Husse Opus Farm review

Opus Farm reaches our Good band, the band that holds the middle of the adult dry category as well. The analysis does most of that work. Protein converts to 41.3% of dry matter and carbohydrate to an estimated 25.0%, roughly half the 46.2% typical of adult dry food, which is a genuinely meat forward result for a kibble. The label is what stops it climbing further, not the recipe: no percentage is given for the chicken and two working entries never name their species.

Ingredients, as declared: chicken, potato, dried peas, animal fat, linseed, vegetable fibres, hydrolysed animal protein, yeast, salmon oil, salt, dried whole eggs, fructo-oligosaccharides (0.3%), lecithin, sea algae, rosemary.

Chicken heads a list with no grain on it anywhere. Potato and dried peas take the starch job instead, and both are sound choices, peas in particular bringing protein, fibre and a decent spread of vitamins along with their carbohydrate. Kept in proportion, as they are here behind the meat, they read as an asset rather than as padding.

The declared analysis is the headline act. Protein at 38.0% and fat at 20.0% as fed convert to 41.3% and 21.7% of dry matter on the 8% moisture a kibble typically holds, and carbohydrate estimates at 25.0% of dry matter. That is a long way under the 46.2% a typical adult dry food carries. The meat here is doing more than heading the list; it fills much of the bag.

Two estimates sit behind those figures, and it is worth saying so out loud. The label does not print moisture, so the dry matter conversions use the standard 8% assumption. The 384 kcal per 100g is worked from the analysis, with no declaration from the maker. Neither is likely to be far out, and both are the usual position for a food that publishes a full analysis without a moisture line.

The supporting list is brief and every entry has a job. Linseed and salmon oil cover the omega 3s between them, and dried whole eggs add high quality protein. Vegetable fibres and fructo-oligosaccharides at 0.3% look after the gut. Sea algae brings iodine and trace minerals, and rosemary is a natural antioxidant. Salt appears too, as it does on most kibbles, doing its usual job of making the bowl more tempting.

Here is the point an owner of a chicken fed dog will care about most. Salmon oil in the recipe means the bag is not fish free. The hydrolysed animal protein gives only a family name, and so does the animal fat. That is no reflection on their quality, and a hydrolysed protein is broken down far enough that most sensitive dogs handle it comfortably. The label still cannot prove a one animal diet.

The additive panel is fully dosed: iron at 201 mg/kg, zinc at 108 mg/kg plus a further 12 mg/kg from a second source, and manganese at 63 mg/kg. Copper is at 7.5 mg/kg, iodine at 3.1 mg/kg, selenium at 0.20 mg/kg and biotin at 1 mg/kg. Calcium works out at 1.41% of dry matter, comfortable for an adult. Clinoptilolite at 10 g/kg is the clay that keeps the kibble flowing.

£5.91 a kilo, sold in a 12kg bag.

Take a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition as the guide: about 219 grams a day, assuming around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). The daily figure is £1.29. For dogs between 11kg and 30kg the label suggests 88 to 270 grams, and since this is a rich recipe the lower end of that span will suit a good many dogs.