Eukanuba Adult Small/Medium Breed Rich in Salmon & Barley review

This one finishes in our Good band, where most of the adult dry category finishes as well. Nothing dramatic gets it there. The fish is named to a species instead of being left as a catch all, and barley and oats are the better cereals. Protein converts to 27.2% of dry matter, with carbohydrate at 46.9%, right on the 46.2% typical. Good covers protein and processing. Transparency and value hold there too, and nutritional balance at Average is the one soft leg.

Ingredients, as declared: dried chicken and turkey (a natural source of glucosamine, chondroitin and taurine), salmon (14%), barley (14%), maize, oats, sorghum, poultry fat, dried beet pulp (2.6%), chicken gravy, sunflower oil, minerals (including sodium hexametaphosphate 0.35%), fructooligosaccharides (0.25%, a natural prebiotic), brewer's dried yeast (a natural source of B-vitamins and selenium).

The list opens with dried chicken and turkey, so the protein backbone here is poultry even though the bag says salmon. That is the honest reading and it is not a criticism. Dried meat comes with its water already gone, so its weight survives into the finished kibble. A fresh meat's would not.

Salmon at 14% is named to a species, which is more than a good many fish recipes at this level manage. The word fish on a label can cover almost anything that swims, whereas salmon is salmon. It brings the marine omega 3 fats that skin and coat draw on most readily. Sunflower oil adds a lighter oil, easy on saturated fat and a good natural source of vitamin E.

Barley matches the salmon at 14% with oats behind it, and those two are the better company on any cereal list, both digesting easily once cooked and both bringing fibre and micronutrients along. Maize and sorghum follow as plainer starch, with sorghum at least carrying no gluten. The label declares no moisture, so the dry matter figures work from the 8% assumed for a dry food. On that basis protein reads 27.2% and carbohydrate 46.9%, essentially level with the 46.2% typical of the category.

Poultry fat is the added fat, and it is where the label turns vague. A family of birds is named, but no single species. For most households that is fine. It only matters if one bird in particular must be ruled in or out.

In the small print, fructooligosaccharides at 0.25% is the prebiotic, aimed squarely at the large intestine, and beet pulp at 2.6% supplies the fibre. Brewer's dried yeast contributes B vitamins and selenium. For the teeth there is sodium hexametaphosphate at 0.35%. It goes to work on plaque before it hardens. Glucosamine, chondroitin and taurine are credited to the poultry meal. That holds true of meat and cartilage generally, so read them as gentle background and not a dosed supplement.

Energy is our estimate at roughly 366 kcal per 100 grams, since the label declares none, and calcium works out at 1.52% of dry matter, a settled adult level. Vitamin E is dosed at 250mg per kilo, zinc at 62.5mg, L-carnitine at 50mg and beta-carotene at 5mg.

£3.01 a kilo, in a single 12kg bag.

Working from that, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition comes to £0.69 a day and about 229 grams. The assumed need is around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). The bag's own table asks 235 to 270 grams for a 20kg dog, so scale from there for the dog you have.