Husse Adult Sterilised review

Our reading puts this in the Good band, level with the typical adult dry food, so the gap worth talking about is in the build rather than the placing. What earns the gap is a dried meat at the front and a vitamin and mineral panel printed dose by dose. The analysis does what the name promises: fat converts to 12.0% of dry matter with protein still at 30.4%. Nutritional balance reads Good even with carbohydrate at 47.2% of dry matter, transparency is the one pillar to read Average, and maize gluten is the single entry holding the recipe back.

Ingredients, as declared: dried chicken, rice, maize, maize gluten, vegetable fibres (5%), animal fat, linseed (2%), hydrolysed animal protein, dried salmon, salmon oil (1%), brewer's yeast (1%), inulin (0.3%, source of fructo-oligosaccharides), dried eggs, minerals, marine algae.

Dried chicken leads, which is the form you want at the top of a list. The water has already gone, so its position in the ranking is its position in the finished kibble. Rice and maize follow as the starch, and vegetable fibres are declared at 5%, a level chosen to keep a hungry dog feeling fed for longer between meals.

Maize gluten is the entry to be straight about. It is what maize processing leaves behind, and it tops up a protein figure without adding more meat. Dogs handle it less comfortably than they handle protein from an animal. At fourth on the list it is not a token inclusion. For most dogs it passes without incident, but for one with a history of itchy skin it is the line to notice first.

The weight-conscious thinking runs through the small print as well as the headline. L-carnitine at 300 mg per kilo helps shift fat to where the body burns it. That is why it appears in recipes for a dog whose needs have dropped. Vitamin C is dosed at 425 mg, with vitamin E at 500 mg.

Omega 3 arrives twice, as linseed at 2% and as dried salmon with salmon oil at 1%. The plant form has to be converted inside the dog before it does much for skin, while the marine form is ready to use. Having both on one label is better than having either alone.

The supporting animal lines stay unnamed. Animal fat and hydrolysed animal protein could be any species, the second there as a palatant, and an owner running a strict elimination trial cannot pin either of them down. Inulin at 0.3% and brewer's yeast at 1% close the list off on the digestive side, with marine algae last.

£5.08 a kilo, in a 12kg bag or a twin pack of two 12kg bags.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition needs about 245 grams a day, assuming around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate), which comes to £1.24 a day. The label's own table asks 120 to 280 grams for a dog between 10kg and 20kg, so read the two together and let the dog's shape decide.