GAIN Elite Grain Free Small Dogs: Adult Salmon review

Our bands place both of these in Good, level with the typical adult dry food. The reasoning reads straight off the packet. A quarter of each recipe is fresh meat with a species attached, and the dried form of that same animal comes close behind at a share worth having. The carbohydrate estimate lands within touching distance of what a dry food normally runs. Transparency reads Excellent on both, with protein and processing and nutritional balance at Average. The salmon edges ahead because more of its meat arrives dried.

Ingredients, as declared: Fresh salmon (25%), peas, dried salmon (17%), sweet potatoes, potato flakes, 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).

Fresh meat at 25% opens each list, and the dried version of the same animal follows at 14% or 17%. That dried share matters more than its printed position. Water leaves fresh meat during cooking, and dried meat brings its protein through intact. Between the two of them the meat here is doing genuine work, and the analysis agrees with protein at 27.2% of dry matter.

Peas sit unusually high, second on both labels. Whole peas are no bad thing in a bowl: they carry fibre and antioxidants, with a little protein of their own. A large pea share is also the standard way to build a grain free recipe without cereal, so their place on the list is worth a note.

Sweet potatoes and potato flakes complete the starch. Sweet potato is the better of the pair, and it brings fibre and vitamin A along with its sugars. Potato flakes mostly do the binding that holds a kibble in shape.

Each recipe carries a gravy of its own animal, 5% for the chicken and 4% for the salmon. A gravy is a cooked stock, and its job is to give the kibble the taste of the meat on the front. Linseed and salmon oil at 0.5% bring the omega 3, and dried chicory adds FOS and inulin, prebiotic fibres that feed a dog's own gut bacteria.

TruCal is the milk mineral complex, printed with a dose on both labels, and part of the calcium arrives in a dairy form. The chicken recipe totals 1.2% of dry matter and the salmon 1.3%. There is no glucosamine or MSM on either label, which is a fair call on recipes written for small frames rather than heavy ones.

Dried salmon at 17% is the largest dried meat share on either label, sitting behind fresh salmon at 25% with salmon gravy at 4%. That is what nudges this recipe just ahead of the chicken. Chicken fat remains on the list, so the fish billing applies to the meat rather than to the whole bowl.

No bag size is listed for either recipe.

As a guide, the label asks 98 to 113 grams a day for a dog between 5kg and 6kg on the chicken recipe, and 97 to 112 grams for the same dog on the salmon. By 8kg those rise to 140 and 139 grams respectively.