CSJ Command Performance 21 review

This one lands right in our Good band, the very band a typical adult dry food occupies, and it gets there by a different road than most. Two things hold the reading down: a substantial cereal side, and a protein figure of 23.0% of dry matter that is modest for a kibble. Against that, a named single fish leads the list, the recipe is fully itemised with no category terms hiding anywhere, and the joint supplements are dosed properly in print. Protein and processing reads Average and nutritional balance Poor, while transparency reads Outstanding and value falls in step with the overall band. That fits a food that is candid about itself from first ingredient to last.

Ingredients, as declared: Salmon, Rice, Maize, Oats, Rapeseed oil, Beet pulp, Salmon gravy, Minerals, Salmon oil, Linseed, Yeast, Glucosamine (1000mg/kg), Dried fruit & herbs (total 1000mg/kg; Blackcurrant, Rosemary, Pomegranate, Milk Thistle, Seaweed, Fenugreek, Spearmint, Parsley, Marshmallow root, Marjoram, Oregano), MSM (1000mg/kg), Chondroitin (300mg/kg), Yucca schidigera.

Salmon opens the list in its fresh form, which means most of what goes in is water that leaves during cooking. Salmon gravy and salmon oil follow further down, so the entire animal side of this recipe stays within one fish. Once the water has gone, protein settles at 23.0% of dry matter, a gentle figure that suits a dog in steady work.

Rice, maize and oats supply the energy. Rice is among the easiest cereals for a dog to digest and is the reason recipes like this sit well with sensitive stomachs. Oats add fibre along with manganese, magnesium and B vitamins. Maize is the one to note, since it turns up more often than most grains in the histories of dogs that react to something, though the great majority of dogs handle it without a murmur.

Rapeseed oil is the added plant fat, low in saturated fat and one of the better vegetable oils to find on a label. Lower down, linseed carries the plant form of omega 3. A dog turns that into the active forms slowly. The marine form comes straight from the salmon oil. Beet pulp handles the gentle fibre and yeast rounds off the small entries.

The joint trio is the reason this recipe exists in the way it does. Glucosamine at 1000 mg/kg and MSM at 1000 mg/kg, with chondroitin at 300 mg/kg behind them, is a real printed dose and not a dusting for the marketing. Glucosamine is the best known of the three and comes commercially from shellfish, MSM is derived from pine bark, and chondroitin is drawn from animal cartilage. Evidence on all three is genuinely mixed, so treat them as sensible support and not a guarantee.

The dried fruit and herb blend totals 1000 mg/kg across eleven named items, from blackcurrant and pomegranate to marshmallow root and oregano, which puts each of them at trace level. All of that is seasoning more than substance. The label deserves credit for printing the total so you can work it out. The rosemary works as a natural antioxidant, and the seaweed adds a little iodine.

The mineral panel is the quiet highlight. More than half the zinc and two thirds of the iron arrive as chelates. The gut generally takes that form up more readily than the usual sulphates sitting alongside them. Manganese and copper both come part chelated too. Zinc totals 20 mg as sulphate with 30 mg as chelate, iron 15 mg with 30 mg, and vitamin E is dosed at 250 mg per kilo. That is more care than a working sack of this kind usually shows.

£2.19 a kilo, sold as a 15kg sack.

For a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition the guide comes out at about 220 grams a day, or £0.48 a day. The assumption behind that is roughly 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). The label's less active table asks 145 to 245 grams for a dog between 10kg and 20kg, so read the ribs and adjust from there.