Leader Adult Small Breed review

Our Good band is where this finishes, the same band the middle of the adult dry category occupies, so nothing about the result should give you pause. Protein and processing and nutritional balance both read Average, with transparency sitting just inside our Excellent band and value settling in our Good band. A quarter of the bag declared as dehydrated chicken is a fair showing. The rice and oat base pushes carbohydrate above the usual dry food level, and the label keeps its cards fairly close on sourcing. Straightforward food, honestly built and sized properly for a small dog.

Ingredients, as declared: Dehydrated Chicken (26%), Brown Rice, White Rice, Chicken Fat, Dehulled Oats, Whole Linseed, Minerals, Alfalfa, Hydrolysed Liver Protein, Yeast Extract, Chicory Inulin, Dried Cranberries, Dried Beetroot, Rosemary, Ginger, Turmeric, Glucosamine Hydrochloride, Yucca schidigera, Chondroitin Sulphate.

The headline is 26% dehydrated chicken, and because the water has already been taken out of that meat before it goes into the mixer, the number on the front survives the cooking intact. A few lines down, chicken fat turns up as the fat source. The animal side of this recipe stays honest: it is chicken, and it says so.

Behind the meat come dehulled oats, with rice in white and brown. Rice is a gentle, familiar carbohydrate for most dogs and oats add a little fibre alongside a useful set of micronutrients. The cereal side is carrying a fair share of the load: an estimated 51.0% of dry matter is carbohydrate, against the 46.2% of a typical adult dry food.

Protein converts to 24.4% of dry matter and fat to 15.6%, a reasonably rich mix for a dry food. That is sensible given how quickly a small dog burns through what it eats and how little of it fits in the bowl at once.

Whole linseed brings the omega 3 in its plant form, worth a mention because the conversion a dog has to perform on it is slow work. The prebiotic is chicory inulin, working on the bacteria the gut already holds, with yeast extract alongside it. Alfalfa rounds out the plant material with dried cranberry and beetroot.

The joint pair, glucosamine hydrochloride and chondroitin sulphate, come last of all with no declared amount beside either, so read them as a small helping rather than a therapeutic dose. The minerals are better documented. Zinc comes in twice, as 91 mg of the oxide and 187.5 mg of an amino acid chelate per kilo, and a dog takes up the chelate more easily. Vitamin E is declared at 233 iu, doing double duty as a nutrient and as a preservative.

£5.00 a kilo, sold in 2kg and 6kg bags.

For a rough day rate we use a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition, which comes to about 236 grams and £1.18 a day. That 236 grams assumes around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). Most dogs eating from a small breed bag will be lighter than that. The label asks 132 grams at 10kg and 145 grams at 12kg for a less active dog, so scale the portion down accordingly.