Husse Hypoallergenic Skin & Coat Adult Small Breeds review

Our banding gives this bag a Good reading, and the typical adult dry food earns the same, so the interest is in the design rather than the position. Protein converts to 26.1% of dry matter and estimated carbohydrate to 49.7%, above the 46.2% typical, which is what happens when rice fills three places on a list and the fish carries no percentage. The panel of vitamins and trace minerals is fully dosed and the ash load is light. Read it as a small-breed food for a dog with fussy skin, and it delivers what the front of the bag describes.

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.

Salmon arrives dried, which is the form that comes through the oven with its weight intact, so seeing it first on the list means something. It is also the sensible fish for a skin recipe, because the omega 3s in the flesh itself are already in the shape a dog's body wants them. No percentage is given, so the meat share has to be read off the analysis, and there protein reaches 26.1% of dry matter.

Behind the fish sit brown rice, rice and rice flour. Using one grain in three guises keeps the recipe simple for a dog that reacts to things, and it leaves wheat, maize and soya off the label altogether. Rice is gentle and easily digested, and it is also why the estimated carbohydrate figure of 49.7% of dry matter sits on the full side of the 46.2% typical.

The coat plan is fat led. Salmon oil at 1% supplies the marine omega 3s that skin uses without conversion. Linseed at 2% supplies the plant form for the body to work on more slowly, and marine algae adds iodine and trace minerals. Brewer's yeast is the B vitamin source, and B vitamins matter as much to skin as anything you can put in a bowl. Coats answer in weeks, not days, so give a first bag time to speak.

Digestion has not been forgotten. Inulin at 0.3% is a prebiotic, and the good bacteria further down the gut are what it feeds. Vegetable fibres, beet pulp by another name, keep stools tidy. Crude fibre finishes at 3.3% of dry matter, enough to do that job without hurrying anything through.

The label goes quiet in one place. The animal fat says nothing about its species and neither does the hydrolysed animal protein. The fat carries most of the energy and the hydrolysate makes the kibble taste of something. For the vast majority of dogs neither is an issue, but they are the reason the fish-only reading of this list does not quite hold up. Everywhere else the figures are printed, zinc at 65 mg, vitamin E at 500 mg and biotin at 1 mg per kilo among them.

£6.99 a kilo, in 2kg and 7kg bags.

The day rate quoted here uses a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition, heavier than most dogs this bag is written for. About 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate) comes to roughly 231 grams and £1.62. A 5kg dog eats a fraction of that, and the label's own table asks 65 to 160 grams once a dog is between 5kg and 10kg.