Lifelong Dry Adult for Medium & Large Breeds: Salmon & Rice review

Both recipes finish in our Good band, right alongside the typical adult dry food. The reasons all sit in what the label leaves unsaid. The meat is summarised as a rough total of meat and animal derivatives with no itemising, and the fat is poultry with no bird named. The hydrolysed proteins name no animal at all, and moisture is left off the analysis, so the dry matter figures rest on an assumption. Protein and processing and nutritional balance both read Average as a result. Transparency reads Excellent for the chicken, Outstanding for the salmon, and value comes back Good on each.

None of that should be read as a warning about the bowl itself. The measurable nutrition here is not bad at all. Protein converts to 28.3% of dry matter and carbohydrate to 42.8%, the second of those sitting under what an adult dry food usually carries. A dog eating this can do perfectly well on it. The band it lands in reflects a label that keeps its meat description to itself, and for an owner trying to work out exactly what their dog is eating, that is a genuine drawback.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken Meat Meal* (min. 18%), Rice (min. 18%), Maize, Poultry Fat (min. 6%), Corn Protein, Fresh Salmon (min. 5%), Peas (min. 3%), Hydrolyzed Animal Proteins, Beet Pulp (min. 1%), Minerals, Dried Carrot (min. 1%), Brewer's Yeast, Sunflower Oil (min. 0.7%), FOS (min. 0.7%), Yeast Cell Walls (0.05%) Source of MOS and B-glucans, Yucca schidigera (0,027%), Glucosamine Hydrochloride (0.02%), Chondroitin Sulphate (0.01%).* Meat and animal derivatives: ca. 27%. Derived from animals fit for human consumption. Fish and fish derivatives: ca. 5%. Derived from animals fit for human consumption.No added Soya, Wheat, Barley or DairyVitamin A 22000 UI Vitamin D 1150 UI Vitamin E 350 mg Vitamin C 150 mg Biotin 10 mg Taurine 1300 mg Fe (Ferrous sulphate (II) monohydrate) 90 mg Zn (Zinc chelate of amino acids hydrate): 90 mg Mn (Manganese sulphate monohydrate) 36 mg Cu (Cupric sulphate pentahydrate) 10 mg I (Calcium iodate anhydrous) 1.9 mg Se (Sodium selenite) 0.05 mg Vitamin B1: 10 mg/kg Vitamin B2: 14 mg/kg Vitamin B6: 8 mg/kg Vitamin B12: 100 μg/kg

Both recipes are built on chicken meat meal, declared at a minimum of 18%. Meal is the dried, rendered form. Its protein goes into the finished kibble whole, and 18% of it is a genuine contribution. Fresh meat, by contrast, sheds weight in the oven. The chicken recipe then adds a minimum of 5% fresh chicken, while the salmon recipe uses that slot for fresh salmon and leaves the chicken meal exactly where it was.

Rice at a minimum of 18% is the first plant ingredient, with maize next and corn protein after the fat. Corn protein is a concentrated plant protein, so the animal side of the list is not the only source of the 26% on the analysis. Even so, the starch load itself is not the problem: carbohydrate works out at 42.8% of dry matter, a little under the 46.2% typical of adult dry food.

The fat is given as poultry fat at a minimum of 6%. Poultry names a family, not a species, so the bird could be chicken or turkey or duck or goose. The hydrolysed animal proteins further down are looser still. Both are doing real work, the fat for energy and palatability and the hydrolysed proteins as a flavour coat that makes a plain kibble worth finishing. Neither can be pinned to an animal, and that pinning down is exactly what you need when a dog reacts to something.

The lower half of the label is better than the headline suggests. Peas at a minimum of 3% and dried carrot at a minimum of 1% bring real vegetable matter, and beet pulp supplies fermentable fibre. Few natural sources of the B vitamins are richer than brewer's yeast, and it is a complete protein besides. Two prebiotics sit here: FOS at a minimum of 0.7% and yeast cell walls at 0.05%, bringing mannan-oligosaccharides along with beta glucans. Both encourage the large intestine's friendly bacteria.

Glucosamine hydrochloride at 0.02% and chondroitin sulphate at 0.01% are printed with their percentages. Most labels manage less candour than that on joint ingredients, even if the amounts themselves are modest. Taurine at 1300 mg per kilo, vitamin C at 150 mg and biotin at 10 mg are all declared too, and none of those three is something a complete dry food is obliged to include.

One promise on the pack is easy to check and it holds up. The label says no added soya, no wheat, no barley and no dairy. Nothing on either ingredients list contradicts it.

The salmon version holds the chicken meat meal at a minimum of 18% and puts a minimum of 5% fresh salmon where the fresh chicken sat. It is a chicken led kibble with salmon in it rather than a salmon recipe. The pack separates the two, at around 27% meat and animal derivatives and about 5% fish and fish derivatives. Sunflower oil at a minimum of 0.7% takes the linseed's place here, which moves the added oils towards omega 6, and fish is present in this recipe where it is absent from the other.

£2.00 a kilo. The chicken recipe comes in a 15 kg bag and the salmon in 5 kg as well as 15 kg.

Feeding a 15kg adult in moderate condition, assumed at roughly 840 kcal a day using the standard 110 × bodyweight^0.75 estimate, means about 207 grams and £0.41 a day. A medium or large dog will weigh more than that and eat proportionally more, so scale the figure to your own dog.