Leader Adult Slimline Large Breed review

You will find this in our Good band, and the middle of the adult dry category is in that band as well. That puts a slimming recipe on the same footing as the everyday food it is replacing. Transparency reads Excellent and value Good, with protein and processing Average and nutritional balance Poor. The shape of a diet kibble explains most of it, because taking fat out means putting starch in, so carbohydrate climbs and both the protein figure and the energy come down with it. This is a food designed to let a big dog eat a proper bowlful while taking in less, and on that measure it delivers.

Ingredients, as declared: Dehydrated Turkey (21%), Brown Rice, White Rice, Pea Starch, Potato Starch, Dehulled Oats, Chicken Fat, Whole Linseed, Minerals, Alfalfa, Hydrolysed Liver Protein, Yeast Extract, Chicory Inulin, Dried Cranberries, Dried Beetroot, Rosemary, Ginger, Turmeric, Glucosamine Hydrochloride, Yucca schidigera, Chondroitin Sulphate.

Dehydrated turkey at 21% leads the list. Turkey is a leaner meat than most and a sensible choice for a recipe like this. It goes in already dried, so the printed percentage survives the oven. It is worth being clear, though, that the fat further down the list is chicken fat, so the bird content is not turkey alone.

Pea starch and potato starch are the entries that separate this from the standard recipe. Each is close to pure carbohydrate, there to bulk out the kibble without bringing fat along with it. That is how a bowl can look the same size while carrying less energy, and it is also why estimated carbohydrate reaches 61.1% of dry matter against 46.2% for the typical adult dry food.

The cereals alongside the starches are rice, brown and white, plus dehulled oats. Oats are the most useful of the three here because they add fibre, which helps a hungry dog feel it has actually eaten. Crude fibre is declared at 2.5%, with alfalfa adding a little more behind it.

Fat is held at 7.0%, or 7.8% once the water is out, which is genuinely low for a dry food and the main lever this recipe pulls. Whole linseed still supplies plant omega 3, and L-lysine is declared at 2,860 mg per kilo, which shores up the amino acid side while total protein sits at 21.1% of dry matter.

Glucosamine hydrochloride and chondroitin sulphate come near the end with no printed amount between them. Think of them as steady background support for a heavy frame, not a measured joint dose. Chicory inulin is the prebiotic, dried cranberry and beetroot add antioxidants, and ginger and turmeric round off a plant tail that is more flourish than substance.

£3.33 a kilo, in 2kg and 12kg bags.

Taking a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition as the yardstick, this works out at roughly 264 grams and £0.88 a day, assuming about 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). A large dog is a different sum again. The pack's guide asks 225 grams at 20kg and 306 grams at 30kg for a less active dog. A dog meant to lose weight should be fed for the weight it is heading towards.