Happy Dog

Happy Dog Sensible Mini: Low Fat (Mini Toscana) review

Name: Happy Dog Sensible Mini: Low Fat (Mini Toscana)
Brand: Happy Dog

48.5/100Average

DryAdult

Flavour

The Happy Dog country range shrunk to a small kibble, with every recipe in our Average band. The reason to look at it is the protein list: horse, ostrich, rabbit and duck all come in a mini size, and the plainest labels run to eight or nine entries.

Where to buy: coming soon

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Our view

Likely to suit

Small dogs on a limited ingredient diet. Mini France, Mini Montana and Mini Africa each name a single animal
A protein your dog has not met before, from horse to ostrich
Small dogs kept off grain, on the four potato-led recipes
Carrying extra weight? Mini Toscana declares fat at 7.5%
Fussy small eaters, with chicken meat at 22% on Mini Japan and an extra small kibble
Fish first in the bowl: Mini Ireland is built on salmon meal at 12.5%

Worth watching

Oils and fats high on most lists with no source named, and hydrolysed protein unnamed too
Chicken appears only on Mini Japan, which matters if chicken is what you avoid
Fish meal on Mini Ireland, Mini Canada, Mini Toscana and Mini Japan, so those four are out for a dog kept off fish

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

How this scores

How we score

48.5/100Average

Protein and processingAverage

Nutritional balanceAverage

TransparencyGood

ValueAverage

The details

Dog fit

Listed for small adult dogs. For a formal elimination plan, raise the unnamed oils and fats and hydrolysed protein with your vet before you choose a recipe.

Food type

Dry

Life stage

Adult

Breed size

Small

Main protein

Duck

The score, in context

Low Fat (Mini Toscana) 48.5
Salmon (Mini Ireland) 47.8
Rabbit 47.3
Duck (Mini France) 46.3
Lamb (Mini New Zealand) 46.0
Chicken 45.6
Ostrich (Mini Africa) 42.0
Horse (Mini Montana) 38.3

All eight Average. Typical dry food: Good.

Mini Toscana reads highest and Mini Montana sits a fair way behind, so the useful choice here is which protein suits your dog more than which bag scores best.

What's in it

Duck protein (dried)23%
Maize flour, maize, rice
Salmon meal5%Fish, so this one is not fish free.
Beet pulp, hydrolysed proteinThe hydrolysed protein names no animal.
Oils and fatsFurther down than on most recipes here.
Apple pomace, yeasts, salts, seaweed, linseed
Dried whole egg
Mussel meat, elderberries, yucca0.05% mussel
Dried herbs, elderflowers and lavender among them0.2%

A full vitamin panel, with zinc at 135 mg per kilo, part of it as an amino acid chelate.

Fat is declared at 7.5%, the low-fat recipe of the range.

Named ingredients

Duck protein* (23 %), maize flour, maize, rice, salmon meal (5 %), beet pulp* (desugared), hydrolysed protein, oils and fats, apple pomace*, potassium chloride, yeasts*, sodium chloride, seaweed*, linseed, dried whole egg, mussel meat* (0.05 %), elderberries, milk thistle, yeasts* (extract), yucca schidigera*, artichoke, dandelion, ginger, birch leaves, stinging nettle, camomile, rosemary, sage, thyme, savory, marjoram, coriander, liquorice root, aniseed, basil, fennel, elderflowers, lavender flowers, (total dried herbs: 0.2 %) *dried

Against the range

Fat: 7.5% declared; 12% to 16% on the rest.
Energy: 324.5 kcal per 100g; Lowest of the eight.
Other animals on the label: Salmon, egg, mussel; Duck leads, as on Mini France.

The one for a small dog that needs to lose weight, and the highest scorer in the range.

Eight small-kibble recipes, each built around one or two named animals. Potato carries the starch on the plainest of them, rice or maize on others, and oats and barley on Mini Ireland. Potato protein lifts the protein figure on several labels without bringing in a second animal.

The oils and fats, the hydrolysed protein and, on Mini Japan, the hydrolysed liver arrive with no species attached, so a single named animal is not quite a closed list. None of the labels declares moisture, so every dry matter figure assumes 8%.

Nutritional analysis

Declared analysis

Energy

324.5 kcal/100g

Estimated using Modified Atwater factors*

Protein

24%

Fat

7.5%

Fibre

2.5%

Ash

7.5%

Dry weight

Protein

26.1%

Fat

8.2%

Fibre

2.7%

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

28.2%

Carbs

64.6%

Veg

1.5%

Oils

1.6%

Other

4.1%

Pricing & size