CSJ Champ Adult review

Our scoring returns Good here, level with the mark that the typical adult dry food holds. The arithmetic behind that is straightforward. Cereal takes up most of the recipe and carbohydrate lands at 54.3% of dry matter. Protein converts to 21.7% of dry matter, which is gentle for a kibble. The honesty of the label is what stops the reading going lower, and it shows in the pillars: transparency reads Excellent and value Good, with protein and processing Average and nutritional balance Poor behind them. There is no category term anywhere on this list and no vagueness to unpick. This is a plain, fully named, cereal-led food, and for a steady adult dog in ordinary condition it does exactly the job it sets out to do.

Moisture is not declared. The dry matter figures here work from the 8% that a kibble like this normally holds.

Ingredients, as declared: Wheat, Beef meal, Barley, Chicken fat, Chicken meal, Chicken gravy, Oats, Alfalfa, Beet pulp, Yeast, Minerals, Linseed, Peas, Salmon oil, Yucca schidigera.

Wheat opens the recipe, and it is there because it is inexpensive and because it forms a biscuit beautifully. Thanks to the gluten it carries, wheat is also the grain that comes up most often when a dog is reacting to something. Where there is a history of itchy skin or an unsettled gut, this is the entry to weigh first. For the many dogs that have never had a problem with it, wheat is simply a well-digested source of energy.

Beef meal sits second. A meal is meat whose water has gone before it ever reaches the mixer. That matters when you are reading an ingredient list, because unlike fresh meat, a meal holds roughly the same position in the finished kibble that it holds on the label. Its place at number two is therefore real, not flattering.

Chicken then appears three times over, as chicken fat, chicken meal and chicken gravy. Between them they make chicken as significant a presence here as the beef in the headline. For a dog that reacts to poultry, that is worth knowing. The label names the bird where it could have written poultry, and that counts in its favour.

Barley and oats follow the wheat and are the better of the cereals on this list. Both cook down to something dogs digest easily, both bring fibre, and both carry a useful spread of micronutrients including selenium and manganese. Alfalfa, beet pulp and yeast round out the plant and fermentation side, with beet pulp doing the gentle work in the gut.

The small entries at the end are where the thought went. The omega 3 from linseed arrives in its plant form, and a dog is slow to turn that into the active ones. Salmon oil brings the marine form straight away. Between them they cover a coat properly. Peas add a little protein and antioxidant value, and yucca schidigera is the traditional inclusion for households that notice what a kennel smells like.

The vitamins and minerals are dosed in print. Vitamin E is at 120 mg, zinc at 62.5 mg and iron at 50 mg. Copper and manganese are at 10 mg each, with iodine at 1.5 mg and selenium at 0.2 mg per kilo. They are standard sulphate forms with natural antioxidants doing the preserving, which is the sensible, unshowy approach this whole label takes.

£1.37 a kilo, sold as a 15kg sack.

Feeding a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition takes around 233 grams a day, assuming about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate), which lands at £0.32 a day. The label's less active table asks 140 to 235 grams for a dog between 10kg and 20kg, so use condition to settle the scoop.