Eukanuba Breed Specific Golden Retriever Adult review

Measured against the wider adult dry category, this comes out in the Good band, exactly where the middle of that category comes out. A named meat entry at a decent share and a fully dosed mineral panel are its strengths. The cereal load behind the meat holds it there, with carbohydrate at 48.1% of dry matter against the 46.2% typical. No joint compound is separately dosed either, on a recipe sold by breed.

Ingredients, as declared: dried chicken and turkey (27% including chicken 16%, a natural source of glucosamine, chondroitin sulphate and taurine), maize, wheat, pork fat, sorghum, barley, fresh chicken (4%), dried beet pulp (2.8%), chicken gravy, minerals (including sodium hexametaphosphate 0.38%), dried whole egg, fructooligosaccharides (0.53%, a natural prebiotic), fish oil (a natural source of omega-3 fatty acids), linseed.

Nothing else in the recipe comes close to the 27% of dried chicken and turkey, and the chicken share is printed inside it at 16%. Dried meat has been through the drier already, which is why the printed figure and the finished kibble stay close together. The fresh chicken at 4% contributes considerably less than its wording suggests once the water has gone. Protein finishes at 28.3% of dry matter, a solid adult level.

The starch work is split four ways, with maize and wheat ahead of sorghum and barley. Sorghum is gluten free and barley brings fibre along with selenium and copper, so that pair are the more useful half of the quartet. Wheat is the one that turns up most often in an intolerance story, and it sits high enough here to be worth noticing.

Coat support runs quietly through the small print. Fish oil is the strongest of the omega 3 sources on the list, and linseed sits behind it with the plant form. Vitamin E at 259mg/kg keeps those oils stable in the bag and useful in the dog. Natural tocopherol extracts at 38mg/kg do the same job from the antioxidant panel.

For joints, the label leans on the poultry itself. Glucosamine and chondroitin are both present in meat, and neither is added at a stated dose. That is an honest way to put it, though it does mean the joint support here is incidental, worth knowing on a recipe named after a big-framed breed.

Behind those, the recipe is tidy and named throughout. Fibre duty falls to dried beet pulp at 2.8%. The prebiotic is fructooligosaccharides at 0.53%, dried whole egg adds quality protein, and sodium hexametaphosphate at 0.38% slows tartar. Pork fat supplies the added energy and names its animal, and calcium settles at 1.46% of dry matter.

£3.01 a kilo, sold in a 12kg bag.

Working from about 840 kcal a day for a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate), that comes to roughly 236 grams and £0.71 a day. A full sized retriever will need a bigger bowl, so use the figure as a common yardstick and feed your own dog to condition.