GAIN Active review

Our reading puts this in the Average band while the middle of the adult dry category reads Good, and almost the whole of that gap is about naming. Protein and processing reads Poor and so does transparency. Nothing on the list is objectionable, but cereals, meat and animal derivatives, oils and fats and derivatives of vegetable origin cover an enormous range of quality that the bag never pins down.

Read the analysis instead and the picture is friendlier. Protein converts to 29.3% of dry matter and fat to 16.3%, a genuinely energetic bowl. The carbohydrate estimate is 43.5% of dry matter, under the 46.2% typical of adult dry food. Calcium works out at 1.74% of dry matter. Moisture is not declared, so those dry matter conversions use the 8% standard assumed for a dry food, and the energy figure is our estimate rather than a label declaration.

Ingredients, as declared: Cereals, Meat & animal derivatives (min 14%) Chicken (min 14% beef), Oils & fats, Derivatives of vegetable origin (min 4%), Sugar beet pulp, (min 15% Chicory FOS), Minerals, Seeds (Linseed), Fish & fish derivatives, Products from the processing of plants.

The list opens with cereals, a term that can mean anything from whole oats to the sweepings of a mill. That is not evidence of a poor ingredient. Decent foods use broad terms for their own reasons. The grain, though, can change between batches with the bag staying exactly the same. It matters when a dog has once reacted to a grain.

Meat and animal derivatives is declared at a minimum of 14%, and the label names chicken and beef within it, which is more than many foods using the same term will tell you. Derivatives are the parts of the animal left once the prime cuts are taken, and they run from genuinely nutritious organ meat to a good deal less interesting material. What the term cannot do is let you rule a species in or out.

The named entries further down are the better part of this label. Sugar beet pulp is a well established fibre source that supports the gut. Chicory FOS is a real prebiotic, and the large intestine's own bacteria are what it feeds. Linseed carries a plant version of omega 3, plus some useful fibre. Fish and fish derivatives adds a marine element, and it is worth knowing about before you choose this for a fish-avoiding dog.

The analysis holds up well for the dog this bag is written for. Fat at 16.3% of dry matter and protein at 29.3% make the kind of dense bowl a working dog needs. Fibre is kept modest at 2.7% of dry matter, so the volume stays sensible for a dog eating on the move. No calorie figure is printed, so the 362 kcal per 100g here is our own estimate off the analysis. Moisture is not printed either, and the dry matter conversions therefore use the 8% standard assumed for a dry food.

Sold in a 15kg bag.

As a guide, an adult dog of 15kg in moderate condition works through about 232 grams a day. That assumes an intake of around 840 kcal a day, which is 110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate. Real working days push a dog above that figure.