Dr Clauders Adult Maxi Breed review

This sits in our Average band because of what the label says, and that is no warning about the food itself. Three things pull the reading down. The named animal content is one dried entry at 23%, cereals fill most of what follows, and very little is pinned to a species, from the poultry itself through to the protein hydrolysate. The typical adult dry food sits in our Good band. Most of the distance to it is a gap in what this pack is willing to tell you, not a hole in the diet.

Ingredients, as declared: Poultry protein dried (23%), maize, millet, rice, poultry fat, beet pulp, protein hydrolysate (from poultry), linseed, gelatine powder, carob flour, chicory powder (1%), yeast (dried, incl. 0.05% glucans), egg powder, potassium chloride, sodium chloride, glucosamine (0.1%),Ginseng root meal (dried, 0.1%), mussel meat meal (0.1%). Yucca (dried).

Dried poultry protein at 23% is the whole of the named animal content, and dried is the useful word. The water has already gone, so this entry delivers more into the finished kibble than a fresh entry of the same size would. The species behind that poultry is not printed anywhere.

Maize, millet and rice follow in that order. Millet is the interesting one, gluten free and easy on most dogs, and rice is the gentlest cereal in common use. Maize is the workaday member of the three, digestible enough once cooked but rarely chosen for what it brings with it.

The joint thinking is spread over three small entries, not one dose: gelatine powder, which is collagen, glucosamine at 0.1% and mussel meat meal at 0.1%. On a dog heading for 40kg those are sensible inclusions, and the mussel is also the reason the recipe is not seafood free.

Chicory powder at 1% supplies inulin, the fibre that useful gut bacteria feed on, with yeast at a declared 0.05% glucans alongside it. Ginseng root meal at 0.1% and dried yucca close the list, the yucca usually chosen for what it does to stool odour rather than for nutrition.

Calcium works out at 1.09% of dry matter and protein to 26.1%, both perfectly reasonable for a grown large-breed dog. No energy figure is printed on the pack, so the 362 kcal per 100 grams shown here is an estimate worked from the analysis, not a maker's number.

£4.15 a kilo, sold in one 12.5 kg bag.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would eat about 232 grams a day, assuming around 840 kcal a day. That is the standard maintenance estimate of 110 × bodyweight^0.75, and it works out at £0.96 a day. A dog big enough for this recipe eats a lot more than that, so size the number up to your own animal.