseed supplies plant omega 3s, and sunflower oil at 0.4%, the largest oil dose in the family, brings vitamin E and linoleic acid.

Ash is declared at 7.5%, converting to 8.2% of dry matter and the highest in this brand's large breed range. That is what you would expect where a dried meat protein is carrying some bone with it. Green tea extract at 0.01% is the antioxidant flourish and sits at the level that says so. Unlike the rest of the range, this recipe carries no glucosamine or chondroitin, the simplicity being the trade the sensitive brief asks for.

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

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would eat roughly 226 grams a day, on a maintenance estimate of about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75). Scale up for a large breed and let the ribs be the judge.