K9 Optimum Adult Maxi Breed review

Our reading lands this in the Good band, level with the middle of the adult dry category. Named meat does most of that work. Chicken appears twice with its shares printed, the fat is named as chicken fat and not left as an unspecified animal fat, and the fish is called salmon, not simply fish. Nutritional balance reads Average, and a starch load of 45.0% of dry matter is why, which is thoroughly ordinary for a kibble built on rice and maize. Nothing here is trying to be exotic. It is a well-labelled everyday food with a large dog's joints in mind.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken (20%), Chicken Dried (17%), Rice, Maize, Chicken Fat, Chicken Gravy, Salmon (4%), Whole Oats, Beet Pulp, Prairie Meal, Brewers Yeast, Egg Powder, Minerals, Salmon Oil, Turmeric, Marigold (Source Of Lutein), Mannan Oligosaccharides, Fructose Oligosaccharides, Glucosamine, Methylsulphonylmethane, Yucca Schidigera, Blackcurrant, Nz Green Lipped Mussel, Rosemary, Pomegranate

Two chicken entries open the list, one 20% freshly prepared and one 17% dried, and the difference between them matters. Most of what fresh meat weighs is water that goes off in the oven. So the dried 17% pulls more protein weight than its spot in the list lets on. The analysis follows suit at 27.5% protein on a dry matter basis, with estimated carbohydrate at 45.0%, a shade under the 46.2% typical of adult dry food.

Rice, maize and whole oats share the starch between them. Of the three, oats are the pick for a big dog, bringing useful dietary fibre. Manganese and selenium come with them, and so do B vitamins. Beet pulp sits further down, the fibre most likely to be doing the work when stools hold their shape.

Salmon at 4% and salmon oil further down are the marine omega source. Dogs use that form most readily for skin and coat, and for joint comfort. It also means fish runs all the way through a recipe most people would think of as a chicken food.

Joints are the story at the tail of the list. Glucosamine, methylsulphonylmethane and New Zealand green lipped mussel sit there, with turmeric and yucca schidigera alongside them. Each of the three is a respectable choice for an ageing large frame, and green lipped mussel brings that same family of compounds in natural form. No milligram figure is printed against any of them, so read them as a considered addition and not a measured dose.

The additives panel is fully dosed. Taurine at 850 mg per kilo runs well above what a dog food has to provide. Of all the amino acids, that is the one heart muscle leans on, and a sensible inclusion in a big-breed recipe. Carnitine is dosed at 500 mg per kilo, and its job is turning fat into energy. Zinc arrives twice, as a glycine chelate at 33 mg and a sulphate at 115 mg per kilo, which pairs a readily absorbed form with a plainer bulk one. Selenium comes as sodium selenite at 0.1 mg per kilo, the permitted form given at a routine small dose. Calcium works out at 1.1% of dry matter, a comfortable adult level.

£3.17 a kilo, in 2kg and 12kg bags.

As a guide, feeding a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition works out at about 234 grams and £0.74 a day, from a maintenance estimate of roughly 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75). This is a big-dog recipe, though, so the label's own table is the better guide: it starts at 25kg and asks 285 to 330 grams for a dog between 25kg and 30kg at low activity.