CSJ Hike On! review

This one settles in our Good band, along with most adult dry foods. A named fish leads the list, the carbohydrate estimate is 31.7% of dry matter against the 46.2% typical, and the vitamin and mineral panel is fully dosed. All of that pulls in its favour. What keeps it from climbing further is the middle of the list, where maize and a prairie meal that names no crop sit ahead of the second meat. Protein and processing reads Average as a result.

Ingredients, as declared: Salmon (min 36%), Maize, Prairie Meal, Chicken fat, Oats, Beef meal, Beet pulp, Minerals, Yeast, Dried herbs (total herbs 1000mg/kg; Blackcurrant, Rosemary, Pomegranate, Milk thistle, Seaweed, Spearmint, Parsley, Marshmallow root, Marjoram, Oregano), Yucca schidigera.

Salmon heads the list at a minimum of 36%, though the label does not split the fresh and dried shares, so how much of that weight survives the oven is left unstated. What the finished analysis shows is a kibble at 34.1% protein and 24.2% fat in dry matter, a properly energetic profile.

The starch comes from maize and oats, and beet pulp sits behind them for fibre. Oats are an easy grain for most dogs once cooked and bring a useful spread of trace minerals along with them. Carbohydrate estimates at 31.7% of dry matter, comfortably under the 46.2% typical of an adult dry food. The cereals here support the meat.

Prairie meal is the entry that will stop a careful reader, because the label never says which crop or crops sit behind the name. Read it as an unspecified plant ingredient. Undefined as it is, you cannot rule it in or out for a dog you are steering around a particular thing.

Beef meal and chicken fat sit in the top half of the list, and they matter more for what your dog can eat than for the quality of the recipe. Beef meal is a concentrated dried protein and chicken fat is a dependable energy source, but between them they mean three animals are represented rather than one.

The dosed extras are well chosen for the audience. Taurine at 1000 mg/kg is the amino acid that supports the heart. L carnitine at 500 mg/kg has a hand in putting stored fat to work as energy. That suits a food this rich. The herb blend totals 1000 mg/kg across ten plants from blackcurrant to oregano, so it is a finishing flourish. The rosemary in it doubles as a natural antioxidant.

£1.93 a kilo, sold as a 15 kg sack.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would eat about 212 grams a day, assuming around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That comes to roughly £0.41 a day. The energy value behind that sum is an estimate rather than a declared figure. CSJ's own active table asks 150 to 298 grams for a dog between 10kg and 20kg, so let the dog's condition decide the final scoop.