Leader Adult Sensitive Small Breed: Salmon review

Both versions read Good on our scale, and so does the average adult dry food, which puts this squarely in step with the shelf it sits on. The pair finish within touching distance of each other, so the protein rather than the result should decide the bag. Transparency reads Excellent on both and value reads Good across the pair, while protein and processing and nutritional balance come back Average on each. The declared meat share is genuinely good for a recipe of this shape. What holds the two where they are is mostly what the label leaves out: no detail on where the meat came from, no calcium figure, and a deliberately short plant list.

Ingredients, as declared: Dehydrated Salmon (28%), Brown Rice, White Rice, Sunflower Oil, Potato Protein, Whole Linseed, Minerals, Alfalfa, Seaweed Meal, Hydrolysed Liver Protein, Yeast Extract, Chicory Inulin, Yucca Schidigera.

The declared meat is the strongest part of both labels, at 30% dehydrated lamb in one and 28% dehydrated salmon in the other. Because that meat is dried before it goes in, the figures hold up through cooking instead of shrinking away, which makes them more meaningful than a bigger fresh meat number would be.

Potato protein sits behind the meat and lifts the protein total without introducing a second animal, a neat trick on a recipe designed to keep its list narrow. Brown and white rice are the only cereals, chosen because rice tends to be the gentlest option for a gut that reacts to things.

Estimated carbohydrate lands at 45.9% of dry matter for the lamb, 44.8% for the salmon, both a shade under the 46.2% typical for adult dry food. That is unusual for a rice-based kibble and it comes straight from the meat share. Protein converts to 26.7% and 27.8% of dry matter respectively, with fat at 16.7% in both.

Sunflower oil supplies the fat and whole linseed the plant omega 3. Seaweed meal brings iodine and trace minerals, chicory inulin works as a prebiotic for the bacteria already in the gut, and alfalfa adds a little fibre. Yucca schidigera is in there for the benefit of whoever is holding the bag on the walk.

Both L-lysine and L-tryptophan get a declaration of their own, with tryptophan printed at 100 mg per kilo. Preservation is done with tocopherol-rich extracts, the natural vitamin E route, so there is nothing synthetic holding the fats together.

Salmon at 28%, which puts the entire animal contribution in the sea. This one carries the higher protein, 25.0% as fed or 27.8% once the water is out, and the lower estimated carbohydrate at 44.8% of dry matter. A sensible pick for a little dog kept off land meats, with the caveat that the hydrolysed liver protein remains unnamed.

The lamb is £5.00 a kilo and the salmon £5.95, both in 2kg and 6kg bags.

Our standard reference is a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition, which comes to about 236 grams a day on either recipe, assuming around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). The lamb comes to £1.18 a day and the salmon to £1.40. Most dogs fed from a small breed bag weigh a good deal less, and the label asks 81 grams at 5kg and 132 grams at 10kg for a less active dog.