McAdams Small Breed: Free Range Chicken & Scottish Salmon review

The salmon version edges the plain chicken bag and both sit in our Good band, near enough that the decision belongs to your dog's palate rather than to the reading. Both hold their place in the band where most adult dry food comes to rest. Named meat at half the recipe, sourcing that is actually stated on the label and a trace mineral panel with a figure against every element do most of that work. What stops either climbing higher is the plant side. Carbohydrate converts to 49.5% of dry matter in the chicken and 48.4% in the salmon, both above the 46.2% typical of adult dry food. Pea protein is helping to hold the protein figure up.

The distance between the two bags is a matter of recipe rather than of quality, so treat them as a pair and let the dog choose.

Ingredients, as declared: Whole British Free Range Chicken (40%), Sweet Potato (25%), Sustainably Sourced Scottish Salmon (10%), Tapioca, Pea Protein, Chicken Fat, Yeast, Lentils, Chicken Gravy, Vitamins and Minerals, Salmon Oil, Vegetable Fibre, Prebiotics (FOS (0.23%), MOS (0.15%)), Dried Orange, Yucca Extract, Hand Cut Irish Seaweed (0.03%), Marigold, New Zealand Green Lipped Mussel (0.01%) Carrots (0.01%), Tomatoes, Camomile, Cranberries (0.01%), Spinach, Rosemary, Lavender.

The chicken is whole, fresh and British free range, and fresh meat gives most of its weight back as water during baking. With no dried chicken standing behind it, protein lands at 21.7% of dry matter in the plain bag and 22.8% in the salmon. Those are respectable figures without being towering. Chicken remains the most palatable and most digestible meat in the dog food aisle, and knowing it is free range and British is more than most labels will tell you.

Sweet potato is the main carbohydrate here, and a good one: fibre and micronutrients come with its starch. Tapioca sits behind it as starch and little more, and lentils add protein, fibre and B vitamins. Pea protein is the entry to weigh: it lifts a protein percentage without much effort, harmless in itself, but nowhere near the equal of the meat above it on the list.

The support ingredients are chosen with some care. Yeast supplies a full spread of B vitamins. Prebiotic FOS at 0.23% and MOS at 0.15% go to work on the large intestine's bacteria. Pea fibre and vegetable fibre keep the stool sensible, which is not a small thing in a small dog. Chicken gravy is a palatability play and it works, particularly on a fussy little eater.

The last dozen entries are the flourish. Hand cut Irish seaweed at 0.03% is the most useful of them, a real source of iodine and a wide mineral spread, and green lipped mussel at 0.01% is the joint nod. Below those sit marigold, dried orange, camomile, carrots and cranberries at 0.01% each, then rosemary, spinach, tomatoes and lavender. Lovely to read, too small to change how a dog feels, and the recipe holds up perfectly well without them.

Both bags carry the same mineral panel, with a figure printed against every element. Zinc and iron are at 48 mg per kilo, manganese at 34 mg, copper at 14 mg, iodine at 0.96 mg and selenium at 0.29 mg. They come as sulphates, not chelates, which is the ordinary choice. Calcium works out at 1.3% of dry matter in the chicken and 1.2% in the salmon, both comfortable for a grown dog.

Chicken steps back to 40% so that 10% sustainably sourced Scottish salmon can join it, which lifts protein to 22.8% of dry matter and fat to 16.3%, with energy at 372 kcal per 100 grams. Richer and considerably more aromatic, it is the one to try on a small dog that has started turning its nose up at plain chicken.

The chicken bag is £12.00 a kilo and the chicken and salmon £13.00 a kilo, with 2kg and 5kg the two sizes on offer.

Our standard reference is a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition, needing around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That is about 237 grams a day of the chicken at £2.84 and 226 grams of the salmon at £2.94. The bag's own table speaks to the size of dog this range is really made for. It asks 50 to 65 grams a day for a 3kg dog, and 95 to 125 grams for a 7kg dog.