Happy Dog Sano N review

Ingredients, as declared: Maize, rice flour, potato flakes, poultry fat, beef fat, dried whole egg (4 %), salmon meal (4 %), meat meal (2 %), hydrolysed liver, beet pulp* (desugared), apple pomace*, potassium chloride, sodium chloride, calcium carbonate, yeasts*, barley, green oats*, sunflowers*, cress*, parsley*, (total dried herbs: 0.2 %); *) dried.

Maize leads, with rice flour and potato flakes behind it, so the starch side of this kibble is doing most of the work by weight. Two fats follow straight after, poultry fat and then beef fat. Dried whole egg and salmon meal come in at 4% each, meat meal at 2%, and hydrolysed liver behind them as the coating that keeps the food appealing.

The naming is mixed. Salmon meal and beef fat tell you the animal they came from. Meat meal at 2% does not, and poultry fat leaves the bird open, so this list on its own will not clear a dog that is steering clear of one particular meat. Egg is declared plainly, which helps if that is the one you are watching.

The fibre comes from desugared beet pulp and apple pomace. Potassium chloride and sodium chloride are printed next to each other, the mineral pairing a maker prints when electrolyte balance is part of what the food is for. Calcium carbonate follows, then yeasts, barley, green oats, sunflowers, cress and parsley, with dried herbs adding up to 0.2% in total.

Protein is declared at 12.5%, converting to 13.6% of dry matter, and that low figure is the whole design of a restricted diet rather than something absent from it. Fat runs to 15.2% of dry matter, the carbohydrate estimate reaches 65.2%, and energy is worked out at 373 kcal per 100g rather than printed on the pack.

Calcium comes to 0.49% of dry matter, a restrained figure for a dry food and consistent with a recipe holding minerals down. The added panel prints vitamins A and D3 with every trace element dosed individually, zinc at 95 mg per kilo and iron at 60, and L-tryptophan is included at 1000 mg per kilo. None of this settles whether the food belongs in your dog's bowl; that decision sits with the vet who put them on a restricted diet in the first place.

It is sold in 1kg and 7.5kg bags at £5.60 a kilo. On an energy based estimate a 15kg dog would eat about 225 grams a day, which works out at roughly £1.26 a day at that rate, with the real portion coming from your vet.