Lifestage Artisan Grain Free Dry Adult: Scottish Salmon with Dill & Spinach review

The salmon reaches our Excellent band and the haddock our Good band, level there with the middle of the adult dry shelf, and they get there by slightly different routes. The salmon bag declares the larger fish share and prints a complete analysis, which is why its transparency pillar reads Excellent. The haddock bag pairs a slightly smaller fish share with a broader set of oils and leaves two figures off its panel. Either way, what puts them where they are is the amount of named animal in the bag.

Ingredients, as declared: Fish (65%), Freshly Prepared Scottish Salmon (35%), Dried Salmon (23%), Salmon Oil (4%), Salmon Stock (3%), Sweet Potato, Beans, Beet Pulp, Dried Superfood Blend* (Including Dill, Spinach, Fennel, Asparagus, Tomato), Omega 3 Supplement, Minerals, Fructooligosaccharides (Fos, 175 Mg/Kg), Mannanoligosaccharides (Mos, 50 Mg/Kg), Olive Extract

Both labels do the thing we always want to see and break the fish headline into its parts. The haddock recipe declares fish at 50%. Inside that sit trout oil at 5%, salmon stock at 2%, dried salmon at 18% and freshly prepared haddock at 26%. The salmon recipe goes further at 65%: freshly prepared Scottish salmon at 35% and dried salmon at 23% carry it, finished with 4% salmon oil and 3% salmon stock.

The dried entries matter more than their position implies. Most of a fresh fish's weight is water, and the oven claims it. That leaves the dried salmon in each recipe carrying a large part of the protein that ends up in the bowl. On the salmon bag, where the full analysis is printed, protein converts to 34.8% of dry matter and estimated carbohydrate to 35.8%, against the 46.2% carbohydrate typical of adult dry food.

Neither recipe uses grain. Sweet potato at 24% opens the plant side of the haddock bag, then peas and potato. The salmon bag pairs sweet potato with beans. Beet pulp appears on both lists as the fermentable fibre that steadies digestion, and neither bag reaches for a cereal to hold the kibble together.

The oils are chosen with some care. On top of its trout oil the haddock recipe adds olive oil, sunflower oil and linseed, which between them cover both omega families and bring along a natural helping of vitamin E. The salmon recipe leans on salmon oil, the form a dog's body can put to work directly, with an added omega 3 supplement behind it.

Prebiotics come with a figure beside them: 92 mg/kg of FOS and 23 mg/kg of MOS on the haddock recipe, 175 mg/kg and 50 mg/kg on the salmon. Yeast cell walls give the MOS and plants like chicory the FOS, and both go to feed the large intestine's bacteria.

The green tail of each label is there for flourish. Parsley finishes the haddock bag. On the salmon it is a dried mix of dill and spinach with fennel, asparagus and tomato, and olive extract behind them. Calcium is the one figure worth a note, working out at 1.09% of dry matter on the haddock and 2.17% on the salmon, the second being generous for a grown dog.

The bigger fish declaration of the two at 65%, led by freshly prepared Scottish salmon at 35% with dried salmon at 23% behind it. Its analysis is printed in full, showing 32.0% protein and 15.0% fat as fed, and its energy figure is declared rather than estimated. That is why its transparency pillar reads Excellent. Where the haddock has parsley, this bag has dill and spinach dried in with fennel, asparagus and tomato.

The salmon recipe is £4.40 a kilo and the haddock £6.00 a kilo. The salmon comes in 1.5kg and 10kg bags, the haddock in a 1.5kg bag.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition eats about 222 grams a day of the salmon recipe and about 239 grams of the haddock. Both amounts come off a target of 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That comes to £0.98 a day on the salmon and £1.43 a day on the haddock. Let the waistline set the portion.