Heights Farm Dietary+Plus Weight Control Formula review

This recipe lands in our Good band, alongside the typical adult dry food. The thinking behind it is sound, since a low fat figure, a raised fibre figure and an energy density under the category average are what a slimming bowl needs. The order of the list is what holds the placing where it is. Rice and oats sit ahead of the meat, the two named meals contribute 12% each, and carbohydrate finishes at 55.5% of dry matter where 46.2% is usual for an adult dry food. Reduced fat almost always means more of the plant side, so this is the trade the recipe has chosen to make.

Ingredients, as declared: Rice, Oats, Beef (12%) & Chicken (12%)Meal, unmolassed Beet Pulp, peas, Chicken liver, Alfalfa, Chicken Fat, Yeast, Salmon Oil, Mannan Oligosaccharides, Glucosamine (1,000mg/kg) Green Lipped Mussel (500mg/kg) Seaweed, Milk Thistle, Marigold, Yucca Schidigera, Kale, Beetroot, Rosemary

The bulk comes from rice and oats, the two entries that open the list. Both are gentle cereals once cooked, and oats especially so. The soluble fibre in oats is what keeps a dog feeling fed on less. Behind them the beef meal and chicken meal are declared at 12% each, so the animal side is named twice over and given in its dried, concentrated form. That is the honest way to declare meat, because none of that weight vanishes in the oven.

The satiety side is carefully built. Unmolassed beet pulp and peas add bulk and fermentable fibre, alfalfa adds more, and fibre finishes at 5.6% of dry matter with fat at just 7.8%. Energy comes out at 342 kcal per 100g, under the 357 typical for adult dry food, which means a dog eating a normal-looking bowl takes in less than they would on a standard recipe. A food like this is built for exactly that, and it slims a dog more kindly than simply cutting the portion.

Chicken liver is the most interesting entry on the list. Liver is nutrient dense, rich in vitamin B12 and vitamin A, and dogs find it hard to ignore, which is a genuine advantage in a lighter recipe where palatability usually suffers. Salmon oil brings marine omega 3s and chicken fat supplies the animal fat, both kept in small amounts to hold the fat figure down.

For the joints there is glucosamine dosed in print with green lipped mussel at 500 mg per kilo, the mussel being a shellfish used specifically for stiffness and carrying marine omega 3s of its own. Mannan oligosaccharides act as a prebiotic for the gut. Milk thistle, marigold, yucca, seaweed, kale, beetroot and rosemary make up a botanical tail that the recipe does not lean on but which does no harm at all.

The mineral panel is dosed generously where it counts, with zinc sulphate at 400 mg, iron at 80 mg, manganese at 75 mg and copper at 35 mg per kilo. Three entries are listed without figures: a zinc chelate, sodium selenite and carnitine. Carnitine is the one worth a mention, since it is the supplement best known for helping a dog use fat for energy. A printed dose would have been useful on a weight-control label. Calcium converts to 2.22% of dry matter, at the generous end for a dry food, which fits a recipe written for adults rather than growing dogs.

£3.73 a kilo, sold in 2kg and 15kg bags.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would eat about 246 grams a day at maintenance, on around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That comes to roughly £0.92 a day. A dog being slimmed will be eating under that by design. The label's chart asks 140 to 280 grams for dogs between 10kg and 25kg, so start at the lower end and let the waistline guide the rest.