Miraculous Meals Free Run Chicken Dry review

Our scoring puts this in the Good band, the rung that describes most of the adult dry shelf as well. Nothing exotic gets it there. The meat is declared in parts rather than as one round headline, the carbohydrate load comes in under what is typical for a dry food, and the joint and prebiotic entries carry printed doses. Both protein and processing and value read Good, nutritional balance reads Average, and transparency reads Outstanding. That is a food earning its place on the label as much as on the analysis.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken 51% (Fresh Chicken 25%, Dried Chicken 15%, Chicken Fat 8%, Chicken Liver 3%), Sweet Potato 21%, Garden Vegetables & Fruit 17% (Potato 13%, Pumpkin, Carrots, Spinach, Apple, Blueberries, Beet Pulp, Psyllium Husk), Salmon Oil 1%, Linseed, Prebiotics (MOS 0.5%, Chicory Root 0.1%, Yucca Schidigera), Vitamins & Minerals, Lignocellulose, Chondroitin (300mg/kg), Glucosamine (300mg/hg), Herbs & Botanicals (Turmeric, Rosemary, Parsley, Thyme, Marigold, Chamomile)

Four entries make up the 51% chicken headline: fresh chicken at 25%, dried chicken at 15%, chicken fat at 8% and chicken liver at 3%. The split is where the useful reading is. Fresh chicken is mostly water until it meets the oven. The 15% dried share therefore does the heavier protein lifting, whatever the order on the label implies, and the chicken fat brings energy, not protein. Protein converts to 28.3% of dry matter, a sensible adult level and no attempt to chase a headline.

Sweet potato at 21% is the main binder, with potato at 13% sitting inside the garden vegetables and fruit heading. The list carries no wheat, maize or rice at any point. Carbohydrate works out at 42.9% of dry matter, comfortably under the 46.2% typical for an adult dry food.

That 17% garden vegetables and fruit block is unusually well behaved for its type, because everything inside it is named. Pumpkin, carrots, spinach, apple and blueberries are all there in print, and so are beet pulp and psyllium husk, the two entries actually doing the fibre work.

The prebiotic set is small but declared, with MOS at 0.5% and chicory root at 0.1% alongside yucca. Inulin comes from the chicory, a soluble fibre the gut flora live on, and MOS reaches the same population by another route.

The joint entries carry real doses, chondroitin at 300 mg/kg with glucosamine given the same figure. The label writes the glucosamine unit as mg per hg, which reads as a slip of the keyboard and not a different strength, since the two are plainly meant to match.

Marine omega 3 comes in as salmon oil at 1%, and the plant version as linseed just behind. It is a small entry that changes who the food suits, because a dog kept off fish cannot have it however chicken-led the rest of the recipe reads.

Two entries are vaguer than the rest. Lignocellulose is a purified fibre powder. It bulks a kibble without adding calories, though it is nothing like the fibre in the pumpkin and spinach further up the list. The herbs and botanicals at the end, from turmeric through to chamomile, are seasoning. This food stands on its chicken and its vegetables, not on marigold.

£5.50 a kilo, sold in 2kg, 6kg and 12kg bags.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition needs about 230 grams a day, working from around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That works out at £1.26 a day. Your dog's shape is the tiebreak, since the label's own table asks 230 to 285 grams for a dog between 15kg and 20kg.