Happy Dog Medium Adult review

Set against the rest of the adult dry shelf, whose middle sits in our Good band, this one comes out in that same band rather than above it. Three things drive that. Cereal fills the top plant slots, the animal share is declared but modest, and several entries settle for a category instead of naming the animal. Against that, the analysis is perfectly reasonable for a medium breed maintenance food and the vitamin and mineral panel is fully dosed in print. This recipe has kept a great many dogs in good shape over the years.

Ingredients, as declared: Animal proteins* (14 % poultry, 4 % lamb), maize, maize flour, rice, barley, oils and fats, fish meal (5 %, of which 50 % salmon meal), haemoglobin*, hydrolysed protein, beet pulp* (desugared), apple pomace*, potassium chloride, yeasts*, sodium chloride, seaweed*, linseed (0.16 %), dried whole egg (0.12 %), milk thistle, mussel meat* (0.02 %), yeasts* (extract), artichoke, dandelion, ginger (0.016 %) birch leaves, stinging nettle, camomile, coriander, rosemary, sage, liquorice root, thyme (total dried herbs: 0.16 %). *dried.

The opening entry is animal proteins, and the bracket after it does the useful work: 14% poultry and 4% lamb, both dried. The water has already gone, so these figures hold, where a fresh meat percentage would shrink in the oven. Fish meal at 5% adds a third animal source, half of it salmon meal.

After the animal proteins, cereal takes over. Maize, maize flour, rice and barley fill the next four slots. The carbohydrate estimate is 50.0% of dry matter against 46.2% for a typical adult dry food. Protein converts to 26.1% and fat to 14.1%, a steady maintenance analysis for a dog of middling size.

Poultry could mean chicken, turkey, duck or goose here, and the label never picks one. It is a common enough approach and it keeps the recipe flexible for the maker, but it does mean a dog with a chicken sensitivity cannot be fed this with confidence. Hydrolysed protein and haemoglobin fall into the same category, both animal derived, neither one named.

Oils and fats is the broadest term on the label and it sits sixth, so it is contributing meaningfully to the 13% fat on the analysis without telling you a thing about its origin. Where this maker does name things it names them properly, with linseed at 0.16%, dried whole egg at 0.12% and mussel meat at 0.02% all carrying figures.

The tail is where the brand's character lives. Milk thistle, artichoke, dandelion, ginger at 0.016% and a herb list totalling 0.16% follow the seaweed and the yeasts. Vitamin C at 20 mg joins the additive panel here, and the vitamins and trace elements are all declared with doses beside them. Desugared beet pulp is the fibre source, with apple pomace alongside it.

£3.87 a kilo, sold in 1kg, 4kg, 12kg and 24kg bags.

A 15kg adult dog in moderate condition needs roughly 227 grams a day, assuming about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate), giving £0.88 a day. The bag's own table asks 200 grams for a 15kg dog and 245 grams for a 20kg dog. Where you sit in that range is down to your dog's condition.