Eukanuba Grain Free Adult Small/Medium Breed Rich in Lamb review

The Good band is where our scoring leaves this recipe, the same band the adult dry average occupies. The lift comes from a label that names its animals and prints its percentages, and from protein converting to 28.3% of dry matter. A carbohydrate estimate of 45.8% slips in just under the 46.2% usual for adult dry food. What the recipe does not get credit for is the front of the bag, since lamb leads the name but shares the work with poultry. Judged as the mixed protein kibble for a small or medium adult that it actually is, it reads well. Nutritional balance at Average is the only pillar held back by the size of the plant base.

Ingredients, as declared: freshly frozen lamb (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 potatoes, dried beet pulp (4%), chicken gravy, linseed, minerals (including sodium hexametaphosphate 0.4%), dried whole egg, brewer's dried yeast, fructooligosaccharides (0.25%, a natural prebiotic).

Freshly frozen lamb at 21% opens the list, which sounds generous and needs a small mental adjustment. Frozen meat is still wet meat. Once the water has gone in the oven, the finished kibble holds a good deal less lamb than the figure implies. Lamb itself is a sound choice for a dog, easily digested and reliably tempting, and it is a red meat plenty of dogs meet far less often than chicken.

What actually anchors the protein is the dried chicken and turkey at 21%. With its water long gone, dried meat contributes considerably more gram for gram to the finished food than the fresh lamb above it. The chicken share is printed at 15%, more detail than most blends of this kind bother with. The same entry is credited on the label as the natural source of the glucosamine, chondroitin and taurine that travel with cartilage and meat.

The plant side runs dried sweet potato at 20%, whole peas and dried potato, with no cereal in sight. Sweet potato is the most useful of the three, carrying fibre and vitamin A alongside its starch, while potato is nearer to pure starch and peas contribute a little protein of their own. Carbohydrate lands at 45.8% of dry matter, a touch under the adult dry average, and fat at 15.2% gives an active small dog plenty to work with.

Linseed is the omega 3 entry, and with no marine oil anywhere the recipe stays entirely free of fish. Plant omega 3 needs converting before skin and coat can use it, and that happens more slowly than it does with the finished forms in fish. Results show up over weeks. Behind it, dried whole egg puts in a small helping of high quality protein.

The housekeeping entries are practical. Stools are steadied by dried beet pulp at 4%. Fructooligosaccharides at 0.25% feed the good bacteria further down, and sodium hexametaphosphate at 0.4% is on the list for the teeth. The additive panel is dosed line by line, taurine at 500mg, vitamin E at 250mg, zinc at 62.5mg and copper at 8mg per kilo. Calcium comes out at 1.52% of dry matter, a full adult level.

£3.58 a kilo, sold in a single 12kg bag.

Take a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition, allow the standard maintenance target of about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75), and the bowl lands near 235 grams, or £0.84 a day. The label's own table asks 240 to 280 grams for a 20kg dog, which is the better starting point for a bigger frame.