Lifestage Grain Free Adult Small Breed review

The Excellent band is where this one lands, with transparency reading Outstanding behind it. One named animal used four ways and no cereal at all carry it there. Estimated carbohydrate is 39.5% of dry matter, where adult dry food usually sits at 46.2%. Most adult dry foods sit a band below that, in our Good band, and a good part of that distance is simply how much of this bag is chicken.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken (55%), Freshly Prepared Chicken (25%), Chicken Meal (24%), Chicken Gravy (3%), Chicken Fat (3%), Sweet Potato (26%), Peas (7%), Beet Pulp (4%), Potato, Linseed (2%), Minerals, Vegetable Stock, Omega 3 Supplement, Herbs, Marjoram, Basil, Oregano, Sage, Thyme, Parsley, Fructooligosaccharides (Fos), Mannanoligosaccharides (Mos)

Chicken at 55% breaks down into 25% freshly prepared chicken, 24% chicken meal, 3% chicken gravy and 3% chicken fat. The meal is the load bearer of that set. It goes into the mixer already dried, and fresh chicken has most of its water driven off in the oven. Protein finishes at 31.9% of dry matter and fat at 16.5%, a properly meaty result for a small dog's kibble.

Sweet potato leads the starch at 26%, peas follow at 7%, and potato sits behind them. No cereal appears on the list at all. Estimated carbohydrate works out at 39.5% of dry matter, well under the 46.2% typical for adult dry food. The plant side here is in support of the meat.

Beet pulp at 4% is the fibre. FOS and MOS follow the minerals as prebiotics, feeding the bacteria that work in the large intestine. Gut ingredients earn their place in a small breed food, since digestion tends to be the thing small dog owners worry about first, though neither prebiotic carries a figure on this label.

Linseed at 2% supplies plant omega 3 for the coat, slower acting than a marine oil but steady. There is also a separate omega 3 supplement listed with no source given, the only genuinely vague entry on an otherwise plain spoken label.

The herbs at the end are there for aroma: marjoram, basil and oregano, then sage, thyme and parsley. Their job is to make a small bowl smell like something worth crossing the room for. The minerals behind them are printed dose by dose, zinc at 100 mg/kg and iron at 50 mg/kg among them, in plain oxide and sulphate forms with selenium as sodium selenite.

£5.25 a kilo, sold in a 2kg bag.

Our standing day rate assumes a 15kg adult dog, well above this bag's audience. On that basis it works out at about 237 grams and £1.24 a day, with around 840 kcal a day as the basis (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). A 5kg small breed adult is the more useful reference, and the estimated guide there is 93 to 114 grams a day.