Husse Hypoallergenic Skin & Coat Adult review

Our banding reads Good here, and the typical adult dry food reads the same, so the difference between them lies in the design rather than the standard. The build explains the position. Protein converts to 26.1% of dry matter, ordinary for a kibble, and estimated carbohydrate to 49.7% against the 46.2% typical, because rice fills three slots and the meat carries no declared percentage. Against that, the trace minerals and vitamins carry a dose apiece, and the ash load is genuinely light. For an adult dog whose skin is the reason you are shopping in the first place, the fats and the short list matter more than where the banding falls.

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

Dried salmon leads, water already removed, so it keeps the weight it starts with once the kibble has been baked. For a skin recipe salmon is a useful meat. The omega 3s in the fish are already long-chain, so skin uses them directly with no conversion needed on the way. No percentage is printed against it, so the analysis is where the meat share shows: protein lands at 26.1% of dry matter.

Rice does the rest of the work, three times over. Brown rice keeps its bran and releases more slowly. Plain rice follows it, and rice flour lower down binds the kibble together. Sticking inside one grain family is the whole point on a food written for sensitive dogs, and it means neither wheat nor maize gets a look in. The trade is a fuller carbohydrate figure, estimated at 49.7% of dry matter against 46.2% for the typical adult dry food.

Linseed at 2% and salmon oil at 1% are the coat's two engines and they run at different speeds. The oil delivers omega 3 in the form skin can put to work immediately, while linseed's version has to be converted first and arrives more slowly, which is a decent argument for having both. Marine algae adds iodine and trace minerals, and brewer's yeast brings the B vitamins that skin leans on, and coat and claws with it.

The gut gets a look in too. Inulin at 0.3% is a prebiotic, and its work is on the good bacteria of the large bowel. The bulk that keeps stools firm comes from vegetable fibres, beet pulp under a friendlier name. Crude fibre finishes at 3.3% of dry matter.

Being straight about the vague entries: the word animal is as far as the fat and the hydrolysate go. Most of the energy in this recipe comes from the fat, and the hydrolysate is a palatant. Neither is likely to trouble most dogs, but together they are the reason this cannot honestly be called a fish-only food. Everything else is properly dosed: zinc at 65 mg, vitamin E at 500 mg, vitamin C at 425 mg and biotin at 1 mg per kilo. Of those, the coat notices zinc and biotin most.

£6.41 a kilo. It comes as a 12kg bag, and a twin pack of two is listed as well.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition wants around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate), which is about 231 grams from this bag and £1.48 a day. The label's table asks between 90 and 200 grams for a 10kg to 20kg dog, slightly less than that estimate, so watch the waistline and settle somewhere sensible between the two.