Edmondson's Adult Small Breed: Chicken review

The general run of adult dry food settles in our Good band. Put these three beside it and the lamb and the fish come out level, while the chicken finishes a band higher, in Excellent. Transparency is Outstanding throughout and protein and processing Good, value Excellent on the chicken with Good for the lamb and fish, nutritional balance Good on the chicken against Average on the other two. The differences are small: the chicken carries the most dried meat, the lamb leans hardest on plant protein, and the fish is the only recipe to name its oil. Pick by the animal first, though the chicken does have the edge on paper.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken 55% (contains 27% Freshly Prepared Chicken, 26% Dried Chicken, & 2% Chicken Stock), 26% Sweet Potato, Peas, Beet Pulp, Potato, Linseed, Omega 3 Supplement, Vitamins & Minerals, Vegetable Stock, Marjoram, Basil, Oregano, Sage, Thyme, Parsley, Fructooligosaccharides (96 mg/kg), Mannanoligosaccharides (24 mg/kg).

Each recipe leads with its animal in two forms at once. The chicken declares 27% freshly prepared and 26% dried, the lamb 30% freshly prepared and 18% dried, and the salmon and trout 27% freshly prepared with 20% dried salmon. Dried meat is the share that survives the oven in quantity, since fresh meat is mostly water, so the 26% on the chicken is a genuinely strong showing for a kibble. Protein converts to between 27.2% and 30.4% of dry matter across the three, and estimated carbohydrate to between 41.4% and 45.7%, all of it under the 46.2% typical of an adult dry food.

Sweet potato is the biggest plant entry, at 26% on the chicken, 23% on the lamb and 22% on the fish, with potato and peas behind it. Grain appears on none of the three lists, and beet pulp handles the fibre.

Omega 3 arrives differently depending on which bag you open. Whole linseed is on all three, supplying the plant form of omega 3. The fish recipe adds 4% salmon oil, named and quantified, and that is the marine form a dog takes up directly. The chicken and the lamb instead carry an entry called omega 3 supplement with no source attached. On those two the origin stays where you cannot check it.

All three dose the prebiotic pair identically, 96 mg/kg of fructooligosaccharides and 24 mg/kg of mannanoligosaccharides, aimed at the gut's bacteria and not at the dog. Added minerals arrive as sulphates, not chelates, and their doses are printed: 50 mg of zinc, 50 mg of iron, 35 mg of manganese and 1 mg of iodine per kilo.

The finishing entries differ by bag and matter least of all. Six kitchen herbs close the chicken, mint closes the lamb and asparagus closes the fish. They are there for character rather than nutrition, and each recipe stands on its meat without them.

Chicken at 55%, and unusually the 26% dried share almost matches the 27% freshly prepared, which is why this bag carries the most protein of the three at 28% as fed. Six kitchen herbs finish the list, and calcium works out at 1.74% of dry matter.

£5.58 a kilo for the chicken, £6.00 for the salmon and trout and £6.08 for the lamb, each sold in 2kg, 6kg and 12kg bags.

As a guide, a 15kg adult in moderate condition would eat 223 to 229 grams a day of these recipes, or between £1.26 and £1.39 a day. The figures assume about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That reference dog is larger than anything this particular label covers. The pack asks 110 to 145 grams for a dog of 7kg to 10kg, and that is the portion most buyers here will actually be weighing out.