More Small Breed Adult review

Our reading puts this in the Good band, comfortably ahead of the middle of the adult dry shelf that sits in the band with it. Nothing dramatic earns the difference. The meat is named, and the form that has already lost its water leads it. Estimated carbohydrate converts to 39.1% of dry matter against 46.2% for the typical adult dry food, and every added vitamin and trace element carries a dose beside it. Protein and processing reads Good with nutritional balance and value to match, while transparency reads Outstanding, so no single showing is dragging the others along.

Ingredients, as declared: Chicken Meal (26%), 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)

Chicken meal first at 26% is the useful way round for a kibble. Meal has already been dried, so its declared share mostly makes it into the finished food. Behind it the 23% freshly prepared chicken cooks down hard. The analysis backs the construction up: protein converts to 32.6% of dry matter and estimated carbohydrate to 39.1%, comfortably under the 46.2% that the typical adult dry food carries.

Rice and whole maize do the carrying, and both are named outright rather than tucked under a general cereal heading, which is what lets an owner actually check the recipe against a dog's history. Beet pulp follows them for fibre, though the declared crude fibre stays light at 2.2% of dry matter.

The marine omegas arrive in salmon oil at 2%, with linseed further down for the plant form. It earns its place in a coat-conscious recipe, and it does mean the food carries fish. Dried egg sits alongside as a compact source of protein, and chicken digest is the palatant, there to keep a small and choosy appetite interested. Brewers yeast rounds out that group and brings B vitamins with it.

The joint entries are the ones with numbers next to them, which is the detail worth noticing on any label: glucosamine, chondroitin sulphate and MSM at 600 mg/kg apiece. MOS and FOS follow at 1000 mg/kg each. They are prebiotics, there to feed gut bacteria, and they add nothing to the analysis panel.

The tail is short and purposeful. Rosemary extract at 150 mg/kg is the natural antioxidant keeping the fats from turning. Yucca extract at 100 mg/kg has long been used to soften what a dog leaves in the garden. Marigold meal and citrus extract close things at 50 mg/kg each. Fat is generous at 19.6% of dry matter, and calcium works out at 1.85%, on the fuller side for an adult food and nothing a grown small dog will trouble over.

£5.67 a kilo, sold in 2kg and 6kg bags.

As a guide, a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition works through about 206 grams a day, assuming around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That comes to £1.17 a day. Between 10kg and 15kg the label's own table asks 150 to 205 grams, and the two figures end up close together.