GAIN Elite Grain Free Big Dogs: Adult Salmon review

Both recipes come out in our Good band, the same band the typical adult dry food finishes in. What they do well is earned at the front of the list, with nothing exotic further down it. A quarter of each recipe is fresh meat of one named species, the dried form of that same animal follows straight behind, and there is no cereal anywhere on either label. Transparency reads Excellent on the strength of that, with protein and processing at Average. Nutritional balance reads Average too, because carbohydrate still comes to a little over half of dry matter once the peas and the two potatoes are counted. That is the honest limit of a grain free recipe built at this size.

Ingredients, as declared: Fresh salmon (25%), peas, sweet potatoes, potato flakes, dried salmon (13%), chicken fat, salmon gravy (4%), dried beet pulp, linseed, dried chicory (a natural source of FOS and inulin), salmon oil (0.5%), minerals, TruCal Milk Mineral Complex (1,000 mg/kg), Methylsulphonyl Methane (300 mg/kg MSM), Glucosamine Hydrochloride (300mg/kg).

Fresh meat at 25% is the headline on both. Read the word fresh carefully, because water is most of that weight and the oven drives it off. So the dried meat behind it, chicken at 12% or salmon at 13%, supplies more protein to the finished kibble than its place in the running order suggests. The gravy is a cooked stock of the same animal, there for flavour: 5% of the chicken recipe and 4% of the salmon.

Peas sit second on both lists. Whole peas earn their place, with fibre and antioxidants and a modest protein contribution of their own. A heavy pea share is also the usual shortcut for building a grain free kibble, so their position on the list is worth noticing.

Sweet potato and potato flakes finish the starch side. Of the two, the sweet potato is the one to note. It is not a true potato at all, and it is considerably richer in fibre and vitamin A. The potato flakes are mostly there to hold the kibble together.

Linseed and salmon oil at 0.5% supply the omega 3, one from a seed and one from a fish, which is a sensible pairing for skin and coat. It does mean fish is on the chicken label as well as the salmon one. Dried beet pulp and dried chicory handle the gut side, chicory root being where the FOS and inulin come from, prebiotic fibres that feed the bacteria a dog already has.

TruCal is the milk mineral complex, and both labels dose it in print. Some of the calcium therefore arrives in a dairy form. On the chicken the total lands at 1.2% of dry matter, on the salmon 1.09%, comfortable adult levels either way. Glucosamine hydrochloride and MSM follow at 300 mg/kg each. On a food for heavy dogs, a printed dose beats a front-of-bag claim every time.

Fresh salmon at 25% with dried salmon at 13% and salmon gravy at 4%, so a shade more of the meat arrives in its dried form than on the chicken recipe. Chicken fat is still on the list, so this is a fish recipe with poultry in it.

The bag sizes for these two recipes are not listed.

As a guide, the label's own table asks 340 to 390 grams a day for a dog between 25kg and 30kg, and 484 to 572 grams for a dog between 40kg and 50kg. The same figures are given on both recipes.