More Large Breed Adult review

Our Good band is where this finishes, in the same company as the middle of the adult dry shelf. The joint dosing and the printed prebiotics are what carry it up. Protein and processing reads Average and value reads Good, and the first of those is explained by the top of the list. Rice sits second, ahead of the dried chicken, so the cereal side takes more of this recipe than it would in a meat-first kibble. For the dog it names, a grown large breed with joints worth protecting, that is a fair trade rather than a flaw.

Ingredients, as declared: Fresh Chicken (23%), Rice, Chicken Meal (20.5%), Whole Maize, Beet Pulp, Chicken Fat, Salmon Oil (2%), Chicken Digest, Brewers Yeast, Dried Egg, Minerals, Linseed, Glucosamine (1500mg/kg), Chondroitin Sulphate (1500mg/kg), MSM (1500mg/kg), L-Carnitine (1200mg/kg), MOS (1000mg/kg), FOS (1000mg/kg), Rosemary Extract (150mg/kg), Yucca Extract (100mg/kg), Marigold Meal (50mg/kg), Citrus Extract (50mg/kg)

Fresh chicken at 23% opens the list, but rice comes next and chicken meal at 20.5% only third. In the oven that fresh chicken shrinks to a fraction of itself, and rice ends up a serious presence in the bowl. That is what the order on the list is telling you. Protein still reaches 28.3% of dry matter, comfortable for a grown large breed, and carbohydrate estimates at 44.0% of dry matter.

Whole maize follows as the second cereal and beet pulp behind it does the fibre work. This is a straightforwardly grain-inclusive recipe and it makes no attempt to pretend otherwise, which is easier to trust than a list that hides its starch under a fancier name.

The joint set is the loudest thing on the label and the right call for the dogs it names. Glucosamine, chondroitin sulphate and MSM are each printed at 1500 mg/kg, a serious helping, and big frames carrying real weight are exactly the dogs that stand to benefit.

L-carnitine at 1200 mg/kg sits with them. Turning stored fat into energy is its main job, and it tends to appear where keeping a dog lean matters. For a large breed, staying lean is a health matter and not a cosmetic one.

Chicken fat, chicken digest and dried egg fill in behind, each of them named, with salmon oil at 2% and linseed covering the omega 3s between them. Brewers yeast adds B vitamins and a savoury note that most dogs approve of.

One label quirk is worth explaining. The mineral panel here is declared as the whole compound, so you see ferrous sulphate monohydrate at 186.62 mg and zinc sulphate monohydrate at 388.92 mg rather than iron and zinc figures on their own. Those numbers look large beside a label that prints the element alone, but they are describing the same job.

£5.33 a kilo, in 3kg and 12kg bags.

For comparison across the site we work every food out against a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition. Here that means about 217 grams a day on an estimate of around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate), or £1.16 a day. That reference dog is a good deal smaller than this food's audience, so treat it as a like-for-like comparison and not as a portion. The label itself asks 320 to 365 grams for a dog of 25kg to 30kg.