More Adult: Chicken review

Our Good band is where this one finishes, with the typical adult dry food sitting in the same band a shade behind. Ordinary good practice gives it the lift: the list opens with a dried meat entry, the carbohydrate estimate comes in under the shelf norm, and the extras are printed with doses instead of implied. Nutritional balance reads Good, a fair reflection of a recipe that asks rice and maize to carry a share of the energy. That is exactly what a grain-inclusive kibble at this level is built to do.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken Meal (24%), Fresh Chicken (23%), Rice, Whole Maize, Beet Pulp, Chicken Fat, Salmon Oil (2%), Chicken Digest, Dried Egg, Brewers Yeast, Minerals, Linseed, MOS (1000mg/kg), FOS (1000mg/kg), Glucosamine (600mg/kg), Chondroitin Sulphate (600mg/kg), MSM (600mg/kg), Rosemary Extract (150mg/kg), Yucca Extract (100mg/kg), Marigold Meal (50mg/kg), Citrus Extract (50mg/kg)

Putting chicken meal at 24% ahead of fresh chicken at 23% is the honest way round. Meal is chicken with the drying already done. It comes through the oven near its listed weight, and fresh chicken shrinks a long way before it becomes kibble. Between them they set protein at 30.4% of dry matter, a solid working level for a grown dog.

Rice and whole maize follow, and this is unapologetically a cereal-based recipe. Carbohydrate estimates at 41.3% of dry matter, a fair way under the 46.2% typical for adult dry food, so the grain is doing a job here rather than padding the bag out.

Chicken fat and chicken digest both name their species. Not many labels manage that this far down. Digest is the palatant that makes plain kibble worth eating, and the detail that matters is that the animal behind it is named.

There are two omega 3 sources: salmon oil at 2% for the marine form and linseed for the plant one. Dried egg and brewers yeast fill in as small protein and B vitamin entries. Both are familiar and easy to digest.

The dosed tail is what makes this label worth reading. Glucosamine, chondroitin sulphate and MSM sit at 600 mg/kg each. MOS and FOS come in at 1000 mg/kg apiece, and rosemary extract at 150 mg/kg keeps the fats from turning. Yucca extract, marigold meal and citrus extract follow at smaller figures.

Beet pulp is the fibre choice, and crude fibre comes out at 2.2% of dry matter, on the lean side. That tends to suit dogs whose digestion is already settled better than it suits a dog that needs bulk in the bowl.

£5.17 a kilo, sold in 2kg and 12kg bags.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition eats about 215 grams a day, on an estimate of around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That comes to £1.11 a day. The label asks 215 to 265 grams for a dog of 15kg to 20kg, and your dog's waistline picks the figure.