Country Dog Premium Adult 1+: Chicken & Rice review

Both recipes come out in our Good band, level with the typical adult dry food, with the chicken edging just ahead of the lamb. The single-species construction and a meat declaration split into its meal and fresh shares do most of the lifting. Cereal takes up a lot of each bag and the carbohydrate estimate lands close to typical, which is what stops them climbing further and why nutritional balance reads Average on both recipes.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken 39% (Chicken Meal 29%, Freshly Prepared Chicken 10%), Rice (26%), Barley, Chicken Fat (8%), Beet Pulp (8%), Potato Starch, Dried Brewers Yeast (2.5%), Flaxseed (2.5%), Chicken Gravy, Minerals, Seaweed, Prebiotic Mannan-Oligosaccharide (0.05%), Yucca Extract (0.05%), Glucosamine (0.043%), Chondroitin (0.015%), Cranberry (0.01%).

Each recipe declares 39% of its named meat and prints the split: 29% meal and 10% freshly prepared. Meal is the dried form with the water already taken out, so the larger share sitting in meal is what keeps the protein in the finished kibble honest, where a fresh-heavy declaration would flatter it. The chicken gives 27.2% protein on a dry matter basis and the lamb 28.3%.

Rice at 26% is the main cereal in both bags, and it is among the gentler grains on a dog's digestion. Barley sits behind it, adding fibre and micronutrients on top of its starch, and potato starch does some of the binding. The steady fibre comes from beet pulp: 8% of the chicken bag, 4% of the lamb. The lamb also turns to pea protein at 5% where the chicken leans harder on beet pulp. Pea protein is a processing byproduct that lifts the protein figure without matching meat for quality, so it is worth knowing it is in there.

The fat is where the two recipes part company, and it is the detail that makes the single-species claim stand up. Chicken fat at 8% goes into the chicken bag and lamb tallow at 9% into the lamb, so the fat in each bag comes off the animal that gave the meat. Flaxseed at 2.5% is the omega 3 source in both, in its plant form, which the body converts to the skin-active types slowly, so a coat takes weeks rather than days to answer.

The joint pair carries printed percentages: glucosamine at 0.043% and chondroitin at 0.015%. Seeing a figure beside each is better than seeing the words alone. One honest note for anyone running a strict elimination diet, though: glucosamine is usually manufactured from crustacean shells and chondroitin from animal cartilage, and neither entry is attributed on the label.

The rest of the small print is sensible stuff. Dried brewer's yeast at 2.5% is a natural source of B vitamins, and seaweed brings iodine and trace minerals. Mannan-oligosaccharide at 0.05% feeds the large intestine, yucca extract at 0.05% is there for stool odour and cranberry at 0.01% is a gesture. The added minerals all carry doses: zinc at 50 mg, iron at 30 mg, manganese at 25 mg and copper at 10 mg. Iodine is at 1.6 mg and selenium at 0.25 mg per kilo, with vitamin E at 270 mg.

Chicken at 39%, with chicken fat at 8% and chicken gravy behind it, so every animal ingredient in the bag is the same bird. Beet pulp at 8% is double the lamb's share, though the declared fibre still comes out at 2.0% in both. Its carbohydrate estimate of 46.7% of dry matter sits close to typical for adult dry food.

Country Dog Premium Adult 1+ is sold in 2kg and 15kg bags in both flavours.

Work from around 840 kcal a day for a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That puts the chicken at about 235 grams a day and the lamb at 237 grams, so the larger bag runs to roughly two months of feeding either way.