Cooper & Co Active review

Duck and pheasant carry this one into our Excellent band, ahead of the Good band that most adult dry food occupies. The reasons are easy to point at. Every animal entry is named to a species and given its own percentage, and moisture is declared rather than assumed. The starch load is restrained, with carbohydrate estimated at 40.3% of dry matter where adult dry food typically runs at 46.2%. Nutritional balance reads Average and that is the mineral side pulling on it, with ash at 9.5% and calcium at the top end for an adult food. This is a strong recipe, honestly labelled, and it suits the dog it was written for.

Ingredients, as declared: 53% Duck, Pheasant (Freshly Prepared Duck (22%), Dried Duck (19%), Freshly Prepared Pheasant (7%), Duck Fat (4%), Duck Stock (1%)), Sweet Potato (25%), Lentils, Beet Pulp, Salmon Oil, Brewer's Yeast, Minerals, Dried Spinach, Chondroitin Sulphate, Glucosamine, Fructooligosaccharides, Mannanoligosaccharides

The 53% headline is worth unpacking, because Cooper & Co have done the unpacking for you. Freshly prepared duck at 22% is mostly water and gives a lot of that up in the oven, so the dried duck at 19% is what actually anchors the protein in the finished kibble. That is a generous dried share by any standard. Duck fat at 4% and duck stock at 1% make up the rest, and it is a good sign that both are pinned to the species and not left as animal fat.

Freshly prepared pheasant at 7% is the unusual entry. Pheasant is a lean game bird that very few dogs will have met before. That makes this a good place to land for a dog whose history with the common meats has become complicated. Protein finishes at 29.3% of dry matter and fat at 16.3%, which is where you want a recipe aimed at dogs that actually burn through their day.

Sweet potato at 25% is the main carbohydrate, a slower burning starch that brings fibre and beta carotene along with the energy, with lentils behind it adding both fibre and a little plant protein. Grain of any kind is absent from the list. Carbohydrate settles at an estimated 40.3% of dry matter, comfortably under the 46.2% typical for adult dry food. That is the real reason the meat reads as dominant here.

Beet pulp does the fermentable fibre, and the two prebiotics behind it, fructooligosaccharides and mannanoligosaccharides, are the pair most often used to encourage the friendlier gut bacteria. Behind them come dried spinach and brewer's yeast, the yeast bringing natural B vitamins. Chondroitin sulphate and glucosamine are both on the list for the joints, which reads as deliberate on a recipe built for dogs that put their frames under some strain.

One thing the label does not give you is the detail of its mineral panel, which arrives as a single Minerals entry with no individual doses printed. What the analysis does tell you is that ash sits at 9.5% and calcium works out at 2.07% of dry matter, both at the higher end. For an adult dog that is comfortable, and this label is an adult label, so there is nothing here to work around. Skin and coat use the marine omega 3s most directly, and salmon oil is where they come from. It is also why the recipe is not fish free.

£6.80 a kilo, sold in 1.5kg and 10kg bags.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition works through about 229 grams a day, assuming around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That comes to £1.56 a day. The label's own table asks 190 to 255 grams for a dog between 10kg and 20kg. Where the two differ, let the waistline decide.