Eukanuba Active Adult Small Breed review

Our scoring lands this in the Good band, and the midpoint of the adult dry shelf lands there as well, which makes it a fair benchmark. The cereal blend and the unnamed poultry fat are what hold it in place. Nothing in the analysis does. Protein converts to 32.6% of dry matter and carbohydrate to 38.1%, comfortably under the 46.2% typical of adult dry food. The plant side is doing less of the carrying than the ingredients list suggests. Protein and processing and nutritional balance both read Good, with transparency at Outstanding, so nothing here drags.

Ingredients, as declared: dried chicken and turkey (30% including chicken 21%, a natural source of glucosamine, chondroitin and taurine), fresh chicken (15%), barley, wheat, maize, poultry fat, sorghum, oats, dried beet pulp (3.5%), chicken gravy, minerals (including sodium hexametaphosphate 0.35%), dried whole egg, fructooligosaccharides (0.38%, a natural prebiotic).

Dried chicken and turkey opens the list at 30%, with chicken pinned at 21% of that, and fresh chicken follows at 15%. Water makes up most of a fresh meat, and the oven drives it off, so the heavy lifting falls to the dried entry. The declared protein of 30% backs that up and converts to 32.6% of dry matter, a strong figure for a cereal based kibble.

Barley, wheat, maize, sorghum and oats share out the starch. Barley and oats are the pick of that group. They cook down well and carry fibre and micronutrients with them. Wheat is the entry most likely to raise an eyebrow, since dietary intolerance in dogs points at wheat more often than at any other grain. Its place on the list is high enough to be doing real work. Maize and sorghum are plain starch that hold the kibble together and add little beyond that, though sorghum has the small merit of being gluten free.

The carbohydrate figure is where the recipe earns its keep. At 35.1% as fed, or 38.1% of dry matter, it runs a good way below the 46.2% typical for adult dry food, and fat is generous at 18%. Energy works out around 381 kcal per 100 grams, an estimate rather than a declared figure, and that is above the 357 kcal typical of the category. That combination is the point of the food for a little dog whose metabolism is fast and whose stomach is small.

Beet pulp at 3.5% supplies the fibre, and fructooligosaccharides at 0.38% is a prebiotic there to encourage the friendlier bacteria in the large intestine. Sodium hexametaphosphate at 0.35% is the tooth entry, a mineral that makes it harder for plaque to harden into tartar between brushes. Dried whole egg adds a small helping of very digestible protein.

The label goes quiet in exactly one place, the fat. Poultry fat names a family of birds, not a species. Most households will never think about it. The question only comes alive if you need to rule one particular bird in or out. Elsewhere the panel is dosed in print: L-carnitine at 50mg per kilo, beta-carotene at 5mg, vitamin E at 250mg and zinc at 62.5mg. The glucosamine, chondroitin and taurine come along with the poultry meal itself, so read them as a natural bonus and not a measured dose.

Four bag sizes are listed: 3kg, 12kg and 15kg, along with a seven and a half kilo option in between.

As a portion guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would take about 221 grams a day, working from roughly 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). This is a small breed recipe though, and the label's own table asks 115 to 130 grams a day for an 8kg dog, so let the waistline have the final word.