Gain

GAIN Original review

Name: GAIN Original
Brand: Gain

18.8/100Poor

DryAdult

The everyday member of the GAIN family, a cereal-led adult kibble described from top to bottom in category headings. It sits in our Poor band because there is nothing on the list a reader can grade. The analysis itself turns up nothing poor, only nothing remarkable.

Where to buy: coming soon

Live retailer links are coming soon. Once we have them from UK retailers, where to buy and the best price will appear here.

Our view

Likely to suit

Adult dogs of any build, from a terrier to a mastiff, fed from one recipe
Owners who want a straightforward bowl and no list to decode
Dogs with no history of food reactions
Dogs in ordinary daily work, at 335 kcal per 100g

Worth watching

Not one animal or grain named, so it cannot serve as a test diet
Oils and fats gives no source, animal or vegetable
Carbohydrate at 54.8% of dry matter, and protein light for a dog in hard work

Written by our editorial team. Independent guidance, not veterinary advice.

How this scores

How we score

18.8/100Poor

Protein and processingPoor

Nutritional balancePoor

TransparencyPoor

ValuePoor

The details

Dog fit

Listed for adult dogs of every size. Moisture is not printed, so the dry-matter figures assume 8%; follow the pack's table by weight and adjust by condition.

Food type

Dry

Life stage

Adult

Breed size

Toy, Small, Medium, Large, Giant

The score, in context

GAIN Original 18.8

All one Poor. Typical dry food: Good.

Almost all of the distance from the typical dry food is about disclosure, and the band is a comment on the label, not a forecast about your dog.

What's in it

CerealsCould be maize, wheat, barley, rice or oats, in any proportion.
Meat and animal derivativesLand animals, not fish, but no species and no grade.
Derivatives of vegetable origin
Oils and fatsNo source at all, so animal or vegetable.
MineralsListed but not dosed.
Products from the processing of plantsA fibre, a starch or a binder: the heading does not say.

No animal is named anywhere on the list, so a dog with a suspected trigger cannot be tested on it.

Named ingredients

Cereals, Meat & animal derivatives, Derivatives of vegetable origin, Oils & fats, Minerals, Products from the processing of plants

Against the range

Six entries cover the whole recipe and five are category headings, so it can be reformulated inside them without a word changing on the bag. No animal, grain or fat source is named, and the minerals carry no doses.

Price and value

Sold in 3kg and 15kg bags.

Feeding a 15kg adult in moderate condition comes out near 251 grams a day, based on about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). The pack's table asks 100 grams for a 4kg dog and 720 grams for a 60kg dog, with everything in between scaled to weight.

Nutritional analysis

Declared analysis

Energy

335.2 kcal/100g

Estimated using Modified Atwater factors*

Protein

21%

Fat

10%

Fibre

Ash

7.5%

Dry weight

Protein

22.8%

Fat

10.9%

Fibre

3.3%

Ash

8.2%

Carbs

54.8%

As-fed composition

Estimated breakdown of the finished product by ingredient category, from the declared ingredient list and ingoing weights. These are estimates, not measurements.

Meat

27.6%

Carbs

60.4%

Oils

5.8%

Other

6.2%

Pricing & size