Gilpa Kennel review

Average is where our bands put this food, a step under the Good band that holds the middle of the adult dry market. Nutritional balance reads Poor and protein and processing Average, and the reasons are visible without a magnifying glass. Wheat is ahead of everything else, most of the meat is named only by family, protein finishes at 22.0% of dry matter, and the carbohydrate share sits well above the kibble norm. Transparency reads Good, since the label does at least put a figure on its chicken. What the band cannot show is that the recipe still finds room for green lipped mussel extract and linseed. For a big adult dog with a settled digestion it is a plain working ration.

Ingredients, as declared: Wheat, poultry meal (15% chicken), maize, chicken fat, whey, yeast, vitamins and minerals, linseed, yucca extract, mixed herbs, extract of New Zealand green-lipped mussel.

Wheat opens the list. It binds a kibble beautifully and it has fed working dogs for generations, which is why it heads so many rations of this kind. Of all the cereals, wheat is the one named most often in a grain intolerance, so a wheat sensitive dog is not the audience for this bag.

The meat entry is poultry meal with chicken declared at 15%. A meal is dried, ground meat. Weight for weight it goes further than fresh meat, and chicken is a good, digestible protein to build on. The rest of the poultry line is not tied to any one bird, and that is the label's biggest silence.

Maize follows the wheat, chicken fat is the named added fat, and whey brings a little protein along with the milk sugars that come with it. Protein converts to 22.0% of dry matter, fat to 11.0% and carbohydrate to an estimated 57.7%, against 46.2% for the typical adult dry food. The plant side of the recipe is therefore supplying most of the energy here.

The last few entries are the most interesting ones. Linseed brings plant omega 3. Yucca extract has long been used in kennels for the smell of the runs, and mixed herbs stay a category with no names behind it. New Zealand green lipped mussel extract closes the list, a well regarded source of the omega 3s that help easier movement, which makes obvious sense on a food aimed at big older dogs.

Vitamins and minerals are declared as a single phrase with no panel published behind it, so there is nothing to read on zinc, copper or calcium. Energy is an estimate at 339 kcal per 100g rather than a figure the maker declares.

£1.83 a kilo, sold in a 15kg bag.

Feeding a 15kg adult in moderate condition works out at about 248 grams a day from a maintenance estimate of 840 kcal (110 × bodyweight^0.75), or £0.45. The dogs this food is actually written for are bigger than that, and the label asks 370 to 680 grams a day for dogs between 20kg and 45kg.