Husse Grain Free High Energy Support Adult review

Nutritional balance is the standout here at Outstanding, with transparency at Average. Value reads Good, protein and processing too, and the overall reading sits in our Good band alongside the middle of the adult dry category. The figures make the argument. Protein converts to 41.3% of dry matter and fat to 21.7%, leaving carbohydrate at an estimated 24.8% where a typical adult dry food sits at 46.2%. A dried meat leads the list, potato and pea rather than cereal do the binding, and every additive is printed with its dose. Naming is what stops it climbing further. A pair of the supporting animal entries never say which animal they came from.

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

Dried chicken leads, and in dried form its position is not being flattered by water that will cook away. Everything after it is plant or supplement, so the animal side of this recipe rests on that entry plus the fat and the hydrolysed protein behind it.

Dried potatoes and dried peas take on the starch job. Potato is mostly starch and does that work efficiently, while peas bring fibre, a spread of vitamins and some plant protein alongside it. Between them they hold the carbohydrate estimate to 24.8% of dry matter, which is low for a dry food of any kind and the main reason the analysis reads as well as it does.

Protein at 38% and fat at 20% make this an energy-dense recipe, and calcium works out at 1.85% of dry matter, at the upper end of comfortable for a grown dog. The label is written for adults, so growth is not the question here, and vegetable fibres keep a little roughage in the mix.

The extras are dosed and printed. Taurine is dosed at 1000 mg per kilo, and taurine is the amino acid the heart muscle draws on. L-carnitine at 300 mg has its role in fat metabolism. Biotin at 1 mg supports skin and coat, and vitamin C reads 425 mg with vitamin E at 500 mg. Brewer's yeast adds natural B vitamins, inulin at 0.3% feeds the gut bacteria and dried eggs contribute easily used protein.

Salmon oil is the only fish on the list, and it is doing omega 3 work that linseed alone would do more slowly, since a dog converts the plant form at its own leisurely pace. It also means a fish-free bowl is not what this is, which matters if that is why you are shopping. A strict single-protein trial would need a label that says more than this one does, since the animal fat goes unnamed and so does the hydrolysed animal protein.

£5.91 a kilo, sold in a 12kg bag and in a two-bag pack of the same size.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition eats about 219 grams a day, assuming around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate), which comes to £1.30 a day. The label asks between 90 and 200 grams for a dog of 10kg to 20kg, and an active dog belongs at the upper end of that.