Josera High Energy review

High Energy finishes in our Good band, which is also where the typical adult dry food ends up, but the two get there by very different routes. Protein at 32.6% of dry matter and carbohydrate down at 34.7% against a 46.2% norm are both well ahead of what a dry food usually manages. Pulling the other way are whole corn in second place and poultry entries that mostly keep their species to themselves. Value keeps pace at Good with nutritional balance and transparency, while protein and processing reads Average. Give it to the dog it was designed for and the job gets done convincingly.

Ingredients, as declared: Dried poultry protein 36.0% (of which chicken 40%), whole corn, poultry fat, rice, beet fibre, hydrolysed poultry protein, minerals, salmon oil 0.8%, ground chicory root (natural source of inulin), dried protein from New Zealand green-lipped mussel (Perna canaliculus). Note. The recipe is described as "Gluten-free" in the summary and Features while the composition's second ingredient is whole corn and the fourth is rice; vetsend also files the page under the breadcrumb "Grain free".

Dried poultry protein at 36.0% is the largest entry, and unusually the label names the chicken share of it at 40%. That is a genuinely useful disclosure on a category of ingredient that usually gives nothing away, even if the remaining share stays under the family name.

Whole corn and rice sit behind it as the plant side, and both are cooked cereals that a dog digests perfectly well. What matters more is how little of the finished food they account for. Carbohydrate lands at 34.7% of dry matter against 46.2% for the typical adult dry food. By kibble standards that is a meat-forward analysis.

The energy comes from fat as much as from anything else. Poultry fat is the main source, salmon oil is dosed at 0.8% as the omega contribution, and total fat converts to 22.8% of dry matter. At 412 kcal per 100g the food sits well above the 357 typical for adult dry food. That is the entire point of it.

Beet fibre and ground chicory root keep the digestive side steady. The chicory brings inulin, a prebiotic fibre that good gut bacteria feed on. Crude fibre itself is modest at 2.2% of dry matter, in keeping with a recipe meant to be digested rather than to fill.

Dried green-lipped mussel protein rounds off the list, the one entry aimed squarely at joints, which counts on a food for dogs putting them under strain. The trace minerals are dosed throughout, with zinc at 200 mg/kg and copper at 20 mg/kg supplied as glycine chelates and iron at 250 mg/kg.

£3.94 a kilo, sold in a 12.5 kg bag.

Reckon on about 204 grams a day for a 15kg adult in moderate condition, roughly £0.80, taking 840 kcal a day as the maintenance need (110 × bodyweight^0.75). A dog genuinely working for a living will want more than that, so the figure is a floor.