More Lighter Dry Food review

This one sits in our Average band, a step below the broad middle of the adult dry shelf, and a light recipe is always going to find that a hard gap to close. Trimming fat, easing back the meat and adding indigestible fibre is exactly what makes a diet food do its job, and it is also exactly what our scoring reads as a thinner recipe. Read it as what it is, a controlled-energy bowl for a dog who needs one, and it is well put together. The joint and carnitine dosing shows someone thought about the dog behind the diet.

Ingredients, as declared: Rice, Fresh Chicken (20.5%), Whole Maize, Oats, Chicken Meal (9.5%), Beet Pulp, Potato Protein, Chicken Digest, Dried Egg, Brewers Yeast, Linseed, Salmon Oil (2%), Cellulose, Minerals, L-Carnitine (1200mg/kg), 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)

The honest signal of what this food is comes from rice at the top of the list. Fresh chicken at 20.5% comes next, whole maize and oats after that, and chicken meal, the dried chicken that actually survives the oven, sits at 9.5%. Protein comes out at 24.5% of dry matter and carbohydrate at 53.7%, both a long way from the meat-forward end of the shelf, which is the deliberate point of a diet recipe.

The fat figure is where the real work happens. A standard adult kibble carries more than 9.8% of dry matter, so this sits well under the usual. Fat is the most energy-dense thing in any bowl, and cutting it is the most effective lever a formulator has. Energy lands at 347 kcal per 100 grams.

Cellulose does the rest. A dog passes this purified plant fibre almost untouched, so it fills the bowl and the stomach with no energy behind it. That is precisely why light diets reach for it. It is worth being clear that it is a processed fibre rather than the sort you get from whole vegetables. Beet pulp sits alongside doing a gentler version of the same job, taking crude fibre to 3.8% of dry matter.

Potato protein appears mid-list, lifting the protein total from the plant side. Plant protein does not carry the quality or the digestibility of meat protein, which is a useful thing to notice on a recipe where the meat share has already been trimmed on purpose.

L-carnitine at 1200 mg/kg is the classic weight-diet addition. It helps stored fat become energy while muscle stays on the frame. The joint trio behind it, glucosamine, chondroitin sulphate and MSM at 600 mg/kg each, is a thoughtful pairing, since the dogs on this bag are often the ones whose joints have been carrying the extra.

The tail will be familiar from the brand's other bags. MOS and FOS come at 1000 mg/kg apiece for the gut bacteria, and rosemary extract at 150 mg/kg keeps the fats from turning. Yucca extract, marigold meal and citrus extract sit in the small print at the end.

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

Because there is less energy in every gram, the daily amount is larger than usual. For a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition that is about 242 grams, on an estimate of around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). It comes to £1.33 a day. A dog actively losing weight will be fed below that figure, and the label groups 10kg to 20kg together at 155 to 260 grams.