Eukanuba Special Care Weight Control Adult Small/Medium Breed Rich in Chicken review

This one lands in our Average band, a step under the Good band where the midpoint of adult dry food sits. Value reads Average in step with it, protein and processing also Average, transparency Good and nutritional balance Poor. The reason is plain on the list. The meat entries are named and their chicken share is broken out, which is more than plenty of supermarket kibbles manage. Cereals hold first place and places four to six, and the fat has been lowered by leaning harder on starch. Adding lean meat was not the route taken. For the job written on the front of the bag, keeping a small or medium adult trim on a full-looking portion, it does what it says. The maker leaves moisture out, so the dry matter figures here run on the standard 8%.

Ingredients, as declared: maize, dried chicken and turkey (16% including chicken 11%, a natural source of glucosamine, chondroitin and taurine), fresh chicken (10%), barley, sorghum, wheat, dried beet pulp (3.1%), fish meal, chicken gravy, poultry fat, minerals (including sodium hexametaphosphate 0.36%), dried whole egg, linseed, brewer's dried yeast (a natural source of B-vitamins and selenium), fructooligosaccharides (0.26%, a natural prebiotic), glucosamine (from animal tissues) (0.04%).

Maize leads the list, and most of what is in the kibble comes from there. The meat behind it is declared properly though: dried chicken and turkey at 16%, the chicken share within it printed at 11%, then fresh chicken at 10%. Dried meat is the entry that survives cooking intact, so the 16% is the more meaningful of the two figures. Protein converts to 22.8% of dry matter and fat to 9.8%, which is the light fat the recipe is named for.

Behind the maize come barley, sorghum and wheat. Barley is a well-regarded cereal in a dog bowl once cooked, bringing fibre along with selenium and copper. Sorghum is a starch source with much the same profile as maize and happens to be gluten free. Wheat is the one a fair number of owners choose to steer around, being the cereal intolerance is most often pinned on. Carbohydrate ends up at an estimated 58.0% of dry matter, well above the 46.2% typical of adult dry food. Take fat out of a kibble and the space has to be filled.

The weight thinking is not only about fat. L-carnitine is dosed at 50 mg per kilo. It is the amino acid the body uses to turn fat into energy, and a standard addition to lighter diets. Beet pulp at 3.1% brings the fibre that helps a smaller meal feel like a proper one, and fructooligosaccharides at 0.26% work on the bacteria further down the gut.

Joint support is present but light. Glucosamine from animal tissues sits at 0.04%, with the dried chicken and turkey credited for glucosamine, chondroitin and taurine on the label. There is no separately dosed chondroitin figure on this recipe. Sodium hexametaphosphate at 0.36% is in the mineral mix for a different job. It makes tartar harder to settle on the teeth, which matters most in exactly the small breeds this bag is written for.

Two entries keep the recipe from being a single-protein food. Poultry fat carries the family name rather than a species, which leaves duck and goose technically possible, and fish meal names no fish at all. Neither is any trouble for a dog with no history, and both are simply worth reading properly if you are ruling ingredients in or out. Dried whole egg, linseed and brewer's yeast round the list off. Brewer's yeast is there for B vitamins and selenium. Each trace mineral is an amino acid chelate, and each has its dose printed.

£3.58 a kilo, sold in three bag sizes, the largest of them 15kg.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition works out at about 250 grams a day, or £0.89, assuming around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). Eukanuba's own table asks 255 to 295 grams for a 20kg dog. Any difference between the two is settled at the waistline.