GAIN Supreme review

Our bands put this one in Poor, two steps under the Good band that holds the middle of the adult dry shelf. Three things on the label do it: the first ingredient is a whole category instead of a named grain, and most of the meat is described by family and not by species. The carbohydrate share also finishes above the dry food norm. Nutritional balance reads Average, with protein and processing and transparency both reading Poor, and that is the label's doing rather than the bowl's. Fed to an adult dog with a reliable stomach, it does the plain everyday job it was built for.

Ingredients, as declared: Cereals, Meat & animal derivatives (min 14% Chicken (min 4% 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

Cereals lead the list, and which grains they are is never stated. The term stretches from good rice and oats all the way down to the plainest grain fractions. Because it is a category and not a name, the grain behind it can change from one production run to the next. Derivatives of vegetable origin at a minimum of 4% and products from the processing of plants are written the same way. That is the single biggest thing this label chooses not to tell you.

The meat line reads as meat and animal derivatives with a minimum of 14% chicken and a minimum of 4% beef named within it. Naming two species is more than plenty of labels of this type manage, and both are digestible, well liked meats. The wording also allows other animal material to sit in the same line unnamed, so the 14% and the 4% are the parts you can count on.

Protein converts to 23.9% of dry matter and fat to 12.0%, with carbohydrate estimated at 53.8% of dry matter where the typical adult dry food runs at 46.2%. Those dry matter figures take moisture at 8%, the usual level for a kibble, because the label does not declare a moisture content of its own.

The fibre thinking is the nicest part of the recipe. Sugar beet pulp carries both soluble and insoluble fibre. Chicory fructo-oligosaccharides sit behind it as a prebiotic. That is the sort of ingredient the good bacteria in the large intestine feed on. The omega 3 here comes from linseed, in the plant form. A dog works more slowly on that than on the marine kind, so allow a coat some time to show it.

The mineral line is a single word with no dosed panel behind it, which leaves zinc, copper and the rest unquantified. Calcium works out at 1.63% of dry matter, comfortable for a grown dog and towards the upper end of what you would want during growth, which only matters if a puppy ever shares the bowl.

Sold in a 15kg bag.

As a guide, an adult dog of 15kg in moderate condition eats around 244 grams a day, working from about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). The label's own table asks 228 grams for a 13kg dog and 305 grams for one of 20kg. That lands close to the estimate above, and where the two differ the waistline decides.