Eukanuba Grain Free Adult Small/Medium Breed Rich in Fresh Chicken review

Right in the middle of the adult dry shelf is where this one lands. Our bands read it as Good, exactly where the shelf as a whole reads. The reasons it holds that line are printed on the label, not claimed in the marketing. Every animal entry but the fat names its species, and the meat is split into fresh and dried with the chicken share inside the dried blend printed. Carbohydrate converts to 43.6% of dry matter against the 46.2% typical for adult dry food. Protein comes out at 29.3%, comfortably into adult territory. Protein and processing reads Good and transparency Outstanding on the strength of that plain speaking, and nutritional balance comes in Good alongside them.

Ingredients, as declared: fresh chicken (21%), dried chicken and turkey (21% including chicken 15%, a natural source of glucosamine, chondroitin and taurine), dried sweet potatoes (20%), whole peas, poultry fat, dried beet pulp (3.5%), dried potatoes, chicken gravy, linseed, minerals (including sodium hexametaphosphate 0.4%), dried whole egg, brewer's dried yeast, fructooligosaccharides (0.25%, a natural prebiotic).

Fresh chicken at 21% leads the list, and the word fresh repays a careful reading. Most of that entry is water, and it goes during cooking. What rescues the headline is the dried chicken and turkey blend immediately behind it, also 21%, with chicken pinned at 15% inside it. Dried meat has no water left to give up, so that entry pulls far more weight in the kibble than its ranking implies. Together the two give protein at 29.3% of dry matter with fat at 16.3%.

The largest plant entry is dried sweet potato at 20%, backed by whole peas and dried potato, with cereal absent from the recipe entirely. Sweet potato brings more than starch, adding fibre and vitamin A, and the base as a whole holds carbohydrate to 43.6% of dry matter, under the 46.2% average for adult dry food. That is a restrained result for a grain-free kibble, where peas and potato often take up more room than they should.

Omega 3 here comes from linseed, and that is why no fish appears anywhere in the recipe. The trade is that plant omega 3 has to be converted before skin and coat can make full use of it. That conversion runs slower than taking the finished forms from marine oil. A coat takes weeks to answer, not days.

Poultry fat is the exception on a label that otherwise speaks plainly. Chicken, turkey and egg are all named, but the fat says only poultry, which could mean any farmed bird. It is common shorthand and most dogs will never notice, though it does leave a small gap if you are working out which bird your dog objects to.

The rest is sensible housekeeping. Dried beet pulp at 3.5% brings gentle fibre, the gut bacteria are fed by fructooligosaccharides at 0.25%, and sodium hexametaphosphate at 0.4% works on the teeth rather than on nutrition. Brewer's dried yeast brings B vitamins and a savoury note that fussier dogs tend to appreciate.

The additive panel is dosed in print, with taurine at 500mg, vitamin E at 250mg, zinc at 62.5mg and iodine at 1.5mg per kilo. Calcium works out at 1.52% of dry matter, an ample adult level. Tocopherol extracts at 21mg and rosemary extract stop the fats turning, with nothing synthetic involved.

Sold in one bag size, 12kg.

As a rough guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would eat about 232 grams a day, working from the standard maintenance target of around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75). The label's own guide asks 240 to 275 grams a day for a 20kg dog. Where the two disagree, the waistline decides.