Husse Active review

Our scoring reads this as a Good band food, the same band most adult dry food falls into. Two things get it there. Dried chicken heads the list. A dried meat carries no water with it, so weight for weight it contributes far more to the kibble than fresh meat does. The analysis then backs that up, with protein at 31.5% of dry matter, fat at 18.5% and carbohydrate estimated at 39.1%, comfortably under the 46.2% typical of adult dry food. Nutritional balance reads Good and so does protein and processing, lifted by that dried chicken lead, while transparency reads Poor, pulled down by the entries that name no species.

Ingredients, as declared: dried chicken, wheat, wheat bran, animal fat, maize, linseed (3%), vegetable fibres (3%), dried peas, dried fish (1%), hydrolysed animal protein, brewer's yeast, minerals.

Dried chicken in first place is the single most important thing on this label. Most of a fresh meat entry's weight disappears in the oven. Opening with an already dried meat therefore starts from a much stronger position than a big fresh percentage would suggest, and protein finishing at 31.5% of dry matter shows it.

Wheat and wheat bran follow, with maize behind them, and they are the reason the ingredient reading stays where it does. They make an inexpensive and effective biscuit base, and most dogs eat them without a second thought. Wheat is among the cereals most often behind an itchy or unsettled dog, so it is worth knowing whose bowl this is going into. Because the fat level is doing so much of the energy work, carbohydrate stays at an estimated 39.1% of dry matter, well below the 46.2% typical of adult dry food.

The functional extras are modest and, refreshingly, all named. Linseed at 3% supplies the plant form of omega 3s, and vegetable fibres at 3% are there for stool quality. A little plant protein and fibre come in with the dried peas. Dried fish at 1% adds the marine omega 3s that plants cannot deliver directly. Brewer's yeast is a small entry worth having, since B vitamins come naturally with it.

The trace mineral doses are all printed: zinc at 65 mg, iron at 50 mg, manganese at 35 mg, copper at 5 mg, iodine at 1.5 mg and selenium at 0.1 mg per kilo. Vitamin E at 150 mg and vitamin C at 90 mg per kilo round out the antioxidant side, and preservation is natural, using tocopherol extracts and rosemary. Calcium works out at 1.3% of dry matter, a settled adult level.

Two notes on reading the numbers. No moisture is declared, so the dry matter column takes the 8% a dry kibble normally holds. The energy figure of 372 kcal per 100g is an estimate, not a declared value. Hydrolysed animal protein, the palatant that makes a working dog's kibble worth finishing, and the animal fat are the entries that stay unnamed.

£4.00 a kilo, sold as a 15kg bag or as a twin pack of two 15kg bags.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition would eat about 226 grams a day, assuming around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate), giving £0.90 a day. A genuinely active dog eats more than a maintenance ration, and the label's own table stretches to 380 grams for a 20kg dog, so feed to the work your dog is actually doing.