Dr John Hypoallergenic Activ review

The Good band is where this lands, the same place the middle of the adult dry shelf occupies. Protein converts to 32.6% of dry matter and carbohydrate to 35.6%, comfortably under the 46.2% typical for adult dry food. Nutritional balance reads Good and so does protein and processing, with transparency a step behind at Average, a fairly even set rather than one strong figure dragging the others along. The caveat behind those dry matter numbers is that the label leaves moisture undeclared, so they are worked from an assumed 8%.

Ingredients, as declared: Dehydrated poultry (40% chicken), barley, rice, chicken fat, oats, beet pulp, salmon oil (2%), linseed, minerals, mixed herbs (sage, oregano, mint, rosemary, turmeric and ginger). New Zealand green-lipped mussel extract, yucca extract.

Dehydrated poultry with 40% chicken opens the list, and dehydrated is the word that matters. The water has already gone before the ingredient is weighed, so that 40% is concentrated animal protein, not meat that will shrink in the oven. Protein lands at 30.0% as fed and 32.6% of dry matter, a genuinely meaty reading for a kibble.

Barley, rice and oats supply the carbohydrate, and the choice looks deliberate. All three are easier on a sensitive gut than wheat, oats bring soluble fibre and a spread of minerals with them, and barley cooks down to a readily digested starch. None of the three is gluten free, so a dog with a diagnosed gluten problem still needs a tighter list, but for the far more common wheat sensitivity this recipe steers well clear.

Fat at 20.0% is high for an adult dry food and it is where most of the 400 kcal comes from. Chicken fat carries the bulk of it with salmon oil at 2% on top, so both fats are named to their animal. Salmon oil is the more interesting of the pair, since marine omega 3 arrives in the form a dog can use directly, with no conversion needed first.

The support cast is short and purposeful. Digestion is steadied by beet pulp, a moderate fermentable fibre, and linseed adds plant omega 3. New Zealand green lipped mussel extract brings the omega profile that put it into so many joint supplements. The six herbs are sage and oregano, mint and rosemary, turmeric and ginger. They are flavour and antioxidant, not medicine. Rosemary is the entry keeping the fats fresh.

Fibre converts to 3.0% of dry matter and ash to 7.1%. Because moisture is absent from the label, those conversions and the carbohydrate estimate of 35.6% of dry matter are calculated on an assumed 8% moisture, the standard working figure for a dry food.

£2.28 a kilo, sold in a 12.5kg bag.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would need roughly 210 grams a day at about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That comes to £0.48 a day. A dog genuinely in work will eat more than that, and the label's range of 200 to 370 grams for a 10kg to 20kg dog leaves room for it.