My Pet Says Grain Free Small Breed: Lamb, Sweet Potato & Mint review

The chicken and the salmon reach our Excellent band. A step behind them in Good sit the duck and the lamb, with very little daylight between the four. The typical adult dry food we measure against sits in that same Good band. What lifts these recipes is uncomplicated: a large declared meat share with the fresh and dried figures printed separately, and a mineral panel dosed to the milligram. Carbohydrate is estimated between 39.2% and 43.4% of dry matter, where the category norm is 46.2%. Choose on the animal, not on the ranking.

Ingredients, as declared: Lamb 50% (including Freshly Prepared Lamb 30%, Dried Lamb 18% & Lamb Stock 2%), Sweet Potato (23%), Peas (9%), Potato, Pea Protein, Linseed, Beet Pulp, Omega 3 Supplement, Minerals, Vitamins, Vegetable Stock, Mint (0.2%), FOS (96 mg/kg), MOS (24 mg/kg). Vitamins: Vitamin A 15,000 IU, Vitamin D3 2,000 IU, Vitamin E 95 IU. Trace Elements: Zinc (Zinc Sulphate Monohydrate) 50mg, Iron (Iron (II) Sulphate Monohydrate) 50mg, Manganese (Manganous Sulphate Monohydrate) 35mg, Iodine (Calcium Iodate Anhydrous) 1mg, Selenium (Sodium Selenite) 0.3mg.

Each label leads with its animal and prints the split, which is the part worth reading. Chicken is declared at 55% with 27% freshly prepared and 26% dried, salmon with trout at 53%, duck at 52% and lamb at 50%. The oven drives off most of what fresh meat carries as water. That makes the dried figure the one that tells you how much animal ends up in the finished kibble, and every recipe here carries a substantial one.

Sweet potato does the binding at between 22% and 26% depending on the recipe. Peas and potato come next, with beet pulp for fibre. Not one of the four contains cereal. Protein converts to between 28.3% and 31.5% of dry matter and carbohydrate to between 39.2% and 43.4%. That carbohydrate range is lean for a dry food, and unusual in a kibble aimed at small dogs.

The extras are small and sensible. FOS at 96 mg/kg and MOS at 24 mg/kg are prebiotics, sugars that keep large intestine bacteria going. Linseed appears in every recipe as a plant source of omega 3. The named flourishes differ from flavour to flavour: a herb blend in the chicken, orange and cranberry in the duck, mint in the lamb and asparagus in the fish. All of them sit at trace level, and not one would decide a bag for you.

The trace minerals are sulphates rather than chelates, the ordinary form, and each is printed: zinc at 50 mg, iron at 50 mg, manganese at 35 mg and iodine at 1 mg per kilo. The duck recipe adds copper at 15 mg, and both the duck and the lamb add selenium at 0.3 mg. The mineral panels are not quite identical across the four, even though the construction is.

Calcium runs from 1.09% of dry matter in the fish recipe up to 2.17% in the duck and the lamb, all of it inside adult territory. The fish is the lightest and the two red and dark meat recipes the richest. For a small adult dog none of that needs managing; it is simply the spread you get when the animal changes and the mineral load changes with it.

Lamb at 50%, with 30% freshly prepared and 18% dried, sweet potato at 23% and mint at 0.2%. This is the one recipe with pea protein behind the meat, and the gentlest on fat at 14%. That makes it the steadier choice for a small dog that puts weight on easily. Energy is 367 kcal per 100g.

£5.92 a kilo for the chicken, £6.04 for the lamb, £6.08 for the salmon with trout and £6.17 for the duck, each sold in 6kg and 12kg bags.

For scale, take a 15kg adult dog in moderate condition eating around 840 kcal a day (110 × bodyweight^0.75, the standard maintenance estimate). That is between 223 and 229 grams a day, landing between £1.34 and £1.38. A dog on this food will usually be a great deal smaller than that. The labels start at 25 grams a day for the very littlest, so work from the table on the bag.